Think it doesn’t get any cooler than your own G-550? That may be true in the real world, but there are a few inter-stellar, albeit fictional, vehicles we might take instead. We’ve scoured our favorite sci-fi flicks for the top twenty coolest vehicles of all time.
#20 Minority Report: Lexus-MagLev Car
In the future cities depicted in Minority Report, cars drive themselves on networks of platforms designed for magnetic levitation. Tom Cruise’s Mag-Lev car was actually designed by Lexus especially for the film. A nifty bit of product placement, but also one sweet ride.

#19 The Matrix: The Nebuchednezzar
Life aboard the Nebuchednezzar is no picnic. You spend most of your time roving the sewers of Earth’s bombed out mega cities avoiding jelly fish-looking mechanical sentinels and eating a thin gruel. The ballistic gun turrets are pretty wicked though.

#18 Stargate: Stargate
While not technically a vehicle, in the sense that it doesn’t move, the unearthed Egyptian artifact that is the Stargate is a mode of conveyance of a sort. It’s an inter-dimensional portal for crying out loud. Cut me some slack, please.

#17 Tron: Light Cycle
Far and away the coolest and most deliciously retro-future kitsch way to traverse a microcircuit, the Tron Light Cycle is a great mode of conveyance, practical if you only travel in straight lines and at right angles.

#16 Firefly/Serenity: Serenity
She’s basically a less cool, highly derivative Millenium Falcon. That it made the list is testimony to what a fantastic series Firefly is, as well as the amazing coolness of the Millenium Falcon, which can shed its coolness even on its imitators.

#15 KITT
The artificial intelligence at the heart of this modified 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am is only one of the tools the Hoff at his disposal. Rocket boosters, parachute, laser cutter, flame thrower, traction spikes, and a carphone: all standard. We know it doesn’t fly, but any vehicle that Hasselhoff drives earns serious cool points.

#14 Cowboy Bebop
Spike Siegel’s converted asteroid racer Swordfish II is armed with four machine guns, multiple missile launchers, and a plasma cannon. It’s the design of this anime gem, though, which evokes the simplicity and romance of World War I bi-planes as well as the jarring angles of Shinjuku which makes this ship such a beauty.

#13 X-men: Black Bird
Sure it may look a lot like a run of the mill SR-71 (still the fastest plane ever made) but Professor Xavier pimped his mutant team’s ride with offesive weaponry, a cloaking device, and the ability to hover.

#12 Flight of the Navigator: Chrome thing from Flight of the Navigator
The Chromed-out alien space craft that young David pilots in Flight of the Navigator gets major points for its awe inspiring maneuverability along with its abilities to transform its shape and render itself. On the other hand a few points have to be taken away for the annoying telescopic metallic eye alien intelligence on board which used to give us nightmares when we were a kid.

#11 Battle Star Galactica: Battle Star Galactica
Battle Star Galactica is not meant for pleasure cruises. You can forget about a space café with huge windows that look out to the stars— pretty much everything is gray, solid, and functional. We’d take her in any fight though. This is a purpose built war ship we’re talking about here, with an arsenal that comes stocked not with wimpy phaser beams but kinetic energy weapons and honest to goodness blow up your whole city nuclear weapons.

#10 Spaceballs: Spaceball One/Mega Maid
Forget about the fact that it contains a shopping mall, a zoo, and a three ring circus. It’s the ship’s secret ability to transform into the Mega Maid, an enormous domestic servant complete with vacuum cleaner which can suck out all the air from a planet. Deadly and hilarious.

#9 Star Trek TSG: Borg Cube
The Borg ship may not win too many design awards, and the best you can hope for in terms of accommodations is your very own hybernation pod, but this 29km3 cube of delta quadrant conquering steel, with the ability to adapt to any attack, is the scourge of species throughout the galaxy. Resistance is futile.

#8 ET: Bicycle
Take a standard huffy and add one alien on the lam from the feds. What do you get? The coolest ride on two wheels.

#7 Star Wars: Deathstar
“That’s no moon” just a giant sphere of awesome planet killing power. At last, you can crush those pesky rebels who dare question your might or the cashier who looked at you funny when you asked for change. You might want to do something about that teensy design flaw linking the exhaust port to the main power generator.

#6 Star Trek TSG: U.S.S Enterprise NCC-1701-D
Sure, the starship Enterprise, can hold its own in a firefight with whatever marauding Ferengi or Cardassians it might encounter, with its twelve phaser arrays, three photon torpedo launchers, and high capacity shields. And of course its maximum speed of warp 9.6 makes boldly going where no man has gone before no problem. But it’s the amenities that put this craft so high on the list. One word: holodeck.

