Movies like The Past Is a Foreign Country (2009)
The best movies like The Past Is a Foreign Country (2009) are Flashback (2021), Man with No Past (2025) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008). If The Past Is a Foreign Country hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRaiders of the Lost Ark (1981)7.9/10 from 14,220 votes
- NewestMan with No Past (2025)Released 2025
Flashback (2021)
Frederick Fitzell is living his best life—until he starts having horrific visions of Cindy, a girl who vanished in high school. After reaching out to old friends with whom he used to take a mystery drug called Mercury, Fredrick realizes the only way to stop the visions lies deep within his own memories, so he embarks on a terrifying mental odyssey to learn the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisMan with No Past (2025)
Waking up in an unfamiliar city, a man with no memory must confront the mysteries of his own identity. However, his desperate search to uncover the past pits him against a powerful enemy, leading to a showdown that ultimately reveals the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJourney to the Center of the Earth (2008)
On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew and their mountain guide discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost City of Z (2017)
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Egyptian (1954)
In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe's personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020)
Anastasia Romanov escapes through a portal when her family is threatened by Vladimir Lenin, and she finds herself in the year 1988, befriended by a young American girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDon't Let Go (2019)
A detective suffering from a personal loss receives a call from his recently deceased niece. Being able to communicate across time, the two work together to try and stop the crime before it occurs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTimescape (1992)
Before they can complete renovations on their new country inn, a widowed father and his young daughter are visited by a strange group of tourists. He soon makes a chilling discovery: they are disaster junkies from the future who visit the past to witness history's greatest catastrophes—and his small town is their next stop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRaiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist – is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKidnapped (1971)
Scottish orphan David Balfour is betrayed by his wicked uncle Ebeneezer, who arranges for David to be kidnapped and sold into slavery so that he cannot claim his inheritance. The boy is rescued and befriended by Alan Breck, a Scottish rebel fighting on behalf of his country's independence from the British.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)
The story of Mark Felt, who under the name "Deep Throat" helped journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate scandal in 1974.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlashbacks of a Fool (2008)
An aging Hollywood star, Joe Scott, lives a life of narcissistic hedonism, observed by his laconic personal assistant, Ophelia. The death of his childhood best friend, Boots, takes our protagonist, and the movie, into an extended flashback to a sea-side town in 1970s Britain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaptain Clegg (1962)
A captain and his sailors investigate the rampaging "Marsh Phantoms" terrorizing a coastal town, but their search is hindered by a local reverend and a horrifying curse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: The Disappearing Game (2018)
Crime-solving librarian Aurora Teagarden leaps headfirst into Lawrenceton’s latest murder investigation when her nephew Phillip and his college roommate go missing after the roommate’s girlfriend is found dead. Enlisting the help of her Real Murders pals, and the handsome college professor Nick Miller who just moved in across the street from her, Roe uncovers a kidnapping plot gone awry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ninth Gate (1999)
A rare book dealer finds himself at the heart of a string of paranormal events when he is hired to find the last two copies of a text, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, capable of summoning the Devil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
Five train passengers are joined by a mysterious fortuneteller who offers to read Tarot. A quintet of stories unfold: an architect returns to his ancestral home to find a vengeful werewolf; a doctor suspects his new wife is a vampire; an intelligent vine takes over a house; a jazz musician plagiarises music from a voodoo ceremony; and a pompous art critic is pursued by a disembodied hand.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Legion (2020)
Noreno, a half-Roman, is entrusted with the mission of crossing the snowy mountains of Armenia, swarming with Parthian patrols, to seek help for his slowly dying men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Arkadin (1955)
Claiming that he doesn't know his own past, a rich man enlists an ex-con with an odd bit of detective work. Gregory Arkadin says he can't remember anything before the late 1920s, and convict Guy Van Stratten is happy to take the job of exploring his new acquaintance's life story. Guy's research turns up stunning details about his employer's past, and as his work seems linked to untimely deaths, the mystery surrounding Mr. Arkadin deepens.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHorror Express (1972)
Mysterious and unearthly deaths start to occur while Professor Saxton is transporting the frozen remains of a primitive humanoid creature he found in Manchuria back to Europe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Past Is a Foreign Country?
The closest matches to The Past Is a Foreign Country are Flashback (2021), Man with No Past (2025) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Past Is a Foreign Country?
Start with Flashback (2021), the closest match to The Past Is a Foreign Country.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Past Is a Foreign Country?
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), rated 7.9/10 by 14,220 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Past Is a Foreign Country?
Man with No Past (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Past Is a Foreign Country?
Yes: Flashback (2021), Man with No Past (2025) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008).
How are movies similar to The Past Is a Foreign Country chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Past Is a Foreign Country, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.