I’ll admit it: I am a sucker for a good tech movie. There is something incredibly satisfying about watching Hollywood try to interpret lines of code, server rooms, and the chaotic minds of founders. Sometimes they get it hilariously wrong (we’ve all seen those scenes where “hacking” looks like playing a video game at 10x speed), but when they get it right, it defines a generation.
I was scrolling through Rotten Tomatoes this weekend, looking for some inspiration, and I decided to dig into their highest-rated technology films of all time. I didn’t want to just give you a dry list of numbers, though. I wanted to revisit these classics through the lens of where we are today—in 2026, where things like AI girlfriends and rogue algorithms aren’t just sci-fi plots anymore; they are my Tuesday afternoon news feed.
Here are the absolute best tech movies according to the critics, along with my own take on why they actually matter.
1. BlackBerry (2023)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97% Genre: Biography / Comedy-Drama
I have to start with this one because, honestly, it might be my favorite on the list. If you haven’t seen BlackBerry yet, drop everything and watch it.
It sits at a massive 97%, and it deserves every point. This isn’t just a boring corporate biography; it is a chaotic, high-energy tragedy about the rise and fall of the device that started the smartphone revolution.
My Take: What I loved most was the performance by Glenn Howerton (playing Jim Balsillie). He brings this aggressive, shark-like energy that perfectly contrasts with the nerdy, engineering purity of the founders. It’s a brutal reminder of how quickly tech moves. One day you own 45% of the market; the next day, Steve Jobs walks onto a stage with an iPhone, and you are obsolete. It’s a history lesson that feels like a thriller.
2. The Social Network (2010)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96% Genre: Biography / Drama
“You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” That tagline is legendary.
Directed by the meticulous David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, this film turned the creation of Facebook into a modern Shakespearean drama. It won 3 Oscars, and frankly, it should have won Best Picture. It captures the exact moment the internet shifted from “nerd territory” to “social currency.”
Why it hits different now: Watching this back then, we thought it was about a website. Watching it now, it feels like the origin story of our current digital addiction. Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Zuckerberg is cold, fast, and brilliant. The pacing of the dialogue makes coding look like an action sport.
3. Her (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95% Genre: Sci-Fi / Romance
If there is one movie that predicted 2026 better than any other, it is Her.
The story follows a lonely writer who falls in love with an operating system named Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). When this came out in 2013, it seemed quirky. Today? I see people talking to their AI agents with more affection than they show their neighbors.
Why you need to watch it: This isn’t a “Terminator” style AI movie where robots shoot lasers. It’s a quiet, heartbreaking look at how technology fills the emotional voids in our lives. It asks the uncomfortable question: If an AI can make you feel understood, does it matter if it’s not real? With the emotional regulation laws being discussed in China right now, this movie is terrifyingly relevant.
4. WarGames (1983)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93% Genre: Thriller / Sci-Fi
Let’s throw it back to the classics. Before we had the cloud or cybersecurity degrees, we had WarGames.
A young hacker inadvertently accesses a US military supercomputer programmed to predict nuclear war outcomes and nearly starts World War III thinking he is playing a game.
My Take: Sure, the tech looks ancient (giant floppy disks and dial-up modems), but the concept is timeless. It was the first mainstream movie to really introduce the concept of “hacking” to the general public. Plus, the AI’s final realization—“The only winning move is not to play”—is still one of the best lines in cinema history.
5. Ex Machina (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% Genre: Sci-Fi / Psychological Thriller
If Her is the romantic dream of AI, Ex Machina is the claustrophobic nightmare.
Written and directed by Alex Garland, it tells the story of a programmer invited by a reclusive CEO to administer the Turing Test to a humanoid robot named Ava.
Why I love it: It’s a “bottle movie”—mostly taking place in one house—which makes the tension unbearable. It perfectly captures the arrogance of tech billionaires who think they can play God. Oscar Isaac’s character feels like a dark amalgamation of every Silicon Valley CEO we read about in the news. The ending? I won’t spoil it, but it will leave you staring at your laptop with suspicion for a solid hour.
6. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Is it a “tech movie” or is it the greatest action movie ever made? I say both.
While the first movie was a horror film, T2 flipped the script. The machine (Arnold Schwarzenegger) becomes the protector. The T-1000 (liquid metal) effects were so far ahead of their time that they honestly still look better than some CGI I see in movies today.
The Tech Angle: At its core, this is a story about Skynet—a neural network that gains self-awareness. It’s the ultimate cautionary tale about giving AI control over military infrastructure. Every time I read about autonomous drones, I hear the T2 theme song in my head.
7. Blade Runner (1982)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89% Genre: Sci-Fi / Cyberpunk
This is the grandfather of the cyberpunk aesthetic. Ridley Scott adapted Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into a visual masterpiece.
Harrison Ford plays a “Blade Runner” hunting down synthetic humans (replicants) in a rainy, neon-soaked dystopian Los Angeles.
My Take: The score by Vangelis. The neon signs. The rain. The atmosphere is unmatched. But deeper than that, it deals with the ethics of creating life. As we get closer to realistic humanoid robots, the question Blade Runner asks—”More human than human”—becomes our reality.
8. Minority Report (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89% Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise gave us a vision of 2054, but they accidentally predicted the UI of the 2010s and 20s.
The story revolves around “Pre-Crime,” a police unit that arrests people before they commit the crime. But for tech geeks, the real star was the interface.
Why it matters: The gesture-based computing Tom Cruise uses to manipulate data on a giant screen literally inspired real-world technology (including the early days of touch screens and spatial computing like the Vision Pro). It’s a perfect example of how movies can influence engineering.
9. Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89% Genre: Biography / Drama
This is a TV movie, but don’t let that fool you. For a long time, this was the definitive movie about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
It covers the early rivalry between Apple and Microsoft. It shows Jobs as the visionary artist and Gates as the ruthless businessman.
My Take: It’s raw and unpolished, which makes it feel authentic. Noah Wyle was so good as Steve Jobs that Jobs himself actually invited him to open a Macworld keynote in character. If you want to understand the foundations of the computers we use today, this is mandatory viewing.
Conclusion
Looking at this list, I realized something: The best tech movies aren’t really about the machines. They are about us. They are about our ego, our loneliness, our curiosity, and our fear of becoming obsolete.
Whether it’s the corporate warfare of BlackBerry or the philosophical questions of Ex Machina, these films hold up a mirror to the digital world we are building.
I’d love to hear from you: Did Rotten Tomatoes miss anything? Personally, I feel like The Matrix deserves a spot here, even if it is more action-heavy. Which tech movie had the biggest impact on you?
Tell me in the comments!
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