By Daniel Paiz

Cypher Flicks presents the first half top 5 films of 2026, or films between January 1st and June 30th were our favorite top 5. Movies are social commentaries on the current state of affairs through visual storytelling. Literacy rates in the United States are unfortunately declining, and so it makes sense movies are still a popular medium. The format in which people receive movies has been changing from theaters to streaming, but films are still being watched in cinemas.

With all of the movies to choose from genre and language-wise, it is difficult to narrow down what to watch. The films chosen here are our top 5 selections plus a handful of honorable mention choices; these are chosen for a myriad of reasons. Critiques on social behavior today, the impressive visuals and sequences in time that resonate in our memories, and just enjoyment for enjoyment’s sake are among the many reasons these five films were selected. Whether you agree or disagree, the comments are open and open conversation about film picks are ongoing here and everywhere else films are discussed.

First Half Top 5 Films

5. The Furious

Wang Wei (Xie Miao) is a deaf handyman taking care of his daughter. When trying to get her to get a haircut, she storms off and tells him he isn’t spending enough time with her. She gets kidnapped, despite Wei’s attempts to chase down the truck and free her. Navin (Joe Taslim from the Mortal Kombat reboots) is a man working undercover, trying to crack more info about a child trafficking ring. He is also searching for his wife, who is a reporter herself and has also gone missing.

These two guys cross paths and put on a spectacular display of martial arts resplendent with agile choreography. They team up to search for their loved ones. The battle scenes in the club are fantastic, the battles in the ice cube facility are rugged, and the last third of the movie has brutal fight scenes with plenty of deaths and bad guys getting obliterated. The son of a corrupt business enterprise goes berserker mode, killing his father-in-law, his goons, the chief of police (who is corrupt and tells his staff to not help Wei), and by mistake, his wife. Mr. Song’s henchman also joins the fray, and there are five fighters hashing it out.

The dedication to loved ones, to fighting trafficking, and to helping kids despite all the brutality–all of it meshes well. There is trauma several characters are dealing with, but that’s put behind them as they seek justice. This movie is likely going to be slept on in 2026. If you like Wick and Nobody, you will like this.

4. Sheep Detectives

Hugh Jackman plus a bunch of sheep doesn’t sound like it’ll pan out to be a good, even great who-dun-it kind of film, right? It works really well, in part because the sheep can communicate with one another but not with humans. This film also has a lot of heart, and some wholesomeness mixed in with heavy life lessons.

The cast is well-selected, and the rules given at the beginning in terms of mysteries that George (Jackman) reads to the sheep are well utilized by the budding detectives. 

There’s ongoing growth and learning and an understanding that life isn’t like books most of the time. Lessons about death, grief, adoption, and familial bonds are built into the storyline without being preachy. These motifs help to bond the audience with the characters, and for what seems initially like a cute film, there are heavy lessons delivered in gentle ways.

This film mixes humor and suspense quite well and offers redemptive arcs for several core characters. This is a sleeper hit that hopefully more movie fans give a chance. This film isn’t marketed as being more layered than a family-friendly comedy, which is very unfortunate. That might be the target audience, but there’s something for all viewers young and old, big and small. In this day and age, a wholesome film with life lessons from an approachable cast is a refreshing story to tell.

3. Obsession

Specificity and nuance are two key takeaways from this terrifying and heavy piece of work. The way Bear won’t tell Nikki how he feels even after she blatantly asks him is so relevant and timely today; guys are not taking a chance even if it misses when it comes to wanting a partner. Bear uses the one wish willow, and wishes for Nikki (Inde Navarrette) to love him more than anyone else in the world. This tragic wish comes true, although he doesn’t specify at all how Nikki should love him. The demon that appears to take control of Nikki doesn’t always have the power, as several times Nikki reaches out to Bear to do what he starts considering for himself.

Bear (Michael Johnston) calls the one wish willow number on the box, and the staff member essentially notifies him Nikki is there with them; she isn’t a part of this willingly. It gets scarier and scarier because the demon simply doesn’t understand the nuances of love, grimly mixing things into twisted results. Sadly, Ian and Sara pay the price, and everyone else at some point witnesses the weirdness.

In some ways Nikki gaslights Bear, but only due to how he set this whole thing up in the first place. His inability to take risk and then accept responsibility several times down the road when given an opportunity highlights the typical “nice guy” motif. Bear isn’t a good person as his desires outweigh the costs on Nikki and others. Too late he takes action to free Nikki, despite her demon’s attempt to make Bear love her the same. The brutality, the gore, the misunderstanding of human connection and love by the demon; all craft a terrifying and heavy-handed conclusion. 

Such heaviness and terror took a toll on this viewer, albeit briefly. The hype around this film is real, and it’s likely a top film of 2026. Also, kudos to including a classic scene from Get Out in this movie with the “no, no, no” restaurant date scene.

2. Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary feels incredibly massive, adding to the stakes throughout the movie. It’s essentially still in space, from one universe to another, with no travel to the past or the future. Yet it feels like it encompasses all of existence at the same time. Ironically it is smaller than Have Fun, Good Luck, Don’t Die in terms of space, because that film is half Oblivion half Matrix in that metric. That film also largely takes place in different parts of LA yet feels like all of existence at once. PHM does a very good job of making the universe feel very big and difficult to comprehend. 

The space pals buddy team-up between Grace (Ryan Gosling) and Rocky lends itself to building a support system in a space film that isn’t always there. Space films often make everything us versus them, and this film makes the “them” a space infection of sorts. Both space pals are encountering the same problem. Each one has a massively different world, but also has the same universal truths, too. 

