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Cloud Atlas poster

Movies that feel likeCloud Atlas (2012)

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.

If you loved Cloud Atlas, the closest films we have are Advantageous (2015), Metropolis (1927) and Fahrenheit 451 (1966). All three share Cloud Atlas' contemplative and cerebral feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Snowpiercer (2013).

🍅 65% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Lilly Wachowskicontemplativecerebralbleak
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Apple TV · Paramount Plus Premium

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If Cloud Atlas hit the spot, these will too

Advantageous poster
Advantageous
2015 · dir. Jennifer Phang
🍅 87%★ 6science fiction · drama

A mother and daughter hold onto tenderness inside a cold, engineered future

The difference: One quiet near-future story, not Cloud Atlas's six interwoven eras

In a near-future city where soaring opulence overshadows economic hardship, Gwen and her daughter, Jules, do all they can to hold on to their joy, despite the instability surfacing in their world.

Metropolis poster
Metropolis
1927 · dir. Fritz Lang
🍅 97%★ 8.2drama · science fiction

A rigidly stratified future asks who gets to be treated as human

The difference: A silent-era single-thread story, not six interwoven timelines

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

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

The same preoccupation in both: dystopia

The difference: 46 years apart, and the 1960s show

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…

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

A numbed-out life cracks open the moment real feeling breaks through

The difference: A single dystopian escape, not six lives spanning centuries

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.

Snowpiercer poster
Snowpiercer
2013 · dir. Bong Joon Ho
🍅 94%★ 7.1action · science fiction · drama

Common ground: dystopia

The difference: Reviewed even better

In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.

Finch poster
Finch
2021 · dir. Miguel Sapochnik
🍅 74%★ 6.9science fiction · drama · adventureApple TV+

Contemplative where it counts, cerebral underneath

The difference: Sits closer to adventure than Cloud Atlas does

On a post-apocalyptic Earth, a robot, built to protect the life of his dying creator's beloved dog, learns about life, love, friendship, and what it means to be human.

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

Both are built on the same subject: the future

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.

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

Genetic identity and forged papers blur who someone really is

The difference: A single doomed love story, not Cloud Atlas's sprawling reincarnation web

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.

The Giver poster
The Giver
2014 · dir. Phillip Noyce
🍅 34%★ 6.4drama · science fiction

A controlled world hides the cost of trading away memory and choice

The difference: One teen's awakening, not six souls echoing across centuries

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

JUNG_E poster
JUNG_E
2023 · dir. Yeon Sang-ho
🍅 52%★ 5.5science fiction · action · adventureNetflix

A cloned consciousness gets pulled into a war it never chose to fight

The difference: One tight action-driven arc instead of six centuries of nested lives

On an uninhabitable 22nd-century Earth, the outcome of a civil war hinges on cloning the brain of an elite soldier to create a robot mercenary.

Ghost in the Shell poster
Ghost in the Shell
2017 · dir. Rupert Sanders
🍅 42%★ 6.3science fiction · drama · actionParamount+

Bleak drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans harder into action than Cloud Atlas does

In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human saved from a terrible crash, then cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.

I, Robot poster
I, Robot
2004 · dir. Alex Proyas
★ 7.1action · science fictionApple TV+

Engineered minds start acting on desires no one programmed into them

The difference: A detective procedural, not a meditation spanning six eras

In 2035, where robots are commonplace and abide by the three laws of robotics, a technophobic cop investigates an apparent suicide. Suspecting that a robot may be responsible for the death, his investigation leads him to believe that humanity may be in danger.

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The best-reviewed films that share Cloud Atlas’ defining feeling.