Back to the Future perfectly walks the line between several genres at once, but it’s not the only fun movie to do so. The adventures of Marty McFly and Dr. Brown fit fully into the sci-fi genre, but they also avoid the serious tone of many sci-fi movies. Back to the Future is a rare uncomplicated movie about time travel and introduces audiences to the hilarious pitfalls of having a time machine, taking the film into the comedy and adventure genres. Feel-good sci-fi movies like Back to the Future can be difficult to find, but there are some great ones.
Fun sci-fi adventure comedies like Back to the Future often begin franchises, which can be good news for families who want to share modern movies in a beloved series with younger generations. That said, there are some excellent standalone movies with the same tone and genre mix as Back to the Future. The 1980s had some of the best adventure movies ever made, but the sci-fi adventure genre mix is still extremely popular and viewers looking to watch a film that feels similar to Back to the Future have plenty to choose from.
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Back To The Future
A Mixture Of Genres But Inherently Sci-Fi
Back to the Future is generally considered one of the best time travel movies and stars Michael J. Fox as 1980s teenager Marty McFly, who is accidentally sent back in time to 1955 by his eccentric friend, Doc Brown. It is easy to follow and full of references to the 1950s, particularly the music. This makes Back to the Future an especially fun movie for music fans to watch, and Marty McFly’s iconic guitar scene is recognizable even to people who have not seen the film.
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Although Back to the Future has a set of rules for its time travel, the movie is more concerned about entertaining audiences than it is with avoiding plot holes. In fact, Back to the Future’s paradoxes and headscratchers are part of the movie’s charm. Not only is Back to the Future one of the greatest of its genre, but the sequels were also great. Back to the Future 4 never happened, and given how perfect the trilogy is, this is for the best.
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Innerspace
An Experiment Goes Wrong In This Sci-Fi Comedy
The sci-fi comedy Innerspace has been parodied in many TV shows and movies, including Family Guy and The Big Bang Theory, so it may feel familiar even to audiences who have not seen the movie. In Innerspace, a scientist takes part in a miniaturization experiment but finds himself in a location that he did not expect: the body of a hypochondriac. While he tries to escape, his colleagues race against time to retrieve him.
While Innerspace was not an immediate hit, it has since gained a cult following, with an 82% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Like Back to the Future, Innerspace blends genres, incorporating sci-fi, romance, and comedy. The idea was extremely ambitious, and though the movie sometimes feels stuffed with ideas, the cast makes up for any failings. Innerspace stars Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, though at one point, Back to the Future‘s Michael J. Fox was considered.
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Ghostbusters
An Instant Classic Sci-Fi Horror Comedy
Ghostbusters may lean more toward the horror genre than sci-fi, but it shares a similar comedic tone with Back to the Future. In Ghostbusters, a ghost-hunting team finds themselves out of their depth when a dangerous gateway to another world opens up. The original story involved a time travel element, with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi traveling through space and time, fighting supernatural threats. However, while this idea was reworked after Belushi’s death, the movie’s lighthearted tone was kept.
Ghostbusters was a very quotable instant hit, with each member of the team gaining fans in their own right. This has led to continued interest in the Ghostbusters franchise, which is still expanding today. The sequels may not have been as highly rated as the original movie, but Ghostbusters still holds up today with fun action sequences, physical comedy, and ghosts that aren’t too scary for a younger audience.
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Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Brendan Fraser Stars In This Fun Adventure With A Ludicrous Plot
Journey to the Center of the Earth is based on a story by the early sci-fi writer Jules Verne (also the author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.) Though the story does not stick very closely to the source material, it is one of the best movie adaptations of a Jules Verne book, and this is partly due to the performances of the actors. Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Brendan Fraser at the height of his action-comedy career.
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The movie is about a volcano expert and his nephew, who go looking for his missing brother and find themselves at the Center of the Earth, which is a dangerous, fantastical world. While the lead characters are more similar to Marty and Doc Brown, Journey to the Center of the Earth shares Back to the Future‘s theme of an unlikely partnership and the threat of being trapped in another time.
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Flubber
Robin Williams Is Perfect As A Mad Scientist
Robin Williams could generally do no wrong, and his performance in the sci-fi family adventure Flubber shows him at his larger-than-life best. Williams plays Philip Brainard, a professor who is so forgetful that he keeps missing his own wedding. When he accidentally creates the flying rubber that he dubs “flubber,” he discovers that it is sentient, has a mischievous side, and has the potential to save his school from closure.
