1950: Rocketship X-M 🇺🇸

Kurt Neumann produced and directed this film within 3 weeks to get it to the movie halls before the much more lavish, and hence delayed, production 'Destination Moon', taking advantage of the that film's advertising. Shot in B&W and sepia, it managed to be the first outer space adventure post WWII, and was full of post-apocalyptic warnings.

1950: Destination Moon 🇺🇸

Also known as Operation Moon, director Irving Pichel's film depicted what the first crewed mission to the Moon would be like. It was the first major US production to incorporate practical scientific and engineering aspects of space travel. Producer George Pal's vision was called "the first intelligent science-fiction movie made" by Isaac Asimov.

1951: The Thing from Another World 🇺🇸

Also known as 'The Thing' (as was its 1982 John Carpenter remake), this Howard Hawks film, directed by Christian Nyby is based on the terrifying story "Who goes there?" by John W. Campbell Jr.. The story describes a group of Arctic scientists  who confront a deadly alien organism — early Cold War paranoia metaphor.

1951: The Man from Planet X 🇺🇸

This Edgar G. Ulmer directed film is an atmospheric low-budget tale about an alien visitor in Scotland. It is considered by some to be the first 'alien invasion' movie.

1951: When Worlds Collide 🇺🇸

Another George Pal production,  Rudolph Maté directs this film about humanity facing extinction as a rogue star heads towards Earth, and plans a daring escape to the star's lone planet. 

1951: The Day the Earth Stood Still 🇺🇸

A Robert Wise direction, this film is based on the 1940 science fiction short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. An alien emissary arrives with a powerful robot and warns Earth about its violent tendencies, promoting a powerful anti-war message, and demands Earth's leaders choose peace or destruction.

1951: The Man in the White Suit 🇬🇧

A brilliant dark comedy about a scientist who invents an indestructible fabric. Directed by Alexander Mackendrick this film is more a satire of capitalism and technology than pure sci-fi, but is often included in early sci-fi discussions. Stars Alec Guinness.

1951: Unknown World 🇺🇸

Fearing nuclear annihilation, a team of scientists builds a giant "subterrene" drilling machine to travel deep into the Earth’s crust, searching for a safe place where humanity could survive a surface apocalypse. They encounter strange underground landscapes and unexpected dangers — but also face the realization that life beneath the surface may not be possible after all. Directed by Terry O. Morse, this movie predates  Journey to the Center of the Earth by eight years!

1951: Flight to Mars 🇺🇸

A human expedition to Mars finds an underground civilization facing environmental collapse — and political tension about revealing their existence to Earth. Directed by Lesley Selander and filmed in vivid Cinecolor!

1952: Red Planet Mars 🇺🇸

Art director Harry Horner's debut feature. Radio signals from Mars cause worldwide upheaval, blending sci-fi with Cold War anxieties.

1953: Four Sided Triangle 🇬🇧

Early British scifi directed by Terence Fisher. Two scientists invent a machine that can duplicate living matter — but when one tries to duplicate the woman he loves, tragedy ensues.

1953: The Magnetic Monster 🇺🇸

This Curt Siodmak directed film, about scientists racing to neutralize a growing radioactive threat, is known for accurate depiction of scientific concepts. It seems more like a documentary about radioactivity rather than a science fiction movie, but does have inexplicable scifi twists.

1953: Invaders from Mars 🇺🇸

William Cameron Menzies was the first person with the title production designer as the term fit his work. He directed this film about a child who sees alien invaders brainwashing adults in his town. The movie impressed many children of the time, including famous moviemakers of today like Landis, Scorsese and Spielberg.

1953: It Came from Outer Space 🇺🇸

Based on a story William Alland commissioned Ray Bradbury to write, this early example of a 3D (polarized) movie from Universal Pictures. Jack Arnold directed this alien visit story. Aliens crash on Earth and disguise themselves as humans. Ray wrote two versions, a Hollywood-type story and one for himself with a deeper message. Universal Pictures went for the 2nd one.

1953: The War of the Worlds 🇺🇸

Byron Haskin directs the first movie adaptation of H.G. Wells' story of a Martian invasion, with groundbreaking visual effects. 

