Movies like Payload (2011)
The best movies like Payload (2011) are Ghost Recon: Alpha (2012), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and Alien: Containment (2019). If Payload hooked you with its science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Payload
Quick picks
- Highest ratedNo Time for Nuts (2006)7.4/10 from 220 votes
- NewestWoven (2025)Released 2025
Ghost Recon: Alpha (2012)
Ghost Recon: Alpha sees a team led by Ghost Leader infiltrate a trade at a Russian depot between a general and a mysterious other figure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien: Containment (2019)
Aboard a small escape pod, four survivors try to discover what caused the destruction of their spaceship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCode 8 Part II (2024)
In a world where superpowered people are heavily policed by robots, an ex-con teams up with a drug lord he despises to protect a teen from a corrupt cop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZygote (2017)
The two remaining crew members of a mining operation in the Arctic Circle fight to survive against an alien creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOsiris (2025)
Special Forces commandos on a mission are abducted mid-operation by a mysterious spacecraft. Upon waking aboard, they find themselves prey to a relentless alien race in a fight for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (2002)
After being punished for retreat from combat, Ranger David Martel is given command of the Liandra, a haunted 20-year old Minbari fighting ship. He's escorting ambassadors to a secret archaeological site, the oldest city on record and a clue to a dangerous ancient race.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Time for Nuts (2006)
Scrat comes across a time machine and is transported to various times all in pursuit of his beloved acorn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlash/Back (2022)
In a remote Arctic community, a group of Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion, all while trying to make it to the coolest party in town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpring (2014)
A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAfterburn (2025)
Set against the backdrop of a postapocalyptic Earth whose Eastern Hemisphere was destroyed by a massive solar flare, leaving what life remains mutated from radiation and fallout. The story revolves around a group of treasure hunters who extract such objects as the Mona Lisa, the Rosetta Stone and the Crown Jewels while facing rival hunters, mutants and pirates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Night of the Doctor (2013)
The Doctor struggles to help the only remaining crewmember of a crashing gunship. The people of the planet below offer to save his life, but at a dear cost to the life he's lived for hundreds of years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAlien: Alone (2019)
An abandoned crew member aboard a derelict chemical hauler is trying to keep her ship and herself alive. After discovering hidden cargo, she risks it all to power up the broken ship in search of human life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisContainment (2015)
Neighbors in a block wake one morning to find they have been sealed inside their apartments. Can they work together to find out why? Or will they destroy each other in their fight to escape?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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 science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSolo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisF.R.E.D.I. (2018)
An intelligent, lovable robot known as "F.R.E.D.I." is stolen from a secret research facility by the project's lead scientist. The robot is found by a 15 year old teenager, James. Soon the two begin to communicate and create a bond in which F.R.E.D.I. learns about teenage life and James learns about some new values.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisSpectral (2016)
A special-ops team is dispatched to fight supernatural beings that have taken over a European city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadox Mary (2008)
Mary has a problem. And it’s right in front of her. It’s in front of everyone else too, only they haven’t recognized it yet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Frankenstein Punk (1986)
The story of Frank, a different creature, born to the song "Singing in the rain", that goes in search of happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Umbrella (2023)
With divorce on the horizon, a couple find out that a lunch meeting with the wife’s attorney is about to get very gruesome. Based on the story "Lunch at the Gotham Café" by Stephen King.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
F for Freaks (2019)
An empty, undefined world. Gabriela (70) is seriously ill. By all means she tries to keep alive, to escape from her own death. In her suppressed and rising fear of death she refuses any moral argument. Gabriela becomes an animal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Narcose (2014)
Deep water freediving exposes its practitioners to a form of narcosis, which induces several symptoms, among which a feeling of euphoria and levity that earned this phenomenon its nickname of "raptures of the deep". The short film relates the interior journey of Guillaume Néry, the apnea world champion, during one of his deep water dives. It draws its inspiration from his physical experience and the narrative of his hallucinations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Ultraman Connection Presents: Tamashii Nations Special Streaming featuring Ultraman Trigger (2022)
Ultraman Connection Presents: Tamashii Nations Special Streaming featuring Ultraman Trigger is a special filmed stage show based on various Ultraman characters and released on YouTube as a part of the eponymous stream.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Demain la veille (2006)
Bob is a normal guy who lives in a world where everything moves in reverse: Death is birth, people grow young, knowledge is erased from your mind as the clock ticks backward. It's just business as usual... until the day Bob suddenly finds himself moving FORWARD in time! Mercenaries from another reality arrive on the scene to remove him from the "forward" world, but they're too late: Bob now understands that the life he had was very, very wrong. He fights back, mounting an action-packed escape through insane, topsy-turvy corridors of time and counter-clockwise dimension. Will Bob save himself and humanity? Or is he destined for a life of lies and control, forced on the world from a power beyond the future?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
I Decided to Leave (2015)
A man decides to leave. He knows he wants to do something with his life. He just hasn't figured out what yet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Next Time (2020)
On the way back from a road trip, a woman tries to save her doomed relationship by stopping at a roadside attraction that promises time travel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Woven (2025)
Miša, a young man with powerful telekinetic abilities, finds himself trapped in a dark experiment where he is subjected to manipulation and abuse. Though he is offered various comforts and pleasures once he is freed from his confinement, Miša rejects these temptations. Driven by a quest for truth and freedom, he embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the secrets behind his powers and reclaim his autonomy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Like Payload and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Payload?
The closest matches to Payload are Ghost Recon: Alpha (2012), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and Alien: Containment (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Payload?
Start with Ghost Recon: Alpha (2012), the closest match to Payload.
What is the highest-rated movie like Payload?
No Time for Nuts (2006), rated 7.4/10 by 220 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Payload?
Woven (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Payload?
Yes: Ghost Recon: Alpha (2012), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and Alien: Containment (2019).
How are movies similar to Payload chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Payload, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.