Movies like Side Effect
The best movies like Side Effect (2008) are The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) and Gemini Man (2019). If Side Effect hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Side Effect
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTerminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)8.2/10 from 15,146 votes
- NewestAfterburn (2025)Released 2025
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Creatively unfulfilled and facing financial ruin, Nick Cage must accept a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a dangerous superfan. Things take a wildly unexpected turn when Cage is recruited by a CIA operative and forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic and beloved on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGemini Man (2019)
Henry Brogan is an elite 51-year-old assassin who's ready to call it quits after completing his 72nd job. His plans get turned upside down when he becomes the target of a mysterious operative who can seemingly predict his every move. To his horror, Brogan soon learns that the man who's trying to kill him is a younger, faster, cloned version of himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCritters Attack! (2020)
Mysterious alien Critters have crash-landed in a small college town, devouring every living thing they encounter. Drea and the kids she's babysitting must try desperately to save themselves from the ravenous, rolling beasts. Will Drea discover her inner badass, and will it be enough to stop the Critter onslaught?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDark Angel (1990)
Jack Caine is a Houston vice cop who's forgotten the rule book. His self-appointed mission is to stop the drugs trade and the number one supplier Victor Manning. While involved in an undercover operation to entrap Victor Manning, his partner is killed, and a sinister newcomer enters the scene...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattle: Los Angeles (2011)
When once distant UFOs become a terrifying threat and an alien invasion force begins attacking Earths major costal and riverside cities, a U.S Marine staff sergeant and his team are sent into battle only to find they must take it upon themselves to defeat an unknown enemy and protect what remains of Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Babysitter (2017)
When Cole stays up past his bedtime, he discovers that his hot babysitter is part of a Satanic cult that will stop at nothing to keep him quiet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWifelike (2022)
A grieving detective in the near-future hunts down criminals who trade artificial humans on the black market. In the fight to end AI exploitation, an underground resistance attempts to infiltrate him by sabotaging the programming of the artificial human assigned as his companion to behave like his late wife. She begins to question her reality as memories of a past life begin to surface in a world where nothing is as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrank (2006)
Chev Chelios, a hit man wanting to go straight, lets his latest target slip away. Then he awakes the next morning to a phone call that informs him he has been poisoned and has only an hour to live unless he keeps adrenaline coursing through his body while he searches for an antidote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLifeforce (1985)
A race of space vampires arrives in London and infects the populace, commencing an apocalyptic descent into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Worry Darling (2022)
Alice and Jack are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAllegiant (2016)
Beatrice Prior and Tobias Eaton venture into the world outside of the fence and are taken into protective custody by a mysterious agency known as the Bureau of Genetic Welfare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer's Game (2024)
When top hitman Joe Flood is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he decides to take matters into his own hands – by taking a hit out on himself. But when the very hitmen he hired also target his ex-girlfriend, he must fend off an army of assassin colleagues and win back the love of his life before it's too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Terminator (1984)
In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCoherence (2014)
Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTerminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuperintelligence (2020)
When an all-powerful Superintelligence chooses to study the most average person on Earth, Carol Peters, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. As the A.I. decides to enslave, save or destroy humanity, it’s up to Carol to prove that people are worth saving.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisTotal Recall (2012)
Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for implanted memories of being a spy. When the procedure goes wrong, Quaid becomes a wanted man by the police and joins forces with a rebel fighter to stop the evil Chancellor Cohaagen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
It's been 10 years since John Connor saved Earth from Judgment Day, and he's now living under the radar, steering clear of using anything Skynet can trace. That is, until he encounters T-X, a robotic assassin ordered to finish what T-1000 started. Good thing Connor's former nemesis, the Terminator, is back to aid the now-adult Connor … just like he promised.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Side Effect?
The closest matches to Side Effect are The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) and Gemini Man (2019). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Side Effect?
Start with The Thirteenth Floor (1999), the closest match to Side Effect.
What is the highest-rated movie like Side Effect?
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), rated 8.2/10 by 15,146 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Side Effect?
Afterburn (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Side Effect?
Yes: The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) and Gemini Man (2019).
How are movies similar to Side Effect chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Side Effect, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.