Movies like Laboratory (1980)
The best movies like Laboratory (1980) are Invaders from Mars (1953), Project: ALF (1996) and Forbidden Planet (1956). If Laboratory hooked you with its science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAkira (1988)7.9/10 from 5,108 votes
- NewestSpace/Time (2025)Released 2025
Invaders from Mars (1953)
A boy tries to stop aliens that have taken over his town and are brainwashing its inhabitants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisProject: ALF (1996)
Six years ago, the lovable intergalactic fugitive Gordon Shumway, best known as ALF, was on his way back to his new home when the Alien Task Force finally caught up with him. Now, he is being studied at a top-secret military base where he finds allies who feel that ALF's existence should be announced to the world to ensure his safety... especially when they learn that the abrasive Colonel Milfoil wants ALF, and all Alien Life-Forms, destroyed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForbidden Planet (1956)
Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for twenty years. They find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIsland of Lost Souls (1932)
An obsessed scientist conducts profane experiments in evolution, eventually establishing himself as the self-styled demigod to a race of mutated, half-human abominations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Island Earth (1955)
Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 27th Day (1957)
Five individuals from five nations, including the USA, USSR, and China, suddenly find themselves on an alien saucer, where an alien gives each a container holding three capsules. The alien explains that no power on earth can open a given container except a mental command from the person to whom it is given, then anyone may take a capsule and, by speaking a latitude and longitude at it, cause instant death to all within a given radius: thus each of the five has been provided with the power of life and death. Then, they are given 27 days to decide whether to use the capsules, and returned to the places from which each one came...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuppets from Space (1999)
When Gonzo's breakfast cereal tells him that he's the descendant of aliens from another planet, his attempts at extraterrestrial communication get him kidnapped by a secret government agency, prompting the Muppets to spring into action to rescue their friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing from Another World (1951)
Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: The River of Souls (1998)
A group of Soul Hunters come to Babylon 5 demanding the return of something that was stolen from them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien Abduction (2014)
A vacationing family encounters an alien threat in this pulse-pounding thriller based on the real-life Brown Mountain Lights phenomenon in North Carolina.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisSpace/Time (2025)
After a fatal test shuts down their project, a disgraced team of scientists enters the criminal underworld to rebuild a forbidden space-bending engine that could rescue humanity or annihilate it entirely.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisStar Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man from Planet X (1951)
While watching for a planet that may collide with earth, scientists stationed in Scotland are approached by a visitor from outer space.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBen 10: Race Against Time (2008)
Ben, Gwen, and Max must stop an extraterrestrial who plans to open a gateway that leads to an alien invasion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisFuturama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)
Fresh off ripping space-time a new one at the end of "Bender's Big Score," the Planet Express crew is back to mend the tear in reality, or (hopefully) at least not make it worse. Beyond the tear, though, lurks a being of inconceivable...tentacularity. What will become of Earth, and indeed, our universe, when faced with the Beast with a Billion Backs?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBabylon 5: A Call to Arms (1999)
Allies of the Shadows seek revenge against humanity. This movie sets up the series, "Crusade," the sequel to "Babylon 5."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Earth Dies Screaming (1964)
A crack test pilot lands to find the planet has been devastated by unknown forces. There are a few survivors, so he organizes them in a plan to ward off control by a group of killer robots.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Trek: Insurrection (1998)
When an alien race and factions within Starfleet attempt to take over a planet that has "regenerative" properties, it falls upon Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise to defend the planet's people as well as the very ideals upon which the Federation itself was founded.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPredator (1987)
A team of elite commandos on a secret mission in a Central American jungle come to find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAkira (1988)
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWar of the Worlds (2005)
Ray Ferrier is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son and young daughter for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMars Attacks! (1996)
A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisK-PAX (2001)
Prot is a patient at a mental hospital who claims to be from a far away planet. His psychiatrist tries to help him, only to begin to doubt his own explanations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEjecta (2014)
Two men witness an unexplainable event in the sky as a historic solar storm approaches, and they try to survive as a terrifying life form hunts them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Cosmic Eye (1986)
Earth is visited by a race of aliens, who issue an ultimatum: either peace or complete destruction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Jerusalem (2003)
Jerusalem is the first of four videos (followed by Sublimation [2003], Conjunction [2003] and The Pearl [2004]) exploring inter-dimensional travel. In this inaugural episode a group of young actors inhabit an empty apartment, their behavior taped and edited in-camera. An analog solarization technique captures their rituals of improvised dance, frozen poses and trimming of hair. Each cast member recounts painful personal life episodes that unfold like cheap sci-fi stories of otherworldly abductions, familial vanishings, strange dreams and reptilian passions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Laboratory?
The closest matches to Laboratory are Invaders from Mars (1953), Project: ALF (1996) and Forbidden Planet (1956). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Laboratory?
Start with Invaders from Mars (1953), the closest match to Laboratory.
What is the highest-rated movie like Laboratory?
Akira (1988), rated 7.9/10 by 5,108 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Laboratory?
Space/Time (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Laboratory?
Yes: Invaders from Mars (1953), Project: ALF (1996) and Forbidden Planet (1956).
How are movies similar to Laboratory chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Laboratory, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.