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Arrival poster

Movies that feel likeArrival (2016)

Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.

If you loved Arrival, the closest films we have are Dune: Part Two (2024), Solaris (1972) and Contact (1997). All three share Arrival's cerebral feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Marjorie Prime (2017).

🍅 94% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Denis Villeneuvecontemplativecerebraltwistyawe
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Arrival hit the spot, these will too

Dune: Part Two poster
Dune: Part Two
2024 · dir. Denis Villeneuve
🍅 92%★ 8.4science fiction · adventureMax

Villeneuve's visions of destiny seen before it arrives

The difference: Mythic war epic; prophecy weaponized

Follow the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, Paul endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Solaris poster
Solaris
1972 · dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
🍅 92%★ 7.9drama · science fiction · mysteryMax

Alien contact as a mirror for memory, grief and love

The difference: Tarkovsky's glacial pace — nearly three slow, searching hours

A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.

Contact poster
Contact
1997 · dir. Robert Zemeckis
🍅 69%★ 7.5drama · science fiction · mystery

First contact as a question about faith, grief, and meaning

The difference: Radio signals and public spectacle over intimate linguistics

A radio astronomer receives the first extraterrestrial radio signal ever picked up on Earth. As the world powers scramble to decipher the message and decide upon a course of action, she must make some difficult decisions between her beliefs, the truth, and reality.

Europa Report poster
Europa Report
2013 · dir. Sebastián Cordero
🍅 81%★ 6.4science fiction · thriller · dramaNetflix

Common ground: spacecraft

The difference: Trades the twists of Arrival for an angle of its own

A crew travels to Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, to investigate signs of life in its subsurface ocean, but disaster cuts them off from Earth, leading to a tense and dangerous exploration.

Marjorie Prime poster
Marjorie Prime
2017 · dir. Michael Almereyda
🍅 89%★ 6.3drama · mystery · science fiction

Both land stillness and ideas at once

The difference: Takes it somewhere less awestruck than Arrival does

A service which creates holographic projections of late family members allows an elderly woman to spend time with a younger version of her deceased husband.

Oblivion poster
Oblivion
2013 · dir. Joseph Kosinski
🍅 53%★ 7action · science fiction · adventurePrime VideoStarz

Sleek sci-fi where a twist reframes everything you watched

The difference: Action-forward gloss — feeling runs shallower than the visuals

Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

The Day the Earth Stood Still poster
The Day the Earth Stood Still
2008 · dir. Scott Derrickson
🍅 21%★ 5.5drama · science fiction · thrillerPrime Video

First contact where understanding the visitor is humanity's test

The difference: A dull remake — effects-driven, 21% on RT

A representative of an alien race that went through drastic evolution to survive its own climate change, Klaatu comes to Earth to assess whether humanity can prevent the environmental damage they have inflicted on their own planet. When barred from speaking to the United Nations, he decides humankind shall be exterminated so the planet can survive.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture poster
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
1979 · dir. Robert Wise
🍅 51%★ 6.4science fiction · adventure · mysteryParamount+

Both are built on the same subject: spacecraft

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

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.

2001: A Space Odyssey poster
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968 · dir. Stanley Kubrick
🍅 90%★ 8.3science fiction · mystery · adventureMax

Twisty where it counts, awestruck underneath

The difference: Sits closer to adventure than Arrival does

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.

The Wandering Earth poster
The Wandering Earth
2019 · dir. Frant Gwo
🍅 70%★ 5.9science fiction · action · dramaRent or buy

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: Leans harder into action than Arrival does

When the Sun begins to expand in such a way that it will inevitably engulf and destroy the Earth in a hundred years, united mankind finds a way to avoid extinction by propelling the planet out of the Solar System using gigantic engines, moving it to a new home located four light years away, an epic journey that will last thousands of years.

Venom poster
Venom
2018 · dir. Ruben Fleischer
🍅 31%★ 6.6science fiction · actionDisney+

Cerebral science fiction, and it commits to that

Investigative journalist Eddie Brock attempts a comeback following a scandal, but accidentally becomes the host of Venom, a violent, super powerful alien symbiote. Soon, he must rely on his newfound powers to protect the world from a shadowy organization looking for a symbiote of their own.

Space Sweepers poster
Space Sweepers
2021 · dir. Jo Sung-hee
🍅 70%★ 6.5drama · fantasy · science fictionNetflix

Awestruck mystery in both cases

When the crew of a space junk collector ship called The Victory discovers a humanoid robot named Dorothy that's known to be a weapon of mass destruction, they get involved in a risky business deal which puts their lives at stake.

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The best-reviewed films that share Arrival’s defining feeling.