5 Must-Watch Sci-Fi Movies With An All-Star Cast

History has shown that if sci-fi films are lucky, they'll band together no-name cast members, and if the movie is good enough, transform them into some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Harrison Ford was barely on the map before he found himself in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon in that little '70s indie flick, "Star Wars," and Sigourney Weaver's name was screamed out in space (not that we could hear it) in "Alien."

Sometimes, though, sci-fi can go that extra light-year if it's fueled by the force that is star power. The more A-listers at the top of the poster, the more likely audiences in their droves will make their way into theaters to see if the kooky, otherworldly entry they're a part of was worth the admission.

With that in mind, we've put together a batch of brilliant sci-fi movies that were all the more entertaining because they had some of Hollywood's biggest stars either saving the day or at risk of seeing humanity's final ones. Some involved beloved adaptations, while others were brand-spanking new and all the more mind-blowing for it. Take a look at the star-studded lineup we've assembled, and see which entries had the biggest all-star casts that helped bring their stories to life.

The cast list director Denis Villeneuve pieced together turned his gamble of adapting Frank Herbert's "Dune" into a surefire success, which was something his predecessor, David Lynch, struggled to accomplish. Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, and Dave Bautista undeniably brought the spice to the mainstream audience, ensuring that this wasn't just another run at Herbert's tome for diehard fans, but a film aimed at everyone that had time for the genre it was such a cornerstone of.

The film didn't rise and fall with its cast list, though. They, and so many other names, were grains of sand in a desert of creativity that helped flesh out the "Dune" universe that a handful of other storytellers had tried and tussled with bringing to life. The performances from Chalamet, Zendaya, and, with the addition of Austin Butler, Christopher Walken and Javier Bardem in "Dune: Part Two," in a truly epic space saga, turned the "Dune" movies into some of the most memorable and epic cinema experiences since "The Lord of the Rings."

Thankfully, even though the cast list has dwindled due to pivotal deaths and tyrannical power plays, "Dune: Messiah" promises to end on an equally high note with even more talent pushing Paul Atreides' story to its final universe-shaking swansong.

After giving the world what many consider two of the greatest comic book movies of all time with "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight," Christopher Nolan was on a career path that few could dream of. It made sense then that his next daring and totally original project (depending on who you talk to that haven't seen a certain sci-fi anime), would deal with dreams themselves, using a top-tier cast list to help steal the cinematic show.

A mind-bending blend partially reminiscent of both "The Matrix" and "Mission: Impossible," "Inception" was a reality-smashing spy movie that demanded a cast capable of selling its story, and boy, did it get it. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, and Ken Watanabe all take a deep dive into the mind of who would become one of Nolan's (now Oscar-winning) regulars, Cillian Murphy.

Admittedly, Nolan's fleshed-out universe and the set pieces he constructs in them are worth the admission alone, but throwing in the swagger of Hardy's Eames, the level-headed charm of Levitt's Arthur, and the fearlessness of DiCaprio's frontman, Cobb, is what adds another level to this already multi-layered head trip. This journey and the world it takes place in feel fortified and believable, even when the streets bend like freshly cooked pasta. In another timeline, perhaps Hollywood could've turned this standalone story into a franchise, but doing so would've diluted a big, bold blockbuster with an unmatched cast list.

Somehow, a cast list this impressive wasn't enough for it to reach the status of other movies on this list. Nevertheless, the Wachowskis' "Cloud Atlas" amassed a group for a wild sci-fi movie that isn't just crammed with A-list talent, but uses them in a variety of ways during a story that stretches centuries and stars all at the same time.

Released in 2012 and based on a 2004 book from David Mitchell, "Cloud Atlas" boasts the talents of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, and Ben Whishaw. Almost every cast member is putting in extra hours, playing up to six characters from different eras, all with different allegiances and agendas depending on when and where they are. Hanks is a sleazy media mogul in one era and one of the last survivors of a post-apocalyptic tribe in another. Berry is a white Jewish woman in one era, the slave of a plantation in another, and a male doctor in another.

It's because of this daring creativity that breaks the binds of gender and race that the entire cast is given the chance to flex their acting muscles. It doesn't land every time, but when it does, it leads to one of the most original and overlooked sci-fi films in years that deserves to get so much more attention than it did.

Danny Boyle's suicidal space journey isn't so much filled with established stars, but loaded with ones waiting to go supernova. Perhaps the most underappreciated entry in the director's brilliantly varied filmography, "Sunshine" follows a team of astronauts on a mission to reignite the sun, way before Ryan Gosling made suicidal space missions look cool.

However, while he had nothing but a rock to chat to, the team of Icarus II is composed of Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis and Hiroyuki Sanada, who take the trip to the big burning ball of flame, while an extra crispy and unhinged Mark Strong waits to wreak havoc.

A massively underrated 2007 sci-fi gem that deserves some love now that sun-saving space missions are so popular, "Sunshine" should get extra credit for assembling a level of talent that studios now could only dream of. At this point, Evans' superhero status was still as a member of the Fantastic Four, and Murphy hadn't even become head of the "Peaky Blinders." Even so, the talent that we'd know and come to love is clearly present here and still makes for a gripping watch that deals with life, death, and, like all great space movies, our insignificance in a universe that could wipe us out at any given moment. Lovely stuff.

Easily one of the most star-studded entries not just on this list but of all time, "Avengers: Infinity War" has a cast big enough to fill at least two rows at the Academy Awards and then some. But just like Thanos, such a gathering of Hollywood heroes was inevitable.

We'd already been given a taste of massive superhero team-ups with the first two "Avengers" movies and "Captain America: Civil War" (aka "Avengers 2.5"). "Infinity War" was something else entirely. This wasn't some big-budget get-together, but instead a battle between good and evil that was almost a decade in the making. The Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, half of the heroes of Wakanda, a strange Doctor, and a wall-crawler all make an appearance, and by association, so do most of their allies. All of it was to take on Josh Brolin's purple-skinned jewel thief, who won the battle but, thankfully, wouldn't win the war.

Perhaps "Infinity War's" greatest achievement, besides getting so many A-listers in one film, was, thanks to the Russo Brothers' movie management, keeping audiences fully invested and in the know about how things were playing out. Every hero and villain is exactly where they need to be, and when they interact with another, it's crammed with inside jokes and lore-filled lines that, by this point, dedicated fans had earned and waited for. Doing it once was incredible; doing it again in "Avengers: Endgame" was amazing. Now the only question is whether the third time is truly the charm when "Avengers: Doomsday" opens in theaters.