Movies like The Zero Years (2005)
The best movies like The Zero Years (2005) are Jonathan (2018), The Congress (2013) and Light of My Life (2019). If The Zero Years 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 ratedDoctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)7.7/10 from 263 votes
- NewestThe Assessment (2025)Released 2025
Jonathan (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 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 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 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 thisThe Handmaid's Tale (1990)
In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Zoe (2019)
Isabelle, a geneticist recovering from a toxic marriage, is raising her only daughter, Zoe, with her contentious ex-husband. Zoe means everything to her mother and so when tragedy strikes the fractured family, Isabelle travels to Russia in seeking the help of a world-renowned fertility physician who Isabelle believes can help bring back her little girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like this2073 (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 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 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 thisThe Assessment (2025)
In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)
The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Operative (2019)
A young Western woman is recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler and her subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSplit (2016)
The story of a young woman who takes an epic journey to claim her own darkness and sexuality so she can stop putting it into the hands of her abusive lover. When Inanna, a young actress, working as a stripper, becomes obsessed with a mask maker, she sacrifices parts of herself and her life, piece by piece, in order to win his love. At the same time she enters a mythic journey in the theater. One that forces her to face the many abuses endured by women around that world and that blurs her performance, her dreams and her real life and results in a provocative and powerful confrontation that frees her. -- from official website
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisNine Days (2021)
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Parts You Lose (2019)
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath's Dice (TBA)
Stuck in his motel room, Billy's luck runs out as he tries to save his straining relationship with his daughter, stay one step ahead of the cops, and devise a plan to beat a notorious crime lord before a fate worse than death arrives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Photo for the Memories (1985)
A boy falls in love with the girl whose injuries he is responsible for...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Under Your Bed (2019)
Naoto was ignored by other people. During his school days, Chihiro was the first person who called his name. Naoto dreams of seeing her again and tries to find her. Finally, after 11 years, he locates her, but she is a totally different person now. Naoto becomes obsessed with her. Naoto sneaks into her house and stays under her bed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
La volta buona (2019)
Bartholomeo, sports attorney, lives on gimmicks and little tricks. Over the years he has wasted the many opportunities he has had, the vice of gambling has made him lose money and family and now he spends his days in the suburbs hoping to find the new Maradona. Always looking for a stroke of luck, one day he receives a phone call: in Uruguay there is a young boy, Pablito, who is a real phenomenon…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I'm Livin' It (2020)
Once a star in his finance firm, Bowen now spends his nights in a 24-hour fast food joint, where he encounters others “roommates” who are in a similar predicament. Together these accidental roommates must strive to lift one another out of rock bottom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
90 Feet from Home (2019)
A former, troubled Major League Baseball player returns home to confront his abusive step-father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tournament 6: My City (2019)
Mr. Lee, a senior social worker, has been fed up with all sorts of social problems that cannot be resolved. He wants to resign after passing his expertise to the new comer, Candy. However, because of lack of manpower, he is asked to handle multiple special cases before he leaves, including mildly retarded Ha, Po with Down syndrome, schizophrenic Ming, Chung with serious autism and Keung with hyperactivity disorder. While Lee and Candy engage themselves in handling those difficult cases, Mrs. Lee, who has been suffering from serious mood disorder, commits suicide. Heavily blown, Lee abandons himself and decides to give up all cases. Two preachers from the church and two radio anchors are also involved indirectly into the resolving process. They have different levels of devotion and expectation on those cases. They hope to help those people in trouble to build up new understanding on the front-line social workers as well as on themselves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Windrush: Movement of the People (2019)
Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre’s performance of Sharon Watson’s Windrush: Movement of the People toured the UK to wide acclaim. Now captured on film and screening at LIFF 2019, the performance is the first contemporary dance work to explore the narrative of the arrival of SS Empire Windrush that brought the first Caribbean migrants to the UK. The work is a lively celebration of the rise of multicultural Britain and features an uplifting soundtrack from calypso, jazz, gospel and reggae with original music created by Christella Litras and features set and costume design by Eleanor Bull.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Someone Else's (1978)
Factory director Kungurtsev returns from a trip abroad and finds out that his longtime and only friend engineer Alexei Putyatin is going to marry Vera, who is very different from everyone's beloved Lipa, Alexei's first wife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Zero Years?
The closest matches to The Zero Years are Jonathan (2018), The Congress (2013) and Light of My Life (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Zero Years?
Start with Jonathan (2018), the closest match to The Zero Years.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Zero Years?
Doctor Who: Last Christmas (2014), rated 7.7/10 by 263 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Zero Years?
The Assessment (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Zero Years chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Zero Years, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.