Movies like Cygnus (2018)
The best movies like Cygnus (2018) are Monsters (2010), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and The Arrival (1996). If Cygnus hooked you with its science fiction and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: Planet of the Dead (2009)7.5/10 from 229 votes
- NewestDisclosure Day (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishTimecrimes (2007)Also in Spanish
Monsters (2010)
Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an infected zone. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures," while a journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Andromeda Strain (1971)
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Arrival (1996)
Zane Ziminski is an astrophysicist who receives a message that seems to have extraterrestrial origins. Eerily soon after his discovery, Zane is fired. He then embarks on a search to determine the origins of the transmission that leads him into a Hitchcockian labyrinth of paranoia and intrigue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisclosure Day (2026)
A cybersecurity expert becomes a whistleblower after uncovering secrets about aliens, putting him on the run from a corporation. Meanwhile, a meteorologist experiencing strange phenomena joins forces with him to prove there's life beyond our understanding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Signal (2007)
A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Vast of Night (2019)
At the dawn of the space-race, two radio-obsessed teens discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPredator 2 (1990)
A police chief in the war-torn streets of Los Angeles discovers that an extraterrestrial creature is hunting down residents - and that he is the next target.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
Mulder and Scully are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Quiet Place Part II (2021)
Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
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 thisStarship Troopers (1997)
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTimecrimes (2007)
A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonolith (2023)
A desperate young journalist turns to podcasting to salvage her career, but her rush to make headlines leads her to an alien conspiracy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisContact (1997)
A radio astronomer receives the first extraterrestrial radio signal ever picked up on Earth. As the world powers scramble to decipher the message and decide upon a course of action, she must make some difficult decisions between her beliefs, the truth, and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCosmos (2019)
Three astronomers accidentally intercept what they believe to be a signal from a distant alien civilization, but the truth is even more incredible than any of them could have imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien: Covenant (2017)
The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise but is actually a dark, dangerous world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Came from Outer Space (1953)
Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona. Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSignal One (2026)
A computer scientist is invited by a tech billionaire to join his private facility on a Caribbean island to investigate extraterrestrial matter on Earth. When they make contact beyond our world, chaos erupts as we’re left to wonder: do they come in peace?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSplinter (2008)
When their plans for a nature trip go awry, Polly and boyfriend Seth decide to check into a motel. On their way, they're carjacked and kidnapped by low-rent crooks Dennis and Lacey, who take the victims and their SUV to a nearby gas station. Along the way, they encounter an increasingly terrifying horde of parasites, and if any of them intend to survive, they'll have to outsmart the deadly organisms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAliens vs. Titanic (2017)
Offering only the finest amenities, the ‘TITAN 1C’ space-cruiser is considered the most luxurious star-liner ever built. Future spring-breakers on board are excited to be touring through space with some of the world’s elite. However, a sudden meteor storm smashes into the hull, and a deadly biological alien life form is let loose on the ship. Seeking a suitable host, the retrovirus successfully merges with some the passengers, transforming them into seemingly invincible predators with the “touch of death”. As the ship is destroyed, the surviving passengers crash on a remote planet, and they learn that one of them is “infected”. They must quickly band together before it has a chance to slaughter them all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & thriller
2012 Doomsday (2008)
On December 21, 2012 four strangers on a journey of faith are drawn to an ancient temple in the heart of Mexico. For the Mayans it is the last recorded day. For NASA scientists it is a cataclysmic polar shift. For the rest of us, it is Doomsday.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTimerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982)
Lyle Swann is a successful off-road racer who mistakenly gets sent back in time 100 years. When a band of outlaws robs Swann of his motorcycle, he's forced to outfox the gangsters and give in to the seductions of a gorgeous local lady. With only his smarts and a map from an Exxon station, Lyle must try to make it out of the Old West alive and find a way back to modern times.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisHis Kind of Woman (1951)
Career gambler Dan Milner agrees to a $50,000 deal to leave the USA for Mexico, only to find himself entangled with fellow guests at a luxurious resort and suspecting that the man who hired him may be the deported crime boss Nick Ferraro aiming to re-enter to the USA.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 3rd Voice (1960)
Marian Forbes has been having an affair with her boss and when he drops her for another woman. In an act of jealousy and greed she convinces an acquaintance to murder her former lover and then impersonate him just long enough to get their hands on a large sum of money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The She-Wolf (1965)
Professor Fernandez is studying the metamorphosis in living organisms to cure his daughter of a strange disease that occurs in full moon nights.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
War of the Colossal Beast (1958)
Glenn Manning, "The Amazing Colossal Man," believed dead after falling from the Hoover Dam, reemerges in rural Mexico, brain damaged, disfigured, and very angry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisBorderland (2007)
Three college students, Phil, Ed, and Henry take a road trip into Mexico for a week of drinking and carefree fun only to have Phil find himself a captive of a group of satanic Mexican drug smugglers who kill tourists and whom are looking for a group of new ones to prepare for a sacrifice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Cygnus?
The closest matches to Cygnus are Monsters (2010), The Andromeda Strain (1971) and The Arrival (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Cygnus?
Start with Monsters (2010), the closest match to Cygnus.
What is the highest-rated movie like Cygnus?
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (2009), rated 7.5/10 by 229 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Cygnus?
Disclosure Day (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Cygnus?
Yes: Timecrimes (2007) and The She-Wolf (1965).
How are movies similar to Cygnus chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Cygnus, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.