Movies like The War of the Worlds (1953)
The best movies like The War of the Worlds (1953) are Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Day of the Triffids (1963). If The War of the Worlds hooked you with its science fiction and action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPlanet of the Apes (1968)7.7/10 from 4,192 votes
- NewestH.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005)Released 2005
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)
Test space rockets exploding at liftoff and increased reporting of UFO sightings culminate in a direct attempt by alien survivors of a dead, extra-galactic civilization to invade Earth from impervious flying saucers, using ray-weapons of mass destruction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing from Another World (1951)
Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day of the Triffids (1963)
After an unusual meteor shower leaves most of the human population blind, a merchant navy officer must find a way to conquer tall, aggressive plants which are feeding on people and animals.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattle in Outer Space (1959)
In 1965, the space station JSS-3 is destroyed by a fleet of UFOs, which then begin a global siege on Earth, using rays to manipulate gravity and control the minds of men. In response, a global council meeting is held to determine the source of the attacks and prepare a rocket ship armada for a counter-attack, a true battle in outer space. . . The film is a sequel of sorts to Toho's THE MYSTERIANS in the reprise of the Etsuko Shiraishi character of that film as its heroine. It was edited to 74 minutes for its American release.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisInvaders from Mars (1953)
A boy tries to stop aliens that have taken over his town and are brainwashing its inhabitants.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisKronos (1957)
Scientists investigate a huge meteor that crashes into the ocean off Mexico, and encounter a skyscraper-tall, mobile machine which is designed to syphon energy from earth, including any energy directed at it in an effort to destroy it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966)
Doctor Who and his companions are hurled into the future and make a horrifying discovery: the Daleks have conquered Earth! The metal fiends have devastated entire continents and turned the survivors into Robomen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInvasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
Astronauts Glenn and Fuji investigate Planet X and encounter mysterious aliens known as the Xiliens, who ask Earth's people to help save their world from "Monster Zero". In exchange for borrowing Godzilla and Rodan, the Xiliens offer a cure for cancer. As Glenn investigates, he develops a romance with Miss Namikawa and uncovers the Xilien's true intentions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mysterians (1957)
In Japan, scientifically advanced invaders from the war-destroyed planet Mysteroid cause an entire village to vanish, then send a giant robot out to storm the city by night, after which they request a small patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women, claiming to be pacifists. Mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisH.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005)
In this modern retelling of H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi horror, civilization is laid to ruin when a super race of aliens invades Earth. In a blink of an eye, massive "walkers" cover the planet, annihilating all in their path. As cities crumble and human flesh is ripped from the bone, one man struggles to find the one weapon that will turn the tide for mankind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDestroy All Monsters (1968)
At the turn of the century, all of the Earth's monsters have been rounded up and kept safely on Monsterland. Chaos erupts when a race of she-aliens known as the Kilaaks unleash the monsters across the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThem! (1954)
As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent — and the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPanic in Year Zero! (1962)
While on a fishing trip, Harry Baldwin and his family hear an explosion and realize that Los Angeles has been leveled by a nuclear attack. Looters and killers are everywhere. Escaping to the hills with his family, he sets about the business of surviving in a world where, he knows, the old ideals of humanity will be the first casualties.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Time Machine (1960)
A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostile species.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
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: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blob (1958)
A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man, then it growing to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlanet of the Apes (1968)
Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like this20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
When the first manned flight to Venus returns to Earth, the rocket crash-lands in the Mediterranean near a small Italian fishing village. The locals manage to save Colonel Robert Calder, the mission commander. A young boy also recovers what turns out to be a specimen of an alien creature. Growing at a fantastic rate, it manages to escape and eventually threatens the city of Rome.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Came from Outer Space (1953)
Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona. Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both 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: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlanet Earth (1974)
The time: the 22nd century. The place: the Confederacy, a matriarchy where men are enslaved and impotent. The hero: Dylan Hunt, a handsome, vigorous 20th-century scientist awakened from suspended animation - just the "breeder" a Confederacy dominatrix has been waiting for! Can Hunt defy the Confederacy and free his downtrodden fellow males, or is he doomed to slavery on Planet Earth? A sequel to Gene Roddenberry's Genesis II.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
When Worlds Collide (1951)
When a group of astronomers calculate a star is on a course to slam into Earth, a few days before, it's accompanying planet will first pass close enough to the Earth to cause havoc on land and sea. They set about building a rocket so a few selected individuals can escape to the planet.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Silent Star (1960)
A mysterious magnetic spool found during a construction project is discovered to have originated from Venus. A rocket expedition to Venus is launched to discover the origin of the spool and the race that created it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisConquest of Space (1955)
A team of American astronauts leave their space station on the first mission to Mars, but the captain's religious beliefs may get in the way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisPlanet of the Vampires (1965)
After landing on a mysterious planet, a team of astronauts begin to turn on each other, swayed by the uncertain influence of the planet and its strange inhabitants.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
Scientist Doctor Who accidentally activates his new invention, the Tardis, a time machine disguised as a police telephone box. Who, his two granddaughters Barbara and Susan, and Barbara's boyfriend Ian are transported through time and space to the planet Skaro, where a peaceful race of Thals are under threat of nuclear attack from the planet's other inhabitants: the robotic mutant Daleks.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The War of the Worlds?
The closest matches to The War of the Worlds are Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Day of the Triffids (1963). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The War of the Worlds?
People who watched The War of the Worlds most often go on to Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Day of the Triffids (1963).
What is the highest-rated movie like The War of the Worlds?
Planet of the Apes (1968), rated 7.7/10 by 4,192 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The War of the Worlds?
H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The War of the Worlds?
Yes: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Day of the Triffids (1963).
How are movies similar to The War of the Worlds chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The War of the Worlds, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.