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Elysium poster

Movies that feel likeElysium (2013)

In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, a hard line government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that, if successful, will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.

If you loved Elysium, the closest films we have are Pitch Black (2000), Chappie (2015) and Aniara (2019). All three share Elysium's cerebral and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

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

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If Elysium hit the spot, these will too

Pitch Black poster
Pitch Black
2000 · dir. David Twohy
🍅 58%★ 7thriller · science fiction · action

Bleak, high-stakes survival pushing desperate people past their limits

The difference: A monster-infested planet thriller, no class-inequality politics

When their ship crash-lands on a remote planet, the marooned passengers soon learn that escaped convict Riddick isn't the only thing they have to fear. Deadly creatures lurk in the shadows, waiting to attack in the dark, and the planet is rapidly plunging into the utter blackness of a total eclipse. With the body count rising, the doomed survivors are forced to turn to Riddick with his eerie eyes to guide them through the darkness to safety. With time running out, there's only one rule: Stay in the light.

Chappie poster
Chappie
2015 · dir. Neill Blomkamp
🍅 32%★ 6.8crime · action · science fiction

Same director's grim Johannesburg-future lens on class and control

The difference: An AI-consciousness drama, no orbital wealth divide at its core

Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings—some good, some bad—and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there's one thing that makes Chappie different from any one else: he is a robot.

Aniara poster
Aniara
2019 · dir. Hugo Lilja
🍅 70%★ 6.3science fiction · drama

A bleak, contemplative reckoning with humanity's future stranded off-world

The difference: A drifting-spaceship existential drama, no class rebellion to fight

A ship carrying settlers to a new home on Mars after Earth is rendered uninhabitable is knocked off-course, causing the passengers to consider their place in the universe.

Serenity poster
Serenity
2005 · dir. Joss Whedon
🍅 82%★ 7.8science fiction · action · adventure

Rebels defying a controlling regime that decides who gets to thrive

The difference: A space-western crew-on-the-run adventure, not a two-world class war

A group of rebels travel the outskirts of space evading the sinister Alliance regime. Their lives of smuggling and cargo-running are interrupted by a psychic passenger who harbours a dangerous secret. Soon, the crew find themselves being pursued by an Alliance agent who will stop at nothing to find them.

The Creator poster
The Creator
2023 · dir. Gareth Edwards
🍅 67%★ 6.7science fiction · action · adventureHulu

A stark future where power sits literally above the people below

The difference: An AI-war father's-quest saga, not a class-divide immigration fight

Amid a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war—and mankind itself.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes poster
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
2014 · dir. Matt Reeves
🍅 91%★ 7.6science fiction · action · dramaHulu

Both are built on the same subject: dystopia

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

A group of scientists in San Francisco struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of a plague that is wiping out humanity, while Caesar tries to maintain dominance over his community of intelligent apes.

RoboCop poster
RoboCop
2014 · dir. José Padilha
🍅 50%★ 6.1action · science fiction · thriller

Corporate power reshaping bodies and lives in a decaying future city

The difference: A cyborg-cop procedural, not a stark rich-Earth class divide

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years, but have been forbidden for law enforcement in America. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured, OmniCorp sees their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine.

Planet of the Apes poster
Planet of the Apes
2001 · dir. Tim Burton
🍅 42%★ 5.7thriller · science fiction · actionHulu

Common ground: dystopia

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

After a spectacular crash-landing on an uncharted planet, brash astronaut Leo Davidson finds himself trapped in a savage world where talking apes dominate the human race. Desperate to find a way home, Leo must evade the invincible gorilla army led by Ruthless General Thade.

Surrogates poster
Surrogates
2009 · dir. Jonathan Mostow
🍅 37%★ 6.3science fiction · action · thriller

A future where technology draws a hard line between haves and have-nots

The difference: A robot-surrogate murder mystery, not an orbital class-war drama

Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others' surrogates.

Terminator Genisys poster
Terminator Genisys
2015 · dir. Alan Taylor
🍅 26%★ 6.3science fiction · action · thrillerParamount+Starz

A grim future where ordinary people fight a system built to crush them

The difference: A time-traveling killer-robot war saga, not orbital wealth politics

The year is 2029. John Connor, leader of the resistance continues the war against the machines. At the Los Angeles offensive, John's fears of the unknown future begin to emerge when TECOM spies reveal a new plot by SkyNet that will attack him from both fronts; past and future, and will ultimately change warfare forever.

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

The same preoccupation in both: space station

The difference: Takes it somewhere less tense than Elysium 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.

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

Both land ideas and stillness at once

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.

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