Inside the Barbican’s sci-fi movie wonderland

The best science fiction movies use costumes, models and physical props to sell their vision of the future. Alien, for instance, would be nothing without the compression suits worn by its ill-fated crew outside the Nostromo. From June 3rd, the Barbican Centre in London will be celebrating these movies and the staggering work that went into them through a new exhibition called ‘Into the Unknown.’ Walk down its dark, curving corridor and you’ll find original spacesuits from Alien, Moon, Sunshine and Star Trek, as well as original Darth Vader and Stormtrooper helmets from Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.

Delve deeper and you’ll see the black, monolithic TARS robot from Interstellar, the humanoid Sonny from I, Robot and the smiling Twiki from the 1970s TV show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. They’re flanked by manuscripts, concept art and other intriguing props — one cabinet hides a metal chair designed by H. R. Giger for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unreleased film adaption of Dune. But the exhibition is about more than film set leftovers. There are books, adverts and contemporary art too. VFX companies Territory Studio and Double Negative have also set up small installations dedicated to their work on The Martian and Ex Machina.

Ahead of the exhibition’s launch, Engadget was invited to walk around with camera in hand. The gallery below is a selection of our favorite displays.