From the classic low-budget, space exploration Flash Gordon tales of the Saturday matinee serials to the slick, CGI-realized world of "The Matrix", science fiction films have long been pushing the boundaries of the visually and dramatically fantastic. Take a classic cop chase, and set it on Mars. Think of a haunted house story, then add the Nostromo. Take the boy-meets-girl classic, then make them mutants.Turn the known world on its head, play with the laws of physics, and all the while hold your audience spellbound. With insight from critics, film historians, academics, and experts in the field, "101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die" offers a breadth of knowledge, insight, and passion to a century of close encounters, black holes, time-travel, dodgy outfits, distant planets, impossible quests, nuclear war, futuristic technology, inexplicable forces, spaceships, extraordinary monsters, subterranean societies, and fluorescent drinks - get a dog and don't list your name in the phone book.