It was a culturally significant movie as it went on to influence many other scifi films.

1954: Riders to the Stars 🇺🇸

Directed by Richard Carlson (who also stars), and Herbert L. Strock (uncredited), this was the 2nd film in Ivan Tors' "Office of Scientific Investigation" trilogy, which was preceded by The Magnetic Monster (1953) and followed by Gog (1954). 

Before interplanetary travel is possible, scientists must solve how to find metals strong enough to survive space travel — by catching meteors in space!

1954: Creature from the Black Lagoon 🇺🇸

An 3D (polarized) monster horror film directed by Jack Arnold about a scientific expedition that discovers a prehistoric amphibious creature in the Amazon. A seminal monster movie that inspired the multiple Oscar winning The Shape of Water of  2017.

1954: Them! 🇺🇸

Giant, irradiated ants terrorize a desert town in New Mexico, reflecting atomic-age fears. Gordon Douglas directs one of the first "nuclear monster" films. Fun trivia: Leonard Nimoy has a small uncredited role as an Army Sergeant in this film.

1954: Godzilla 🇯🇵

A metaphor for nuclear devastation, this Japanese classic is about a giant monster, awakened by nuclear testing, that devastates Tokyo. Ishirō Honda directed and co-wrote the film which became a box office success in Japan and created a multimedia franchise that has been the longest running one with 38 films so far (we will not cover most). Honda also started the kaiju genre of movies (giant monsters).

1954: Gog 🇺🇸

Herbert L. Strock directed the last of Ivan Tors' "Office of Scientific Investigation" trilogy, which followed The Magnetic Monster (1953) and Riders to the Stars (1954). OSI agents, from DC, are called in to investigate mysterious and deadly malfunctions at a top secret government space station construction  underground facility in New Mexico. It's a whodunnit 'mystery' involving robots.

1954: Devil Girl from Mars 🇬🇧

A British low budget ludicrous and sexist scifi movie directed by David MacDonald. A female "human" alien from Mars comes down to Earth for the purposes of picking up men to take back to her planet and testing a new organic "material". Patricia Laffan's ("Devil girl from Mars") look and acting chops was the lone exception in this mess, and seemed ahead of its time.  Shot as a B&W film it was colorized later. 

1954: Target Earth 🇺🇸

Set in a large, deserted city, this Sherman Rose directed film's storyline follows a small group of people overlooked during the city's mass evacuation, carried out because of a sudden invasion by hostile robotic beings believed to be from Venus. Definitely avoidable.

1955: This Island Earth 🇺🇸

Joseph M. Newman and Jack Arnold (uncredited for directing the alien planet scenes) directed this Technicolor film about Earth scientists being manipulated by aliens fighting a galactic war. The aliens ultimately plan to move to Earth. The initial part of the film's story was  based on the 1952 novel by Raymond F. James.

1955: The Quatermass Xperiment 🇬🇧

A scifi horror film directed by Val Guest is known as The Creeping Unknown in the U.S..

Of the 3 astronauts who were launched into space (aboard a rocket designed by Professor Quatermass), a lone astronaut returns to Earth infected with an alien organism.

1955: Conquest of Space 🇺🇸

Again a George Pal production, in this early attempt at hard science fiction realism, a  space station becomes the launching pad for humanity's first manned mission to Mars, but psychological strain threatens the mission. Byron Haskin directed this Technicolor film.

1956: Rodan 🇯🇵

Ishirō Honda again directs a kaiju film. This time giant prehistoric flying creatures attack Japan. Fun fact: George Takei worked on the English dubbing for this film.

1956: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers 🇺🇸

Directed by Fred F. Sears, this B&W film tells a tale of aliens trying to communicate with Earth. But the protagonist and his wife learn about the species' plan to invade Earth. Together, they try to find a way to save the planet.

1956: World without End 🇺🇸

Edward Bernds directs this blend of time travel with atomic anxiety using colorful costumes and visuals.

Astronauts accidentally travel into the far future after a spaceflight accident and find post-apocalyptic Earth ruled by mutants.

