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Contact poster

Movies that feel likeContact (1997)

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.

If you loved Contact, the closest films we have are Marjorie Prime (2017), K-PAX (2001) and Cube (1998). All three share Contact's cerebral and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Sound of My Voice (2011).

🍅 69% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Zemeckiscontemplativecerebraltwisty
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · MUBI

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See it on the Mood Map

If Contact hit the spot, these will too

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

Contemplative where it counts, cerebral underneath

The difference: 20 years apart, and the 2010s show

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.

K-PAX poster
K-PAX
2001 · dir. Iain Softley
🍅 41%★ 7.4science fiction · drama · mystery

Drama built on twists, twice over

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Prot is a patient at a mental hospital who claims to be from a far away planet. His psychiatrist tries to help him, only to begin to doubt his own explanations.

Cube poster
Cube
1998 · dir. Vincenzo Natali
🍅 61%★ 7.1thriller · science fiction · mystery

One thread runs through both: prime number

The difference: Trades the stillness of Contact for an angle of its own

A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a maze-like prison. It soon becomes clear that each of them possesses the peculiar skills necessary to escape, if they don't wind up dead first.

Mulholland Drive poster
Mulholland Drive
2001 · dir. David Lynch
🍅 83%★ 7.9thriller · drama · mystery

Contemplative mystery, and it commits to that

The difference: Sits closer to thriller than Contact does

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

The Return poster
The Return
2003 · dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
★ 7.9drama · mystery

Science fiction with a pulse of twists, in both cases

The difference: Takes it somewhere less cerebral than Contact does

Two young brothers in contemporary Russia are reunited with a father they know only from an old photograph after his sudden return from a long absence. With their mother’s reluctant consent, they set out on a remote trip that quickly becomes an uneasy test of authority, trust, and masculinity. As the journey moves deeper into the wilderness, the fragile bonds between father and sons are pushed to their limits.

Innocence poster
Innocence
2005 · dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović
🍅 71%★ 6.8drama · mystery

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

At a peculiar all-girls academy, new arrivals, including Iris, are delivered in coffins. Guided by enigmatic teachers, the students dance through enchanted woods by day, while the night unveils sinister lessons that blur innocence and awakening.

Winter's Bone poster
Winter's Bone
2010 · dir. Debra Granik
🍅 94%★ 7.1drama · mysteryPrime Video

Twisty mystery in both cases

After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.

Transcendence poster
Transcendence
2014 · dir. Wally Pfister
🍅 19%★ 6.2thriller · science fiction · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: scientist

Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.

The Man from Earth poster
The Man from Earth
2007 · dir. Richard Schenkman
🍅 100%★ 7.8science fiction · dramaPrime Video

Common ground: religion

A departing professor gathers his closest colleagues for an intimate farewell, but the night takes an unexpected turn when he shares a stunning secret about his past. As the conversation unfolds, skepticism and curiosity collide, challenging everything they thought they knew about history, science, and belief.

Sound of My Voice poster
Sound of My Voice
2011 · dir. Zal Batmanglij
🍅 76%★ 6.6science fiction · drama · mystery

Science fiction with a pulse of ideas, in both cases

A journalist and his girlfriend get pulled in while they investigate a cult whose leader claims to be from the future.

The End of Oak Street poster
The End of Oak Street
2026 · dir. David Robert Mitchell
🍅 86%★ 6.5science fiction · mystery · thrillerRent or buy

Both are built on the same subject: wormhole

After a mysterious cosmic event rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports their neighborhood to someplace unknown, the Platt family soon discovers that their very survival depends on them sticking together as they navigate their now unrecognizable surroundings.

The Call poster
The Call
2020 · dir. Lee Chung-hyun
🍅 46%★ 7.1thriller · mystery · science fictionNetflix

Cerebral science fiction in both cases

Connected by phone in the same home but 20 years apart, a caller puts a woman’s past — and life — on the line to change her own fate.

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