Movies like Instant Doctor (2020)
The best movies like Instant Doctor (2020) are Donovan's Brain (1953), Senseless (1998) and Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010). If Instant Doctor hooked you with its science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (2013)8.1/10 from 327 votes
- NewestBurnt Toast (2025)Released 2025
Donovan's Brain (1953)
A scientist takes the brain of dead man and revives it via electrodes as it lays suspended in a tank of liquid. Soon, the brain grows to possess enormous psychic powers and inflicts its personality upon the doctor who saved it, creating a "Jekyll and Hyde" paradigm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSenseless (1998)
A student gets his senses enhanced by an experimental drug. But abuse is not an option.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way the Eleventh Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Wave (2019)
A man on the verge of a promotion takes a mysterious hallucinogenic drug that begins to tear down his reality and expose his life for what it really is.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOtherLife (2017)
Ren Amari is the driven inventor of a revolutionary new drug. OtherLife expands the brain's sense of time and creates virtual reality directly in the user's mind. With OtherLife, mere seconds in real life feel like hours or days of exciting adventures. As Ren and her colleagues race around the clock to launch OtherLife, the government muscles in to use the drugs as a radical solution to prison overcrowding. They will create virtual cells where criminals serve long sentences in just minutes of real time. When Ren resists, she finds herself an unwilling guinea pig trapped in a prison cell in her mind. She must escape before she descends into madness, and then regain control of OtherLife before others suffer the same fate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (2013)
Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe's deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars. And amongst them, the Doctor. Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmni Loop (2024)
Diagnosed with a black hole growing inside her chest and stuck in a loop reliving the last five days of her life, a 55-year-old wife and mother from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man with Two Brains (1983)
A brain surgeon marries a femme fatale, causing his life to turn upside down. Things go more awry when he falls in love with a talking brain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Runaway Bride (2006)
A young bride in the midst of her wedding finds herself mysteriously transported to the TARDIS. The Doctor must discover what her connection is with the Empress of the Racnoss's plan to destroy the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSynchronic (2020)
Two New Orleans paramedics' lives are ripped apart after encountering a series of horrific deaths linked to a designer drug with bizarre, otherworldly effects.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Origins (2014)
A molecular biologist's study of the human eye has far-reaching implications about humanity's scientific and spiritual beliefs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Box (2020)
After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBURN·E (2008)
What lengths will a robot undergo to do his job? BURN·E is a dedicated hard working robot who finds himself locked out of his ship. BURN·E quickly learns that completing a simple task can often be a very difficult endeavor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Husbands of River Song (2015)
It’s Christmas Day on a remote human colony and the Doctor is hiding from Christmas Carols and Comedy Antlers. But when a crashed spaceship calls upon the Doctor for help, he finds himself recruited into River Song’s squad and hurled into a fast and frantic chase across the galaxy. King Hydroflax is furious, and his giant Robot bodyguard is out-of-control and coming for them all! Will Nardole survive? And when will River Song work out who the Doctor is? All will be revealed on a starliner full of galactic super-villains and a destination the Doctor has been avoiding for a very long time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death (1999)
Before the Doctor can settle down to married life, he must face one last confrontation with his deadly enemy of certain death - the Master.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnidentified Flying Mater (2009)
Mater finds a small UFO called Mator and they have a night out. Later, when Mator is captured by military forces, Mater sneaks up and saves him with the help of Lightning McQueen and the UFO's mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Night of the Doctor (2013)
The Doctor struggles to help the only remaining crewmember of a crashing gunship. The people of the planet below offer to save his life, but at a dear cost to the life he's lived for hundreds of years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
Dr. Bonner plans to live forever through periodic gland transplants from younger, healthier human victims. Bonner looks about 40; he's really 104 years old. But people are starting to get suspicious, and he may not make 200.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisPatrick (1978)
A comatose hospital patient harasses and kills through his powers of telekinesis to claim his private nurse as his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadox Mary (2008)
Mary has a problem. And it’s right in front of her. It’s in front of everyone else too, only they haven’t recognized it yet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Würfels Stern (1999)
Due to a small malfunction, the rulers of the planet are briefly distracted from the final catastrophe. Nevertheless, it arrives. We plan to film on location in the universe and elsewhere, and to rebuild the entire planet in its original size. We categorically reject special effects: We intend to interfere as little as possible.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
The Cure to Loneliness (2022)
Netty is feeling lost in life following the abrupt end of her relationship with Liam. Luckily, there's a quick fix found in pill marketed as "the cure to loneliness".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
The Return of the Näcken (2024)
The Return of the Näcken is a gothic horror tale about a lonely water demon and her quest for human souls focusing on the existential anguish of being an enchanted creature doomed to an immortal life filled with grief, isolation, and loss.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Frankenstein Punk (1986)
The story of Frank, a different creature, born to the song "Singing in the rain", that goes in search of happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Newton's Third Law (2024)
On Christmas day, Nico (Max Bourke) discovers he's in a sandwich-initiated time loop - to what extremes will he take this new opportunity?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Burnt Toast (2025)
A seedy virus is spreadding... is a digital epidemic closer than we think?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Pwyll (2015)
Sometime in the not so distant future, where everyone speaks through emojis, lives a 13-year-old boy called Pwyll.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Rakka (2017)
A story of broken humanity following the invasion of a technologically superior alien species. Bleak, harrowing, and unrelenting, the humans must find enough courage to go on fighting.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMeet Parker (2018)
In a near future where a simulation determines couples' eligibility to have children, one reserved father struggles to take care of his potential child.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Like Instant Doctor and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Instant Doctor?
The closest matches to Instant Doctor are Donovan's Brain (1953), Senseless (1998) and Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Instant Doctor?
Start with Donovan's Brain (1953), the closest match to Instant Doctor.
What is the highest-rated movie like Instant Doctor?
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (2013), rated 8.1/10 by 327 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Instant Doctor?
Burnt Toast (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Instant Doctor?
Yes: Donovan's Brain (1953), Senseless (1998) and Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010).
How are movies similar to Instant Doctor chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Instant Doctor, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.