Movies like The Cognitive Era (2018)
The best movies like The Cognitive Era (2018) are Inner Workings (2016), South Park: Joining the Panderverse (2023) and Rejected (2000). If The Cognitive Era hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)8.1/10 from 16,974 votes
- NewestDigger (2026)Released 2026
Inner Workings (2016)
This is the story of the internal struggle between a man's Brain—a pragmatic protector who calculates his every move, and his Heart—a free-spirited adventurer who wants to let loose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSouth Park: Joining the Panderverse (2023)
Cartman's deeply disturbing dreams portend the end of the life he knows and loves. Meanwhile, the adults in South Park are wrestling with their own life decisions, as the advent of AI is turning their world upside down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRejected (2000)
In the spring of 1999, the Family Learning Channel commissioned animator Don Hertzfeldt to produce promotional segments for their network. The cartoons were completed in five weeks. The Family Learning Channel rejected all of them upon review, and they were never aired...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSafety Not Guaranteed (2012)
Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPutney Swope (1969)
Swope—the only black man on the executive board of an advertising firm—is accidentally put in charge after the death of the chairman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEx Machina (2015)
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle (2019)
Jordan Sanders, a take-no-prisoners tech mogul, wakes up one morning in the body of her 13-year-old self right before a do-or-die presentation. Her beleaguered assistant April is the only one in on the secret that her daily tormentor is now trapped in an awkward tween body, just as everything is on the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTom & Jerry (2021)
Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse get kicked out of their home and relocate to a fancy New York hotel, where a scrappy employee named Kayla will lose her job if she can’t evict Jerry before a high-class wedding at the hotel. Her solution? Hiring Tom to get rid of the pesky mouse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Social Dilemma (2020)
This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEquals (2015)
A futuristic love story set in a world where emotions have been eradicated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBig (1988)
When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big, he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight, but he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups, including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeconds (1966)
An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity; one that comes with its own price.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI'm All Right Jack (1959)
Naive Stanley Windrush looks for a career in a family business. Much to his dismay, he finds work at a munitions factory where he has to start from the bottom, while both the management and the labor union use him as a tool in their fight for power.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDigger (2026)
The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity's savior before the disaster he's unleashed destroys everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnger Management (2003)
After a small misunderstanding aboard an airplane escalates out of control, timid businessman Dave Buznik is ordered by the court to undergo anger management therapy at the hands of specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell. But when Buddy steps up his aggressive treatment by moving in, Dave goes from mild to wild as the unorthodox treatment wreaks havoc with his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSwan Song (2021)
In the near future, Cameron Turner is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Presented with an experimental solution to shield his wife and son from grief, he grapples with altering their fate in this thought-provoking exploration of love, loss, and sacrifice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhitney Cummings: Can I Touch It? (2019)
In her fourth stand-up special, Whitney Cummings returns to her hometown of Washington, D.C., and riffs on modern feminism, technology and more.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like The Cognitive Era and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Cognitive Era?
The closest matches to The Cognitive Era are Inner Workings (2016), South Park: Joining the Panderverse (2023) and Rejected (2000). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Cognitive Era?
Start with Inner Workings (2016), the closest match to The Cognitive Era.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Cognitive Era?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), rated 8.1/10 by 16,974 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Cognitive Era?
Digger (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Cognitive Era?
Yes: Inner Workings (2016), South Park: Joining the Panderverse (2023) and Rejected (2000).
How are movies similar to The Cognitive Era chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Cognitive Era, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.