It was interesting to see how a Xenon-based life form (Rocky) was more humane and compassionate than the other humans on Earth working on this project. There was, in the end, an illusion of choice for Grace. His buddy-up with Carl was some needed comic relief, but in some ways, it felt hollow upon learning how Grace got to space. The needs of the many outweigh those of the few here. While understandable, another way of convincing Grace could’ve been found. Perhaps the message is, everyone has the capability to contribute; sometimes they just need a massive push of sorts to do so. 

There are the slimmest of margins between this film and the movie chosen as number one. This film has bigger sequences, and it feels like everything is at stake in the moment. However, it doesn’t leave the viewer with as many topics to discuss afterwards; this isn’t a bad thing, it just means it’s more conclusive than open-ended.

1. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

Edge of Tomorrow meets The Matrix meets cynically dystopian humor for this Sci-Fi comedic thriller. Age-old questions of the impact of technology and society at-large rings throughout this movie. But this time, there’s a central focus on the current generations of youth who are in school and cannot be torn away from their scrolling and immersive tech. This ties into the beacon lit from AI and how a “better” reality exists for us all (cue sarcasm).

The cast is a wonderful jigsaw puzzle of multi-talented people. Zazie Beetz, Michael Pena, and Sam Rockwell each do such a good job of playing their roles. The performances of Juno Temple as Susan and Haley Lu Richardson as Ingrid are central to the story and deliver emotion and experience that raises the stakes. Rockwell also plays the man from the future very well, adding several elements of both being the leader and not knowing what’s next due to each trip being different than the last. 

The idea that a Sci-Fi movie has a happy ending is delivered and honestly guides the audiences to thinking the trek is a success. The hardships, the sacrifices, the jokes–all of it feels like the third act is going to pay off. It does…until the ending happens. The viewer is drawn in by the director with this cast of uncertainty, and a mission that seems impossible yet keeps becoming manageable; that tension and release Gore Verbinski delivers is well-played. 

The idea that safeguards from the future are sent to the past to prevent a collapse of society due to what AI and immersive tech creates is intriguing. It also brings up ideas to debate and wrangle. If they figured out how to fix things, would the future believe it could alter its current state by fixing the past? Timelines tend to change when revisited, and that’s another thing to ponder during the events of this adventure. School shootings are also brought up as something that creates an entirely new industry of cloning kids who die in said shootings; this macabre yet interesting concept is another offshoot of how inventive, yet spineless tech creativity can be.

What puts this film ahead of Project Hail Mary by the slimmest of margins are all of the questions it draws out, all of the topics to discuss, and all of conundrums mentioned above to ponder. It really gives the viewer a lot to think about, while also maintaining fun over-the-top interactions.

Honorable Mentions

Cold Storage

This movie is a creature feature mixed with bio-nightmare fuel that plays off of COVID fears and space disaster themes. Naomi (Georgina Campbell) and Travis (Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame) are two unlikely co-workers who find a hidden bio storage area of a decommissioned military base. The rapidly spreading and mutating fungus acts like a parasite, ravaging its hosts in the hopes of spreading by blasting out an escape via its hosts. 

Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) and fellow officer Trini Romano (Lesley Manville) do a great job of bringing into focus how attention to detail and basic effort has died over time; they also bring in humor about age and the usefulness of those committed to making a difference. The bad guys are a myriad of crooks, morons, and just everyday people doomed to get infected. This film is entertaining and surprising at times in how it weaves together comedic levity during a possible end of the world scenario. 

The Skylab space crash into Earth in 1979 was an actual event, and most of the space debris was believed to land in the ocean for the most part. However, this tank of fungus landed in Australia, and it mutated in a way that was less than helpful to humans; so much so that it led to the escapades above. It’s always wonderful to learn the premise of a film is based on real-life events, at least in terms of the Skylab crash. 

Those infected in the movie range from bugs and rats to full-sized bull deer and criminal human beings. The range is so well done, and the speed at which the fungus spreads is terrifying. Personally, this movie might be my favorite from this year; objectively speaking, I know that despite how fun it is, it isn’t at the same level as the five listed above. That’s okay, because sometimes movies are made to have fun, tell an interesting story, and roll the credits.

Tuner

This crime thriller with musical intrigue is one too many folks have slept on. Dustin Hoffman does a splendid job in his support role to both Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu. Tuning pianos and cracking safes have more in common than you think. A full Cypher Flicks film review will better reveal why this film is meant to be on this list.

I Love Boosters

Boots Riley does it again in his sophomoric follow-up to the cult hit Sorry to Bother You. These two films are not connected to one another, other than sharing the same spirit of look at how capitalism and greed have screwed us yet again. Fashion and the unhealthy impacts of clothing are on full display here, and this film ties the issue across the world. Keke Palmer leads a fantastic cast that tries to change the evil that Demi Moore’s fashion mogul is doing. Another Cypher Flicks film review proves why this movie belongs on the list.

They Will Kill You

Zazie Beetz is having a moment in 2026 when it comes to throwing down on films that aren’t getting enough attention. Her portrayal of older sibling Asia Reaves searching for her little sister Maria (Myha’la) leads to starting to work for a dastardly deviant manor of sorts that seems to be a one-way entrance. This film combines creative fight scenes with gore and tough family dynamics throughout. A Cypher Flicks film review also informs why this is a top 10 film of 2026.

Final Word

There are so many films to check out this year. Some are just fun action films–think Supergirl, Mortal Kombat II, The Mandalorian and Grogu. Others are horror popcorn flicks–think the newest installment of Dracula, and 28 Years Later: Bone Temple. Foreign films continue to give us solid stuff like The Furious. Short films like Violet and Marlowe rob a bank give us some levity despite the murder and violence amongst bunnies. If you have an area of interest, there is something to watch. Check out the films chosen above, and come back towards the end of the year when the second half installment of this piece drops.