Movies like Searching for Life (2018)
The best movies like Searching for Life (2018) are Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020), Interstellar: Nolan's Odyssey (2014) and Aquaman: Heroines of Atlantis (2019). If Searching for Life hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Searching for Life
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSelena Gomez: My Mind & Me (2022)8.4/10 from 623 votes
- NewestFrance 2100, le pourquoi du comment (2026)Released 2026
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020)
This remarkable journey across our planet and universe explores how meteorites, shooting stars, and deep impacts have awoken our wonder about other realms—and make us rethink our destinies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInterstellar: Nolan's Odyssey (2014)
A look behind the lens of Christopher Nolan's space epic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAquaman: Heroines of Atlantis (2019)
Amber Heard and Nicole Kidman discuss their characters Mera and Atlanna.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSelena Gomez: My Mind & Me (2022)
After years in the limelight, Selena Gomez achieves unimaginable stardom. But just as she reaches a new peak, an unexpected turn pulls her into darkness. This uniquely raw and intimate documentary spans her six-year journey into a new light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAbove Majestic (2018)
A look at the origins, history and conspiracies behind the "Majestic 12", a clandestine group of military and corporate figureheads charged with reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAs I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSecrets of the Neanderthals (2024)
This documentary delves into the mysteries surrounding the Neanderthals and what their fossil record tells us about their lives and disappearance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEvil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story (2025)
Unravel the case of Utah therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, whose child abuse arrest with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke exposed a twisted tale of manipulation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Devil and Daniel Johnston (2006)
This 2005 documentary film chronicles the life of Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his mental illness and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obsession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Inconvenient Truth (2006)
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Captains (2011)
The Captains is a feature-length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors who have portrayed starship captains in the Star Trek franchise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpace Station 3D (2002)
Some 220 miles above Earth lies the International Space Station, a one-of-a-kind outer space laboratory that 16 nations came together to build. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this extraordinary structure in this spectacular IMAX film. Viewers will blast off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia for this incredible journey -- IMAX's first-ever space film. Tom Cruise narrates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNaqoyqatsi (2002)
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeepsea Challenge 3D (2014)
Described as being a film about determination, danger and the ocean’s greatest depths, James Cameron's "Deepsea Challenge 3D" tells the story of Cameron’s journey to fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming an explorer. The movie offers a unique insight into Cameron's world as he makes that dream reality – and makes history – by becoming the first person to travel solo to the deepest point on the planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJustin Bieber's Believe (2013)
A backstage and on-stage look at Justin Bieber during his rise to super stardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPowaqqatsi (1988)
An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Curious Birth of Benjamin Button (2009)
A documentary about the making of David Fincher's 2008 film THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Virtually every element in the evolution of the Fincher's film is documented here, from the project's attachment to numerous other directors during the 1990s, to its shoot in 2006 and 2007 in New Orleans, to its complex, CGI-intensive postproduction process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Summers of It - Chapter Two: It Ends (2019)
This documentary focuses on the actors and their journey over two summers to create the remake to the original IT, by Stephen King. The documentary originally released as bonus material, bundled with IT: Chapter Two.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExtraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story (2013)
Stan Romanek is the center of the world's most documented extraterrestrial contact story, and the multitude of evidence accumulated over the past decade has convinced thousands around the world that his story is true. This documentary film takes audiences on a journey through Stan's past, present and future with one goal in mind: help the world understand that no one knowingly chooses the challenges Stan and his family have endured. This film's intention is not to prove the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrials, but it does pose the question' What if this is all true? extraordinary: the stan romanek story is about one man's evolution through a life he did not choose and the messages he is driven to deliver to mankind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSatan’s Top Forty (2001)
Documentary on Heavy Metal music featuring Adam Sandler, Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons and Ronnie Dio. Produced for the "Little Nicky" Special Edition DVD.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Trouble with Antibiotics (2014)
FRONTLINE investigates the widespread use of antibiotics in food animals and whether it is fueling the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance in people. Also this hour: An exclusive interview with the family of a young man who died in a nightmare bacteria outbreak that swept through a hospital at the National Institutes of Health.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
France 2100, le pourquoi du comment (2026)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Our Little One (2023)
Warm, poetic, educational, and emotional story will paint for us the phenomenon of Dražen Petrović, one of the greatest basketball players in the world who, despite his premature death, left an incredible mark on people's lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Dynasty (2025)
The Dynasty by the Direkt36 investigative center tells the story of the business dealings of the Prime Minister’s family over several decades. With hidden camera footage, it also shows the luxurious world built by Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law István Tiborcz and his daughter Ráhel Orbán.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
My Prague Spring (1993)
In its "velvet revolution" of 1989, the people of Czechoslovakia toppled its communist dictatorship and embraced democracy and capitalism. By January 1993, the country had peacefully split in two. In the early 1990s, thousands of American college graduates began flocking to Prague, where they could postpone entering the "real world," and live cheaply in a beautiful undiscovered European city. Throughout that decade more and more tourists crossed the statue-lined Charles Bridge in search of old world beauty previously hidden by communist isolation. But what of the people who cross the Charles Bridge on their way to work every morning? Who are the Czechs? What is their history? What is their future? My Prague Spring is an award-winning film that vividly humanizes a resilient people who have survived a tumultuous history. In the spring of 1990, a Czech-American filmmaker spent four months living with his Czech relatives, and opened an intimate window into an uncertain world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Batman & Bill (2017)
Everyone thinks that Bob Kane created Batman, but that’s not the whole truth. One author makes it his crusade to make it known that Bill Finger, a struggling writer, actually helped invent the iconic superhero, from concept to costume to the very character we all know and love. Bruce Wayne may be Batman’s secret identity, but his creator was always a true mystery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Spell of the Yukon (1996)
This documentary tells the haunting story of the Klondike Gold Rush in legendary Dawson City. Peppered with Robert Service poems read by New Zealand-born Hollywood actor Russell Crowe, the film recounts how stampedes of fortune seekers came to the Yukon from far and wide in 1897. Less than half of the 100,000 adventurers ever finished the treacherous journey. Archival photographs re-create the saga of the Klondike, including stories from the deadly Chilkoot Pass and Dawson City itself, where fortunes were made and lost overnight. With a personal stake and a sense of wonder, filmmaker Rita Roy discovers a territory still vibrant with legends, and miners still panning for gold under the spell of the harsh yet stunning wilderness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Living Worlds (2021)
What forms might life take in the Solar System and beyond? In the Academy's newest original planetarium show, see how a deeper understanding of Earth might help us locate other living worlds, light years away.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Searching for Life?
The closest matches to Searching for Life are Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020), Interstellar: Nolan's Odyssey (2014) and Aquaman: Heroines of Atlantis (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Searching for Life?
Start with Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020), the closest match to Searching for Life.
What is the highest-rated movie like Searching for Life?
Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (2022), rated 8.4/10 by 623 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Searching for Life?
France 2100, le pourquoi du comment (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Searching for Life?
Yes: Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020), Interstellar: Nolan's Odyssey (2014) and Aquaman: Heroines of Atlantis (2019).
How are movies similar to Searching for Life chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Searching for Life, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.