Movies like eXistenZ (1999)
The best movies like eXistenZ (1999) are Doomsday (2008), The Running Man (1987) and Fortress (1992). If eXistenZ hooked you with its action and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTerminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)8.2/10 from 15,150 votes
- NewestThe Running Man (2025)Released 2025
Doomsday (2008)
The lethal Reaper virus spreads throughout Britain—infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. Authorities brutally and successfully quarantine the country but, three decades later, the virus resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Running Man (1987)
By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFortress (1992)
In the future, the inmates of a private underground prison are computer-controlled with cameras, dream readers, and devices that can cause pain or death. John and his illegally pregnant wife Karen are locked inside "The Fortress" but are determined to escape before the birth of their baby.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
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 · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like this57 Seconds (2023)
When a tech blogger lands an interview with a tech guru and stops an attack on him, he finds a mysterious ring that takes him back 57 seconds into the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
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 · both action & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Running Man (2025)
Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards is convinced by The Running Man's charming but ruthless producer to enter the deadly competition game as a last resort. But Ben's defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite — and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, so does the danger, and Ben must outwit not just the Hunters, but a nation addicted to watching him fall.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpgrade (2018)
A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhance his body. Now able to walk, Grey finds that he also has superhuman strength and agility — skills he uses to seek revenge against the thugs who destroyed his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Signal (2014)
On a road trip, Nic and two friends are drawn to an isolated area by a computer genius. When everything suddenly goes dark, Nic regains consciousness – only to find himself in a waking nightmare.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResident Evil (2002)
When a virus leaks from a top-secret facility, turning all resident researchers into ravenous zombies and their lab animals into mutated hounds from hell, the government sends in an elite military task force to contain the outbreak.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnon (2018)
Set in a near-future world where there is no privacy, ignorance or anonymity, our private memories are recorded and crime almost ceases to exist. In trying to solve a series of unsolved murders, Sal Frieland stumbles onto a young woman who appears to have subverted the system and disappeared. She has no identity, no history and no record. Sal realizes it may not be the end of crime but the beginning. Known only as 'The Girl', Sal must find her before he becomes the next victim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDemolition Man (1993)
In 1996, brash L.A. detective John Spartan and maniac killer Simon Phoenix are both sentenced to decades in a cryogenic prison as punishment for a rescue mission gone wrong. When Phoenix escapes 36 years later to wreak havoc on the future, Spartan is awakened to capture his nemesis the old-fashioned way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
As the city is locked down under quarantine, Alice finds out that the people that died from the previous incident at the Umbrella Corporation have turned into zombies. She then joins a small band of elite soldiers, who are enlisted to rescue the missing daughter of the creator of the mutating T-virus. Once lack of luck and resources happen, they begin to wage an exhilarating battle to survive and escape before the Umbrella Corporation erases its experiment from the face of the earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChappie (2015)
Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings—some good, some bad—and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there's one thing that makes Chappie different from any one else: he is a robot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Plagued by strange memories, Neo's life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself back inside the Matrix.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHackers (1995)
Along with his new friends, a teenager who was arrested by the US Secret Service and banned from using a computer for writing a computer virus discovers a plot by a nefarious hacker, but they must use their computer skills to find the evidence while being pursued by the Secret Service and the evil computer genius behind the virus.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Web: Cicada 3301 (2021)
Genius hacker Connor discovers Cicada 3301, an online treasure hunt that could be a recruiting tool for a secret society. Soon Conner, art-expert friend Avi, and secretive librarian Gwen are dashing from graffiti sites to ancient libraries to uncover real-world clues. But they must outrun aggressive NSA agents, also hot on the trail of Cicada, who want the glory for themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Blood of Heroes (1989)
Set in a futuristic world where the only sport that has survived in a wasted society is the brutal game known as jugging. Sallow, the leader of a rag-tag team, has played in the main Leagues before, but was cast out because of indiscretions with a lady. Now joined by a talented newcomer, Kidda, an ambitious young peasant girl, he and his team find they have one last chance for glory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisStrange Days (1995)
In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGhost Machine (2009)
Two technicians battle a vengeful spirit that has infected their stolen military software.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisZëiram (1991)
Teppei and Kamiya, two average joes working in the electronic services industry, stumble upon the intergalactic bounty-hunter Ilia, and her partner, the artificial intelligence named Bob. Both men are accidentally transported to the Zone, a virtual reality in which Bob has trapped Ilia's latest prey, a biological weapon named Zeiram. The Earth natives must both survive the experience and help Ilia capture Zeiram before the Zone disappears around them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
The Keeper (2009)
Roland Sallinger is an LA cop who after nearly being killed by his greedy partner, and eventually being forced to retire for medical reasons, flees to San Antonio, Texas, after being asked to work as a bodyguard for the daughter of a wealthy businessman. The businessman had been a colleague of Sallinger years before, when they were both cops. When mobsters kidnap the businessman's daughter, he hunts them down to rescue her and protect her
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisPanic in Year Zero! (1962)
While on a fishing trip, Harry Baldwin and his family hear an explosion and realize that Los Angeles has been leveled by a nuclear attack. Looters and killers are everywhere. Escaping to the hills with his family, he sets about the business of surviving in a world where, he knows, the old ideals of humanity will be the first casualties.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKaliyugam (2025)
Set in the dystopian future, 2064 AD, the apocalyptic world is stripped of food, water, and humanity. In a ruthless fight for survival, the few remaining must navigate chaos, danger, and the depths of human desperation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & science fiction
Hardware (1990)
Mark 13 is a government-built killing machine programmed with artificial intelligence, able to repair and recharge itself from any energy source. Through a series of coincidences, the cyborg's head ends up in the home of a sculptress as a bizarre Christmas present from her boyfriend. Once inside its new home, the cyborg promptly reconstructs the rest of its body using a variety of household utensils and proceeds to go on a murderous rampage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisNicotina (2003)
A hacker who is spying on a pretty neighbour messes up his assignment to break into Swiss bank accounts for Russian mobsters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street (2002)
Noah's Ark, the latest innovation in VR technology, is set for a showcase to Japan's privileged children. However, their carefree fun is cut short when a company employee is found murdered, with his dying message pointing to a clue hidden within the Ark. Along with the Detective Boys and Ran Mouri, Conan Edogawa enters Noah's Ark to solve this mystery and ensure the perpetrator is caught.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bed Sitting Room (1969)
In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisPunishment Park (1971)
In this fictional documentary, U.S. prisons are at capacity, and President Nixon declares a state of emergency. All new prisoners, most of whom are connected to the antiwar movement, are now given the choice of jail time or spending three days in Punishment Park, where they will be hunted for sport by federal authorities. The prisoners invariably choose the latter option, but learn that, between the desert heat and the brutal police officers, their chances of survival are slim.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like eXistenZ?
The closest matches to eXistenZ are Doomsday (2008), The Running Man (1987) and Fortress (1992). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after eXistenZ?
Start with Doomsday (2008), the closest match to eXistenZ.
What is the highest-rated movie like eXistenZ?
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), rated 8.2/10 by 15,150 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like eXistenZ?
The Running Man (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like eXistenZ?
Yes: Doomsday (2008), The Running Man (1987) and Fortress (1992).
How are movies similar to eXistenZ chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside eXistenZ, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.