10 Sci-Fi Films Set Before The 20th Century

The Sci-Fi movie genre is huge from Netflix recent The Adam Project where Ryan Reynolds played a time-traveling fighter pilot who came from a distant future to team up with his 12-year-old self in 2022. Most science fiction movies explore a speculative portrayal of the future, from Blade Runner to Minority Report to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But not every sci-fi movie is set in the future; some great ones take place in the distant past. Prey takes place in 1719, Frankenstein takes place in 1899, and the Star Wars saga takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars (1977) – Set A Long Time Ago

George Lucas inspired a generation of storytellers, spawned a lucrative media franchise, and changed blockbuster cinema forever with his 1977 space fantasy opus Star Wars. This intergalactic fairy tale is a go-to example of a perfect movie.

Star Wars doesn’t clarify which year it takes place in (except in relation to the Battle of Yavin), but its opening title card describes its setting as “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”

Cowboys & Aliens (2011) – Set In 1873

Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens has one of the most tantalizing elevator pitches in recent blockbuster history: James Bond and Indiana Jones join forces to fight aliens in the Wild West. The script was met with mixed reviews, but the visual effects were widely praised.

When townspeople start getting abducted by aliens, an amnesiac outlaw played by Daniel Craig and a wealthy cattle baron played by Harrison Ford team up to save them.

Cloud Atlas (2012) – Partly Set In 1849

Much like the enormous David Mitchell novel it’s based on, the Wachowskis’ cinematic adaptation of Cloud Atlas is a wildly ambitious sci-fi epic that spans hundreds of years and jumps back and forth across the timeline of history until all of its many story threads are resolved.

The movie takes place in the Pacific Islands in 1849, Cambridge and Edinburgh in 1936, San Francisco in 1973, London in 2012, Neo Seoul in 2144, and Big Island, 106 winters after “The Fall,” in 2321.

The Fountain (2006) – Set In 1500 A.D.

By far Darren Aronofsky’s most ambitious film, The Fountain tells three intertwining storylines about one man’s immortality and the lost loves it has resulted in. The story begins all the way back in 1500 A.D. and spans a thousand years.

Hugh Jackman plays three incarnations of the same immortal man: Tomás Verde, a 16th-century Spanish conquistador; Thomas Creo, a present-day surgeon; and Tommy the Space Traveler, a futuristic astronaut.

Wild Wild West (1999) – Set In 1869

Barry Sonnenfeld’s follow-up to Men in Black was another sci-fi buddy actioner starring Will Smith. Wild Wild West puts a steampunk twist on a traditional western, unleashing a giant mechanical spider on the familiar setting of the American frontier.

Contemporary critics were ruthless to Wild Wild West – it garnered eight Razzie nominations and “won” five – but, as pure escapist blockbuster entertainment, it’s a lot of fun.

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1931) – Set In The Victorian Era

Adapted from the Robert Louis Stevenson gothic novella, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tells the tale of a mild-mannered doctor in Victorian London who takes a magical potion that unleashes his darkest impulses and turns him into a homicidal maniac.

The movie perfectly captured the dichotomy of the title characters and earned three Academy Award nominations. Fredric March won Best Actor for his dual performance as Jekyll and Hyde (although he had to share the award with another actor).

The Prestige (2006) – Set In The 1890s

In between his first and second Batman movies, Christopher Nolan went back in time to tell the story of two rivaling magicians in 19th-century London. The Prestige stars Hugh Jackman and Batman himself, Christian Bale, as a pair of feuding tricksters who each perform their own version of the “Transported Man” illusion.

One of them performs the trick by sharing an identity with his identical twin brother, but the other one has a more sci-fi approach: killing off clones of himself created in a machine designed by Nikola Tesla.

Back To The Future Part III (1990) – Set In 1885

The first two chapters of Robert Zemeckis’ time-traveling Back to the Future trilogy jump back and forth between 1955, 1985, and 2015. But the cliffhanger ending of Back to the Future Part II reveals that Doc Brown has been stranded all the way back in 1885.

In Back to the Future Part III, Marty McFly travels back to the Old West to save Doc. With a train robbery, a saloon shootout, and a duel at high noon, Back to the Future Part III is a straightforward western that happens to include time travel.

Prey (2022) – Set In 1719

Hulu’s new Predator prequel, Prey, has been praised as the greatest entry the franchise has had to offer since the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring original. With a badass new protagonist, a terrifying new Predator, and a wonderfully tense atmosphere, the only regret about Prey is that fans didn’t get to see it on the big screen.

By setting the story in the Northern Great Plains in 1719, director Dan Trachtenberg managed to put a fresh spin on the familiar franchise formula.

Frankenstein (1931) – Set In 1899

Widely regarded to be the first true science fiction story ever written, Frankenstein is a powerful parable about the dangers of playing God. Mary Shelley’s original novel, still a timeless read with timely themes, was published way back in 1818.

James Whale’s iconic film adaptation was released in 1931, vaguely set in the past, but its sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, implies that the 1931 movie takes place in 1899, right on the cusp of the 20th century.