Unpredictability is a word that has been strongly associated with 75-year-old director Ridley Scott over the last decade. You could even associate him with the word washout considering the drop in quality of his films throughout his lengthy career. 

After starting out strong in the 21st century with films like “Black Hawk Down” and the critically acclaimed “Gladiator,” he hit rock bottom with his 2010 release “Robin Hood” – which bombed commercially and did even worse critically – after his “Goodfellas” remake called “American Gangster” in 2006. 

However, he’s gone back to his roots with the release of his newest film “Prometheus,” a science fiction film set to come out this Friday, June 8th. Bringing in Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron, we’re going to see very soon if he can live up to the days where he worked with legends Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver. Until then, here’s a little teaser list of the five best films that he’s directed throughout his lengthy career. 

5. “Black Hawk Down” (2001) – Certainly one of the most well known truly loud films of our generation, this is well worth watching with a good set of surround sound speakers. “Black Hawk Down” was based on a true story, which is a concept that Scott tried to sell many more of his movies on after the turn of the century. 

4.  “Thelma & Louise” (1991) – Scott’s most acknowledged film was nominated for six Academy Awards after several rather unsuccessful years following his earlier triumphs as a director of science fiction films, in part because of the cast of great actors and actresses that joined in on his work including my boy Harvey Keitel.

3. “Matchstick Men” (2003) – Featuring one of the early outstanding performances from Sam Rockwell and a definitive Nic Cage losing his shit role (to be seen in the video below), “Matchstick Men” remains to be one of Scott’s most admired films by critics because of its ability to function as a drama while still remaining comedic at the same time. 

2. “Alien” (1979) – Having seen “Prometheus” already, I can assure you that this is by far the quintessential Ridley Scott film to see before you see his newest release, although it’s not quite his best flick. If you need extra motivation to watch it, note that is also the quintessential performance of Sigourney, who you may know from such recent shitty movies like “Avatar.” 

1. “Blade Runner” (1983) – My all-time Ridley Scott fave (also available in, like, five different cuts) and possibly the greatest sci-fi film of all time, “Blade Runner" is also the peak of Harrison Ford’s career of acting in this genre after making his mark in the “Star Wars” series. In regards to style, this film is as visionary as they come – especially for 1983, during a time when many other high profile science fiction films like “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial” and “The Thing” came out.