#12 Awesome Sci-Fi Movies That Never Got Sequels

Although many recent sci-fi films utilize nostalgia for the films of the ’80s, “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” digs much further back into science fiction history. The dieselpunk action spectacle homages pre-World War II pulp, space adventure, and monster stories from ’30s, including nods to various films, cartoons, serials, radio dramas, and Golden Age comic books.

In 1939, during the early Nazi campaigns in Europe, the flying ace Joseph Sullivan (Jude Law) commands a private squad of dogfighters and combats villains both human and technological as his alter ego, Sky Captain. Through a message from his former flame Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), a reporter for the New York Chronicle, Sky Captain learns of a plot to create a technological weapon, forcing the pair of disgruntled lovers to reunite in a quest to save the world from a fascist monstrosity.

“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” was a box office disappointment, earning only $58 million off of a budget of $70 million, but it was also one of the first movies shot entirely in front of a green screen. In the years since, Hollywood has become much better at making movies that way, and the rising cult appreciation for “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” suggests that a potential audience has only grown since its initial release.