#5 Blade Runner: Spinners
Idling past skyscraper sized video billboards of geisha high above a rotted-out neo-noir Los Angeles, contemplating the nature of sentience with Vangelis’ moody score pumping through the hi-fi: honestly can you think of anything cooler than cruising in one of the flying cars from Blade Runner?

#4 Aliens: Marine Drop Ship
If you need to land a platoon of rough and ready spacemarines into a hot LZ crawling with extra terrestial scum, the rugged drop ship from Aliens is the logical choice. As an added bonus it comes with own armored personnel carrier.

#3 Star Trek: Klingon Bird of Prey
A Klingon Bird of Prey is nothing like a Federation party boat. Small, agile, and armed to the teeth, they aren’t made so much for seeking out new life and civilization as for fulfilling blood oaths.

#2 Back to the Future: The Delorean
Not only did Dr. Emmett Brown solve the ages old riddle of time travel with his flux capacitor, he mounted it on the most bad-ass gullwinged folly of a car that the 1980s produced: the Delorean. Requiring nearly 1.21 gigawatts of power to operate, its not the greenest time machine in the world, but once they mounted a “Mr. Fusion” to the chassis, that wasn’t really much a problem.

#1 Star Wars: Millenium Falcon
It might look like a “piece of junk” to you, but “she’s got it where it counts, kid.” After all we’re talking about “the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs,” right? The heavily modified YT-13001/YT-1300p light freighter was passed through the hands of more than a few space rogues before it landed in the hands of its scampish Captain Han Solo. Does its hyper-drive fail on occasion? Sure. Does its hold smell of wet Wookie fur? Of course. But would you want to be riding in any other ship with the Imperial fleet on your tail? We didn’t think so.


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18 Comments
tobinisland said:
why are you talking about this stuff??
borg said:
millenium falcon over borg ship? gimee a break. resistance is futile, han solo.
Han Solo said:
Name one thing that, comparatively speaking, the Borg ship is better at than the Falcon.... Have fun picking your brain for the next million years trying. and by Thor if you say that it can work with up to 98% damage you need to get your facts right.
dh fan said:
the clear error in ranking here is that KITT is not number one! the best looking ride here by a long shot, especially with hasselhoff behind the wheel :)
borg said:
@Han Solo: self-regeneration, for one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_starships
Michael said:
How in the HELL did ET's bike beat out Serenity?!?!?!?
Pete said:
No mention of the Doctor's TARDIS? C'mon, it's a little old and it's a make/model that was phased out centuries ago, and there's a problem with the steering, and I know it doesn't exactly blend in with its surroundings UNLESS you're visiting the streets
Guthrie said:
No Delta Flyer >:[
Kancho said:
No offense to the Millenuim Falcon,it was cool only because of Han Solo's lifestyle.But the Klingon Bird of Prey has more ammo than the Falcon.Photon torpedoes.Phasers.A cloaking device.I also agree with Guthrie.How about the Delta Flyer of Star Trek Voya
Kancho said:
Forgot to mention the Defiant of Star Trek:DS9.
Bjarne said:
The list is nice, but lacks two things: 1) What is the selection criteria for ranking the vehicles? Firepower? Coolness? Speed? If the criteria is not ranked most discussions will be invalid. And selection criteria like "coolness" can never be objectiv
Bjarne said:
... you should fix you post function. It cuts the messages ...
itsalljustaride said:
haha, now this is a list. I love it. Glad to see the FOTN ship, Alien dropship, Spaceball One, etc. i always thought the FOTN ship looked like a shiny suppository. Psychologists would probably have a field day with that tidbit of info.
Lask said:
What about the starship Titanic and the heart of gold. Improbabilitydrive!
Kyle said:
Good list. I like the Spaceball One, "They've gone to plaid!!!"
Nathan said:
I agree with Pete. Where is the TARDIS? It can go anywhere in time and space pretty much instantly.....that and Doctor Who has the best Sci-Fi theme song ever. Thats not being judged though. The Heart of Gold needs to be on there too.
Jammy XIII said:
Your right... The TARDIS should make it on there... I see Serenity but Based on the Falcon? Please... The Ship from Alien 3 was the test design for Serenity... she looks nothing like the Falcon... also... Okay... MAYBE the Heart of Gold... but DEFINTELY Starbug! Starbug is damn near indestructable... of course that doesn't mean it works for half the Time, but still! You have to have Starbug!
mallowmar said:
This list loses quality by the sheer length. Also..the stargate is not an interdimensional portal...just a wormhole. The interdimensional portal is an episode unto itself. ET's bicycle shouldn't even be on this list. When ET go home...it's still just a bike. And you forgot the car from Irobot.
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