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Pacific Rim poster

Movies that feel likePacific Rim (2013)

Using massive piloted robots to combat the alien threat, Earth's survivors take the fight to the invading alien force lurking in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless enemy, the forces of mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes who now stand as Earth's final hope against the mounting apocalypse.

If you loved Pacific Rim, the closest films we have are The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015), TRON: Legacy (2010) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019). All three share Pacific Rim's kinetic and cerebral feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024).

🍅 72% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Guillermo del Torokineticcerebralepicbleak
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Pacific Rim hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 poster
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
2015 · dir. Francis Lawrence
🍅 70%★ 6.6action · adventure · science fictionNetflix

A war of attrition fought by exhausted people through ruined cities

The difference: Grim and mournful — no pulpy joy, and victory costs everything

As the war between the Capitol and the districts reaches its peak, Katniss Everdeen embarks on a perilous mission to liberate Panem and confront President Snow. Joined by a team of trusted allies, she navigates deadly traps, shifting loyalties, and the heavy cost of rebellion, determined to bring freedom to her people and end the Hunger Games once and for all.

TRON: Legacy poster
TRON: Legacy
2010 · dir. Joseph Kosinski
🍅 51%★ 6.8adventure · action · science fictionDisney+

Neon machine worlds scored to make hardware feel majestic

The difference: Cool and sleek instead of sincere — colder, lonelier, less rousing

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.

Alita: Battle Angel poster
Alita: Battle Angel
2019 · dir. Robert Rodriguez
🍅 61%★ 7.3action · science fiction · adventureHulu

Big-hearted pulp sincerity inside a beautifully overbuilt future

The difference: Focused on one girl's identity — smaller scale, softer punch

When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes poster
🍅 80%★ 6.8science fiction · adventure · actionPrime Video

A ruined world rebuilt around who gets to inherit it

The difference: Slow and thoughtful — a journey rather than a slugfest

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.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga poster
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
2024 · dir. George Miller
🍅 90%★ 7.5action · science fiction · adventureMax

Kinetic and cerebral in the same breath

As the world falls, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers into the hands of a great biker horde led by the warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the wasteland, they encounter the citadel presided over by Immortan Joe. The two tyrants wage war for dominance, and Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.

Bumblebee poster
Bumblebee
2018 · dir. Travis Knight
🍅 91%★ 6.7action · adventure · science fictionParamount+

A lonely kid and a wounded machine learning to trust each other

The difference: Small and tender, 80s-scaled — no world-ending apocalypse

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie, on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary yellow VW bug.

The 5th Wave poster
The 5th Wave
2016 · dir. J Blakeson
🍅 16%★ 5.2science fiction · adventure · actionNetflix

Ordinary survivors scrambling after an invasion already mostly won

The difference: Small, grounded and glum — none of the roaring scale

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.

Divergent poster
Divergent
2014 · dir. Neil Burger
🍅 41%★ 6.6action · adventure · science fiction

Recruits drilled into a system that decides who they get to be

The difference: Teen-identity drama at small scale — nothing built to overwhelm you

In a world divided into factions based on personality types, Tris learns that she's been classified as Divergent and won't fit in. When she discovers a plot to destroy Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents dangerous before it's too late.

The Host poster
The Host
2013 · dir. Andrew Niccol
🍅 10%★ 5.8action · adventure · science fiction

An invaded Earth where the enemy turns out to be worth knowing

The difference: Quiet romance at its core — barely any action to speak of

A parasitic alien soul is injected into the body of Melanie Stryder. Instead of carrying out her race's mission of taking over the Earth, "Wanda" (as she comes to be called) forms a bond with her host and sets out to aid other free humans.

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

Humanity's last line rests on one soldier fused with a machine

The difference: Somber and small-scale — a mother's story, not monster bouts

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.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials poster
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
2015 · dir. Wes Ball
🍅 47%★ 6.3science fiction · action · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: dystopia

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Thomas and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD’s vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.

Edge of Tomorrow poster
Edge of Tomorrow
2014 · dir. Doug Liman
🍅 91%★ 7.9action · science fictionParamount+

The same preoccupation in both: alien invasion

The difference: Easier on the scale than Pacific Rim

Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

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