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Movies that feel like Gamer (2009)

If you loved Gamer, the closest films we have are The Running Man (1987), eXistenZ (1999) and Surrogates (2009). All three share Gamer's kinetic and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium and Starz and others, checked against today's data.

Mind-control technology has taken society by a storm, a multiplayer on-line game called "Slayers" allows players to control human prisoners in mass-scale. Simon controls Kable, the online champion of the game. Kable's ultimate challenge becomes regaining his identity and independence by defeating the game's mastermind.

🍅 29% Rotten Tomatoes5.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Brian Taylorkinetictensecerebralbleak

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If Gamer hit the spot, these will too

The Running Man poster
The Running Man
1987 · dir. Paul Michael Glaser
🍅 59%6.6action · thriller · science fiction

The same two preoccupations: dystopia, and death game

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.

eXistenZ poster
eXistenZ
1999 · dir. David Cronenberg
🍅 77%6.8action · thriller · science fiction

Both keep coming back to the same thing: video game

A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.

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

Common ground: dystopia

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.

District B13 poster
District B13
2004 · dir. Pierre Morel
🍅 81%7.1action · thriller · science fiction

The same mix in both: momentum, then tension

Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb.

Death Race poster
Death Race
2008 · dir. Paul W. S. Anderson
🍅 41%6.4action · thriller · science fiction

Both land ideas and bleakness at once

Terminal Island, New York: 2020. Overcrowding in the US penal system has reached a breaking point. Prisons have been turned over to a monolithic Weyland Corporation, which sees jails full of thugs as an opportunity for televised sport. Adrenalized inmates, a global audience hungry for violence and a spectacular, enclosed arena come together to form the 'Death Race', the biggest, most brutal event.

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

Kinetic action in both cases

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.

Total Recall poster
Total Recall
2012 · dir. Len Wiseman
🍅 30%6.2action · science fiction · thriller

Thriller built on tension, twice over

Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for implanted memories of being a spy. When the procedure goes wrong, Quaid becomes a wanted man by the police and joins forces with a rebel fighter to stop the evil Chancellor Cohaagen.

Terminator Salvation poster
Terminator Salvation
2009 · dir. McG
🍅 33%6.5action · science fiction · thriller

Science fiction with a pulse of ideas, in both cases

All grown up in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor must lead the resistance of humans against the increasingly dominating militaristic robots. But when Marcus Wright appears, his existence confuses the mission as Connor tries to determine whether Wright has come from the future or the past -- and whether he's friend or foe.

Æon Flux poster
Æon Flux
2005 · dir. Karyn Kusama
🍅 9%5.4science fiction · action · thriller

Both lean on bleakness more than on action

400 years into the future, disease has wiped out the majority of the world's population, except one walled city, Bregna, ruled by a congress of scientists. When Æon Flux, the top operative in the underground 'Monican' rebellion, is sent on a mission to kill a government leader, she uncovers a world of secrets.

The Book of Eli poster
The Book of Eli
2010 · dir. Allen Hughes
🍅 46%6.8action · thriller · science fiction

Kinetic thriller, and it commits to that

A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines poster
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
2003 · dir. Jonathan Mostow
🍅 70%6.3action · thriller · science fiction

Tense science fiction in both cases

It's been 10 years since John Connor saved Earth from Judgment Day, and he's now living under the radar, steering clear of using anything Skynet can trace. That is, until he encounters T-X, a robotic assassin ordered to finish what T-1000 started. Good thing Connor's former nemesis, the Terminator, is back to aid the now-adult Connor … just like he promised.

Equilibrium poster
Equilibrium
2002 · dir. Kurt Wimmer
🍅 40%7.3action · science fiction · thriller

Action with a pulse of ideas, in both cases

In a dystopian future, a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace with a drug, and displays of emotion are punishable by death. A man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.

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