Movies like The Lathe of Heaven (1980)
The best movies like The Lathe of Heaven (1980) are Dreamscape (1984), Altered States (1980) and Brainstorm (1983). If The Lathe of Heaven hooked you with its science fiction and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Face of Another (1966)7.8/10 from 305 votes
- NewestDoctor Who: Deep Breath (2014)Released 2014
Dreamscape (1984)
In order to diagnose the psychic traumas suffered by his patients, Dr. Paul Novotny gets young Alex Gardner to enter their dreams.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAltered States (1980)
A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of human consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from Native American shamans, he explores these altered states of cognizance and finds that memory, time, and reality itself are states of mind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrainstorm (1983)
Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLooker (1981)
Plastic surgeon Larry Roberts performs a series of minor alterations on a group of models who are seeking perfection. The operations are a resounding success. But when someone starts killing his beautiful patients, Dr. Roberts becomes suspicious and starts investigating. What he uncovers are the mysterious - and perhaps murderous - activities of a high-tech computer company called Digital Matrix.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirestarter (1984)
Charlene "Charlie" McGee has the amazing ability to start fires with just a glance. Can her psychic power and the love of her father save her from the threatening government agency which wants to destroy her?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLathe of Heaven (2002)
In a near future society a man claims that his dreams physically change reality. His therapist is confused at first but soon decides to use him for his own gain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Golem (1980)
Pernat finds himself in a police interrogation, accused of a murder, and unable to recall any details of the crime, or even his own life. He's released back into a world of raving lunatics and deranged dentists, murderous doctors and scientists who believe the secret of human creation is inside the walls of a cast-iron oven.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Power (1968)
One by one members of a special project team are being killed by telekinesis - the ability to move things with the power of the mind alone. The race is on to determine which of the remaining team members is the murderer and to stop them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
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: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnti-Clock (1979)
A complex and fascinating experimental exploration of time and identity, Anti-Clock is a film of authentic, startling originality. Brilliantly mixing film and video techniques, Arden and Bond's paranoid, psychological surveillance study of a career gambler turned clairvoyant unstuck in time captures onscreen the anxieties that have infiltrated the consciousness of so many in Western society.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
The Fury (1978)
When a devious plot separates CIA agent Peter Sandza from his son, Robin, the distraught father manages to see through the ruse. Taken because of his psychic abilities, Robin is being held by Ben Childress, who is studying people with supernatural powers in hopes of developing their talents as weapons. Soon Peter pairs up with Gillian, a teen who has telekinesis, to find and rescue Robin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dead Zone (1983)
Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the past, present and future life of anyone with whom he comes into physical contact.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRadio Free Albemuth (2010)
Record store clerk Nick Brady begins to experience strange visions from an entity he calls VALIS that cause him to uproot his family and move to Los Angeles where he becomes a successful music company executive. Nick finds himself drawn into a dangerous political-mystical conspiracy of cosmic proportions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSeconds (1966)
An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity; one that comes with its own price.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScanners (1981)
A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called 'scanning' to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non-Scanners.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrimer (2004)
A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Face of Another (1966)
A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his new doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality and causing him to question his identity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fly (1986)
When brilliant, eccentric scientist Seth Brundle makes a huge technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Terminal Man (1974)
As the result of a head injury, brilliant computer scientist Harry Benson begins to experience violent seizures. In an attempt to control the seizures, Benson undergoes a new surgical procedure in which a microcomputer is inserted into his brain. The procedure is not entirely successful.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSolaris (1972)
A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLiquid Sky (1982)
An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during an orgasm.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBrainWaves (1983)
After a traffic accident Kaylie is in coma for months and her doctors want to try a new procedure on her. To regain her consciousness, they stimulate her brain with the neural patterns of a woman who has just died. It works and Kaylie fully recovers. However, she begins to relive the dying moments of her donor and realizes that she was murdered! Along with her husband and mother, she tries to find out what happened.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
The Sender (1982)
A disturbed telepathic man is able to transmit his dreams and visions into the minds of the people around him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisWarGames (1983)
High school student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Department of Defense's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his friend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattlestar Galactica: Razor (2007)
The history and adventures of the Battlestar Pegasus, from shortly before the Cylon invasion to shortly after Lee Adama is made commander. The story is told through the eyes of and largely focuses on one particular member of Pegasus's crew, Kendra Shaw.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: Voyage of the Damned (2007)
When disaster hits the Titanic, the Doctor uncovers a threat to the whole human race. Battling alongside aliens, saboteurs, robot Angels and a new friend called Astrid, can he stop the Christmas inferno?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: Planet of the Dead (2009)
A meeting in a London bus with jewel thief Lady Christina takes a turn for the worse for the Doctor when the bus takes a detour to a desert-like planet, where the deadly Swarm awaits.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisDoctor Who: The Snowmen (2012)
The Doctor has retired to 1892 London. Despite the protests of his allies, he is determined to keep out of mankind's affairs. However, a governess named Clara has stumbled upon a plot which only the Doctor can unravel, involving the death of her predecessor in ice and the sinister Dr. Simeon, who controls monsters made of sentient snow. And there is another mystery afoot: Clara is the spitting image of Oswin Oswald, whom the Doctor saw die in the Dalek asylum...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Lathe of Heaven?
The closest matches to The Lathe of Heaven are Dreamscape (1984), Altered States (1980) and Brainstorm (1983). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Lathe of Heaven?
People who watched The Lathe of Heaven most often go on to Dreamscape (1984), Altered States (1980) and Brainstorm (1983).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Lathe of Heaven?
The Face of Another (1966), rated 7.8/10 by 305 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Lathe of Heaven?
Doctor Who: Deep Breath (2014) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Lathe of Heaven?
Yes: Dreamscape (1984), Altered States (1980) and Brainstorm (1983).
How are movies similar to The Lathe of Heaven chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Lathe of Heaven, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.