Sci-fi fans try to do the impossible and name the best movie from the genre’s finest decade

Sci-fi has reigned as one of the most perennially popular genres on the planet for what feels like forever, but it’s hard to look past the 1980s as the true Golden Age.

While there are other decades that could lay claim to the crown, it’s hard to look past the years between 1981 and 1989 as the cream of the crop, with dozens upon dozens of cult favorites, smash hit blockbusters, all-time classics, and underrated gems arriving on a wondrously regular basis.

Trying to pick which one deserves to be named as the cherry on top of the icing on a cake made entirely out of greatness sounds like a close to impossible task, then, but that hasn’t stopped the good people of Reddit from giving it a whirl.

The original poster may have rattled off The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, Dune, RoboCop, Aliens, Tron, WarGames, The Terminator, Ghostbusters, Predator, Akira, The Road Warrior, The Abyss, and Short Circuit, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

We can’t forget about Flash Gordon, The Last Starfighter, The Running Man, They Live, The Thing, They Live, and plenty more besides that each hold a special place in the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere. It’s almost like trying to pick a favorite child, if your offspring was nothing but unbridled cinematic excellence, and we’d be willing to bet the farm on no such thing as a definitive conclusion ever being reached on this one.