5 Best Matt Damon Sci-Fi Movies, Ranked

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Matt Damon is known for working across a number of genres and cinematic styles. The star has portrayed characters ranging from the amnesiac assassin of the Jason Bourne series to the troubled but talented titular blue-collar janitor of "Good Will Hunting" to even legendary Greek king Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey." And that's not even counting the copious Matt Damon cameos, which guarantee that there's no telling where the actor might pop up next.  

It makes for a storied filmography, but one particular style of movie has kept cropping up in Damon's résumé at semi-steady intervals throughout his career: science fiction. Damon has indulged in sci-fi projects of varying quality, but has generally avoided goofy little B-movies and gravitated toward the epic, weightier side of the genre equation. Today, we put Damon's science fiction back catalog in order by ranking his five finest genre movies, based on their Rotten Tomatoes scores.

"Titan A.E." is an anomaly in Matt Damon's sci-fi CV because it's an animated film. Simultaneously one of the biggest animated box office bombs of all time and an underrated alien movie that you need to watch, legendary animator Don Bluth's work combines classic animation with CGI for a slick, high-octane effect. 

Damon voices protagonist Cale Tucker, whose father Sam (Ron Perlman) has created a massive planet-shaped starship called Titan. Earth has been destroyed by energy aliens known as the Drej, so finding Titan and deploying it is instrumental to saving all of humanity — and Cale is the only person who can accomplish this task. With a typically eccentric team of colorful characters, Cale embarks on his mission, while being pursued by the enemy. The end result is an entertaining adventure that, unfortunately, bombed so historically that it bankrupted Fox Animation. 

"Titan A.E." is a gorgeous movie with surprisingly mature themes. It might not win too many prizes for originality when it comes to its story, but the film makes up for this with its sheer visual spectacle. Don't let its 51% Rotten Tomatoes rating deter you if you're a fan of Damon or great animation.

As this list makes clear, Matt Damon seems to have a fondness for playing science fiction characters who either live in dystopian conditions or are otherwise in great peril. Both stipulations come into fruition with Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium," which stands at 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. The year is 2154, and our planet is in great trouble thanks to rampant overpopulation and pollution. The entire Earth is effectively a slum, and the only true place of luxury and solace is a massive space station that gives the movie its name.

Damon plays Max Da Costa, a man with a criminal history who dreams of one day reaching Elysium himself. Unfortunately, a lethal dose of radiation poisoning puts a ticking clock on Max's dream. Soon, he's on a desperate mission that involves hacker Spider's (Wagner Moura) operations against Elysium, political machinations by the corrupt Defense Secretary Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster), a physical threat from the ruthless gun-for-hire known as Kruger (Sharlto Copley), and — last but not least — a nasty but handy exo-armor grafted directly onto his body. 

That's a lot of plot, and admittedly, some of it gets a little messy. However, "Elysium" is great entertainment for fans of inventive, unique visuals and ambitious storytelling. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but there are grim and gritty elements here that can't be found in every sci-fi project, and Damon's performance as the harrowed Max is reliably great.

George Nolfi's 2011 sci-fi thriller "The Adjustment Bureau" has a generous helping of romance and mystery, and its science fiction elements run behind the scenes instead of front and center. Matt Damon stars as David Norris, a rising politician who has a chance encounter with a chaotic but charming ballet dancer called Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).

Inspired by her, Norris' political star starts burning brighter, but strange men from the titular Adjustment Bureau prevent him from pursuing Elise further. David finds out that the Bureau exists to make sure that everything goes according to a vast plan. But who is the mysterious Chairman behind it all, and what does this mean for an individual? And why does David keep bumping into Elise if they're not meant to interact?

More than anything else, "The Adjustment Bureau" is an examination of free will and a love story that seems intent on taking place against all odds. This makes it a surprisingly heartwarming movie, and its 71% Tomatometer score shows that it's quite a good one, as well.

As "The Odyssey" has shown, Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon are a fantastic team. But before that, the two took a pretty large-scale practice lap in 2014, when Damon played Dr. Mann in Nolan's complex hard sci-fi movie "Interstellar."

Presented as an unseen figure and a legendary human being for much the movie, Mann left Earth to search for planets that can support life before the film's main plot kicks off, and seems to remain humanity's best hope. When Matthew McConaughey's Cooper and his team eventually reach Mann's supposedly habitable planet, it soon becomes evident that he's anything but a hero. During his years of isolation, Mann has turned into a coward who lied about the planet because he was desperate to be rescued. He soon turns hostile against the team, serving as the film's primary human antagonist.

Damon's "Interstellar" casting was kept secret for a reason: An occasional "The Talented Mr. Ripley" aside, the traditionally sympathetic actor isn't exactly known for playing desperate manipulators, and is far more associated with the "good guy" archetype. Casting Damon as Mann was a masterstroke by Nolan, giving Damon a chance to display a whole new side of himself with the relatively small but highly important role. 

With a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "Interstellar" is far from Nolan's highest-rated work. However, it's easily one of the director's most challenging films, and Damon's role in the movie only adds to its stakes and complexity.

"The Martian" is not a one-man show, but when it comes to the Matt Damon sections, it might as well be. The Ridley Scott film stands at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, and pretty much every minute of it is thrilling. 

In "The Martian," Damon plays Mark Watney, a botanist and engineer who's left behind when his research team has to evacuate Mars due to adverse weather conditions that put everyone's life in jeopardy. Convinced that Watney is dead, the rest of the team heads back to Earth — only to learn on the way that Watney has not only survived, but might actually manage to stay alive long enough for them to go back and get him. Cue one of the grandest, riskiest rescue operations in human history. 

Based on Andy Weir's book of the same name, "The Martian" is a magnificent survival story where a Robinson Crusoe-like castaway manages to survive in a landscape that is famously not survivable by human beings. Watney's struggles and the challenges his team and NASA face during their rescue mission make for great entertainment, and Damon is the perfect man to play Watney. The actor might make a better science fiction movie than "The Martian" one day, but it's highly unlikely that the world will ever see him in a genre role that suits him better than this particular tenacious survivor.