Invention begins with imagination. The tools needed are possibility and impossibility. Science fiction is the toolbox of invention building worlds that are being seen for the first time. Exploring places that do not exist yet keeps the mind open to what could be. Taking our thoughts to new heights and making fantasies into realities is why the genre is akin to magic. Science fiction is endless, but some movies like to differ, tease, or even promise more to come. To make good on that promise, sequels from these sci-fi classics would be a welcome surprise.

10 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

e.t.-the-extra-terrestrial-1982-1 (1)
Universal Pictures

Everyone remembers being a kid. Everyone remembers being told to tell the truth. It's heartbreaking when you're a kid telling the truth, but no one believes you. Elliot Taylor had it the hardest and easiest after befriending E.T. Saying goodbye to the only friend you know, and a childhood friend to boot, is never easy. There was a reunion between the old space pals for the 2019 holiday season, but fans don't want a commercial that makes bank off their nostalgia. E.T. needs to phone home more often, the Taylor residence, that is. Have the alien botanist deal with climate change for a sequel. That'll keep his glowing fingertip busy.

Related: E.T. Star Says There Will Probably Never Be a Sequel

9 Five (1951)

Five (1951) (1)
Columbia Pictures

What do you get when you cross a pregnant woman with a neo-Nazi, a black man, and a bank clerk? A nuclear holocaust, of course! Five Americans, one woman and four men, survive the aftermath of an atomic bombing. They must work together to continue the search for more survivors. Emotions and self-interest arise, jeopardizing the group. The cities are filled with radiation, keeping the group in a stranglehold as well. What is left of humanity is found at the end of able hands cultivating soil. Unless Wall-E makes a return to Earth, an Adam and Eve situation is their next best option in this dour conclusion.

8 Forbidden Planet (1956)

Forbidden Planet
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Commander John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and company embark on a space rescue mission to find the lost explorers of an expedition. They find the remaining survivors of the group on the deserted planet, Altair IV. Unbeknownst to him, the scientist Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) has kept the demise of the members of his expedition a secret, telling the white lie that a "planetary force" killed them. In reality, the psychological ego of Morbius materialized into an invisible Id monster that vanquished the group along with the planet's advanced alien population of Krell.

Poetic justice and irony kill the ego and planet, as Adams leaves with the scientist's daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis) and their mechanical assistant, Robby the Robot (Frankie Darro and Marvin Miller) to return to Earth. Adams mentioned that a million years from now, humans will be like the Krell. It's a cautionary tale, but a sequel could throw that caution to the wind or the ego and superego.

7 Idiocracy (2006)

idiocracy luke wilson
20th Century Fox

In the year 2505, the human race has been reduced to sloven, inept idiots laying waste to society through anti-intellectualism, laziness, indifference, and self-interest. Technology is used to satiate every vice and desire instead of global advancement. U.S. army librarian Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) and prostitute Rita (Maya Wilson) are chosen for a suspended animation experiment. The project is neglected and Bauers discovers he has woken up 500 years into the future. He learns that society's least intelligent have reproduced far more than the most intelligent, leading to the dumb disarray and declension.

Since time travel was never invented or completely forgotten, two of the world's only average humans have to make the most of this future and change it for the better. Rita's pimp, however, finds his way to the future in search of Rita. Pimps gotta have their money, which is dumb enough to work for a sequel. The plot could revolve around making everyone too smart for their own good.

6 Logan's Run (1976)

Logan's Run (1976)
United Artists

In the year 2274, populations are controlled and resources are maintained via the systematic killing of people who reach the age of 30. Logan 5 (Michael York) is a Sandman, tasked with killing Runners, those who try to escape their death sentence. When he discovers Sanctuary, a secret place where Runners are free to live the rest of their lives, Logan too, faces his own mortality and decides to become a Runner. In the end, the technological city they were governed by cannot hide the truth and folds under to reveal that everyone can live longer. A sequel could play into immortality or run in the direction of Benjamin Button territory.

5 Metropolis (1927)

Metropolis (1927)
Parufamet

A techno-dictatorship runs the mechanized industrial city of Metropolis. Underground workers feed the powerful above. Machinists suffer a freak accident and injury on the job. The master ignores their wellbeing in favor of getting the machines back in working order. His son rebels by helping the working class. Plans to sow distrust and dissent among the workers are done with a robot copycat that bears the likeness of their community leader. An uprising and identity crisis ensues, resulting in the end of classism. A sequel should spin classism on its head, praising the poor as being spiritually wealthy and punishing those who are materially wealthy.

4 Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)

The 1957 science fiction-horror film Plan 9 from Outer Space
Valiant Pictures

Aliens invade Earth in an attempt to contact and warn the globe's leaders from destroying the universe. When this fails, they initiate Plan 9: resurrecting the dead to control all mankind. A close encounter with a pilot sees the aliens flying away in a great ball of fire. Plan 10 is the obvious choice for a sequel. The aliens have a fascination with numbers and there is power in numbers. A return with more otherworldly powers and alien encounters will make it the second worst film ever.

3 Soylent Green (1973)

Charlton Heston in Soylent Green 1973
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Ecological dystopian futures don't get much worse than Soylent Green. The world has suffered cataclysmic climate change, overpopulation, and food shortages in the year 2022. People are reduced to eating processed Soylent wafers, the Green product being the healthier choice. NYPD detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) uncovers evidence for what Soylent Green is made of: the human remains of assisted suicide patients. As he survives assassination attempts, Thorn desperately tries to spread the truth. Whether anyone listened to his declaration is enough fuel for a sequel. Maybe there will be an Upton Sinclair who reveals more rats in the kitchen.

2 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Gort The Day the Earth Stood Still
20th Century Fox

Aliens come to warn Earth with a warning and an ultimatum. To join them and cease self-destruction from atomic power and war, or be destroyed by their intergalactic, robotic police force, Gort. The aliens and Gort depart, which can only mean two things. Either Earth has made a choice and awaits their fate, or the aliens are giving humans sweet time to answer. One thing's for sure, this sequel is going to need two endings.

Related: Could a They Live Sequel Actually Work?

1 They Live (1988)

They Live presents a world controlled by subliminal messages like Buy, Reproduce, and Obey
Universal Pictures

The truth is out there and closer than you think. They Live is one big metaphor for critical thinking in a passive, submissive world. Things that comfort us, control us, manipulate us into being willingly ignorant followers rather than discerning individuals. As the movie predicts, "They Live, We Sleep." When the veil is lifted and the aliens are exposed, the only sensible thing to do is retribution and reformation. A sequel could explore the break-down of a society; a fight to return to that illusion of comfort (since it was the only thing they knew) or a need to build a utopia, removing all harmful and harmless escapism.