Movies like Roswell (1994)
The best movies like Roswell (1994) are Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The X-Files (1998) and UFO (2018). If Roswell hooked you with its science fiction and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedArrival (2016)7.6/10 from 20,159 votes
- NewestDisclosure Day (2026)Released 2026
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe X-Files (1998)
Mulder and Scully, now taken off the FBI's X Files cases, must find a way to fight the shadowy elements of the government to find out the truth about a conspiracy that might mean the alien colonization of Earth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUFO (2018)
A college student, who sees a UFO, uses his exceptional math skills to investigate the sighting with his friends while the FBI follows closely behind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fourth Kind (2009)
Since the 1960s, a disproportionate number of the population in and around Nome, Alaska, have gone missing. Despite FBI investigations, the disappearances remain a mystery. Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist, may be on the verge of blowing the unsolved cases wide open when, during the course of treating her patients, she finds evidence of alien abductions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHangar 18 (1980)
During a Space Shuttle mission a satellite rams a unidentified flying object. The UFO afterwards performs an emergency landing in the deserts of Arizona. However the White House denies its existence because of the near presidential elections. The UFO is brought to the secret Hangar 18 and the accident is blamed on the incompetence of the astronauts Bancroff and Price. But the two fight against this and try to hunt down the UFO.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisInvasion: UFO (1980)
The Earth is threatened by an alien race who kidnap and kill humans and even animals and use them for their body parts. In the year 1980 S.H.A.D.O. (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization), a highly secret military organization, is set up in the hope of defending the Earth from this alien threat. This organization operates from a secret location beneath the Harlington-Straker film studio in London. S.H.A.D.O. also has a base on the moon with Interceptors as well as an early warning satellite that detects inbound UFOs (called S.I.D.), and operate a fleet of submarines. General James Henderson and commander Ed Straker have a team of highly trained and well equipped females and males to battle the regularly incoming hostile UFOs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story (2013)
Stan Romanek is the center of the world's most documented extraterrestrial contact story, and the multitude of evidence accumulated over the past decade has convinced thousands around the world that his story is true. This documentary film takes audiences on a journey through Stan's past, present and future with one goal in mind: help the world understand that no one knowingly chooses the challenges Stan and his family have endured. This film's intention is not to prove the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrials, but it does pose the question' What if this is all true? extraordinary: the stan romanek story is about one man's evolution through a life he did not choose and the messages he is driven to deliver to mankind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEpoch (2001)
Disaster strikes as a specialised team of investigators struggle to find out the truth about a strange monolith which sends out an intercontinental signal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisH.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005)
In this modern retelling of H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi horror, civilization is laid to ruin when a super race of aliens invades Earth. In a blink of an eye, massive "walkers" cover the planet, annihilating all in their path. As cities crumble and human flesh is ripped from the bone, one man struggles to find the one weapon that will turn the tide for mankind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisDistrict 9 (2009)
Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth. Not to conquer or give aid, but to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens' welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIndependence Day (1996)
Strange phenomena surface around the globe. The skies ignite. Terror races through the world's major cities. As these extraordinary events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that a force of incredible magnitude has arrived. Its mission: total annihilation over the Fourth of July weekend. The last hope to stop the destruction is an unlikely group of people united by fate and unimaginable circumstances.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Fire in the Sky (1978)
Astronomers discover a comet that they believe will crash into Phoenix, Arizona. They attempt to warn officials, but without 100% certainty, the governor of Arizona is reticent to cause a panic. Even after a television news reporter discovers the truth and threatens to go live with it, the response is understated enough to doom some residents of Phoenix to certain death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Contact (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: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Trek: The Cage (1965)
Led by Captain Christopher Pike, the crew of the starship Enterprise investigates of a far-off planet which was the site of a shipwreck eighteen years earlier. They encounter telepathic aliens who seek a human male specimen for their menagerie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Disclosure 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: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArrival (2016)
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKnowing (2009)
A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFire in the Sky (1993)
After clearing brush for the government, a group of men return to town claiming their friend was abducted. Despite no apparent motive or evidence of foul play, no-one believes their story and his disappearance is treated as murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStarman (1984)
When an alien takes the form of a young widow's husband and asks her to drive him from Wisconsin to Arizona, the government tries to stop them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnacknowledged (2017)
Dr. Steven Greer presents brand new top-secret evidence supporting extraterrestrial contact, including witness testimony, classified documents, and UFO footage, while also exploring the consequences of ruthlessly enforcing such secrecy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rift (2012)
Since a few decades they were watching us. Studying us. What are they? Nobody knows. Nobody but Ivan Petrenko Karkarov. The Russian physicist started to study a phenomenon which was occurring since several decades. In 1982 he found an answer to the strange phenomenon but before he could tell anyone he mysteriously vanished. 30 years later, in Newell Iowa, Dean Hollister seems to be a normal guy until strange radar anomalies appear throughout the world. All of a sudden something starts to happen at the sky, black rifts appear. Behind those rifts something is moving. It's watching us.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
War of the Worlds the True Story (2012)
What if the Earth/Mars battle from H.G. Wells' classic novel The War of the Worlds wasn't fiction but actually fact? Like the famous 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast that caused Americans to believe an actual invasion was in progress, the movie assumes an Earth/Mars War in 1900 actually occurred and is presented as the first hand memoir of journalist Bertie Wells, the last living survivor as he struggles to find his wife amidst the destruction of humankind at the hands of terrifying alien invaders.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Signs (2002)
A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHarrison Bergeron (1995)
"All men are not created equal. It is the purpose of the Government to make them so." This is the premise of the Showtime film adaption of Kurt Vonnegut's futuristic short story Harrison Bergeron. The film centers around a young man (Harrison) who is smarter than his peers, and is not affected by the usual "Handicapping" which is used to train all Americans so everyone is of equal intelligence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAttack on Titan (2022)
As viable water is depleted on Earth, a mission is sent to Saturn's moon Titan to retrieve sustainable H2O reserves from its alien inhabitants. But just as the humans acquire the precious resource, they are attacked by Titan rebels, who don't trust that the Earthlings will leave in peace.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisMegaboa (2021)
On a trip to Colombia, a group of college students encounter a fifty-foot boa constrictor, hungry for blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDr. Strange (1978)
A psychiatrist becomes the new Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth in order to battle an evil Sorceress from the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like this4 Horsemen: Apocalypse (2022)
A small team of scientists must race against time to stop what seems to be a cascade of global disasters signaling the possible apocalypse and end of days.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Roswell?
The closest matches to Roswell are Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The X-Files (1998) and UFO (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Roswell?
People who watched Roswell most often go on to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The X-Files (1998) and UFO (2018).
What is the highest-rated movie like Roswell?
Arrival (2016), rated 7.6/10 by 20,159 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Roswell?
Disclosure Day (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Roswell?
Yes: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The X-Files (1998) and UFO (2018).
How are movies similar to Roswell chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Roswell, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.