Movies like The Encounter (2026)
The best movies like The Encounter (2026) are The Mandela Effect (2019), Stowaway (2021) and 2073 (2024). If The Encounter hooked you with its science fiction and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
The Encounter
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)8.0/10 from 251 votes
- NewestGrace (2026)Released 2026
The Mandela Effect (2019)
A man becomes obsessed with facts and events that have been collectively misremembered by thousands of people. Believing the phenomena to be the symptom of something larger, his obsession eventually leads him to question reality itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
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 & drama
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 thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParallel (2024)
Grief-stricken after the loss of her child, Vanessa takes refuge at a lake house only to be met with an aberration of herself from a parallel universe and realizes the multiverse gates hold the key to releasing her grief or trapping her forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
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 & thriller
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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven (2014)
In this epic two-part finale, the Doctor comes face to face with the mysterious Missy, and an impossible choice is looming. With Cybermen on the streets of London, old friends unite against old enemies, and the Doctor takes to the air in a startling new role.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStargate SG-1: Children of the Gods (2009)
An alien similar to Ra appears out of the Stargate, killing five soldiers and kidnapping another, a year after the original Stargate mission. A new team is assembled, including some old members, and they go in search of the missing soldier in order to find out how Ra could still be alive. Meanwhile, the alien Goa'uld kidnap Sha're and Skaara, implanting them with symbiotes and making them Goa'uld hosts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisDoctor Who: Deep Breath (2014)
The newly-regenerated Doctor arrives in Victorian London, and Clara Oswald struggles to embrace the man he has become. All the while, they reunite with the Paternoster Gang to investigate a series of combustions that have been occurring all around the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)
Despite scientist Nathan's warnings, his boss continues an experiment meant as publicity for his satellite firm: exploding an asteroid. Instead it splits, and the major piece, the size of Iceland, changes course to earth. It is deflected but so close that it shift our course closer to the sun, causing rapid extreme heating, hopefully only mid-term. Nathan warns his sister, TV journalist Carly, and she her lover, police detective Tom. He brings his unruly daughter Kim, her ex-con lover C.J. and her mother, nurse Bonnie, when Nathan offers a flight to a friend's Arctic weather station. Tom takes charge of a dangerous trip to the airport, as everywhere on earth things catch fire and people fight for water, transport and sheer looting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe X-Files (1998)
Mulder and Scully, now taken off the FBI's X Files cases, must find a way to fight the shadowy elements of the government to find out the truth about a conspiracy that might mean the alien colonization of Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImpostor (2001)
A top-secret government weapons designer is arrested by a clandestine government organization on suspicion of being a clone created by the hostile alien race wanting to take over Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way the Eleventh Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisSpaceman (2024)
Six months into a solo mission, a lonely astronaut confronts the cracks in his marriage with help from a mysterious creature he discovers on his ship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSubversion (TBA)
A former agent turned fugitive meets his handler to ensure his safety while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens national security.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
USER (2026)
In the not too distant future, a man without hope attempts to save the life he was hired to end with HELPER, a world changing technology that allows anyone to trade control of their physical body for money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
Cave (2025)
Karayr is a philosophical post-apocalyptic tale set after a biological war that has regressed humanity to its primitive form. A Man in the cave, a lone survivor, tries to civilize a caveman attempting to restore humanity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
CLAVIS (2026)
a science-fiction family drama about a father who attempts to overcome death through quantum physics after his wife falls into a coma. As his obsession deepens, he becomes increasingly distant from his teenage son, who believes that love sometimes means letting go. Inspired by the ancient epic of Gilgamesh, the story explores grief, mortality, and the enduring power of love through science, philosophy, and music.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
Lapse (2025)
The creator of an artificial intelligence that helps people with relationships begins to believe that he is possessed by the AI itself. In the same time, a user of the same AI also begins to go crazy, causing the two to fall into a kind of insanity, unable to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
Eye in the Sky (2026)
Set on New Year’s Eve. Elizabeth, an overworked intern at a long-forgotten government black site receives an other-worldly signal. It’s up to her, a cowardly general, the site’s near bankrupt financier and a plucky yet mysterious receptionist to respond. However, not everything goes to plan after ulterior motives are revealed and tension quickly rises.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & science fiction
Umano (2026)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
Carol Lubezki's First Date (2022)
Carol is ecstatic about her first date with Max, who seems oddly lost in his own thoughts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & science fiction
Grace (2026)
When Grace wakes up on an unknown world with no memory of how she got there, she finds herself racing against the clock to find her way back to base-camp before her oxygen runs out. With only her dad's voice in her ear to guide her, she begins to wonder whether she's really heading to the right place at all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
Hand Drawn (2027)
Barney, a concept artist forced to work long hours, can’t keep his work life balance in check. All this changes, when his boss offers him a cybernetic hand that could triple his output. This makes life easier, but over time his wife Jasmine realises that the arm is draining him of his humanity by removing him of his own creative process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Encounter?
The closest matches to The Encounter are The Mandela Effect (2019), Stowaway (2021) and 2073 (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Encounter?
Start with The Mandela Effect (2019), the closest match to The Encounter.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Encounter?
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 251 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Encounter?
Grace (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Encounter?
Yes: The Mandela Effect (2019), Stowaway (2021) and 2073 (2024).
How are movies similar to The Encounter chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Encounter, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.