If you’re trying to find a definitive answer as to the best science fiction movies ever made, you could do a lot worse than asking someone who has actually been to the moon. Thankfully, Buzz Aldrin has elaborated on his picks for the best movies of all time.
Aldrin was one of the first men to walk on the moon in 1969, and he thinks that one of the best Stanley Kubrick movies stands higher than other sci-fi adventures.
When asked by Rotten Tomatoes to choose his five favourite films, Aldrin reached for 2001: A Space Odyssey and spoke about its ability to look forward into the future as one of the reasons for it being so special.
“The projecting forward of Arthur C. Clarke was just such a marvel of imagination, but not just guessing. I mean, he predicted that communication satellites would rotate at the same rate that the earth rotates. They’re in orbit travelling, so they sort of remain stationary over the equator. Now, that was a brilliant observation,” he said.
“In a way, it prompted me to think about creating imaginary situations in the past, in the present, and off into the future, being as true to reality as possible.”
Clarke wrote an epilogue for the book Aldrin and his colleagues on Apollo 11 penned, which brought the author and the astronaut together for a significant social occasion.
Aldrin said: “Because of his contributions and my appreciation of those and having met him on several occasions, I just was compelled to arrange a cruise so that I would get to spend a day with Arthur Clarke in 2001.”
If there was any doubt that Kubrick’s classic is up there among the best adventure movies in space, then surely the vote of appreciation from Aldrin settles the debate. He’s the expert after all.
We’ve also got all of the information you need about the future of sci-fi, including the new Star Wars movies and the other new movies coming in 2024.