Both Flubber and Back to the Future feature lovable mad professor characters and a lot of comedy surrounding their misadventures. Both contain elaborate inventions, with Brainard’s house robots being especially endearing. Still, while Back to the Future sparked a popular franchise, Flubber has not enjoyed as much success. That said, Flubber is a movie that should be remade with modern special effects, which could give it another chance for a modern audience.
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E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Cutting Edge Practical Effects Made One Of The Most Popular Aliens Of All Time
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is one of those movies that can be endearing or frightening depending on the viewer. The story is about a gentle alien with healing powers, who finds himself stranded on Earth. The movie was made using some of the most groundbreaking animatronics technology at the time, and the alien was so realistic that Drew Barrymore thought E.T. was real when she starred in the movie as a child. This may be why her performance as Gertie was so sincere.
E.T. is one of the most popular movie aliens of all time, yet some viewers have found the movie scary. That said, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is generally a family-friendly sci-fi movie, full of comedic moments, especially Elliott’s alien-related mishaps in school. Like Back to the Future, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a fun adventure movie that also involves a moment in which a main character appears to be dead. Fortunately for viewers, both movies have a happy ending.
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Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure
One Of The Most Iconic Time Travel Movies
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is closer to Back to the Future than most other movies, with its 1980s soundtrack, hilarious mishaps, and time travel plot. However, while Marty McFly is a little more responsible and quick-thinking, Bill and Ted’s lack of common sense forms a large part of the adventure and comedy. The two protagonists are endearing but definitely not book-smart, and the movie is about their quest to pass their history exam with a little help from a time machine.
While Back to the Future sends Marty back to one spot in history, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure sends the two to several different times, bringing people back with them. The historical figures in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure enjoy the 1980s so much that the movie is not just a time travel comedy, but a homage to the 1980s and California culture. The movie shares this “retroactively love letter to the 1980s” aspect with Back to the Future, and is a great movie for nostalgic audiences.
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Sonic The Hedgehog
After A Troubled Start, The Sonic Movies Have Been A Runaway Success
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The original design for the fast-running blue hedgehog was notoriously terrible, but while this threatened to overshadow the movie, this turned out not to be the case. Sonic the Hedgehog has a 93% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the Sonic movie sequels have only gotten better, which is unusual for any franchise. The sci-fi adventure comedy is based on the videogame character and stars James Marsden, with Jim Carrey playing the villainous Dr. Robotnik.
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Sonic the Hedgehog may not obviously resemble Back to the Future, with the two movies being set in very different times, but the two have a surprisingly similar tone. Both movies involve jumping from one place to another, with the Sonic the Hedgehog characters using portals to get into different worlds, while also exploring father-and-son relationships. Many fan theories have also suggested that future Sonic movies will include time travel.
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Men In Black
A Long-Running Alien Conspiracy Turns Out To Be Real (& Hilarious)
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Men in Black stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as unlikely partners who have to save the world. Just as Back to the Future was a perfect window into 1980s fashion and music, Men in Black is a very 1990s movie. The film features a song by Will Smith, who was one of the biggest music stars of the 1990s. While he was at the height of his music career when he made Men in Black, the movie helped to turn Will Smith into a movie star, too.
Men in Black is extremely quotable, and the script is one of the best things about the movie, with Will Smith’s one-liners still being referenced today. Like Back to the Future, the movie is a blend of genres, with Men in Black being a combination of sci-fi and comedy, with some moments of horror. Vincent D’Onofrio’s character provides most of the scares, but none of them last long, with the agents bringing back the movie’s comedy, which is usually witty with the occasional gross-out moment.
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Zathura
A Spiriual Successor To Jumanji In A Sci-Fi World
Zathura began as a sci-fi children’s book and the story is about two brothers who find a mysterious board game and discover that it has the power to transport them to space. The plot for Zathura sounds like Jumanji because Chris Van Allsburg wrote both Jumanji and Zathura. The two stories were not supposed to be standalone tales, and Zathura is considered a spiritual sequel to Jumanji, as shares the same fictional universe.
Zathura shares its sci-fi adventure comedy genre mix with Back to the Future, as well as the major theme of family. In Back to the Future, Marty learns to navigate his family relationships while also mastering time travel, while in Zathura, the two brothers have to learn to work together. By the end of both movies, the characters have grown, and while the home Marty returns to looks a little different, the boys return to the world as they left it. Each resolution suits the movie, and both have a similar tone and happy ending.