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Movies that feel like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

If you loved Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the closest films we have are Logan's Run (1976), Rollerball (1975) and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024). All three share Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome's kinetic and cerebral feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 10 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Paramount Plus Premium and others, checked against today's data.

Mad Max becomes a pawn in a decadent oasis of a technological society, and when exiled, becomes the deliverer of a colony of children.

πŸ… 80% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 6.2 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. George Millerkineticepiccerebralbleak

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If Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Mad Max (1979) Β· Mad Max 2 (1981) Β· Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Β· Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Logan's Run poster
Logan's Run
1976 Β· dir. Michael Anderson
πŸ… 58%β˜… 6.8action Β· science fiction

Common ground in both: dystopia and life after the end

The difference: Lighter on scale

In the 23rd century, inhabitants of a domed city freely experience all of life's pleasures β€” but no one is allowed to live past 30. Citizens can try for a chance at being "renewed" in a civic ceremony on their 30th birthday. Escape is the only other option.

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Rollerball poster
Rollerball
1975 Β· dir. Norman Jewison
πŸ… 55%β˜… 6.5science fiction Β· action

One thread runs through both: dystopia

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

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.

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes poster
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
2024 Β· dir. Wes Ball
πŸ… 80%β˜… 6.8science fiction Β· adventure Β· action

The same preoccupation in both: life after the end

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

Several generations following Caesar's reign, apes – now the dominant species – live harmoniously while humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all he's known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

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Sexmission poster
Sexmission
1984 Β· dir. Juliusz Machulski
β˜… 7.5science fiction Β· adventure Β· comedy

Epic and cerebral in the same breath

The difference: Not nearly as kinetic

Two scientists are chosen as guinea pigs for a time experiment: they are placed in hibernation and should be brought back to life after three years. In the meantime, however, World War III breaks out and life has been wiped off the surface of Earth. When they wake up, it turns out that not only 50 years have passed but also that they are the only living specimens of the male sex in a new, underground society composed exclusively of women.

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Tron poster
Tron
1982 Β· dir. Steven Lisberger
πŸ… 60%β˜… 6.7science fiction Β· action Β· adventure

Kinetic where it counts, bleak underneath

When brilliant video game maker Flynn hacks the mainframe of his ex-employer, he is beamed inside an astonishing digital world and becomes part of the very game he is designing. In his mission through cyberspace, Flynn matches wits with a maniacal Master Control Program and teams up with Tron, a security measure created to bring balance to the digital environment.

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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes poster
πŸ… 64%β˜… 6.6science fiction Β· action

Both are built on the same subject: arena

64 years before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem, Coriolanus Snow sees a chance for a change in fortunes when he mentors Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12.

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The 5th Wave poster
The 5th Wave
2016 Β· dir. J Blakeson
πŸ… 16%β˜… 5.2science fiction Β· adventure Β· action

Action with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

16-year-old Cassie Sullivan tries to survive in a world devastated by the waves of an alien invasion that has already decimated the population and knocked mankind back to the Stone Age.

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The Running Man poster
The Running Man
1987 Β· dir. Paul Michael Glaser
πŸ… 59%β˜… 6.6action Β· thriller Β· science fiction

Science fiction built on ideas, twice over

The difference: Leans further into thriller

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 β€œrunners” attempt to evade β€œstalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.

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TRON: Legacy poster
TRON: Legacy
2010 Β· dir. Joseph Kosinski
πŸ… 51%β˜… 6.8adventure Β· action Β· science fiction

Epic adventure in both cases

Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy and daring son of Kevin Flynn, investigates his father's disappearance and is pulled into The Grid. With the help of a mysterious program named Quorra, Sam quests to stop evil dictator Clu from crossing into the real world.

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Akira poster
Akira
1988 Β· dir. Katsuhiro Otomo
πŸ… 91%β˜… 8animation Β· science fiction Β· action

Both lean on bleakness more than on action

A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop.

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Ghost in the Shell poster
Ghost in the Shell
1995 Β· dir. Mamoru Oshii
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7.9action Β· animation Β· science fiction

Kinetic science fiction, and it commits to that

In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as 'The Puppetmaster' begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster.

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The Omega Man poster
The Omega Man
1971 Β· dir. Boris Sagal
πŸ… 65%β˜… 6.4science fiction Β· action Β· drama

Both lean on ideas more than on adventure

Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.

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The best-reviewed films that share Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’s defining feeling.