Movies like First Signal (2021)
The best movies like First Signal (2021) are Proximity (2020), Star People (2025) and Quanta (2020). If First Signal hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)7.7/10 from 263 votes
- NewestSignal One (2026)Released 2026
Proximity (2020)
A young NASA JPL scientist is abducted by extraterrestrials but when no one believes his story he becomes obsessed with finding proof which leads him on a journey of discovery.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar People (2025)
A photographer receives a tip that could finally shed some light on her childhood UFO sighting. But a deadly heat wave and unexpected guests threaten to derail her obsessive search for answers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Quanta (2020)
A physicist's life-long work comes to fruition when he is reluctantly partnered with a gifted young assistant. Ego divides them when they receive an unknown signal from space.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Cosmos (2019)
Three astronomers accidentally intercept what they believe to be a signal from a distant alien civilization, but the truth is even more incredible than any of them could have imagined.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEncounter (2018)
A group of friends uncover an otherworldly object in a rural field, which they soon discover holds greater secrets than they could imagine.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAlien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997)
Matt and George investigate a series of strange occurrences involving newcomers, who are found to be programmed to carry out someone's dirty work. The method by which they are brainwashed dates back to the slave ship's rebellion group, the Udara, who, we discover, Susan was a part of. Susan and George's lives are further disrupted when Buck enrols in the police academy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Spaceship (2016)
When his daughter goes missing in an apparent alien abduction, Gabriel's search takes him dangerously close to her strange group of so-called friends. But the further he goes inside their computer game and fantasy-obsessed world, the more he realises that he must confront his own difficult memories if he is to get his daughter back.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Invasion (2020)
Two years after the fall of the alien ship, the life of a young woman from Moscow has been changed forever. Her growing powers are now at the focus of both human and celestial investigation: an alien force takes an interest in her, and will stop short of nothing, including an invasion. Can love and compassion save humanity, when faced with a much greater and more demanding test this time?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
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: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagellan (2017)
After NASA picks up a trio of mysterious signals from within our own solar system, astronaut Roger Nelson is dispatched on a multi-year solo mission aboard the Magellan spacecraft to investigate the sources.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeus (2022)
A mysterious black sphere is discovered in the orbit of Mars. The Achilles is sent to investigate. After the bedraggled six-person crew wake from eight months hibernation, the Sphere is transmitting a single word in every Earth language ever known - Deus.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisCommunion (1989)
A novelist's wife and son see him changed by an apparent encounter with aliens in the mountains.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisProject Ithaca (2019)
Five strangers awaken to find themselves trapped aboard an alien spaceship that seems to be harnessing their terror to power the ship. They begin to understand that these species have been abducting humans for decades and possibly centuries.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Beyond (2018)
Set in 2019, The Beyond chronicles the groundbreaking mission which sent astronauts - modified with advanced robotics, through a newly discovered wormhole known as the Void. When the mission returns unexpectedly, the space agency races to discover what the astronauts encountered on their first of its kind interstellar space journey.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisAstronaut: The Last Push (2012)
When a tragic accident cuts short the first manned mission to explore life on the moons of Jupiter, Michael Forrest must make the 3 year journey home to Earth in pure solitude
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Fourth Kind (2009)
Since the 1960s, a disproportionate number of the population in and around Nome, Alaska, have gone missing. Despite FBI investigations, the disappearances remain a mystery. Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist, may be on the verge of blowing the unsolved cases wide open when, during the course of treating her patients, she finds evidence of alien abductions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vast of Night (2019)
At the dawn of the space-race, two radio-obsessed teens discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien Code (2017)
After deciphering a message found in a satellite, genius cryptographer Alex Jacobs finds himself being stalked by government agents and otherworldly beings.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisEuropa Report (2013)
A crew travels to Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, to investigate signs of life in its subsurface ocean, but disaster cuts them off from Earth, leading to a tense and dangerous exploration.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCapsule (2016)
1959: Guy is an experienced British fighter pilot who is in command of Britain's first manned mission to space. He has trained for this for three years at the height of the Cold War and now he is alone in space, suffering Hypoxia, with a malfunctioning capsule. He has limited contact with the UK, some unusual communication with the US and some unorthodox communication with Tyuratam deep in Soviet Russia. Can he get home? Who will help him? Will he make the right choice?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisFire in the Sky (1993)
After clearing brush for the government, a group of men return to town claiming their friend was abducted. Despite no apparent motive or evidence of foul play, no-one believes their story and his disappearance is treated as murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove (2011)
After losing contact with Earth, Astronaut Lee Miller becomes stranded in orbit alone aboard the International Space Station. As time passes and life support systems dwindle, Lee battles to maintain his sanity - and simply stay alive. His world is a claustrophobic and lonely existence, until he makes a strange discovery aboard the ship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like this2149: The Aftermath (2016)
In an oppressive future, where everyone's only contact is their computer, one lonely young man is forced to venture forth in search of human contact.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like this2010 (1984)
While planet Earth poises on the brink of nuclear self-destruction, a team of Russian and American scientists aboard the Leonov hurtles to a rendezvous with the still-orbiting Discovery spacecraft and its sole known survivor, the homicidal computer HAL.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisStowaway (2021)
A three-person crew on a mission to Mars faces an impossible choice when an unplanned passenger jeopardizes the lives of everyone on board.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: 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 this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like First Signal?
The closest matches to First Signal are Proximity (2020), Star People (2025) and Quanta (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after First Signal?
People who watched First Signal most often go on to Proximity (2020), Star People (2025) and Quanta (2020).
What is the highest-rated movie like First Signal?
Doctor Who: Last Christmas (2014), rated 7.7/10 by 263 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like First Signal?
Signal One (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like First Signal?
Yes: Proximity (2020), Star People (2025) and Quanta (2020).
How are movies similar to First Signal chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside First Signal, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.