Movies like Sunshine (2007)
The best movies like Sunshine (2007) are Europa Report (2013), Aniara (2019) and High Life (2018). If Sunshine hooked you with its thriller and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedInterstellar (2014)8.5/10 from 41,821 votes
- NewestSpace/Time (2025)Released 2025
Europa Report (2013)
A crew travels to Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, to investigate signs of life in its subsurface ocean, but disaster cuts them off from Earth, leading to a tense and dangerous exploration.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAniara (2019)
A ship carrying settlers to a new home on Mars after Earth is rendered uninhabitable is knocked off-course, causing the passengers to consider their place in the universe.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHigh Life (2018)
Monte and his daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to deep space. The crew—death-row inmates led by a doctor with sinister motives—has vanished. As the mystery of what happened onboard the ship is unraveled, father and daughter must rely on each other to survive as they hurtle toward the oblivion of a black hole.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisCargo (2009)
The story of CARGO takes place on rusty space-freighter KASSANDRA on its way to Station 42. The young medic LAURA is the only one awake on board while the rest of the crew lies frozen in hibernation sleep. In 4 months will Laura's shift be over.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisApproaching the Unknown (2016)
Captain William Stanaforth is on a one-way solo mission to take the first steps in colonising Mars. Like all pioneers throughout history, Stanaforth will face insurmountable odds and life and death decisions as he rockets bravely through space.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like this2010 (1984)
While planet Earth poises on the brink of nuclear self-destruction, a team of Russian and American scientists aboard the Leonov hurtles to a rendezvous with the still-orbiting Discovery spacecraft and its sole known survivor, the homicidal computer HAL.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Colony (2021)
In the not-too-distant future: after a global catastrophe has wiped out nearly all of humanity on Earth, an elite astronaut from Space Colony Kepler must make a decision that will seal the fate of the people on both planets.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSolaris (2002)
A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStowaway (2021)
A three-person crew on a mission to Mars faces an impossible choice when an unplanned passenger jeopardizes the lives of everyone on board.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVoyagers (2021)
With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women -- bred for intelligence and obedience -- embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet. When they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they soon become consumed by fear, lust and an insatiable hunger for power.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Days on Mars (2013)
On the last day of the first manned mission to Mars, a crew member of Tantalus Base believes he has made an astounding discovery – fossilized evidence of bacterial life. Unwilling to let the relief crew claim all the glory, he disobeys orders to pack up and goes out on an unauthorized expedition to collect further samples. But a routine excavation turns to disaster when the porous ground collapses and he falls into a deep crevice. His devastated colleagues attempt to recover his body. However, when another vanishes, they start to suspect that the life-form they have discovered is not without danger.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisGravity (2013)
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPandorum (2009)
Two crew members wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they've been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they're actually not alone – and the reality of their situation is more horrifying than they could have imagined.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaturn 3 (1980)
In the future, Earth is overcrowded and the population relies on distant bases to be fed. In the Saturn 3 station, Major Adam and the scientist Alex, who is also his lover and has never been on Earth, have been researching hydroponics for three years in the base alone with their dog Sally. Captain Benson arrives Saturn 3 with Hector, incapable to controlling his emotions he transfers his homicidal tendency and insanity to Hector. Now Major Adam and Alex are trapped in the station with a dangerous psychopath robot.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSphere (1998)
A spacecraft is discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, presumed to be at least 300 years old and of alien origin. A crack team of scientists and experts is assembled and taken to the ocean floor to investigate. However, the ship is not as it seems and when a giant perfect sphere is discovered in the cargo bay, things begin to fall apart.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wandering Earth II (2023)
Humans built huge engines on the surface of the earth to find a new home. But the road to the universe is perilous. In order to save earth, young people once again have to step forward to start a race against time for life and death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlien: Covenant (2017)
The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise but is actually a dark, dangerous world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien (1979)
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisInfini (2015)
A search and rescue team are transported through deep space to a distant mining colony to save the sole survivor of a biological outbreak. During their mission, they find a lethal weapon which is set to arrive on Earth within the hour.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisInterstellar (2014)
The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies 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: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisProspect (2018)
A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEvent Horizon (1997)
In 2047, a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the starship Event Horizon which disappeared mysteriously seven years before on its maiden voyage. However, it soon becomes evident that something sinister resides in its corridors.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAd Astra (2019)
The near future, a time when both hope and hardships drive humanity to look to the stars and beyond. While a mysterious phenomenon menaces to destroy life on planet Earth, astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across the immensity of space and its many perils to uncover the truth about a lost expedition that decades before boldly faced emptiness and silence in search of the unknown.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpace/Time (2025)
After a fatal test shuts down their project, a disgraced team of scientists enters the criminal underworld to rebuild a forbidden space-bending engine that could rescue humanity or annihilate it entirely.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisMoon (2009)
With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, Sam Bell is eager to return to Earth. Stationed alone at a Moon-based facility with his computer assistant GERTY, an unexpected accident sets off a series of unsettling events that shake his isolation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI.S.S. (2024)
Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as a conflict breaks out on Earth. U.S. and Russian astronauts receive orders from the ground: take control of the station by any means necessary.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisRed Planet (2000)
Astronauts search for solutions to save a dying Earth by searching on Mars, only to have the mission go terribly awry.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisMission to Mars (2000)
When the first manned mission to Mars meets with a catastrophic and mysterious disaster after reporting an unidentified structure, a rescue mission is launched to investigate the tragedy and bring back any survivors.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sunshine?
The closest matches to Sunshine are Europa Report (2013), Aniara (2019) and High Life (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sunshine?
People who watched Sunshine most often go on to Europa Report (2013), Aniara (2019) and High Life (2018).
What is the highest-rated movie like Sunshine?
Interstellar (2014), rated 8.5/10 by 41,821 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sunshine?
Space/Time (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Sunshine?
Yes: Europa Report (2013), High Life (2018) and Approaching the Unknown (2016).
How are movies similar to Sunshine chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sunshine, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.