Movies like That Which Once Was (2011)
The best movies like That Which Once Was (2011) are Into the Forest (2016), Vesper (2022) and Foe (2023). If That Which Once Was hooked you with its drama and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFrida (2002)7.4/10 from 2,236 votes
- NewestGreenland 2: Migration (2026)Released 2026
Into the Forest (2016)
In the not too distant future, two young women who live in a remote ancient forest discover the world around them is on the brink of an apocalypse. Informed only by rumor, they fight intruders, disease, loneliness & starvation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisFoe (2023)
Henrietta and Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior's family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal. Will they risk their relationship & personal identity for a chance to survive in a new world?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTestament (1983)
It's just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks — many suffer radiation poisoning — the Wetherly family tries to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like this2012 (2009)
Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Core (2003)
Geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes discovers that an unknown force has caused the earth's inner core to stop rotating. With the planet's magnetic field rapidly deteriorating, our atmosphere literally starts to come apart at the seams with catastrophic consequences. To resolve the crisis, Keyes, along with a team of the world's most gifted scientists, travel into the earth's core. Their mission: detonate a device that will reactivate the core.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisBeasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in 'the Bathtub', a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe—for a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack—temperatures rise and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeostorm (2017)
After an unprecedented series of natural disasters threatened the planet, the world's leaders came together to create an intricate network of satellites to control the global climate and keep everyone safe. But now, something has gone wrong: the system built to protect Earth is attacking it, and it becomes a race against the clock to uncover the real threat before a worldwide geostorm wipes out everything and everyone along with it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSoylent Green (1973)
In the year 2022, overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: The River of Souls (1998)
A group of Soul Hunters come to Babylon 5 demanding the return of something that was stolen from them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGreenland 2: Migration (2026)
Having found the safety of the Greenland bunker after the comet Clarke decimated the Earth, the Garrity family must now risk everything to embark on a perilous journey across the wasteland of Europe to find a new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)
In New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day After Tomorrow (2004)
After paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by UN officials when presenting his environmental concerns about the beginning of a new Ice Age, his research proves true when a superstorm develops, setting off catastrophic natural disasters throughout the world. Trying to get to his son, Sam, who is trapped in New York City with his friend Laura and others, Jack and his crew must travel to get to Sam before it's too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTuesday (2024)
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 5th Wave (2016)
16-year-old Cassie Sullivan tries to survive in a world devastated by the waves of an alien invasion that has already decimated the population and knocked mankind back to the Stone Age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Last Survivors (2014)
In the near future, society collapses and water becomes scarce. When a greedy water baron starts violently clearing out survivors, Kendal, a 17-year-old teenager, fights the baron's henchman to keep a well open.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEndless Night (2015)
Ellesmere Island, northern Canada, 1908. Josephine, a brave but naive woman, embarks on a dangerous journey through inhospitable regions in search of her husband, the explorer Robert Peary, who tries to find a route to the North Pole.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Panic (2010)
They go sledging behind a car. They earn extra by fixing the roof of a neighbor's house. They are young and want to fulfill their dreams, but before them an uncertain future prevails. We are there as one of them, equally present, equally absent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Grandmother's Eye (2010)
A constant motion from a distance all the way into an elderly ladies eye.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Last Post (2011)
An old lady in a nursing home is visited by a mysterious man no one else seems to be able to see.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Apparat (TBA)
A middle aged, married couple spend a night at their desert cabin. What was planned as an anniversary getaway erupts into a brutalizing void of two tortured souls.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Amsterdam to Anatolia (2019)
Elissa's life takes a turn when she meets a mysterious man in her English class and she has to quickly decide between her family and him- and going from family-life to a life on the run is a wild choice to everyone but her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Words with Gods (2014)
The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Frida (2002)
A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Uncanny Valley (2021)
Desperate for a clue to a mysterious case, an Investigator pushes for a last-minute interview with his only witness: a corrupt A.I. Now the Investigator has 10 minutes to find out what the A.I. knows before it is dismantled by the scientists.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Safe Word (2023)
Cesar, an emotionally stunted masochist, must confront his self-loathing after his dissatisfied-yet-caring Dom, Bear, reinterprets the rules of their game. They arrive at a paradigm-shifting result neither one of them expects.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like That Which Once Was?
The closest matches to That Which Once Was are Into the Forest (2016), Vesper (2022) and Foe (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after That Which Once Was?
Start with Into the Forest (2016), the closest match to That Which Once Was.
What is the highest-rated movie like That Which Once Was?
Frida (2002), rated 7.4/10 by 2,236 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like That Which Once Was?
Greenland 2: Migration (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like That Which Once Was?
Yes: Into the Forest (2016), Vesper (2022) and Foe (2023).
How are movies similar to That Which Once Was chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside That Which Once Was, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.