Movies like The Man Who Thought Life (1969)
The best movies like The Man Who Thought Life (1969) are The Asphyx (1972), The Invisible Man (1933) and The Medusa Touch (1978). If The Man Who Thought Life hooked you with its horror and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedInception (2010)8.4/10 from 40,715 votes
- NewestSpace/Time (2025)Released 2025
The Asphyx (1972)
Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question...What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Invisible Man (1933)
After experimenting on himself and becoming invisible, scientist Jack Griffin, now aggressive due to the drug's effects, seeks a way to reverse the experiment at any cost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Medusa Touch (1978)
A French detective in London reconstructs the life of a man lying in hospital with severe injuries with the help of journals and a psychiatrist. He realises that the man had powerful telekinetic abilities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dark Tower (2017)
A boy haunted by visions of a parallel world aids its disillusioned guardian in preventing the destruction of the nexus of universes known as the Dark Tower.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisPush (2009)
After his father, an assassin, is brutally murdered, Nick Gant vows revenge on Division, the covert government agency that dabbles in psychic warfare and experimental drugs. Hiding in Hong Kong's underworld, Nick assembles a band of rogue psychics dedicated to destroying Division. Together with Cassie, a teenage clairvoyant, Nick goes in search of a missing girl and a stolen suitcase that could be the key to accomplishing their mutual goal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKrull (1983)
A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGemini Man (2019)
Henry Brogan is an elite 51-year-old assassin who's ready to call it quits after completing his 72nd job. His plans get turned upside down when he becomes the target of a mysterious operative who can seemingly predict his every move. To his horror, Brogan soon learns that the man who's trying to kill him is a younger, faster, cloned version of himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFutureworld (1976)
Two years after the Westworld tragedy in the Delos amusement park, the corporate owners have reopened the park following over $1 billion in safety and other improvements. For publicity purposes, reporters Chuck Browning and Tracy Ballard are invited to review the park. Just prior to arriving, however, Browning is given a clue by a dying man that something is amiss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisInception (2010)
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Host (2013)
A parasitic alien soul is injected into the body of Melanie Stryder. Instead of carrying out her race's mission of taking over the Earth, "Wanda" (as she comes to be called) forms a bond with her host and sets out to aid other free humans.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCypher (2002)
An unsuspecting, disenchanted man finds himself working as a spy in the dangerous, high-stakes world of corporate espionage. Quickly getting way over-his-head, he teams up with a mysterious femme fatale.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCosmos (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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpace/Time (2025)
After a fatal test shuts down their project, a disgraced team of scientists enters the criminal underworld to rebuild a forbidden space-bending engine that could rescue humanity or annihilate it entirely.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisBabylon 5: The River of Souls (1998)
A group of Soul Hunters come to Babylon 5 demanding the return of something that was stolen from them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thirteenth Floor (1999)
In Los Angeles, a wealthy man, known as Mr. Fuller, discovers a shocking secret about the world he lives in. Fearing for his life, he leaves a desperate message for a friend of his in the most unexpected place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Unhealer (2021)
A botched faith healing bestows supernatural Shaman powers on a bullied teenager. When his lifelong tormentors pull a prank that kills someone he loves, he uses his powers for revenge and goes on a bloody rampage to settle the score.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisSurrogates (2009)
Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others' surrogates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaycheck (2003)
Michael Jennings is a genius who's hired – and paid handsomely – by high-tech firms to work on highly sensitive projects, after which his short-term memory is erased so he's incapable of breaching security. But at the end of a three-year job, he's told he isn't getting a paycheck and instead receives a mysterious envelope. In it are clues he must piece together to find out why he wasn't paid – and why he's now in hot water.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSolo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSelf/less (2015)
An extremely wealthy elderly man dying from cancer undergoes a radical medical procedure that transfers his consciousness to the body of a healthy young man but everything may not be as good as it seems when he starts to uncover the mystery of the body's origins and the secret organization that will kill to keep its secrets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Invasion (2007)
Washington, D.C. psychologist Carol Bennell and her colleague Dr. Ben Driscoll are the only two people on Earth who are aware of an epidemic running rampant through the city. They discover an alien virus aboard a crashed space shuttle that transforms anyone who comes into contact with it into unfeeling drones while they sleep. Carol realizes her son holds the key to stopping the spread of the plague and she races to find him before it is too late.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBody Snatchers (1993)
When Environmental Protection Agency inspector Steve Malone travels to a remote military base in order to check for toxic materials, he brings his family along for the ride. After arriving at the base, his teenage daughter Marti befriends Jean Platt, daughter of the base's commander, General Platt. When people at the base begin acting strangely, Marti becomes convinced that they are slowly being replaced by plant-like aliens.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The residents of San Francisco are becoming drone-like shadows of their former selves, and as the phenomenon spreads, two Department of Health workers uncover the horrifying truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVillage of the Damned (1995)
An American village is visited by some unknown life form which leaves the women of the village pregnant. Nine months later, the babies are born, and they all look normal, but it doesn't take the "parents" long to realize that the kids are not human or humane.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTruth or Dare (2018)
A harmless game of "Truth or Dare" among friends turns deadly when someone—or something—begins to punish those who tell a lie—or refuse the dare.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisPossession (1981)
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Dragons (1942)
It is prior to the commencement of World War II, and Japan's fiendish Black Dragon Society is hatching an evil plot with the Nazis. They instruct a brilliant scientist, Dr. Melcher, to travel to Japan on a secret mission. There he operates on six Japanese conspirators, transforming them to resemble six American leaders. The actual leaders are murdered and replaced with their likeness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Fear No Evil (1969)
A psychiatrist specializing in the occult becomes involved in the case of a man who is possessed by a spirit in an antique mirror. The man's fiance discovers that the mirror is able to bring back her former boyfriend, who had been killed in a car accident, from the dead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Goodnight Mommy (2015)
In the heat of the summer lays a lonesome house in the countryside where nine year old twin brothers await their mother’s return. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before and the children start to doubt whether this woman is actually who she says she is.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConquest (1983)
To mark his passage into manhood, young Ilias is gifted a magical bow by his father and embarks upon a journey into the wilderness to rid the land of evil, all the while battling the witch Ocron, who wishes to steal the bow for her own nefarious ends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both horror
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like The Man Who Thought Life and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Man Who Thought Life?
The closest matches to The Man Who Thought Life are The Asphyx (1972), The Invisible Man (1933) and The Medusa Touch (1978). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Man Who Thought Life?
Start with The Asphyx (1972), the closest match to The Man Who Thought Life.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Man Who Thought Life?
Inception (2010), rated 8.4/10 by 40,715 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Man Who Thought Life?
Space/Time (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Man Who Thought Life chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Man Who Thought Life, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.