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Paprika poster

Movies that feel likePaprika (2006)

Dr. Atsuko Chiba is a research psychologist who uses a device called the DC Mini to enter her patients' dreams, wherein she adopts the alter-ego "Paprika". When the device is stolen, she must stop rogue elements from merging the dream and waking worlds.

If you loved Paprika, the closest films we have are Timecrimes (2007), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) and Source Code (2011). All three share Paprika's cerebral and dreamlike feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970).

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Satoshi Koncerebraltensedreamlike
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Paramount Plus Essential

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If Paprika hit the spot, these will too

Timecrimes poster
Timecrimes
2007 · dir. Nacho Vigalondo
🍅 90%★ 7.1science fiction · thriller

Cerebral where it counts, tense underneath

A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time poster
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
2006 · dir. Mamoru Hosoda
🍅 87%★ 7.6fantasy · animation · dramaMax

Both are built on the same subject: anime

The difference: Easier on the tension than Paprika

When 17-year-old Makoto Konno gains the ability to 'leap' backwards through time, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past isn't as simple as it seems, and eventually, will have to rely on her new powers to shape the future of herself and her friends.

Source Code poster
Source Code
2011 · dir. Duncan Jones
🍅 92%★ 7.5thriller · science fiction · mystery

Science fiction built on dream logic, twice over

The difference: Sits closer to mystery than Paprika does

When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

Paradise poster
Paradise
2023 · dir. Boris Kunz
🍅 100%★ 6.3science fiction · thrillerNetflix

Cerebral thriller in both cases

The difference: Takes it somewhere less dreamlike than Paprika does

A man sees the dark side of the time-manipulating biotech company he works for when a crushing debt forces his wife to give up 40 years of her own life.

Predestination poster
Predestination
2014 · dir. Michael Spierig
🍅 84%★ 7.4science fiction · thriller

Tense animation, and it commits to that

Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost.

Summer Wars poster
Summer Wars
2009 · dir. Mamoru Hosoda
🍅 81%★ 7.4animation · science fictionMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: adult animation

Teenage math whiz Kenji Koiso agrees to take a summer job at the Nagano hometown of his crush, Natsuki. When he arrives, he finds that her family have reunited to celebrate the 90th birthday of their matriarch. His job: pretend to be Natsuki's fiancé. Meanwhile, his attempt to solve a mathematical equation causes a parallel world's collision with Earth.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen poster
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
2003 · dir. Stephen Norrington
🍅 16%★ 5.8fantasy · action · thriller

Both lean on dream logic more than on science fiction

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

To prevent a world war from breaking out, famous characters from Victorian literature band together to do battle against a cunning villain.

The Matrix Reloaded poster
The Matrix Reloaded
2003 · dir. Lilly Wachowski
🍅 74%★ 7.2adventure · action · thriller

Common ground: dreams

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than Paprika does

The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.

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

Thriller with a pulse of ideas, in both cases

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.

Primer poster
Primer
2004 · dir. Shane Carruth
🍅 72%★ 6.7science fiction · drama · thriller

Both lean on tension more than on animation

A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.

Brainstorm poster
Brainstorm
1983 · dir. Douglas Trumbull
🍅 57%★ 6.4science fiction · thriller

Science fiction in the same key

The difference: Made in the 1980s, in a different era of the craft

Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.

Colossus: The Forbin Project poster
Colossus: The Forbin Project
1970 · dir. Joseph Sargent
🍅 90%★ 7.1science fiction · thriller

Thriller of the same temperament

The U.S. has handed over control of its nuclear defense system to the Colossus supercomputer designed by scientist Dr. Charles Forbin. It soon becomes clear, that the now-sentient Colossus is far more intelligent than its creator realized—with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

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