1956: Forbidden Planet 🇺🇸

This Fred M. Wilcox directed film, shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope, is a visually stunning film set on a distant planet, exploring themes of technology and human nature. A spaceship crew uncovers the remnants of a powerful ancient civilization on a distant planet.

AFI considers it as a top 10 scifi movie of all time and rightly so as it clearly inspired a multitude of future scifi movies. The expensive robot prop went on to star in many other movies.

1956: Invasion of the Body Snatchers 🇺🇸

Don Siegel directed this culturally significant independent American scifi horror film. The story involves residents of a small town who are getting replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

A chilling allegory for conformity and Cold War paranoia, with "pod people" replacing humans, this film had 3 adaptations  Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Body Snatchers (1993), and The Invasion (2007).

1956: Taina Dvuh Okeanov (The Secret of Two Oceans) ☭

Based on Grigory Adamov's 1939 novel, this Soviet scifi adventure film was directed by Konstantine Pipinashvili. In the Atlantic Ocean, a Soviet ship mysteriously sinks, followed by the explosion of a French vessel in the Pacific. The crew of the top-secret Soviet submarine Pioneer, equipped with advanced technology and unparalleled capabilities, is tasked with uncovering the causes of these disasters.

1956: Fire Maidens from Outer Space 🇬🇧

Written, produced and directed by American filmmaker Cy Roth, was perfectly summarized by Halliwell's Film and Video Guide as "a strong contender for the title of the worst movie ever made, with diaphanously clad English gals striking embarrassed poses against cardboard sets".

A crew of five male astronauts are sent to a Jupiter moon and they end up being trapped to be "mated with maidens".

1956: Satellite in the Sky 🇬🇧

Paul Dickson directs this film about a satellite that is sent into outer space by England to test a new type of bomb. Due to an error, the bomb dooms the satellite and its crew.

1957: Doroga k Zvezdam (Road to the Stars) ☭

Pavel Klushantsev's groundbreaking movie combines elements of science educational films and imagined future in space using special effects. 

1957: The Brain from Planet Arous 🇺🇸

An independent film directed by Nathan Juran, has an alien possession storyline. After watching this disappointing movie even Nathan Juran changed his screen credit to to "Nathan Hertz". Hence, watch at your own risk!

1957: The Mysterians 🇯🇵

Another Ishirō Honda direction. Aliens ask for Earth's land to save their dying civilization, asking for land and women, leading to war.

1957: 20 Million Miles to Earth 🇺🇸

Nathan Juran directed this scifi monster film also featuring stop-motion animation. Although shot in B&W, it was colorized in 2007.

An alien creature from Venus grows dangerously large after crashing in Italy.

1957: Quatermass 2 🇬🇧

Val Guest directed this second Quatermass film in which the protagonist uncovers an alien infiltration on Earth via a secretive industrial complex; more political and action-oriented. Not many special effects required.

1957: The Incredible Shrinking Man 🇺🇸

Jack Arnold directed this seminal film about a man who is exposed to radiation and begins shrinking, ultimately facing existential crises as he continues to shrink.

1957: The 27th Day 🇺🇸

Five citizens from different countries are abducted by an alien and given pieces of a great power and the choice to annihilate the human kind within 27 days. After the 27 days the weapon would be disabled if not used.

This Irvin Yeaworth directed film tries to take on a serious subject but fails.

1957: Plan 9 from Outer Space 🇺🇸

Produced, written, directed, and edited by Ed Wood, in this B&W scifi horror film flying saucers appear over California, triggering government cover-ups and chaos. Aliens enact "Plan 9," raising the dead to halt humanity’s reckless technological advancements. As zombie hordes spread, a group of survivors infiltrates the aliens' saucer, causing its fiery destruction. The film ends with the eerie warning of Earth's dangerous future.

1958: The Blob 🇺🇸

Irvin Yeaworth directs this iconic creature feature which was also Steve McQueen's first leading role. A gelatinous carnivorous amoeboidal alien, that crashes to Earth from outer space inside a meteorite, terrorizes a small town by devouring everything in its path, growing larger, becoming redder in color and more aggressive.

1958: Queen of Outer Space 🇺🇸

Ed Bernds directs this Zsa Zsa Gabor starring flick. The film looks more of a scifi spoof rather than a serious effort however that does not disqualify it from this list.

