Mixing film noir and science fiction isn't easy. The bleak style of the first isn't always translated into an interesting version of the latter. But in cinema, they have the potential to hold the perfect chemistry in order to form a backdrop capable of supporting compelling stories.

We took the time to put together a list of the best of that improbable yet functional mix. The future doesn't look bright in these cinematic universes, but there's something darker than that noir night, and that's the soul of characters, machines, or other entities that range from the menacing to the simply evil.

11 Soylent Green

Charlton Heston in Soylent Green 1973
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Soylent Green is one of the many great futuristic visions of a world dominated by corporate greed. One man's journey takes him to the raw version of the truth in a world where the police use football helmets and people eat... well, you'll find out. There's a surprisingly working class, mundane aspect to the film that makes it more dramatic than it would have been otherwise.

10 Ghost in the Shell

1995 Ghost in the Shell anime movie
Shochiku

The 1995 anime film is still as relevant as it was in the past. The beloved Ghost in the Shell is a neo-noir work of art about identity in the future where it's an interchangeable trait. In the film, an android agent is hunting a powerful hacker when she enters a downward spiral that won't easy to escape from.

Related: Greatest Classic Sci-Fi Movies Made Before Star Wars Changed Everything

9 Brazil

Brazil movie from Terry Gilliam
Universal Pictures

Terry Gilliam plays with fantasy in the sci-fi masterpiece Brazil, but only from a visual perspective. It's the only way dystopia works when Gilliam is trying to tell a complex story about love set in a future where governments dominate and control the population. Sometimes, sci-fi looks like a dream, but in Brazil, it's simply a claustrophobic nightmare.

8 Minority Report

Tom Cruise surrounded by precogs in their tanks in Minority Report
20th Century Fox

Spielberg's Minority Report is very underrated. The sci-fi action film takes a darker turn and makes its second act a swift exploration at film noir during its peak. It's without question, one of Spielberg's best performed films with Samantha Morton's Agatha completely stealing the movie with her incredible character.

7 The City of Lost Children

The city of lost children
Union Générale Cinématographique
Concorde-Castle

French visionary Jean-Pierre Jeunet's The City of Lost Children is a visual masterpiece that mixes fantasy with sci-fi in a bleak universe where a scientist is able to kidnap children to steal their dreams. He actually can't dream and this has made him age rapidly. Again, there are a lot of fantasy elements, but it's Jeunet's style that makes us feel part of a world where daylight is utopic.

6 Blade Runner 2049

Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049
Warner Bros. Pictures

Blade Runner 2049 still feels like a sequel, but it's an outstanding piece of work under its own terms and style. Denis Villeneuve really understood the value of a continuation that follows the same spirit of mystery brought upon a bleak, uncertain future. We can talk about sound design, but soundscape simply sounds better when referring to this great sci-f noir.

5 Upgrade

Upgrade - 2018
Madman Entertainment

Upgrade is a modern action thriller that's set in a futuristic world where enhancements aren't just theories anymore. This is sci-fi at its core, but the dramatic aspect of the story is bleak, almost pessimistic. Written and directed by genre auteur Leigh Whannell, this is a film that simply gets better every time you watch it again.

4 Strange Days

Michael Wincott in Strange Days
20th Century Fox

Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days is more of a cyberpunk thriller, but considering the subject, it points towards a sci-fi conclusion under the shadow of a noir story set in the near future. James Cameron helmed the script alongside Jay Cocks, and of course the film is more sci-fi than expected. It has gained a cult status over the years, which begs the question: When's a decent re-release coming?

Related: The 20 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, Ranked

3 Alphaville

The cast of Alphaville
Athos Films

In the great Jean-Luc Godard's film Alphaville, nothing feels familiar but at the same time, everything feels grounded. Made in 1965, the film tells the story of a detective who travels to a distant planet to complete a mission we won't reveal. It's sci-fi noir, but it's also a poignant film about finding love in the strangest, most improbable of places. One of the very first sci-fi noir films, Alphaville is a masterpiece.

2 Dark City

Richard O'Brien as Mr. hand in Dark City at the council of Strangers
New Line Cinema

Alex Proyas' Dark City is an excellent film. It's literally film noir mixed with a sci-fi element that makes no sense whatsoever until the ending arrives and your mouth drops. It's visually stunning and very well-acted. Sadly, it's also underseen. The plot is much too complex to try to describe in a few lines, so we'll just say something: Perhaps we're all in a simulation, but perhaps it's not virtual.

1 Blade Runner

A scene from Blade Runner
Warner Bros.

This is the big one. Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi epic Blade Runner is a genre masterpiece that remains mysterious to this day. Is he an android? Is he not? In this very important question lies the spirit of a film with a complex plot and rich visual style that, to this day, still feels mind-blowing. Rain had never been as crucial to a science fiction film.