If you’re anything like me, you’ve been watching more Prime than ever over the last couple of years. Also, if you’re asking the question, what are the best steampunk movies on Amazon Prime? You’re also like me in that you’ve found the amazing world of steampunk and cannot get enough. So we’ve pulled together a list of the best steampunk movies available on Prime for you – we hope you enjoy them all as much as we did.
- So What Makes a Steampunk Movie?
- List of the Best Steampunk Movies on Amazon Prime [In Release Order]
- 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea [1954]
- Journey To The Centre of The Earth [1959]
- Captain Nemo and the Underwater City [1969]
- The City of Lost Children [1995]
- Wild Wild West [1999]
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire [2001]
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen [2003]
- Steamboy [2004]
- Van Helsing [2004]
- The Brothers Grimm [2005]
- The Golden Compass [2007]
- Hugo [2011]
- The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box [2013]
- April and the Extraordinary World [2015]
- Mortal Engines [2018]
- Abigail [2019]
Before we get into the best steampunk movies on Amazon Prime, let’s have a look at what makes a great steampunk movie and what elements we can expect to see. then we will compile a list of the best steampunk movies on Amazon Prime.
So What Makes a Steampunk Movie?
As discussed above, there are a number of elements that need to be seen in order to classify a movie as being steampunk.
If you want to know more on this, check out our ultimate guide as to what makes a movie steampunk.
Whether something fits into the steampunk movie genre or not is always a hot topic that is always up for hot debate in the fan forums.
However, as steampunk is an alternative reality and sadly never existed, there is no history to check the validity against.
That being said, there is some faux pas some directors make that mean that a movie was clearly never intended to be steampunk.
Check out this article if you’re asking the question, what is steampunk anyway?
Things such as this we would class as being ‘steampunk inspired’, i.e. they don’t traditionally conform to the steampunk genre, but they have taken elements from it to inspire them.
As a quick recap, we’ve lined up our top 10 elements to look out for in a steampunk movie.
Top 10 Things to Look Out for In a Steampunk Movie
- The Use of Steam – In steampunk, electricity has never been invented, everything is mechanical and powered by steam. This means that if you can see digital machinery in a movie, it isn’t traditional steampunk, therefore it may be classified as ‘steampunk inspires’
- Steam Powered Vehicles – In steampunk movies, as with the above, you will only see vehicles powered by steam, cars, ships, and even submarines.
- Airships – Airships are popular within the steampunk genre – again, mechanically powered.
- Set In Victorian Era or an Alternative History – Steampunk is set in either the Victorian Era (19th Century) or in an alternative, future, occasionally depicted as a ‘wild west’ setting.
- The Clothing – Clothing can vary, but is normally focused around the fashions of Victorian England, or that of a colonial explorer.
- Augmented Mechanical Humans – In steampunk, persons can normally be seen with mechanically replaced elements to their body, sometimes these are full replacements, other times, a mechanical exoskeleton.
- Gadgets & Gears – futuristic (mechanical) gadgets are common place in the steampunk genre. A personal favorite is a gun that mechanically springs from up a sleeve to the user’s hand, ready and poised for use. Gears can be seen throughout the steampunk genre, emphasizing the mechanical theme that is central to the aesthetic.
- Time Travel – Time travel is not an essential component of steampunk, however, it can be seen in some steampunk works. Just remember that the time travel device needs to be mechanical and not digital/ electronic.
- The Paranormal – The paranormal is not traditional steampunk, however, the crossover between the genres is common. The villain in steampunk is normally a man made creation as opposed to being a mythical creature, demon, vampire, etc. As this is very relevant to this discussion, we will discuss this further below.
- Advanced Technology – Technology that is advanced for its time is a standard theme throughout steampunk. The technology must be mechanical in nature, such as the analog computer.
There you have a list of the key elements to identify a steampunk movie, but let’s have a look at the best steampunk movies available on Amazon Prime.
Here we will include steampunk and steampunk-inspired movies.
List of the Best Steampunk Movies on Amazon Prime [In Release Order]
Here is our list of what we think are the best steampunk movies that are available on Prime.
Just a quick note that all of these movies were available on Prime at the time of writing, obviously it regularly updates its playlist with titles being added or removed.
So let’s get into it.
Top Steampunk Movies on Prime
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea [1954]
Journey To The Centre of The Earth [1959]
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City [1969]
The City of Lost Children [1995]
Wild Wild West [1999]
Atlantis: The Lost Empire [2001]
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen [2003]
Steamboy [2004]
Van Helsing [2004]
The Brothers Grimm [2005]
The Golden Compass [2007]
Hugo [2011]
The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box [2013]
April and the Extraordinary World [2015]
Mortal Engines [2018]
Abigail [2019]
We did start off by trying to rank these in our order of preference, however, it started causing too many arguments, as we all had a different favorite.
The only thing we could agree on was that we couldn’t agree. That’s why we listed our favorite steampunk movies on Prime in date order.
Try and solve our argument by listing your favorite three steampunk movies from this list in order of preference.
Are there some movies which we have missed? Let us know.
