Eminent world scientists have voted Ridley Scott's Blade Runner the best science fiction film to date. The 1982 movie, in which retired cop Harrison Ford hunts four renegade human replicants, came top in a poll of 60 scientists by the Guardian newspaper.
The film was loosely based on the Philip K Dick short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and is set in a dystopian futuristic vision of Los Angeles.
Stephen Minger, from King's College, London, said: "Blade Runner is the best movie ever made.
"It was so far ahead of its time and the whole premise of the story - what is it to be human and who are we, where we come from? It's the age-old questions."
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey came second, with Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back taking third place.
SCIENTISTS' TOP 10 SCI-FI FILMS
1. Blade Runner (1982)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
3. Star Wars (1977)/Empire Strikes Back (1980)
4. Alien (1979)
5. Solaris (1972)
6. Terminator (1984)/T2: Judgement Day (1991)
7. Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
8. War of the Worlds (1953)
9. The Matrix (1999)
10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Favourite authors
The scientists were also asked by the Guardian to vote for their favourite authors.
Isaac Asimov headed the list for his novel I, Robot - which has just been made into a film starring Will Smith - and the Foundation Trilogy.
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham was also a favourite, as was Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud.
Other writers in the top 10 included Arthur C Clarke, Ursula le Guin, Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert and Stanislaw Lem.
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