Earth astronauts, all men of course, crash land on Venus where the Queen prefers to kill all males. Sexist? Maybe. But Zsa Zsa Gabor fans loved it.

1958: Taina Ostrova Bek-Kap (Mystery of the Island Bek-Kap) 🇨🇿

Directed by Karel Zeman, this Czechoslovakian film is based on the Jules Verne novel Facing the Flag. It is an early example of the Steam punk genre using live filming with cutaway animation and stylized as book engraving (similar to Verne's original publications). 

The pirates on the island want to get an elixir that will destroy the whole world so they trick a talented but naive professor.

1958: Rocket Attack U.S.A. 🇺🇸

A perfect example of US paranoia over communism in this decade, this propaganda espionage/scifi film was produced, directed and edited by Barry Mahon, and timed very soon after the Sputnik launch.

1958: The Fly 🇺🇸

A teleportation experiment gone wrong results in a scientist merging with a fly, blending horror and tragedy. Produced and directed by Kurt Neumann, it was followed by two black-and-white sequels, Return of the Fly (1959) and Curse of the Fly (1965). A remake directed by David Cronenberg was released in 1986.

1959: Ia Byl Sputnikom Solntsa (I was a satellite of the sun) ☭

A celebration of the Soviet successes in space, in this film directed by Viktor Morgenstern, a scientist Igor Petrovich dies attempting to retrieve research probes sent to the Sun. Decades later, his son Andrei, now working on radiation protection, launches a second recovery mission. Sacrificing himself, he successfully returns a probe to Earth, but a fortunate accident allows his rocket to escape interference, offering him a chance at survival.

1959: The Angry Red Planet 🇺🇸

In this sci-fi thriller, directed by Ib Melchior, the Mars Rocket 1 unexpectedly returns to Earth with only two survivors, one afflicted by an alien infection. Through a tense debriefing, Dr. Iris Ryan recounts their Martian expedition: battling monstrous creatures, surviving a mysterious force field, and barely escaping. A chilling alien message warns humanity against future Mars missions, threatening Earth's destruction if they return.

CineMagic process was used to cast a red tint for Mars scenes. 

1959: Nebo Zovyot (Sky is Calling) ☭

Directed by Alexander Kozyr and Mikhail Karyukov, in this Soviet scifi film, a writer gathers research for a book on space travel, framing scientists Kornev and Gordienko as his protagonists. His story envisions a Soviet mission to Mars, complicated by reckless American rivals. After a daring rescue, the cosmonauts face a fuel crisis, landing on an asteroid. Earth orchestrates their salvation, reinforcing humanity's resolve to conquer space.

1959: Journey to the Center of the Earth 🇺🇸

Jules Verne's classic story comes to life with stunning visuals and thrilling adventure in this classic directed by Henry Levin. Professor Lindenbrook discovers a hidden message revealing a path to the Earth's center. Joined by his student Alec and others, they embark on a perilous journey through volcanic passages, subterranean oceans, and lost cities, facing treacherous foes and prehistoric creatures. After a dramatic ascent, they return as heroes, inspiring future explorers.

1959: The Cosmic Man 🇺🇸

This Herbert S. Greene directed film is often seen as a lower-budget echo of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), with similar "benevolent alien messenger" themes.

A mysterious silver orb lands in the mountains, and a strange humanoid figure (the "Cosmic Man") appears, promoting peace and warning humanity against violence.

My personal thought: Was the ending of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs inspired by this movie's ending?

1959/60: First Spaceship on Venus 🇩🇪 🇵🇱

Kurt Maetzig directs this sci-fi adventure, an East Germany - Poland collaboration, originally called The Silent Star (in German and Polish). A multinational crew of scientists and engineers uncover a mysterious alien artifact linked to the Tunguska explosion, sparking a mission to Venus. A crew discovers remnants of a lost civilization and a deadly weapon meant to annihilate Earth. A tense battle to deactivate the device leads to tragic sacrifices, leaving some stranded while survivors return with a dire warning for humanity. Personal opinion: the story and the premise seemed much ahead of its times. A must-watch!