Choosing the five best science fiction characters from movies is no easy task, but some simply stand out from the others for the emotional impact they have or the sheer power of their presence on screen. Herein, Film’s five best sci fi characters will be revealed.
The Five Best Sci Fi Characters: 1. Spock
Star Trek’s Spock represents the conflict between logic and emotion via his mixed race heritage. Half purely logical Vulcan and half emotional human, Spock has a range of subsequent difficulties with both halves that make him the best science fiction character. He also epitomizes the difficulty with being a nerd and trying to decide between reason and emotion.
The Five Best Sci Fi Characters: 2. Ellen Ripley
The Alien franchise’s Ellen Ripley is comfortably number two on this list because of her strange relationship with the Aliens. Throughout the movies it is very clearly explained that Ripley is a mother, first to her human daughter in Alien and then to an orphaned girl in Aliens. As the Aliens represent a perverse sort of maternity, Ellen has a particular ability to comprehend and defeat them. This comparison of human maternity and love to the Alien’s ruthless version of reproduction, all through the character Ellen, makes Ripley one of the greatest sci fi characters.
The Five Best Sci Fi Characters: 3. Sarah Connor
Another female in the list that is also in a maternity-based role, Sarah Connor is particular effective as a character throughout the Terminator series because she goes from being relatively carefree to an effective combatant. Her relationship with Kyle Reese in the first film of the series is one of the best adult relationships in any science fiction film and her determination to protect her son in Terminator 2 makes it difficult not to empathize with her.
The Five Best Sci Fi Characters: 4. Richard B. Riddick
Pitch Black’s Riddick adds a perfect element of moral ambiguity to the film and thus is one of the best science fiction characters in a film to date. What particularly makes Riddick interesting is that while he is needed for the other characters to survive, he is also completely untrustworthy and a proven murderer. Part of what makes Riddick interesting is that underneath his survivalist exterior is somewhat caring interior that is always being shuffled aside. This contradiction essentially makes the film Pitch Black work.
The Five Best Sci Fi Characters: 5. Agent Smith
The Matrix’s Agent Smith serves as a constant contrast to Neo’s humanism. In the first film, he embodies the machine-like logic of the system. In the second film, he embodies the opposite interpretation of Neo’s nihilist-based philosophy. Beyond all this, Agent Smith is simply someone that is so easy to hate that he becomes immensely enjoyable to watch.
