10 Sci-Fi Comedies To Watch If You Like Back To The Future

There is no such thing as a perfect movie, but Robert Zemeckis’ sci-fi comedy Back to the Future comes pretty darn close. Its script is brilliantly structured, filled with plant-and-payoffs, while its leads, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, are incredibly well-matched.

The movie’s success is owed to a ton of different factors, but on a very basic level, its ideal balance of the lofty ideas of the science fiction genre and the pure glee of the comedy genre goes a long way. So, if you’re a fan of Back to the Future, here are 10 sci-fi comedies you might like.

10 Weird Science (1985)

Released the same year as Back to the Future, Weird Science is one of John Hughes’ many teen comedies. It’s arguably the one with the nerdiest protagonists, as Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith star as a pair of geeky kids who use a computer program to create the perfect woman, played by Kelly LeBrock.

Much like the DeLorean in Back to the Future, the scientific experimentation in Weird Science leads to hilariously unexpected consequences that make the characters realize it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

9 Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (1989)

In the ‘80s, Rick Moranis was one of the funniest and most popular leading men working in the comedy genre, but he has since disappeared from mainstream media due to a family tragedy.

One of his most defining starring vehicles was Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a sci-fi comedy in which he plays a suburban dad and failing scientist who designs a proportional shrinking machine. At first, he doesn’t think it works. However, when his children are shrunk, he has to scour the backyard to find them before it’s too late.

Lucky for fans, Moranis returning for Disney’s new Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movie.

8 Paul (2011)

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost wrote the screenplay for Paul in addition to starring in it. They play a couple of nerds who travel across America to visit all the locations of recorded U.F.O. sightings, and end up harboring a fugitive alien (voice by Seth Rogen) who’s on the run from the U.S. government.

Without the involvement of Edgar Wright, Paul doesn’t reach the transcendent heights of the genre homages of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, but anyone who enjoys movies about alien visitors will have a lot of fun with this comic take on such a story.

7 Spaceballs (1987)

Mel Brooks’ parody of the original Star Wars trilogy may have arrived a little late, hitting theaters four years after Return of the Jedi’s release, but that doesn’t really matter because, like its satirical target, it has a timeless quality.

All of Brooks’ spoofs are inherently self-aware as a lampoon of existing movies, but Spaceballs might be the director’s most self-aware film ever, as he makes constant use of meta gags. At one point, Rick Moranis’ Dark Helmet puts in the Spaceballs tape, and watches himself watching the movie in the movie.

6 Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

If Back to the Future was rated R – and swapped out traveling from the ‘80s to the ‘50s for traveling from the 2010s to the ‘80s – it might look something like Hot Tub Time Machine. Hot Tub Time Machine uses the characters’ (and the audience’s) knowledge of the future to take satirical jabs at ‘80s culture.

The movie has a lot of self-aware humor and references to the greatest time travel movie ever made. Crispin Glover even appears as a bellhop who’s missing an arm in the present, and does a lot of dangerous things in the past when he has two arms, while everyone waits for him to lose his arm.

5 Men In Black (1997)

A large part of how Back to the Future manages to blend science fiction with comedy is its use of lore to create gags. In Men in Black, all the worldbuilding serves the jokes.

Will Smith is the audience surrogate (or “the Marty”) as a streetwise cop who is recruited to join a secret government agency that protects Earth from alien threats. He’s teamed up with a veteran agent (or “the Doc”), played by Tommy Lee Jones. Smith and Jones’ on-screen chemistry deftly carries the whole movie.

4 Attack The Block (2011)

Part of the fun of Back to the Future is that we follow Marty McFly on a time-traveling adventure. He’s not the scientist who invented the time machine; he’s just a regular kid who’s in over his head.

In Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, we don’t see government officials or scientists responding to an alien invasion. Instead, we see the invasion from the perspective of a London street gang that teams up with a nurse they mugged earlier in the night.

3 Galaxy Quest (1999)

Galaxy Quest revolves around a bunch of actors from a sci-fi TV series getting abducted by aliens who think that episodes of the show are historical documents of their intergalactic conquests.

The movie is such a pitch-perfect satire of Star Trek and its fanbase that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet once hailed as a perfect movie. The cast is anchored by such legendary talent as Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman.

2 Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

If you enjoyed Back to the Future’s time travel plot but didn’t think its humor was silly enough, then look no further than Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, a classic of the stoner comedy subgenre.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter star as the titular duo, a pair of high school slackers who travel through time — bumping into such historical figures as Napoleon, Joan of Arc, and Billy the Kid along the way — in order to ace their history project. The movie was followed by a sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and a belated threequel, Bill & Ted Face the Music, is on its way.

1 Ghostbusters (1984)

Although it has supernatural elements, Ghostbusters is closer to science fiction than horror. Going off of Dan Aykroyd’s initial concept, Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the screenplay for Ghostbusters, but they weren’t too precious about specific dialogue. Instead, they wrote a script that would encourage improvisation.

Aykroyd and Ramis got their starts in improv, and they cast their friend Bill Murray, who also had a similar background, to star alongside them. Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Rick Moranis are great in supporting roles, too.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3464 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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