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Ready Player One poster

Movies that feel likeReady Player One (2018)

When the creator of a popular video game system dies, a virtual contest is created to compete for his fortune.

If you loved Ready Player One, the closest films we have are War of the Worlds (2005), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019). All three share Ready Player One's epic 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).

🍅 71% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Steven Spielbergepickineticcerebralbleakwistfulromantic
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Ready Player One hit the spot, these will too

War of the Worlds poster
War of the Worlds
2005 · dir. Steven Spielberg
🍅 76%★ 6.6adventure · thriller · science fictionMaxParamount+

Spielberg spectacle with ordinary people at the center of chaos

The difference: Relentless terror — no playfulness, no pop-culture comfort

Ray Ferrier is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son and young daughter for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.

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

A rigged contest turning into a fight against the people who run it

The difference: Grim and war-weary — the fun drained out of this world long ago

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.

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

Digital spectacle with real heart, built around a fight you can cheer for

The difference: Cyberpunk grime and a body-horror edge — no cozy nostalgia to lean on

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.

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

Stepping inside a digital world built by a vanished creator

The difference: Cool, austere and lonely — a mood piece more than a treasure hunt

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.

Spider-Man: Homecoming poster
Spider-Man: Homecoming
2017 · dir. Jon Watts
🍅 92%★ 7.4action · adventure · science fictionDisney+

Epic and kinetic in the same breath

The difference: Trades the bleakness of Ready Player One for an angle of its own

Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker, with the help of his mentor Tony Stark, tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens, New York City, with fighting crime as his superhero alter ego Spider-Man as a new threat, the Vulture, emerges.

Pacific Rim poster
Pacific Rim
2013 · dir. Guillermo del Toro
🍅 72%★ 6.9action · science fiction · adventure

Big toys taken seriously, with genuine affection for the stuff it loves

The difference: All kaiju and rain — no real world underneath the spectacle

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.

After Earth poster
After Earth
2013 · dir. M. Night Shyamalan
🍅 12%★ 4.8science fiction · action · adventurePrime Video

A kid handed an impossible task in a world adults already broke

The difference: Bleak survival in silence — none of the pop-culture play or joy

One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity's escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind's new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai's craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance.

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

YA sci-fi where a soft romance sits inside a hard dystopian world

The difference: Slow and earnest — no rush of spectacle, no game to win

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.

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

A young outsider tested against a system built to sort and control people

The difference: Deadly serious about its world — no wink, no nostalgia, no wonder

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

A teenager forced to grow up fast after the world's rules collapse

The difference: Grimmer and thinner — survival dread with none of the play

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.

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

A young hero on a quest through the wreck of a world that ended

The difference: Patient and mournful — no adrenaline, no jokes, no easter eggs

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%★ 7.4action · science fiction · adventureMax

Both land ideas and bleakness at once

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.

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The best-reviewed films that share Ready Player One’s defining feeling.