Movies like Project Alien
The best movies like Project Alien (1990) are Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (2002), Monsters of Man (2020) and Code 8 Part II (2024). If Project Alien hooked you with its science fiction and action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)7.4/10 from 1,309 votes
- NewestAfterburn (2025)Released 2025
Babylon 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 & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsters of Man (2020)
A robotics company vying to win a lucrative military contract team up with a corrupt CIA agent to conduct an illegal live field test. They deploy four weaponized prototype robots into a suspected drug manufacturing camp in the Golden Triangle, assuming they'd be killing drug runners that no one would miss. Six doctors on a humanitarian mission witness the brutal slaughter and become prime targets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
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 & action
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & action
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOccupation: Rainfall (2020)
Two years into an intergalactic invasion of Earth, survivors in Sydney, Australia, fight back in a desperate ground war. As casualties mount by the day, the resistance and their unexpected allies, uncover a plot that could see the war come to a decisive end. With the Alien invaders hell-bent on making earth their new home, the race is on to save mankind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: The Gathering (1993)
The feature-length pilot for this Emmy award-winning show. Babylon 5 is the latest in a series of space stations built by humans. The Vorlon ambassador, Kosh, has been poisoned. It is the new commanding officer, Jeffrey Sinclair, who has the responsibility of finding the culprit. Otherwise, the space station will fail in its role of bringing many alien races together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHalo: Nightfall (2014)
Set between the events of Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians… Halo: Nightfall tells the dramatic story of legendary man hunter and Naval Intelligence Officer Jameson Locke and his team as they are caught in a horrific biological attack while investigating terrorist activity on the distant colony world of Sedra. As they unravel a plot that draws them to an ancient, hellish artifact, they will be forced to fight for their survival, question everything and ultimately choose between their loyalty and their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOblivion (2013)
Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: Thirdspace (1998)
Susan Ivanova discovers a derelict spaceship in hyperspace. They tow it back to Babylon 5, then strange things start happening. People are being telepathically taken over by aliens from another (third)space.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDaylight's End (2016)
Years after a mysterious plague has devastated the planet and turned most of humanity into blood-hungry creatures, a rogue drifter on a vengeful hunt stumbles across a band of survivors in an abandoned police station and reluctantly agrees to try to help them defend themselves and escape to the sanctuary they so desperately need.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies 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 action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 5th Wave (2016)
16-year-old Cassie Sullivan tries to survive in a world devastated by the waves of an alien invasion that has already decimated the population and knocked mankind back to the Stone Age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisTimescape (1992)
Before they can complete renovations on their new country inn, a widowed father and his young daughter are visited by a strange group of tourists. He soon makes a chilling discovery: they are disaster junkies from the future who visit the past to witness history's greatest catastrophes—and his small town is their next stop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Man Down (2021)
After civilization succumbs to a deadly pandemic and his wife is murdered, a special forces soldier abandons his duty and becomes a hermit in the Nordic wilderness. Years later, a wounded woman appears on his doorstep. She's escaped from a lab and her pursuers believe her blood is the key to a worldwide cure. He's hesitant to get involved, but all doubts are cast aside when he discovers her pursuer is none other than Commander Stone, the man that murdered his wife some years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 355 (2022)
A group of top female agents from American, British, Chinese, Colombian, and German government agencies are drawn together to try and stop an organization from acquiring a deadly weapon to send the world into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMemoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
After a freak accident, an invisible yuppie runs for his life from a treacherous CIA official while trying to cope with his new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisInterceptor (2022)
A U.S. Army Captain uses her years of tactical training to save humanity from sixteen nuclear missiles launched at the U.S. as a violent attack threatens her remote missile interceptor station.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndependence Day (1996)
Strange phenomena surface around the globe. The skies ignite. Terror races through the world's major cities. As these extraordinary events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that a force of incredible magnitude has arrived. Its mission: total annihilation over the Fourth of July weekend. The last hope to stop the destruction is an unlikely group of people united by fate and unimaginable circumstances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZone Troopers (1985)
American soldiers, led by The Sarge, are stuck behind Nazi enemy lines. As they make their way across the Italian countryside, they come across an alien spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods. The alien pilot is dead, but one of the ship's passengers is on the loose. As the GIs hunt down the alien by splitting into smaller groups, they're not only tracked by the Nazis, but also a whole host of other aliens come to save their stranded party.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlasted (2022)
When a former childhood friend crashes Sebastian's bachelor party and makes it all about himself, only an alien invasion can make them put aside their bad blood and reunite as the kick-ass laser-tag duo they once were.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisAvistament 1978 (2020)
A young Majorcan living in Barcelona, appeases his nostalgia by visiting his hometown via Google Maps. He soon discovers that a series of paranormal events are taking place in his small village.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisClose Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVisitors at the Door (2018)
Are we alone in the universe? This question has been preoccupying humanity for decades. Today, people don’t believe in extraterrestrial life. But there are witnesses from different countries, having interesting experiences. This documentary focuses on stories of a group of people from Turkey who had those kind of experiences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Repo Man (1984)
A down and out young punk gets a job working with a seasoned repo man, but what awaits him in his new career is a series of outlandish adventures revolving around aliens, the CIA, and a most wanted '64 Chevy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUFO Over the Village of Kljuch (TBA)
A documentary about a sighting of unidentified flying objects (UFO) over the Village of Kljuch. Reports from the local priest, as well as some of the residents of the village. Pictures of the UFO can be seen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Project Alien?
The closest matches to Project Alien are Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (2002), Monsters of Man (2020) and Code 8 Part II (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Project Alien?
Start with Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (2002), the closest match to Project Alien.
What is the highest-rated movie like Project Alien?
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), rated 7.4/10 by 1,309 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Project Alien?
Afterburn (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Project Alien?
Yes: Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (2002), Monsters of Man (2020) and Code 8 Part II (2024).
How are movies similar to Project Alien chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Project Alien, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.