Movies like E.T. Made in China (2018)
The best movies like E.T. Made in China (2018) are Vesper (2022), Resurrection (2025) and Jonathan (2018). If E.T. Made in China hooked you with its science fiction and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)8.0/10 from 251 votes
- NewestResurrection (2025)Released 2025
- In ChineseResurrection (2025)Also in Chinese
Vesper (2022)
After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her paralyzed Father, meets a mysterious Woman with a secret that forces Vesper to use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the possibility of a future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResurrection (2025)
In a world where humanity has lost the ability to dream in exchange for eternal life, one creature remains entranced by the fading illusions of the dreamworld. This monster, adrift in reverie, clings to visions no one else can see - until a woman appears. As she allows him to dream one final time, his life of different identities is replayed as they journey through his century of existence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJonathan (2018)
Jonathan is a young man with a strange condition that only his brother understands. But when he begins to yearn for a different life, their unique bond becomes increasingly tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like this2073 (2024)
Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStargate SG-1: Children of the Gods (2009)
An alien similar to Ra appears out of the Stargate, killing five soldiers and kidnapping another, a year after the original Stargate mission. A new team is assembled, including some old members, and they go in search of the missing soldier in order to find out how Ra could still be alive. Meanwhile, the alien Goa'uld kidnap Sha're and Skaara, implanting them with symbiotes and making them Goa'uld hosts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)
The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way the Eleventh Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWarriors of Future (2022)
When a meteor carrying a destructive plant strikes the world, a suicide squad is given hours to save their post-apocalyptic city from total collapse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLight of My Life (2019)
Years after a pandemic wipes out most of the female population, a father struggles to shield his daughter from a dangerous and predatory world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: Deep Breath (2014)
The newly-regenerated Doctor arrives in Victorian London, and Clara Oswald struggles to embrace the man he has become. All the while, they reunite with the Paternoster Gang to investigate a series of combustions that have been occurring all around the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOmni Loop (2024)
Diagnosed with a black hole growing inside her chest and stuck in a loop reliving the last five days of her life, a 55-year-old wife and mother from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMass Effect: Paragon Lost (2012)
An untold chapter in the Mass Effect saga, following the early career of Alliance Marine, James Vega, as he leads a squad of elite special forces into battle against a mysterious alien threat known as The Collectors. Stationed at a colony in a remote star system, Vega and his troops must protect the inhabitants from an invasion of the deadly insectoid warriors determined to collect the population for unknown purposes. Soon after the attack, Vega's commanding officer falls in battle, forcing the young officer to embrace the responsibility of leadership for the colony's survival. Having idolized Earth's greatest hero and warrior, Commander Shepard (the central character in the Mass Effect video games), the young and idealistic Vega must now make life and the death decisions that will effect not only the lives of his squad, but the lives of every person in the colony - all of whom he has sworn to protect...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (2002)
After being punished for retreat from combat, Ranger David Martel is given command of the Liandra, a haunted 20-year old Minbari fighting ship. He's escorting ambassadors to a secret archaeological site, the oldest city on record and a clue to a dangerous ancient race.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBureau 749 (2024)
A traumatized young man with physical abnormalities is forced to join a mysterious bureau to confront a disaster spreading across the earth caused by an unknown creature. He embarks on an adventure uncovering mysteries about his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEarth to Echo (2014)
After a construction project begins digging in their neighbourhood, best friends Tuck, Munch and Alex inexplicably begin to receive strange, encoded messages on their cell phones. Convinced something bigger is going on, they go to their parents and the authorities. The three embark on a secret adventure to crack the code and follow it to its source, and discover a mysterious being from another world who desperately needs their help. The journey that follows will change all their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisF.R.E.D.I. (2018)
An intelligent, lovable robot known as "F.R.E.D.I." is stolen from a secret research facility by the project's lead scientist. The robot is found by a 15 year old teenager, James. Soon the two begin to communicate and create a bond in which F.R.E.D.I. learns about teenage life and James learns about some new values.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio (2016)
When brain-swapping aliens attack New York, the Doctor and Nardole link up with an investigative reporter and a mysterious masked superhero known only as the Ghost. Can the Doctor save Manhattan? And what will be revealed when we see behind the mask?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Primevals (2023)
Deep in the Himalayas, a group of sherpas kills a gigantic humanoid creature. Convinced that it is the legendary Yeti, Dr. Claire Collier organizes an expedition with her former student Matt Connor and hunter Rondo Montana, among others, to search for more specimens. But what awaits them is something that none of them could have imagined. A colorful fusion of real image and stop-motion that is reminiscent of fantastic films from the 1980s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Alone (2015)
An unknown virus begins to spread infecting the local population almost instantly, but footage found by the CDC of one man's survival may just help them find a cure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & drama
Girls in the Psychic Club (2014)
Nobuhiro Yamashita shoots the adaption of the City Lights manga by Hiroyuki Ohashi with three members of the Nogizaka46 idol pop band. The story is told on three levels: Documentary-style on-set where we see the film being made and the idols struggling with their roles, the resulting movie which revolves around three girls in a psychic research club discovering a classmate with super powers who turns out to be an alien and a stage adaptation of the film with the same characters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & science fiction
Cicuta (2002)
Pseudo-documentary style drama about drug addicts. In Kyiv, a dealer named Baroque receives an unknown psychedelic that opens access to another dimension.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Dirk Diggler Story (1988)
A mockumentary short film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson at age seventeen. Presented as a behind-the-scenes television profile, it chronicles the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, a well-endowed porn star whose fame and fortune spiral into drug abuse and tragedy. Modeled on real-life adult film actor John Holmes, the film serves as an early prototype for Anderson’s later feature Boogie Nights (1997).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Necessary Death (2008)
"Documentary Filmmaker looking for suicidal individual to follow from first preparation to final act." Cut from 142 video tapes, this project sheds light on the tragedy following the infamous Internet ad.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
2035: The Greenlight (2023)
In 2025, South and North Korea unified. It was triggered by a sudden explosion in Midnight near the North of DMZ by a forest fire in December, 2024. The South Korean army unwittingly ended up helping to put out the fire. Such cooperation caused their unification. And 10 years later, A koreanAmerican Documentary Director Steven, working for USA tv-station NXN visits to korea. He is searching for information about the mysterical Green-light appeared in that forest fire in 2024. After some dangerous twists and turns, He found a huge secret of the DMZ fire and green light.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Surprise (2019)
Mike purchases a faulty camera on the cheap to record his girlfriend's surprise birthday party only for it to stick on record and capture a series of hilarious and at times cringe-worthy secrets from the unwitting guests.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Don't F**k with Ghosts (2024)
Filmmaking duo Adam and Stu, convinced they need to capitalize on the next paranormal phenomenon, embark on a journey to prove that ghosts are real.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
War of the Worlds (2025)
Will Radford is a top analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him... and from the rest of the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisGeneration Necktie (2025)
A film crew follows three aimlessly idealistic skateboarders and their families as they claw for direction in their mundane suburban lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like E.T. Made in China and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like E.T. Made in China?
The closest matches to E.T. Made in China are Vesper (2022), Resurrection (2025) and Jonathan (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after E.T. Made in China?
Start with Vesper (2022), the closest match to E.T. Made in China.
What is the highest-rated movie like E.T. Made in China?
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 251 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like E.T. Made in China?
Resurrection (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like E.T. Made in China?
Yes: Resurrection (2025), Warriors of Future (2022) and Bureau 749 (2024).
How are movies similar to E.T. Made in China chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside E.T. Made in China, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.