8 films that put women at the centre of space exploration

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on 20 July, 1969, it was one small step for man, but a giant leap for Hollywood. Science fiction had, of course, been a popular genre since the silent era, but the event fired up the industry’s collective imagination and sent it skywards. A golden age of space films followed, from the first instalment of to Steven Spielberg’s . There were major hits in the 1980s and 1990s – ,,– and recent offerings like prove its enduring appeal. The only downside? Depictions of space on film, as in reality, remain overwhelmingly male-dominated.

This year, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, offers a corrective: eight women-centric, sci-fi films that are essential viewing, from those chronicling the early years of the Space Race to dystopian visions of the future and franchises set in a galaxy far, far away.  

(2013)
Alfonso Cuarón’s high-octane thriller is the perfect vehicle for Sandra Bullock, who plays mission specialist Dr Ryan Stone. Lost in space after a collision caused by a Russian missile strike, she has limited time and dwindling oxygen supplies with which to reach the International Space Station. George Clooney appears as veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski, but the focus remains on Bullock, who is extraordinary as the inscrutable, isolated Dr Stone. Despite the sweeping cinematography and dazzling visual effects, the film is at its most powerful when the camera is pressed against her helmet, listening to the sound of her breathing as she watches the Earth slowly drift out of sight.

(2014)
When dust storms and famine threaten the Earth in the mid-21st century, a former NASA pilot is recruited to find other habitable planets. Matthew McConaughey is that beleaguered engineer, Joseph Cooper, but the film is underpinned by two other strong performances: Jessica Chastain as Cooper’s scientist daughter Murphy and Anne Hathaway as astronaut Amelia Brand. Whether they are traversing frozen planets in search of life or studying black holes back on Earth, the pair are integral to the mission and the fate of humanity rests on their shoulders.   

(2016)
Theodore Melfi’s uplifting drama provides a much-needed reassessment of the role of black female mathematicians in launching astronauts into orbit. Starring Taraji P Henson as Katherine Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, the film charts their experiences at the segregated NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia as they fight for equality and recognition from their peers. Cue critical acclaim, box-office success, a SAG award for best cast and the US State Department launching a publicly funded exchange programme for women working in science, technology, engineering and maths called #HiddenNoMore. Three years on from its release, the film still resonates: this June, the street outside NASA’s headquarters in Washington DC was renamed “Hidden Figures Way” in honour of the trio.

(2015)
The third and final saga of the franchise opens with an action-packed instalment that has a woman at its centre: the lightsaber-wielding, Jedi-in-training Rey, played by rising star Daisy Ridley. After rescuing BB-8 and stealing the Millennium Falcon, she escapes Jakku, meets Han Solo and battles the First Order to return the droid to the Resistance. 2017’s follow-up shows her convincing Luke Skywalker to return from exile, while this year’s will mark the end of the millennia-long conflict between the Jedi Order and the Sith.

(1997)
With her tangerine bob and white bondage bodysuit, Milla Jovovich’s Leeloo became a pop-culture sensation when Luc Besson’s sci-fi blockbuster was released in 1997. A humanoid capable of destroying evil, she escapes from a lab, jumps off a ledge and lands in a flying taxi driven by Korben Dallas, a former soldier played by Bruce Willis. What follows is an increasingly preposterous space romp in which the pair search for element stones that will save the planet and defeat the villainous industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (a flamboyantly dressed Gary Oldman). Critics may have been polarised at first, but this is a cult classic that only gets better with age.

(2018)
Films in space are often high-minded and idealistic, chronicling our ability as human beings to succeed against all odds. Not so with Claire Denis’s English-language debut which shows a crew of criminals travelling towards a black hole as part of a scientific experiment. Among those serving death sentences are Robert Pattinson as the troubled and mysterious Monte, Mia Goth as rebellious Boyse and Juliette Binoche as the spaceship’s demented doctor Dibs, obsessed with conceiving a child through artificial insemination. The final product is a nightmarish study of desire, fear and redemption set in the furthest reaches of the galaxy.

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(1979)
Lieutenant Ellen Ripley is the ultimate space heroine, a resolute, relentless warrior who holds together Ridley Scott’s heart-stopping horror. When an alien infiltrates the space tug Nostromo and attacks the astronauts aboard, Ripley puts her male colleagues to shame and proceeds to hunt it down. In her grey boiler suit, pulse rifle in hand, she became the prototype for a female action star who will stop at nothing to protect those she loves. Played to perfection by Sigourney Weaver, who reprised the role in , and , few have measured up to her since.

(1968)
From the space-age Paco Rabanne costumes to Jane Fonda’s campy performance, there’s much to be enjoyed in Roger Vadim’s intergalactic fantasy. The film follows the titular space adventurer on a mission to find the evil scientist Durand Durand and prevent his laser weapon, the Positronic Ray, from falling into the wrong hands. Beyond the double entendres and B-movie tropes, is a rarity: an empowered female astronaut who redefined the genre in the late 1960s and paved the way for a new generation of women to conquer sci-fi cinema.