"Geek" has, in recent years, morphed from being a negative epithet to a positive term for anyone with an interest considered niche or nerdy. This change for the better means people are now happy to call themselves geeks, and has led to the entertainment industry catering more and more to this potentially lucrative market.
Hollywood has taken full advantage of this, with geek movies such as the current crop of comic-book movies proving to be box-office gold. But what, you may be wondering, are some of the best movies for geeks ever released? Wonder no more, my fellow geeks, as we have compiled a list of 42 of the best geek movies of all time. 42? Yes, 42.
The Best Movies For Geeks
We recently asked you, What Is Your Favorite Geek Movie? You didn't let us down, and plenty of you told us all about the geek movies you love. We have pared all of these suggestions down to a 42-strong list containing some (but not all) of the best geek movies of all time.
The following 42 films, as presented in no particular order, should appeal to geeks of all shapes and sizes. The genres covered include comedy, horror, sci-fi, action, and drama. Time travel is prevalent, as are dystopian futures, bizarre gadgets, encounters with aliens, and paranormal adventures.
42 Of The Best Geek Movies Of All Time…
- Star Wars
- Back To The Future
- Logan's Run
- Men In Black
- Tank Girl
- Dune
- Terminator
- Robocop
- Wall-E
- Weird Science
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Ghostbusters
- Pi
- Iron Man
- Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
- Akira
- Office Space
- Brazil
- Minority Report
- Blade Runner
- Tron
- The Matrix
- The Social Network
- The Number 23
- Spaceballs
- Jobs
- Contact
- War Games
- The Internship
- Independence Day
- I, Robot
- Inception
- Source Code
- Twelve Monkeys
- Revenge Of The Nerds
- Primer
- The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes
- Army Of Darkness
- Total Recall
- The Butterfly Effect
- Memento
- The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Some of these movies haven't got particularly high ratings on IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes, but then arbitrary ratings mean little in the big scheme of things. Inclusion on this list means each of these films appeals to at least one of the geeks who reads MakeUseOf on a regular basis. And a MakeUseOf geek is surely the only kind of geek that matters.
There is only one logical thing to do with a list as lengthy as this: determine how many of the movies mentioned you have actually seen. I have personally seen 36 out of the 42, and there are two I had never even heard of before compiling this list. Now it's your turn to get involved by telling us how many of the 42 geek movies listed above you have seen.
Complimentary Comments
In order to compile this list of the best geek movies, we received a lot of great comments from the MakeUseOf readership. Great comments included those from Xoandre, Callum, and likefunbutnot. The applause for the best comment goes to Hildy J, who earns our admiration and affection for this gem:
Oft cited:
2001 [because: space]
Tron [because: operating systems]
Off the wall:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [because: 42]
Spaceballs [because: the schwartz]
The Rocky Horror Picture Show [because: alien transsexuals]
We loved this comment because it names five exceptionally geeky movies which are all brilliant in their own way but which will appeal to entirely different audiences. The short, snappy reasons for naming these movies all hit the spot too.
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr