Movies like While the City Sleeps (1996)
The best movies like While the City Sleeps (1996) are Space/Time (2025), Men in Black 3 (2012) and Monsters of Man (2020). If While the City Sleeps hooked you with its action and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (2013)8.2/10 from 794 votes
- NewestGood Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishOur Times (2025)Also in Spanish
Space/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 & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisMen in Black 3 (2012)
Agents J and K are back...in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K's life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him - secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
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 thisGood Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026)
A 'Man from the Future' arrives at an LA diner where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLegion of Super-Heroes (2023)
Kara, devastated by the loss of Krypton, struggles to adjust to her new life on Earth. Her cousin, Superman, mentors her and suggests she leave their space-time to attend the Legion Academy in the 31st century, where she makes new friends and a new enemy: Brainiac 5. Meanwhile, she must contend with a mysterious group called the Dark Circle as it searches for a powerful weapon held in the Academy’s vault.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRobotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006)
In the year 2044 AD, the human race has amped-up its space exploration and reached out to the stars through the miracle of ROBOTECHNOLOGY, but not without bringing intergalactic war upon the Earth itself. Heroes will die and allegiances will shift. But in the midst of combat, perhaps peace will spring up through the charred remains of battered history. One of the greatest science fiction sagas of all time continues...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoboCop (2014)
In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years, but have been forbidden for law enforcement in America. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured, OmniCorp sees their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like this57 Seconds (2023)
When a tech blogger lands an interview with a tech guru and stops an attack on him, he finds a mysterious ring that takes him back 57 seconds into the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJLA Adventures: Trapped in Time (2014)
Get ready for a battle of the ages when the Justice League faces off against its archenemies, the Legion of Doom, in an all-new movie from DC Comics. A mysterious being known as the Time Trapper arises, and a sinister plan led by Lex Luthor sends the Legion of Doom back in time to eliminate Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman before they become super heroes. For Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg, along with teen super heroes Karate Kid and Dawnstar, the stakes have never been higher, the rescue mission never deadlier. So join the fight for the future as the Justice League confronts its ultimate challenge… the threat of having never existed!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with an unexpected ally and an enhanced super soldier to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Time Machine (2002)
Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th-century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds mankind divided into two warring races.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTerminator Genisys (2015)
The year is 2029. John Connor, leader of the resistance continues the war against the machines. At the Los Angeles offensive, John's fears of the unknown future begin to emerge when TECOM spies reveal a new plot by SkyNet that will attack him from both fronts; past and future, and will ultimately change warfare forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpgrade (2018)
A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhance his body. Now able to walk, Grey finds that he also has superhuman strength and agility — skills he uses to seek revenge against the thugs who destroyed his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisTransformers (2007)
Young teenager Sam Witwicky becomes involved in the ancient struggle between two extraterrestrial factions of transforming robots – the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. Sam holds the clue to unimaginable power and the Decepticons will stop at nothing to retrieve it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisValerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
In the 28th century, Valerian and Laureline are special operatives charged with keeping order throughout the human territories. On assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two undertake a mission to Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis where species from across the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence, and cultures. At the center of Alpha is a mysterious dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adam Project (2022)
After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (2013)
In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor's own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOur Times (2025)
Husband and wife Nora and Héctor's scientific breakthrough lets them time travel from 1966 to 2025. As Héctor struggles, Nora thrives—but at what cost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWestworld (1973)
Delos is a futuristic amusement park that features themed worlds populated by human-like androids. After two patrons have a run-in with a menacing gunslinger in West World, the androids at Delos all begin to malfunction, causing havoc throughout the park.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe One (2001)
A sheriff's deputy fights an alternate universe version of himself who grows stronger with each alternate self he kills.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDéjà Vu (2006)
Called in to recover evidence in the aftermath of a horrific explosion on a New Orleans ferry, Federal agent Doug Carlin gets pulled away from the scene and taken to a top-secret government lab that uses a time-shifting surveillance device to help prevent crime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Time Shifters (1999)
Tom Merrick gets caught up in a time-traveling conspiracy and must set the timeline right before it is irrevocably altered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisGhost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man (2005)
The year is 2030 and six years have passed since a criminal known only as "The Laughing Man" swept through top medical nanotechnology firms committing acts of cyber-terrorism, kidnapping, and espionage leaving no known suspects. New information is revealed, as Section 9 enters the hunt for a suspect capable of unfathomable actions in this compilation of Stand Alone Complex content.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGhost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society (2007)
The story takes place in the year 2034, two years after the events in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG. Female cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi has left Public Security Section 9, an elite counter-terrorist and anti-crime unit specializing in cyber-warfare, which has expanded to a team of 20 field operatives with Togusa acting as the field lead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCyborg She (2008)
A lonely university student develops a romance with a beautiful interesting woman, who turns out to be a cyborg from the future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSteel and Lace (1991)
After her attackers go free, Gaily Morton, the victim of a vicious assault, commits suicide. Her vengeful brother, brilliant robotics engineer and scientist, Dr. Albert Morton, decides to use his skills to enact vengeance, transplanting his sister's brain into a humanoid cyborg with bone-crushing strength and an array of built-in torture devices...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & science fiction
Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Lewis, a brilliant young inventor, is keen on creating a time machine to find his mother, who abandoned him in an orphanage. Things take a turn when he meets Wilbur Robinson and his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Butterfly Effect (2004)
A young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon finds that every change he makes has unexpected consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVisiting Van Gogh (1985)
In the 22nd Century, antiquities command huge prices. A woman uses a time machine to travel back the the 19th Century in order to buy paintings from Vincent Van Gogh before he was famous. Will she be wealthy upon her return?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Like While the City Sleeps and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like While the City Sleeps?
The closest matches to While the City Sleeps are Space/Time (2025), Men in Black 3 (2012) and Monsters of Man (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after While the City Sleeps?
Start with Space/Time (2025), the closest match to While the City Sleeps.
What is the highest-rated movie like While the City Sleeps?
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (2013), rated 8.2/10 by 794 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like While the City Sleeps?
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like While the City Sleeps?
Yes: Our Times (2025).
How are movies similar to While the City Sleeps chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside While the City Sleeps, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.