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Blade Runner poster

Movies that feel likeBlade Runner (1982)

In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.

If you loved Blade Runner, the closest films we have are The Quiet Earth (1985), The Terminator (1984) and RoboCop (1987). All three share Blade Runner's cerebral and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Fahrenheit 451 (1966).

🍅 89% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ridley Scottcerebralcontemplativetensebleak
8 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · MUBI · Midnight Pulp

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If Blade Runner hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

The Quiet Earth poster
The Quiet Earth
1985 · dir. Geoff Murphy
🍅 75%★ 6.7drama · science fiction · thriller

A man alone in an emptied world, sitting with what humanity means

The difference: Small and spare — an eerie thought experiment, not a built world

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.

The Terminator poster
The Terminator
1984 · dir. James Cameron
🍅 90%★ 8.1action · thriller · science fictionPrime Video

Grimy analog future where a manufactured thing hunts a person

The difference: Lean, loud pursuit — no time to sit in the atmosphere

In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?

RoboCop poster
RoboCop
1987 · dir. Paul Verhoeven
🍅 84%★ 7.6action · thriller · science fiction

A corporate-run dystopia asking whether a machine-man still has a soul

The difference: Splatter satire — loud, violent and sarcastic where yours broods

In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.

The Omega Man poster
The Omega Man
1971 · dir. Boris Sagal
🍅 65%★ 6.4science fiction · action · drama

The last man in a dead city, haunted by what people used to be

The difference: Creaky 70s pulp — its big ideas come wrapped in camp

Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.

Mad Max 2 poster
Mad Max 2
1981 · dir. George Miller
🍅 93%★ 7.6action · thriller · science fiction

A burnt-out loner drifting through civilization's wreckage

The difference: All engine, no interior — carnage where yours asks questions

Max Rockatansky returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by the charismatic Lord Humungus, a violent leader whose scruples are as barren as the surrounding landscape.

They Live poster
They Live
1988 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 86%★ 7.2science fiction · action · thrillerPrime Video

Los Angeles rot hiding a controlling system only one man can see

The difference: Blunt agitprop with fistfights — a B-movie grin, not an elegy

A lone drifter stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.

Code 46 poster
Code 46
2003 · dir. Michael Winterbottom
🍅 52%★ 6.1drama · science fiction · thriller

A doomed romance inside a surveilled, gene-checked tomorrow

The difference: Barely-there sci-fi — mood and murmurs, minimal plot

In a dystopian future, insurance fraud investigator William Gold arrives in Shanghai to investigate a forgery ring for "papelles", futuristic passports that record people's identities and genetics. Gold falls for Maria Gonzalez, the woman in charge of the forgeries. After a passionate affair, Gold returns home, having named a coworker as the culprit. But when one of Gonzalez's customers is found dead, Gold is sent back to Shanghai to complete the investigation.

Rollerball poster
Rollerball
1975 · dir. Norman Jewison
🍅 55%★ 6.5science fiction · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: dystopia

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.

Fahrenheit 451 poster
Fahrenheit 451
1966 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 82%★ 7.2drama · science fiction

A state functionary waking up inside the system he enforces

The difference: Chilly 60s formality — theory over texture, and no neon

In the future, the government maintains control of public opinion by outlawing literature and maintaining a group of enforcers, known as “firemen,” to perform the necessary book burnings. Fireman Montag begins to question the morality of his vocation…

Escape from New York poster
Escape from New York
1981 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 70%★ 7.1action · thriller · science fiction

Both are built on the same subject: dystopia

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than Blade Runner does

In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam free. After the US president crash-lands inside, war hero Snake Plissken has 24 hours to bring him back.

THX 1138 poster
THX 1138
1971 · dir. George Lucas
🍅 72%★ 6.6science fiction · drama

Both land ideas and stillness at once

The difference: Easier on the tension than Blade Runner

People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.

Cloud Atlas poster
Cloud Atlas
2012 · dir. Lilly Wachowski
🍅 65%★ 7.3drama · science fiction

A future where manufactured people begin asking who they are

The difference: Sprawling across centuries — hopeful, and far busier

A set of six nested stories spanning time between the 19th century and a distant post-apocalyptic future. Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Based on the award winning novel by David Mitchell. Directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis.

In the mood for more cerebral?

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