Movies like What If the Future Never Happened? (2025)
The best movies like What If the Future Never Happened? (2025) are 2073 (2024), Teen Spirit (2019) and Right at Your Door (2006). If What If the Future Never Happened? hooked you with its drama and music, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTwin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)7.4/10 from 2,404 votes
- NewestClika (2026)Released 2026
2073 (2024)
Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTeen Spirit (2019)
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRight at Your Door (2006)
A dirty bomb goes off in Los Angeles, jamming freeways and spreading a toxic cloud.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisJonathan (2018)
Jonathan is a young man with a strange condition that only his brother understands. But when he begins to yearn for a different life, their unique bond becomes increasingly tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisBattle of the Year (2013)
A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVesper (2022)
After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her paralyzed Father, meets a mysterious Woman with a secret that forces Vesper to use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the possibility of a future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScenes from the Suburbs (2011)
A resident of a suburban dystopia tries to reassemble his fragmented memories of life as a teen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoda (2020)
A famous pianist at the twilight of his career meets a free-spirited music critic who soon becomes his rock as his mental state deteriorates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaurus (2022)
A rising but troubled musician searches for the inspiration to record one last song, pushing himself deep into the void.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
SnoozefestMovies like thisLight of My Life (2019)
Years after a pandemic wipes out most of the female population, a father struggles to shield his daughter from a dangerous and predatory world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Eyez on Me (2017)
All Eyez on Me chronicles the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to superstardom as a hip-hop artist, actor, poet and activist, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row Records. Against insurmountable odds, Tupac rose to become a cultural icon whose career and persona both continue to grow long after his passing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoxtrot Six (2019)
Escalating climate change is turning the world economy upside down. With crops dying and food price spiking, FOOD has replaced oil as the world's most valuable commodity. Among the very few lands still left fertile, Indonesia is quickly rising as the next economic superpower, when its government is suddenly and ruthlessly overtaken by a popular rogue political party. In just three days, six former Marines must work together, find their long-lost brotherhood, stop a nationwide government- sanctioned genocide, and save millions of lives, for one last shot at redemption. Or die trying.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoney: Rise Up and Dance (2018)
Street dancer Skyler comes out of the shadow of her trained dancer sister, Tosha, & joins a dance competition with the Honey dance studio; the prize is a college scholarship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmni Loop (2024)
Diagnosed with a black hole growing inside her chest and stuck in a loop reliving the last five days of her life, a 55-year-old wife and mother from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Satan (2017)
A young rock band, half from England and half from the US, drop out of college and move to the Sunset Strip to chase their dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGood Vibrations (2012)
The story of music legend Terri Hooley, a key figure in Belfast's punk rock scene. Hooley founded the Good Vibrations store from which a record label sprung, representing bands such as The Undertones, Rudi and The Outcasts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClika (2026)
Aspiring small-town musician Chito is determined to make it big. When a clip of him performing one of his songs goes viral, he seizes the opportunity and pushes to carve out a place for himself in the new wave of Mexican-American music... and ultimately gets caught in a game more dangerous than anticipated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Mandela Effect (2019)
A man becomes obsessed with facts and events that have been collectively misremembered by thousands of people. Believing the phenomena to be the symptom of something larger, his obsession eventually leads him to question reality itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToo Late Blues (1961)
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Holland's Opus (1995)
In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonster (2003)
In 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPerhaps Love (1984)
A teenage boy becomes infatuated with an older woman who he discovers to be a prostitute.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
In Los Angeles, a wealthy man, known as Mr. Fuller, discovers a shocking secret about the world he lives in. Fearing for his life, he leaves a desperate message for a friend of his in the most unexpected place.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoxette: It All Begins Where It Ends (2013)
As one of Europe's most successful bands, Roxette have scored more international hits, rolled out bigger tours and received more airplay than any other Scandinavian band. When Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002, it seemed like the Roxette saga had reached its tragic end. But Marie got well against all odds, and during 2009 and 2010 the group step by step laid the ground for a comeback that again created modern music history. In February 2011 Roxette kicked off their return to the world's stages with a tour that soon was dubbed "The Never Ending Tour", since the bookings never ceased to drop in. The world hadn't forgotten Roxette and before the group played their final show in Mexico City in September 2012, they had performed their classic song catalog in front of 1.5 million singing, screaming and crying people in 46 countries. A film team joined the tour and captured one of the most unexpected and moving returns any band has ever done.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
A teenage Peter Parker grapples with both high school and amazing super-human crises as his alter-ego Spider-Man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGodforsaken! (2003)
Two small town Dutch boys whose socially unnatural friendship is so close, they care nothing for human or divine rules and lose all grip on reality, sliding into violent crime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Final Season (2007)
True story of Kent Stock, who in the early '90s gives up a job and ditches his wedding plans to take over as head coach of the Norway High School baseball team. Kent must win over his players and convince them and himself that he can fill their former coach's shoes and that they can go out winners. In the summer of 1991 Norway High's baseball tradition ended on a triumphant but sombre note.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Well How Did We Get Here? A Brief History of Talking Heads (2017)
A brief history of Talking Heads (and how they got here!)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both music
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like What If the Future Never Happened??
The closest matches to What If the Future Never Happened? are 2073 (2024), Teen Spirit (2019) and Right at Your Door (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after What If the Future Never Happened??
Start with 2073 (2024), the closest match to What If the Future Never Happened?.
What is the highest-rated movie like What If the Future Never Happened??
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), rated 7.4/10 by 2,404 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like What If the Future Never Happened??
Clika (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like What If the Future Never Happened??
Yes: 2073 (2024), Teen Spirit (2019) and Right at Your Door (2006).
How are movies similar to What If the Future Never Happened? chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What If the Future Never Happened?, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.