I am a child of the 80's; this is the Golden Age of Science Fiction for me. 80's films fall into three categories for me. The films I didn't see until I was older: The Final Countdown, Escape from New York, The Thing. The films I didn't appreciate at the time: Blade Runner, Dune, Terminator. The films I lived on: The Wrath of Khan, Tron, Back to the Future

Part I: The Before Times; the 60's & 70's
Part II: The Awesome 80's
Part III: The 90's; Bigger & Badder
Part IV: Into the 21st Century

The Final Countdown (1980)

Director: Don Taylor (The Island of Dr. Moreau 1977, Omen II: Damien)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen
Summary: What happens when a modern day (1980) nuclear powered aircraft carrier is thrown back in time just before one of the most historic battles in history?
Fun Fact: The film was produced by Peter Douglas, Kirk's son. Kirk wanted his other son, Michael, to play Sheen's part, but Michael was still working on 'The China Syndrome' at the time.

Escape from New York (1981)

Director: John Carpenter (Halloween, Village of the Damned, Christine)
Starring: Kurt Russell, Ernest Borgnine
Summary: After the President of the United States crashes into Manhattan Island (a maximum security prison island), criminal Snake Plissken is given 24 hours to save him.
Fun Fact: 20th Century Fox is looking to reboot the series a la Planet of the Apes with a script inspired by the video game 'Batman: Arkham City'

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

Director: George Miller (The Witches of Eastwick, Lorenzo's Oil, Happy Feet)
Starring: Mel Gibson
Summary: Cop-turned-drifter Max encounters a group escape an insane gang in post-apocalyptic Australia.
Fun Fact: The film scenes were shot in order of appearance in the script

Blade Runner (1982)

Director: Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer
Summary: Loosely based on the novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' by Philip K Dick. Ford is a bounty hunter hunting down androids on Earth illegally.
Fun Fact: The iconic line "All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain" was improvised by Hauer.

The Thing (1982)

Director: John Carpenter (Halloween, Village of the Damned, Christine)
Starring: Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley
Summary: Loosely based on John W. Campbell's novella "Who Goes There?" which was loosely adapted into the 1951 film "The Thing from Another World". A group of Antarctic researchers find themselves faced with the possibility that some 'thing' is among them.
Fun Fact: Widely considered the benchmark for practical creature effects.

Tron (1982)

Director: Steven Lisberger (Hot Pursuit, Slipstream)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner
Summary: A hacker is pulled into the virtual world.
Fun Fact: Disqualified from the Academy Award for special effects because using computers was "cheating".

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Director: Nicholas Meyer (The Deceivers, Company Business)
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Ricardo Montalban
Summary: Going through his mid-life crisis, Kirk finds himself entangled in two old relationships, discovers he has a son, and finally gets what he wants from Spock.
Fun Fact: Shatner and Montalban, despite being foes, were never on set at the same time.

Dune (1984)

Director: David Lynch (Eraserhead, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive)
Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Sean Young, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Dean Stockwell
Summary: Based on the novel by Frank Herbert. A sprawling adventure of galactic politics, opression and rebellion, mysticism and science, worms and spice.
Fun Fact: The director, Lynch, turned down Star Wars: Return of the Jedi to work on Dune instead

The Last Starfighter (1984)

Director: Nick Castle (The Boy Who Could Fly, Dennis the Menace, Major Payne)
Starring: Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Kay Kuter
Summary: A kid from the trailer park finds out the video game he just beat was a test
Fun Fact: The book Armada, written by Ready Player One author Ernest Cline was heavily influenced by this film.

The Terminator (1984)

Director: James Cameron (Titanic, True Lies)
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton
Summary: An android comes back in time to kill Sarah Connor
Fun Fact: OJ Simpson was originally considered for the Terminator role, but was considered "too nice."

Weird Science (1985)

Director: John Hughes (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
Starring: Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Kelly LeBrock, Bill Paxton
Summary: Two nerds build a woman on their computer who teaches them about love, life, and themselves.
Fun Fact: Kelly LeBrock has described her character as "Mary Poppins with breasts."

Back to the Future (1985)

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Romancing the Stone, Forrest Gump, Cast Away)
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd
Summary: An accident flings Marty McFly back in time thirty years where he must convince his friend to help get him home and keep the timeline intact.
Fun Fact: President Ronald Reagan apparently liked the film so much, he worked the quote, "Where we're going, we don't need roads" into the 1986 State of the Union address.

Aliens (1986)

Director: James Cameron (Titanic, True Lies)
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Hendrickson, and Bill Paxton
Summary: Ripley returns, with backup, to the planet where the crew of Nostromo picked up their unwanted guest. Most of this list contains one film per series, but Alien and it's sequel are nearly seperate genres.
Fun Fact: Composer James Horner cannibalized musical elements from his work on the Star Trek films due to a short timeline.

Highlander (1986)

Director: Russel Mulcahy (The Shadow, Resident Evil: Extinction)
Starring: Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown
Summary: "I am Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. I was born in 1518 in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel. And I am immortal."
Fun Fact: After viewing footage from the film to record a single song, the band Queen each was inspired to compose a song for the film. The entire album is amazing.

RoboCop (1987)

Director: Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Hollow Man)
Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy
Summary: Megacorp OCP introduces RoboCop, a cybernetic police officer, to combat the out-of-control crimerate in Old Detroit
Fun Fact: The film was submitted 12 times to the MPAA before receiving an 'R' Rating