Movies like The Volunteer (2020)
The best movies like The Volunteer (2020) are Project: ALF (1996), Pitch Black (2000) and Long Distance (2024). If The Volunteer hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedProject Hail Mary (2026)8.6/10 from 8,839 votes
- NewestSignal One (2026)Released 2026
Project: ALF (1996)
Six years ago, the lovable intergalactic fugitive Gordon Shumway, best known as ALF, was on his way back to his new home when the Alien Task Force finally caught up with him. Now, he is being studied at a top-secret military base where he finds allies who feel that ALF's existence should be announced to the world to ensure his safety... especially when they learn that the abrasive Colonel Milfoil wants ALF, and all Alien Life-Forms, destroyed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPitch Black (2000)
When their ship crash-lands on a remote planet, the marooned passengers soon learn that escaped convict Riddick isn't the only thing they have to fear. Deadly creatures lurk in the shadows, waiting to attack in the dark, and the planet is rapidly plunging into the utter blackness of a total eclipse. With the body count rising, the doomed survivors are forced to turn to Riddick with his eerie eyes to guide them through the darkness to safety. With time running out, there's only one rule: Stay in the light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLong Distance (2024)
After crash-landing on an alien planet, an asteroid miner must contend with the challenges of his new surroundings, while making his way across the harsh terrain to the only other survivor – a woman who is trapped in her escape pod.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAsteroid: Final Impact (2015)
A deadly meteor storm has been labeled a one-time celestial occurrence, but astrophysicist Steve Thomas believes something worse is yet to come. After discovering his asteroid tracking satellite is secretly being used for military surveillance, Steve leaks the truth to the press, and it costs him his reputation, his job, and his friends. With the backlash of being a whistle-blower, the pressure threatens to tear his family apart, just when Steve discovers a threat to the entire planet: a giant dark asteroid invisible to current detection systems will soon strike the Earth. Barred from using his own satellite to prove the asteroid's existence, Steve is forced to work in the shadows in a desperate attempt to save humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoppelgänger (1969)
A planet is discovered in the same orbit as Earth's but is located on the exact opposite side of the sun, making it not visible from Earth. The European Space Exploration Council decide to send American astronaut Glenn Ross and British scientist John Kane via spaceship to explore the other planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Star (1974)
A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSolaris (2002)
A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaul (2011)
For the past 60 years, a space-traveling smart-ass named Paul has been locked up in a top-secret military base, advising world leaders about his kind. But when he worries he’s outlived his usefulness and the dissection table is drawing uncomfortably close, Paul escapes on the first RV that passes by his compound in Area 51. Fortunately, it contains the two earthlings who are most likely to rescue and harbor an alien on the run.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSignal One (2026)
A computer scientist is invited by a tech billionaire to join his private facility on a Caribbean island to investigate extraterrestrial matter on Earth. When they make contact beyond our world, chaos erupts as we’re left to wonder: do they come in peace?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGravity (2013)
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGreenland 2: Migration (2026)
Having found the safety of the Greenland bunker after the comet Clarke decimated the Earth, the Garrity family must now risk everything to embark on a perilous journey across the wasteland of Europe to find a new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Arrival (1996)
Zane Ziminski is an astrophysicist who receives a message that seems to have extraterrestrial origins. Eerily soon after his discovery, Zane is fired. He then embarks on a search to determine the origins of the transmission that leads him into a Hitchcockian labyrinth of paranoia and intrigue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood and Snow (2023)
When researchers rescue a fellow scientist who survived a meteorite strike in the Arctic, they discover she may not be who they think she is. Is she some-how changed?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProject Hail Mary (2026)
Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGreenland (2020)
John Garrity, his estranged wife and their young son embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary as a planet-killing comet hurtles toward Earth. Amid terrifying accounts of cities getting levelled, the Garritys experience the best and worst in humanity. As the countdown to the global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Island Earth (1955)
Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiet Earth (1985)
After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien (1979)
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisI Am Mother (2019)
A teenage girl is raised underground by a robot "Mother", designed to repopulate the earth following an extinction event. But their unique bond is threatened when an inexplicable stranger arrives with alarming news.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Volunteer?
The closest matches to The Volunteer are Project: ALF (1996), Pitch Black (2000) and Long Distance (2024). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Volunteer?
Start with Project: ALF (1996), the closest match to The Volunteer.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Volunteer?
Project Hail Mary (2026), rated 8.6/10 by 8,839 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Volunteer?
Signal One (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Volunteer?
Yes: Project: ALF (1996), Pitch Black (2000) and Long Distance (2024).
How are movies similar to The Volunteer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Volunteer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.