Movies like Space Elevator (2021)
The best movies like Space Elevator (2021) are Explorers (1985), The Fountainhead (1949) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). If Space Elevator hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Space Elevator
Quick picks
- Highest ratedProject Hail Mary (2026)8.6/10 from 8,772 votes
- NewestProject Hail Mary (2026)Released 2026
Explorers (1985)
Middle schooler Ben spends his free time watching sci-fi films, playing video games and reading comic books. Surprisingly, his affinity for all things fantastical yields a real result – when he has a vivid dream about technology, his prodigy best friend Wolfgang manages to create a working spacecraft. Joined by their buddy Darren, the boys take off into outer space and encounter some very odd extraterrestrial life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fountainhead (1949)
An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlingshot (2024)
An elite trio of astronauts aboard a years-long, possibly compromised mission to Saturn's moon, Titan, gears up for a highly dangerous slingshot manoeuvre that will either catapult them to Titan or into deep space.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
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 this2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForbidden Planet (1956)
Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for twenty years. They find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
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 thisMoonshot (2022)
In a future where Mars is terraformed and colonized by the best humanity has to offer, two very different college students wind up joining forces and sneak onboard a space shuttle to the red planet in order to be united with their significant others.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSeeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)
As an asteroid nears Earth, a man finds himself alone after his wife leaves in a panic. He decides to take a road trip to reunite with his high school sweetheart. Accompanying him is a neighbor who inadvertently puts a wrench in his plan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpaceman (2024)
Six months into a solo mission, a lonely astronaut confronts the cracks in his marriage with help from a mysterious creature he discovers on his ship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBreaking and Entering (2006)
Set in a blighted, inner-city neighbourhood of London, Breaking and Entering examines an affair which unfolds between a successful British landscape architect and Amira, a Bosnian woman – the mother of a troubled teen son – who was widowed by the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adjustment Bureau (2011)
A man glimpses the future Fate has planned for him – and chooses to fight for his own destiny. Battling the powerful Adjustment Bureau across, under and through the streets of New York, he risks his destined greatness to be with the only woman he's ever loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlien: Containment (2019)
Aboard a small escape pod, four survivors try to discover what caused the destruction of their spaceship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Trek Into Darkness (2013)
When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDope (2015)
Malcolm is carefully surviving life in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles while juggling college applications, academic interviews, and the SAT. A chance invitation to an underground party leads him into an adventure that could allow him to go from being a geek, to being dope, to ultimately being himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHer (2013)
In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every need. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Space Elevator?
The closest matches to Space Elevator are Explorers (1985), The Fountainhead (1949) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Space Elevator?
Start with Explorers (1985), the closest match to Space Elevator.
What is the highest-rated movie like Space Elevator?
Project Hail Mary (2026), rated 8.6/10 by 8,772 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Space Elevator?
Project Hail Mary (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Space Elevator chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Space Elevator, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.