feelsalike.comSign in
Brainstorm poster

Movies that feel likeBrainstorm (1983)

Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.

If you loved Brainstorm, the closest films we have are Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), Paradise (2023) and Liquid Sky (1982). All three share Brainstorm'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 Born in Flames (1983).

🍅 57% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Douglas Trumbullcerebraltense
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · MUBI

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

Not on subscription streaming right now. Rent or buy below.

See it on the Mood Map

When is Brainstorm streaming? →

If Brainstorm hit the spot, these will too

Colossus: The Forbin Project poster
Colossus: The Forbin Project
1970 · dir. Joseph Sargent
🍅 90%★ 7.1science fiction · thriller

Cerebral where it counts, tense underneath

The difference: Reviewed even better

The U.S. has handed over control of its nuclear defense system to the Colossus supercomputer designed by scientist Dr. Charles Forbin. It soon becomes clear, that the now-sentient Colossus is far more intelligent than its creator realized—with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Paradise poster
Paradise
2023 · dir. Boris Kunz
🍅 100%★ 6.3science fiction · thrillerNetflix

Science fiction built on ideas, twice over

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

A man sees the dark side of the time-manipulating biotech company he works for when a crushing debt forces his wife to give up 40 years of her own life.

Liquid Sky poster
Liquid Sky
1982 · dir. Slava Tsukerman
🍅 93%★ 6science fiction · thriller · drama

Thriller with a pulse of tension, in both cases

The difference: Leans harder into drama than Brainstorm does

An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during an orgasm.

The Andromeda Strain poster
The Andromeda Strain
1971 · dir. Robert Wise
🍅 68%★ 7.2science fiction · thriller · drama

Both lean on ideas more than on science fiction

When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.

Primer poster
Primer
2004 · dir. Shane Carruth
🍅 72%★ 6.7science fiction · drama · thriller

Tense thriller in both cases

A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.

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

The science fiction is handled with the same confidence

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

The Blackout poster
The Blackout
2019 · dir. Egor Baranov
🍅 57%★ 6thriller · science fiction · actionPrime Video

The same thriller instincts

Contact between most towns on Earth has been severed. A small ring-like area in Eastern Europe still has electricity, and maybe even life is being reported from space. What military forces find outside the ring is shocking.

Born in Flames poster
Born in Flames
1983 · dir. Lizzie Borden
🍅 89%★ 6.6drama · science fiction

Both know what they want from science fiction

The difference: Takes it somewhere less tense than Brainstorm does

In near-future New York, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.

Predator 2 poster
Predator 2
1990 · dir. Stephen Hopkins
🍅 36%★ 6.3science fiction · action · thriller

Thriller of the same temperament

A police chief in the war-torn streets of Los Angeles discovers that an extraterrestrial creature is hunting down residents - and that he is the next target.

Yakuza Princess poster
Yakuza Princess
2021 · dir. Vicente Amorim
🍅 34%★ 4.8action · thrillerPrime Video

Both play thriller straight

In Brazil, Akemi finds out that she's the heiress to the Yakuza empire. Just after that, her destiny enters a spiral of violence and mystery, where a gaijin (foreigner) who's been protecting her all this time, Shirô, may have been actually sent to kill her.

Predestination poster
Predestination
2014 · dir. Michael Spierig
🍅 84%★ 7.4science fiction · thriller

Cut from the same science fiction cloth

Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost.

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

Both are science fiction through and through

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.

In the mood for more cerebral?

all cerebral movies →

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