5 great Netflix sci-fi movies to watch on New Year’s Day

Our first pick is pop, pseudo-sci-fi that will satisfy even the non-sci-fi fans you may need to appease on New Year’s Eve. Limitless stars Aloha‘s Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra, an out-of-work writer who is nearing rock bottom after his girlfriend dumps him. In a moment, all that negativity vanishes after an old friend introduces Eddie to MDT, a designer pharmaceutical built to address the (false) theorem that humans only use 10% of their brains. Suddenly, with MDT, Eddie has access to everything he’s ever read, heard, or seen, allowing him to rise to the top of the creative and financial worlds. However, he’s constantly afflicted by brutal side effects, and as the drug supply dwindles and his stash makes him a target, Eddie must deal with his addiction and very real threats upon his life.

Tommy Wirkola (Violent Night) directs this dystopian sci-fi thriller about a future in which overpopulation and famine have forced the adoption of a global One-Child Policy. In this world, seven identical sisters (all played by Noomi Rapace) live a constant game of hide-and-seek with the Child Allocation Bureau and its leader, Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close). While the women outwit Cayman’s system by assuming the identity of one person and carefully playing the role on each day of the week at the direction of their grandfather (Willem Dafoe), things go awry one day when Monday does not come home.