Movies like Chinese Firedrill (1968)
The best movies like Chinese Firedrill (1968) are Nine Days (2021), The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) and Surf's Up (2007). If Chinese Firedrill hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIt's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)7.9/10 from 387 votes
- NewestThe Life of Chuck (2025)Released 2025
Nine Days (2021)
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988)
A grizzled, hard-of-hearing cowboy, Slim, and his two friends, Dusty and Pete, capture a mysterious, well-dressed Frenchman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSurf's Up (2007)
With a documentary crew in tow, Cody Maverick—a young surfer from Antarctica—travels to the pacific for his first professional competition. Determined to earn respect and live up to his idol, Big Z, Cody pushes himself to the limit. But all that changes when an encounter with a laid-back local forces him to rethink his values.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Live (1988)
A lone drifter stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wave (2019)
A man on the verge of a promotion takes a mysterious hallucinogenic drug that begins to tear down his reality and expose his life for what it really is.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVoyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016)
A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Life of Chuck (2025)
In this extraordinary story of an ordinary man, Charles 'Chuck' Krantz experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnother Earth (2011)
On the night a duplicate Earth is discovered in the solar system, the lives of a young woman and an accomplished composer become tragically connected after a fatal accident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Nobody (2009)
Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence with his wife and 3 children; one day, he wakes up as a mortal centenarian in the year 2092.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIt's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)
Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEraserhead (1977)
First-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMelancholia (2011)
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPitch Black (2000)
When their ship crash-lands on a remote planet, the marooned passengers soon learn that escaped convict Riddick isn't the only thing they have to fear. Deadly creatures lurk in the shadows, waiting to attack in the dark, and the planet is rapidly plunging into the utter blackness of a total eclipse. With the body count rising, the doomed survivors are forced to turn to Riddick with his eerie eyes to guide them through the darkness to safety. With time running out, there's only one rule: Stay in the light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTake Shelter (2011)
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Devil-Doll (1936)
Respected Parisian banker Paul Lavond is framed for robbery and murder by crooked associates and sent to prison. Years later, he escapes with a friend, a scientist who was working on a method to reduce humans to a height of mere inches (all for the good of humanity, of course). Lavond, however, is consumed with hatred for those who betrayed him, and takes the scientist's methods back to Paris to exact painful revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAsteroid City (2023)
In an American desert town circa 1955, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlash Gordon (1980)
A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProspero's Books (1991)
An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoss Level (2021)
A former special forces agent is trapped in a time loop and relives his death over and over again. To escape the terrible situation, he must track down those responsible and stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Chinese Firedrill?
The closest matches to Chinese Firedrill are Nine Days (2021), The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) and Surf's Up (2007). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Chinese Firedrill?
Start with Nine Days (2021), the closest match to Chinese Firedrill.
What is the highest-rated movie like Chinese Firedrill?
It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012), rated 7.9/10 by 387 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Chinese Firedrill?
The Life of Chuck (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Chinese Firedrill?
Yes: Nine Days (2021), The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) and Surf's Up (2007).
How are movies similar to Chinese Firedrill chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Chinese Firedrill, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.