5 Best Bruce Willis Sci-Fi Movies, Ranked

Bruce Willis announced his retirement from acting in 2022, due to health issues that included being diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder affecting a person's use and comprehension of language. He left a truly impressive acting résumé of no fewer than 145 projects between 1980 and 2023, while winning two Primetime Emmys and a host of other awards over his career.

The best Bruce Willis movies showcase his surprising versatility as an actor. Willis' signature style may be the perpetually exasperated "average Joe" hero of the "Die Hard" variety, but his unique combination of A-lister charm and everyman presence has translated to everything from effective, muted dramatic performances to larger-than-life action hero roles. 

Amidst the various genres he worked in, Willis also crafted a surprisingly strong legacy as a science fiction star. While Willis never worked exclusively within the genre, seeing his name attached to a sci-fi project is a pretty fair indication of a good movie — or, at the very least, a highly entertaining one. Let's take a look at five of the actor's finest sci-fi films, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Michael Bay's "Armageddon" is the 1990s Bruce Willis sci-fi movie that critics got wrong. While reviewers have graced the 1998 sci-fi adventure with a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 42%, the audiences have enjoyed it just fine, and its 73% Popcornmeter rating reflects its sheer entertainment value. Along with "The Rock," it's one of just two Bay movies that have been included in the Criterion Collection, so maybe viewers are really onto something here.

"Armageddon" is one of those films that are so ingrained in popular culture that even people who have never seen a frame of it are likely familiar with the premise: A gigantic asteroid is threatening to wipe out all life on Earth, and it's up to expert oil driller Harry Stamper (Willis) and his team of eccentric experts to fly into space and blow the thing apart. It's a seminal disaster movie that doesn't necessarily bother with too much realism, but more than makes up for it by taking its action and explosions extremely seriously.

Combine the thrills and spills of what might just be the most ambitious and outlandish Bay movie ever with the fact that the cast of "Armageddon" is one for the ages, and it's hard to see the movie as anything but the ultimate popcorn flick. However, we're going by critical approval here, so the film's ultimate destiny is to land at the fifth spot on the list.

The late 1990s were a good time for fans of Bruce Willis-led science fiction projects. Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" came out in 1997, and while both movies are gorgeous, massive adventures that revolve around saving Earth, the film couldn't be more different from "Armageddon."

Where the Michael Bay movie goes for macho action, "The Fifth Element" opts for outlandish Jean-Paul Gaultier outfits and a fantastical story that revolves around saving the planet from a great evil through the emergence of the Fifth Element – personified as a powerful but naive woman called Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). Willis plays Korben Dallas, a taxi driver who meets Leeloo when she quite literally falls into his vehicle.

Full of whimsy, fun, and unabashed scenery-chewing, "The Fifth Element" is another Willis movie that has resonated better with the fandom than it has with the critics. While the movie's Rotten Tomatoes score is a respectable 71%, its Popcornmeter audience score is a far more impressive 87%. Together with stunning visuals and amazing performances by the likes of Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker, this fan adoration has propelled "The Fifth Element" into deserved cult classic status.

Easily the most surprising title on this list is "Corrective Measures," Sean Patrick O'Reilly's Tubi Original sci-fi prison drama. The 2022 film is one of no fewer than 11 Bruce Willis projects that came out that year, which means that it's easily lost in the mix of the actor's late-game run before his retirement.

"Corrective Measures" is set in a supervillain prison where Overseer Warden Devlin (Michael Rooker) watches over the inmates. His counterpart from the prisoners' side is Julius "The Lobe" Loeb (Willis), a super-smart telekinetic who isn't content with sitting pretty while Devlin makes moves and lusts after his supposed hidden riches. When dangerous vigilante Payback (Dan Payne) and young empath Diego Diaz (Brennan Meja) enter the fray, tensions soon reach a boiling point.

The movie's approval story is very different from "The Fifth Element" and "Armageddon," both of which are well-liked by fans and less so by critics. "Corrective Measures" has a Popcornmeter rating of just 25%, but its Rotten Tomatoes rating of 80% means that the critics who have seen it somehow liked it enough to make it the third most esteemed sci-fi movie in Willis' résumé.

Terry Gilliam's 1995 dystopian thriller "12 Monkeys" was the first in Bruce Willis' string of interesting 1990s sci-fi movies. Based on its 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating, it's also easily his best genre project of the decade.

"12 Monkeys" stars Willis as prisoner James Cole, who has to travel back in time to find out precisely how a deadly disease that wreaks havoc in his own timeline got its start in the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, Cole has to endure a stint in a psychiatric hospital and the horrors of World War I before landing in his originally intended 1996 destination. During his misadventures, he gains an unlikely ally in Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), becomes acquainted with asylum patient and potential virus-releasing villain Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt, who landed an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role), and encounters a fellow time traveler (Jon Seda). 

Gilliam's twisty movie is designed to put its hero through an intensely bleak and difficult time. Pitt's mannerisms and wildness might steal scenes, but Willis is the perfect choice to play the cynical and concerned Cole. In particular, the nuanced way he portrays the character's increasing understanding that he may not have what it takes to fulfill his mission marks this as one of his finer performances. 

Speaking of twisty sci-fi gems with a time travel theme, Rian Johnson's 2012 film "Looper" is without equal in Bruce Willis' science fiction CV. Loopers are assassins in the year 2044 who kill and dispose of the bodies of people who are sent back in time from 2074. If the Loopers themselves live that long, the crime syndicate behind the operation sends their old selves back to be killed by their younger versions. If the young Loopers fail to do the deed, a dangerous group of hitmen is sent after them.

When it's time for the Looper called Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to finish off his older self, things go roughly as well as you can expect considering that Old Joe is played by Willis. As it turns out, Old Joe is on a mission to prevent the rise of a truly dangerous, telekinetic crime boss called the Rainmaker — and it soon turns out that this requires killing someone who younger Joe has chosen to protect. 

It's all pretty complex, yes. But everyone involved does an amazing job in their roles, and Johnson's script and direction deliver a story that makes perfect sense no matter how strange things get. Willis and Gordon-Levitt play off each other in an uncanny way that makes you truly believe they're the same guy at different ages, and capable support from the likes of Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels only adds to the experience. "Looper" has an impressive 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it remains Bruce Willis' finest sci-fi movie.