9 Weirdest Sci-Fi Flicks from the 90s That Will Warp Your Reality

The 1990s was a great time for sci-fi movies, but for every great and popular flick, there were a few underrated ones. The ones that may have had intriguing ideas, a talented director, but were left without a budget, or were simply released at the wrong time.

Here are nine movies, including sci-fi classics and hidden gems, that are sure to leave you thinking.

1. The Thirteenth Floor, 1999

The Thirteenth Floor is one of the unsung masterpieces that had bad luck with its release date — around the same time as The Matrix. The plot is a complex multi-level detective story about a simulation in cyberspace.

The creator of the perfect VR system, Hannon Fuller, is murdered in his own office. All evidence points to his co-worker Douglas Hall. To find the killer and clear his reputation, Hall dives into virtual reality — a simulated Los Angeles of 1937, whose inhabitants are unaware of the artificiality of their origins.

2. Dark City, 1998

Alex Proyas' sci-fi noir is often included in lists of the most underrated films of the 90s. It's a dark thriller about a man who discovers he lives in a world where architecture is rebuilt every day and people are implanted with new memories at midnight.

At the time of its release, critics considered Dark City to be too chaotic and similar to B-grade science fiction, and only the famous Roger Ebert defended the film, comparing it to the works of Fritz Lang. However, despite the box office failure, the film's history is rather positive: in the future, some of the film's main topics will migrate to the much more popular The Matrix. Moreover, the Wachowskis even used the sets left over from Dark City.

3. Powder, 1995

Powder is the strange nickname the students give their new classmate Jeremy. His peers are frightened by his unusual appearance, his deathly pale skin, and his incinerating gaze that penetrates to the very heart of his interlocutor.

But they soon realize that Powder has supernatural powers, and behind the white coldness of his face, a flame of incredible energy rages. So what is he — a mistake of nature or a new stage of human evolution?

4. Contact, 1997

Contact is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by astrophysicist Carl Sagan, one of the creators of the SETI project, dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. While working in one of the SETI laboratories, Ellie Arroway receives a signal of clearly artificial origin, coming from the star Vega.

After deciphering it, specialists understand that the received message is an instruction to assemble a certain device that can only fit one person. And Ellie becomes that person.

Not without speculation for the sake of the suspenseful narrative, Contact very accurately depicts the work of searching for extraterrestrial life and translating an extraterrestrial language.

5. Cube, 1997

A meeting of strangers in a cubicle — this is the premise to one of the most inventive sci-fi horror films. The main characters move from room to room through hatches, encountering deadly traps along the way. Only later do they realize that they are in a futuristic space in which the cubic rooms have their own special order of movement.

A timeless, existential dimension is the most important detail of Cube, which transforms from an entertaining movie into a mathematical puzzle.

6. Gattaca, 1997

Vincent Freeman wants to reach for the stars, but in the dystopian world of Gattaca, only "valid" candidates can become astronauts. "Valid" refers to genetically perfect people born in a lab. Those who were unlucky in genome editing are considered second-class citizens: the path to prestigious work and social respect is closed to them.

Vincent buys the biomaterial of the "valid" Jerome Morrow and manages to get into the pilot training program of the aerospace corporation "Gattaca." But an unexpected incident in the lab and the ensuing investigation threaten to destroy Freeman's hope for a bright future.

7. eXistenZ, 1999

During the presentation of the new game system "eXistenZ," the inventor Allegra Geller is attacked. Ted Pikul, an ordinary marketing intern, becomes her protector. To understand who is behind the attack, the two enter a new hyperreal game.

Bioports in the human body and organic joysticks with umbilical cords — the dark aesthetics of eXistenZ are etched in the memory and never leave it. A movie like this could only come at the end of an era, as the world enters a new millennium and the line between the real and the virtual is erased.

8. Total Recall, 1990

Total Recall is a very daring movie for its time: rarely before had anyone dared to confuse the viewer in blockbusters, to make them doubt the reality of what is happening.

The life of Doug Quaid is boring. Therefore, in order to have at least some entertainment, he decides to use the services of a certain company that, for a fee, sends impulses to his brain, creating a complete illusion that he is a different person, living a different, interesting life.

After the session, Doug is completely unable to understand who he really is — an ordinary worker or a special forces soldier who possesses all kinds of weapons and martial arts. People are afraid of him, they want to kill him, and even his wife wants to get rid of Doug. Now, in order to survive, he has to remember everything.

9. Mindwarp, 1991

After a global nuclear catastrophe, the partially destroyed and largely uninhabitable world decided to enter virtual reality. People connected to devices all over the world went into their own fantasies. Only a girl named Judy decides that she has had enough, she tries to disconnect her own mother from virtual reality, but kills her in the process.

The crime does not go unpunished, Judy is forced to leave the safe area and is almost eaten by cannibals. She is saved by a wandering marauder and hermit named Stover, probably the only normal person on the planet.