Movies like The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
The best movies like The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) are Never Let Me Go (2010), Upside Down (2012) and On the Beach (1959). If The World, the Flesh and the Devil hooked you with its drama and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFirebird (2021)7.4/10 from 255 votes
- NewestWhen I'm Ready (2025)Released 2025
Never Let Me Go (2010)
As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy spend their childhood at an idyllic and secluded English boarding school. As they grow into adults, they must come to terms with the complexity and strength of their love for one another while also preparing for the haunting reality awaiting them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpside Down (2012)
In an alternate universe where twinned worlds have opposite gravities, a young man battles interplanetary prejudice and the laws of physics in his quest to reunite with the long-lost girl of his dreams in this visually stunning romantic adventure that poses the question: what if love was stronger than gravity?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn the Beach (1959)
In 1964, atomic war wipes out humanity in the northern hemisphere; one American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia, where life-as-usual covers growing despair. In denial about the loss of his wife and children in the holocaust, American Captain Towers meets careworn but gorgeous Moira Davidson, who begins to fall for him. The sub returns after reconnaissance a month (or less) before the end; will Towers and Moira find comfort with each other?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEquals (2015)
A futuristic love story set in a world where emotions have been eradicated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhen I'm Ready (2025)
It's the end of the world. Seeking meaning and thrills in their last days alive, Rose and Michael embark on a cross-country road trip to see Rose's grandmother as a devastating asteroid threatens to wipe out life on Earth. Along the way they encounter other lost souls, each with their own very different perspective on the impending doom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTestament (1983)
It's just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks — many suffer radiation poisoning — the Wetherly family tries to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Giver (2014)
In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Place in the Sun (1951)
A young social climber wins the heart of a beautiful heiress but his former girlfriend's pregnancy stands in the way of his ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFirebird (2021)
At the height of the Cold War, a troubled soldier forms a forbidden love triangle with a daring fighter pilot and his female comrade amid the dangerous surroundings of a Soviet Air Force Base.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrooklyn (2015)
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFahrenheit 451 (1966)
In the future, the government maintains control of public opinion by outlawing literature and maintaining a group of enforcers, known as “firemen,” to perform the necessary book burnings. Fireman Montag begins to question the morality of his vocation…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe House of Mirth (2000)
In early 20th century New York City, an impoverished socialite desperately seeks a suitable husband as she gradually finds herself betrayed by her friends and exiled from high society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Easily Broken (2009)
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRebel in the Rye (2017)
The life of celebrated but reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who gained worldwide fame with the publication of his novel The Catcher in the Rye.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day After (1983)
In the mid-1980s, the U.S. is poised on the brink of nuclear war. This shadow looms over the residents of a small town in Kansas as they continue their daily lives. Dr. Russell Oakes maintains his busy schedule at the hospital, Denise Dahlberg prepares for her upcoming wedding, and Stephen Klein is deep in his graduate studies. When the unthinkable happens and the bombs come down, the town's residents are thrust into the horrors of nuclear winter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWest Side Story (1961)
In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIt Ends with Us (2024)
When a woman's first love suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with a charming, but abusive neurosurgeon is upended, and she realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Eyre (1943)
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn the Beach (2000)
The world has finally managed to blow itself up and only Australia has been spared from nuclear destruction and a gigantic wave of radiation is floating in on the breezes. One American sub located in the Pacific has survived and is met with disdain by the Australians. The calculations of Australia's most renowned scientist says the country is doomed. However, one of his rivals says that he is wrong. He believes that 1000 people can be relocated to the northern hemisphere, where his assumptions indicate the radiation levels may be lower. The American Captain is asked to take a mission to the north to determine which scientist is right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Prince of Tides (1991)
A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrazy/Beautiful (2001)
At Pacific Palisades High, a poor Latino falls hard for a troubled girl from the affluent neighborhood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Could Happen to You (1994)
Charlie Lang is a simple, kindhearted New York City cop. When he realizes he has no money to tip waitress Yvonne Biasi, Lang offers her half the winnings of his lottery ticket. Amazingly, the ticket happens to be a winner, in the sum of $4 million. True to his word, Lang proceeds to share the prize money with Biasi, which infuriates his greedy wife, Muriel. Not content with the arrangement, Muriel begins scheming to take all the money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStepmom (1998)
Jackie is a divorced mother of two. Isabel is the career minded girlfriend of Jackie’s ex-husband Luke, forced into the role of unwelcome stepmother to their children. But when Jackie discovers she is ill, both women realise they must put aside their differences to find a common ground and celebrate life to the fullest, while they have the chance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelizaire the Cajun (1986)
In 19th-century Louisiana's Cajun country, Belizaire is the informal spokesman for his citizens, who don't see eye to eye with local racists who wish to eradicate all Cajuns. Complicating matters is that Belizaire's former flame is now married to his biggest rival, an affluent landowner's son. Before he knows it, Belizaire is caught up in a web of murder, lies, and prejudice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Rounders (1998)
Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy, just out of prison and owing lots of money to the wrong kind of people. McDermott becomes his co-guarantor and now there's only one way to raise the money, the pair have to get back into the game.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMickey Blue Eyes (1999)
An English auctioneer proposes to the daughter of a mafia kingpin, only to realize that certain "favors" would be asked of him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisCadillac Man (1990)
Joe's a car salesman with a problem—he has two days to sell 12 cars or he loses his job. This would be a difficult task at the best of times but Joe has to contend with his girlfriends (he's two-timing), a missing teenage daughter and an ex-wife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMolly Bawn (1916)
Molly Bawn. British silent drama movie. Directed by Cecil M Hepworth. Starring Alma Taylor, Stewart Rome an Violet Hopson. adaptation of the1878 Irish novel of the same name by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. Molly Bawn the novel by M. W. Hungerford contains her most famous idiom: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It is also referenced in chapter 8 of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The World, the Flesh and the Devil?
The closest matches to The World, the Flesh and the Devil are Never Let Me Go (2010), Upside Down (2012) and On the Beach (1959). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The World, the Flesh and the Devil?
Start with Never Let Me Go (2010), the closest match to The World, the Flesh and the Devil.
What is the highest-rated movie like The World, the Flesh and the Devil?
Firebird (2021), rated 7.4/10 by 255 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The World, the Flesh and the Devil?
When I'm Ready (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The World, the Flesh and the Devil?
Yes: Never Let Me Go (2010), Upside Down (2012) and On the Beach (1959).
How are movies similar to The World, the Flesh and the Devil chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The World, the Flesh and the Devil, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.