Movies like The Day After (1983)
The best movies like The Day After (1983) are On the Beach (2000), Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006) and Testament (1983). If The Day After 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 ratedMoon (2009)7.6/10 from 6,632 votes
- NewestRedwood Diaries (2026)Released 2026
On 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 thisMeltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)
Despite scientist Nathan's warnings, his boss continues an experiment meant as publicity for his satellite firm: exploding an asteroid. Instead it splits, and the major piece, the size of Iceland, changes course to earth. It is deflected but so close that it shift our course closer to the sun, causing rapid extreme heating, hopefully only mid-term. Nathan warns his sister, TV journalist Carly, and she her lover, police detective Tom. He brings his unruly daughter Kim, her ex-con lover C.J. and her mother, nurse Bonnie, when Nathan offers a flight to a friend's Arctic weather station. Tom takes charge of a dangerous trip to the airport, as everywhere on earth things catch fire and people fight for water, transport and sheer looting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
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 thisFive (1951)
The film's storyline involves five survivors, one woman and four men, of an atomic bomb disaster. The five come together at a remote, isolated hillside house, where they try to figure out how to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFail Safe (2000)
Cold War tensions climb to a fever pitch when a U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered to drop a nuclear warhead on Moscow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Andromeda Strain (1971)
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisColossal (2017)
A woman discovers that severe catastrophic events are somehow connected to the mental breakdown from which she's suffering.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWar for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Devil's Arithmetic (1999)
An American-born Jewish adolescent, Hannah Stern, is uninterested in the culture, faith and customs of her relatives. However, she begins to revaluate her heritage when she has a supernatural experience that transports her back to a Nazi death camp in 1941. There she meets a young girl named Rivkah, a fellow captive in the camp. As Rivkah and Hannah struggle to survive in the face of daily atrocities, they form an unbreakable bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 thisContagion (2011)
As an epidemic of a lethal airborne virus - that kills within days - rapidly grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTHX 1138 (1971)
People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoon (2009)
With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, Sam Bell is eager to return to Earth. Stationed alone at a Moon-based facility with his computer assistant GERTY, an unexpected accident sets off a series of unsettling events that shake his isolation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWarGames (1983)
High school student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Department of Defense's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his friend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrexit: The Uncivil War (2019)
Political strategist Dominic Cummings leads a popular but controversial campaign to convince British voters to leave the European Union from 2015 up until the present day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidnight Special (2016)
A father and son go on the run after the dad learns his child possesses special powers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHomeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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 thisThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHer Study of a Killer (2023)
A group of Liberty High School's alumni are preparing for their fifteen-year reunion when the death of one of their most beloved teachers starts a chain of events filled with secrets and revenge no one expects.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Red Nightmare (1962)
A man takes his American freedoms for granted, until he wakes up one morning to find out that the United States Government has been replaced with a Communist system. The basis for this short film, narrated by Jack Webb, is the alleged Soviet re-creation of US communities for the purpose of training infiltrators, spies, and moles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & science fiction
Sabotaging the Squad (2023)
Missy discovers the coveted role she's scored as head coach of her daughter's cheer squad comes with a deadly price.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love Me (2025)
In a story that spans billions of years, a buoy and a satellite meet online long after humanity’s extinction. As they learn what life was like on Earth, they discover themselves and what it means to be alive and in love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRedwood Diaries (2026)
When strange entries begin appearing in her diary written in handwriting that isn't hers, new student Evie Quinn is pulled into a chilling mystery as the messages reveal secrets, predict impossible events, and point toward a truth someone has desperately tried to bury.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Armageddon (1998)
When an asteroid threatens to collide with Earth, NASA honcho Dan Truman determines the only way to stop it is to drill into its surface and detonate a nuclear bomb. This leads him to renowned driller Harry Stamper, who agrees to helm the dangerous space mission provided he can bring along his own hotshot crew. Among them is the cocksure A.J. who Harry thinks isn't good enough for his daughter, until the mission proves otherwise.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUp the Down Staircase (1967)
Sylvia, a novice schoolteacher, is hired to teach English in a high school, but she’s met with an apathetic faculty, a delinquent student body and an administration that drowns its staff in paperwork. The following days go from bad to worse as Sylvia struggles to reach her most troubled students.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Memories (1995)
Three back-to-back anime films by three different directors make up this sci-fi trilogy three years in the making.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLong Day's Journey Into Night (1962)
An Irish miser, his morphine addicted wife, their debauched older son, and a gravely ill younger son. A quiet Connecticut vacation home on one foggy day in August 1912 becomes the backdrop for domestic decline.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTales That Witness Madness (1973)
Enigmatic asylum owner Dr Tremayne houses four very special cases. Visited by his colleague Nicholas, Tremayne explains his amazing and controversial theories as to why each patient went mad, be they a ritualistic 'luau', a time-travelling bicycle, a toy tiger, and a tree stump.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Day After?
The closest matches to The Day After are On the Beach (2000), Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006) and Testament (1983). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Day After?
Start with On the Beach (2000), the closest match to The Day After.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Day After?
Moon (2009), rated 7.6/10 by 6,632 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Day After?
Redwood Diaries (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Day After?
Yes: On the Beach (2000), Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006) and Testament (1983).
How are movies similar to The Day After chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Day After, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.