Happy New Year: Space Movies to Watch During the Holiday Season
Happy New Year! To celebrate the season, we’ve put together a curated list of movies and TV series about space exploration. We hope you’ll enjoy these recommendations during the holidays.
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As we approach the end of another orbital cycle, we at Space Ambition would like to send our warmest wishes to everyone who has been part of our shared mission in the aerospace world. We wish you a holiday season as spectacular as a supernova and a New Year filled with successful launches, bold investments, and pioneering ideas. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all who are making space dreams a reality!
Reflecting on the cosmic journey of 2024, we’re proud to share that Space Ambition has grown to over 35,000 subscribers in 173 countries—just 20 more to go to cover the entire planet. We are deeply grateful to all of you for being part of our incredible space community. In 2025, we will continue to bring you exciting projects and carefully curated insights that matter to you.
This marks our third holiday season together. We've previously shared how astronauts celebrate the holidays, and today we’re excited to dive into the world of Sci-Fi movies and TV series. We believe that great stories and spectacular visuals inspire people worldwide. In our previous article, we explored how science fiction has sparked real-world inventions and businesses. Today, we’re excited to provide you with a curated list of space-themed movies and TV series to inspire your new endeavors in 2025.
Space Movies You May Have Missed
We’re confident that many of our readers have already enjoyed top movies like Interstellar, First Man, The Martian. In this section, we want to highlight lesser-known space movies that our team loves. These hidden gems deserve more attention, and we hope you’ll discover something intriguing in the list below. If you’re looking for more popular space movies, you can explore curated lists like this one.
Movies About Extraterrestrial Life
Movies about extraterrestrial life have always captured our imagination. For example, we love District 9 because it portrays aliens not as invaders but as refugees. Arrival offers a thought-provoking story about an alien race that seeks to help humanity while anticipating collaboration in the future.
We hope that if extraterrestrial civilizations do exist, humanity will choose to collaborate and coexist with them, rather than resort to conflict, as is so often depicted in movies. Another favorite of ours is the classic Contact, which tells the story of Earth's representative communicating with extraterrestrial intelligent life. Check out below other movies we like.
We want to end this subsection with the quote from the movie K-PAX:
“The universe will expand, then it will collapse back on itself, and then it will expand again. It will repeat this process forever. When the universe expands again, everything will be as it is now. Whatever mistakes you make this time around, you will live through on your next pass. Every mistake you make you will live through again and again, forever. So my advice to you is to get it right this time around, because this time is all you have.”
While there’s no scientific evidence to support the idea in this quote, we appreciate the profound advice it offers. It’s easy to get caught up in the endless cycle of everyday routines that may feel insignificant. As the New Year approaches, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the past and set meaningful goals for the future.
We wish you a life filled with purpose, joy, and fulfillment. Make the most of the time you have and cherish every moment!
Space Exploration TV Series
At Space Ambition, we’ll admit that we don’t often watch TV series. However, we do have a deep appreciation for iconic franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Stargate. These classics have set the standard for space exploration storytelling.
If you’re looking for more Sci-Fi TV series, there are plenty of lists like this. Meanwhile, below, you’ll find a selection of shows that we’ve particularly enjoyed and highly recommend.
We also asked our friends and subscribers to share their favorite TV series. Although we haven’t watched all of them ourselves, they seem fascinating based on their ratings and descriptions.
We want to end this subsection with an inspiring quote from “For all mankind” (Season 2, Episode 4, “Pathfinder”). In this episode, Ellen Wilson asks Thomas Paine about why humanity is not yet on Mars. She assumes that Thomas never truly cared about space exploration and only saw it as a stepping stone for his career. However, she is taken aback when he shares his heartfelt and unexpected story, revealing his genuine passion for the cause.
“I caught the bug when I was aboard a submarine during the war. We’d surface at night to recharge our batteries. Yeah, out there alone in the Pacific, the sky was packed with stars. We learned the names of quite a few to navigate, but I wanted to know them all. After I got demobbed, I went out and bought my first telescope from the Sears catalog… I know everyone at JSC thinks that I’m just Reagan’s lackey. Just like they thought that I was Nixon’s lackey a decade ago. But I don’t mind it… We all play different roles with different people. I’m a different Thomas Paine with Raegan than I was with Nixon or Tip O’Neill or Margo Madison. And there’s yet another me with my wife when I go home at night. The trick is not to lose track of who you really are.”
This moment serves as a reminder that the pursuit of space exploration often comes from a deeply personal and meaningful place, inspiring us to dream beyond our limits.
At Space Ambition, we often meet generalist VCs, hedge fund managers, policymakers, and corporate C-levels who are secretly passionate for space. Some quietly channel their dreams by watching movies and reading books, while others boldly act, leveraging their skills, networks, and resources to make an impact. We are always thrilled to connect with such individuals—they are part of our tribe. We strongly encourage you to watch all five minutes of this dialogue, as we believe it will inspire you to pursue your dreams. We’ll do our best to support you with the resources you need. As always, if you have any questions or ideas, feel free to reach out to us at hello@spaceambition.org. Good luck with your endeavors!
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We've prepared our own set of AI movies
https://greatleveler.substack.com/p/must-watch-movies-featuring-artificial
Great list!
Personally, I love Mission to Mars, despite being one of de Palma's worst movies ever. But, hey! The OST by Ennio Morricone it's AMAZING!