This Collider listicle rounds up six of the best "soft" science fiction films released since 2010, a subgenre that prioritises human and emotional consequences over technical explanation. Rather than dwelling on how the speculative technology works, these films use devices such as cloning, androids and alien contact to explore themes of identity, grief, family and what it means to be treated as a person, making the case that restraint in exposition allows for greater emotional and thematic depth.

The list opens with "Never Let Me Go" (2010), Mark Romanek's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley as three friends raised for a predetermined medical purpose. It continues with Kogonada's "After Yang" (2021), starring Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith as parents mourning the malfunction of their household android, and "Her" (2013), Spike Jonze's story starring Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely man who falls for an AI operating system. The full text of the remaining three entries was not available.