Strange Love: Sci-Fi’s Weirdest Movie Romances

By Joshua Tyler | Published

Love isn’t easy and, no matter how hard we try, things don’t always go as planned. But no matter how bad your love life might get, find solace in this simple fact: It could be worse.

At least your significant other doesn’t have tentacles. These are the strangest romances in science fiction.

starman and sci-fi love
Starman: Jenny Loves An Alien Replica Of Her Husband


In Starman an alien (Jeff Bridges) comes to Earth and, discovering a lock of hair from a woman’s dead husband, decides to re-create himself in her deceased lover’s image. Jenny (Karen Allen) sees him and, confused and conflicted, befriends him.

She helps him on his journey to leave Earth and return home, and in the process falls in love with him. But is she in love with the creature who’s impersonating the man she once loved, or has she convinced herself that the alien is some recreation of the man she misses?

Maybe it’s a little of both, but once her star man leaves the planet, this widow’s going to need a lot of therapy.

movie romance
Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Decker Loves Ilia


In Star Trek: The Motion Picture Commander William Decker is in love with a Deltan named Iia. Deltans are known for emitting hormones which make men crazy. To counteract this, they’re forced to take an oath of celibacy before joining Starfleet, we humans just can’t handle their brand of wild libido.

But soon things between Decker and Ilia get even more extreme when she’s killed by and then resurrected by the super-powered alien probe V’Ger. Ilia becomes an extension of V’Ger which, incidentally is actually a space probe named Voyager launched by NASA back in 20th Century.

Yet Decker’s love for her remains, and so in love is the Enterprise’s first officer that he eventually he gives up his life to merge with V’Ger and Ilia, thus becoming a bizarre NASA, Deltan, Human hybrid. I guess the she was that good.

avatar movie romance
Avatar: Jake Sully Loves Neytiri

It’s impossible to make this list without mentioning Avatar in which a paraplegic Earth soldier journeys to an alien planet, wanders into a neon jungle, and falls in love with a blue cat people princess. But that’s just the tip of their romantic weirdness.

Jake Sully falls in love with Neytiri while wearing a fake body, and eventually has intimate relations with her by sticking his braids inside her.

He’s then so in love with this non-human creature that he betrays the human race to be with her, and in the end, he murders himself to give up his human body and become a blue cat person himself, all so he can spend the rest of his life making braid love and living off meat which he has to feel guilty about killing.

It’s all for Neytiri. Have you seen her? Very pretty cat lady. I’d say it was worth it.

tron movie romance
Tron: Tron Loves Yori


Who’d have thought computer programs had feelings? In Tron, a videogame’s in love with a router when the titular computer program Tron rescues another computer program named Yori and stops to make out with her before heading off to destroy the MCP.

Just to add a whole layer of strangeness to their affair, both Tron and Yori bear a strange resemblance to the real-world humans who wrote them and who, incidentally, also happen to be dating.

Can love be hardwired into a program or is this just some weird coincidence? If I turn my computer on next Valentine’s Day does that mean Photoshop may be secretly dating Quickbooks behind my back?

movie bromance
Enemy Mine: Bromance Love Child


Enemy Mine may be the only bromance ever to result in a pregnancy.

In a far-off future, soldier Willis Davidge (Dennis Quaid) crash-lands on an alien planet, where he discovers the only other survivor is an alien of the species he’s been fighting. Marooned with no hope of rescue, they’re forced to band together to survive.

As time wears on they overcome their prejudices against each other to become close friends and companions. And that’s when things get weird.

Willis’ new alien best buddy Jerry may be a man, but suddenly he’s pregnant. It results in an alien baby and when Jerry dies, Willis is left caring for his bromance love child. He does, raising the alien child as his own.

movie romance
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Ben Loves Daisy


Benjamin Button presents a romance so confusing it’ll make your head spin.

A boy is born as an old man who gets younger as he ages. As an elderly cripple he plays with a little girl and they grow up, or as it may be in as he ungrows, together. When they’re teenagers they date, and eventually they develop a life together and fall in love.

As they fall in love she ages and he continues to de-age until for a few magical years they actually sync up. He is middle-aged and she is as well.

But it can’t last and she keeps growing older while he grows younger. In the end she lies somewhere alone on her deathbed while he, a young boy, has forgotten the life he had and the woman he loved.

movie romance
Weird Science: Build Your Own Supermodel


If you can’t find a date, make one. It works for two dateless and desperate teenage nerds in Weird Science who, tired of living without romantic possibilities, stick bras on their heads, hook a computer up to a Barbie doll, and set to work their own supermodel.

They succeed in creating the perfect woman, and she’s super hot. But it’s not without complications.

Their babe-arific creation has a mind of her own and, while she may not have the wild orgy with them they’d hope for, she helps them build up their confidence until they can find more realistic dating options. Feeling lonely? Fire up your computer and hit the “hot babe” button.

movie romance
Star Wars: Luke Loves Leia


A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away two people accidentally committed incest and no one seems to talk about it. Come on, it’s pretty obvious that Luke has a serious thing for Leia, and she had a thing for him as she thrusts her bosom into his body to swing across that chasm in A New Hope.

Neither has any idea that they’re related, so maybe you can’t blame them, but the Star Wars saga seems to gloss over just how weird their relationship is. There’s obviously something between them before Leia eventually changes gears and latches on to Han Solo.

Just how far did it go? What’s been happening between them off-camera? Gross.

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