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10. Memento (2000) Christopher Nolan’s feature-length directorial debut was actually withFollowingin 1998, but for many, his first “real” feature film was the mind-bending amnesia filmMementoin 2000. This breakthrough movie was based on a short story by his own brother, Jonathan Nolan, and together they crafted one of the most intelligent revenge movies ever made. InMemento, Leonard Shelby (played by Guy Pearce) is a man on a quest. His mission is to find the man who killed his wife, but he suffers from anterograde amnesia (short-term memory loss and an inability to form new memories) so he frequently forgets who and where he is....

10. The Duellists (1977) Ridley Scott’s directorial debutThe Duellistsis the tale of the lifelong duel between the kind-hearted Lieutenant Armand d’Hubert (played by Keith Carradine) and the disgruntled Gabriel Feraud (played by Harvey Keitel). Their rivalry begins as a petty disagreement in Strasbourg, but continues across different battles in war-torn 1800s France. The film is based on a Joseph Conrad short story, which was deemed a cautionary tale of Napoleon Bonaparte’s ideals....

10.Once Upon a Time in Mexico(2003) Once Upon a Time in Mexicois the final part of Rodriguez’sMexicotrilogy, concluding the journey of El Mariachi (played by Antonio Banderas). After his wife Carolina (played by Salma Hayek) and their daughter are killed, CIA agent Sheldon Sands (played by Johnny Depp) pulls him back into action to help him stop a corrupt general. All of the ingredients and flair of the Mariachi movies are still here, though not as fresh the third time around....

10. The Polar Express (2004) During the 2000s, Robert Zemeckis experimented with motion capture technology through his ImageMovers label—with mixed results. While the animation was able to create impossible-to-film sequences, the characters landed in the “uncanny valley” where they were both too realistic and yet not realistic enough, making them feel creepy. But out of his motion capture projects,The Polar Expressis easily his most impressive and most successful. This Christmas story is about a boy who stumbled on a train that takes kids to the North Pole to witness Santa Claus' delivery launch....

10. Extinction (2018) Directed by Ben Young and written by Spenser Cohen and Brad Kane,Extinctionis surprisingly compelling for a Netflix movie about robots—even with all the negative reviews it got from critics. Michael Peña stars as an engineer named Peter who incessantly has vivid nightmares of his friends, family, and everyone he knows all suffering violent deaths at the hands of a faceless, alien horde. We won’t spoil the film as to how robots are involved in the picture, but suffice it to say that there are some big twists....