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Movies that feel like Silent Running (1972)

If you loved Silent Running, the closest films we have are Interstellar (2014), Planet of the Apes (1968) and Finch (2021). All three share Silent Running's epic and cerebral feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Paramount Plus Premium and others, checked against today's data.

After the entire flora goes extinct, ecologist Lowell maintains a greenhouse aboard a space station for the future with his android companions. However, he rebels after being ordered to destroy the greenhouse in favor of carrying cargo, a decision that puts him at odds with everyone but his mechanical companions.

πŸ… 71% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 6.6 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Douglas Trumbullepiccerebralcontemplativebleakawe

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If Silent Running hit the spot, these will too

Interstellar poster
Interstellar
2014 Β· dir. Christopher Nolan
πŸ… 73%β˜… 8.7adventure Β· drama Β· science fiction

Dystopia runs into space travel in each of them

The difference: A 2010s film, from a different era of filmmaking

The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

Feels alike?
Planet of the Apes poster
Planet of the Apes
1968 Β· dir. Franklin J. Schaffner
πŸ… 86%β˜… 8science fiction Β· adventure Β· drama

Dystopia is the engine of both

The difference: Leans action where Silent Running does not

Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.

Feels alike?
Finch poster
Finch
2021 Β· dir. Miguel Sapochnik
πŸ… 74%β˜… 6.9science fiction Β· drama Β· adventure

Robot sits at the heart of each

The difference: Missing the awe of Silent Running

On a post-apocalyptic Earth, a robot, built to protect the life of his dying creator's beloved dog, learns about life, love, friendship, and what it means to be human.

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Gattaca poster
Gattaca
1997 Β· dir. Andrew Niccol
πŸ… 82%β˜… 7.7science fiction Β· drama

The same preoccupation in both: space travel

Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.

Feels alike?
Aniara poster
Aniara
2019 Β· dir. Pella KΓ₯german
πŸ… 70%β˜… 6.3science fiction Β· drama

The same mix in both: ideas, then stillness

A ship carrying settlers to a new home on Mars after Earth is rendered uninhabitable is knocked off-course, causing the passengers to consider their place in the universe.

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The Martian poster
The Martian
2015 Β· dir. Ridley Scott
πŸ… 91%β˜… 8science fiction Β· drama Β· adventure

Both built around space

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

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THX 1138 poster
THX 1138
1971 Β· dir. George Lucas
πŸ… 72%β˜… 6.6science fiction Β· drama

Science fiction with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.

Feels alike?
A.I. Artificial Intelligence poster
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2001 Β· dir. Steven Spielberg
πŸ… 76%β˜… 7.2drama Β· science fiction Β· adventure

Adventure built on scale, twice over

David, a robotic boyβ€”the first of his kind programmed to loveβ€”is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee and his wife. Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David.

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Total Recall poster
Total Recall
1990 Β· dir. Paul Verhoeven
πŸ… 80%β˜… 7.5action Β· adventure Β· science fiction

Awestruck drama, and it commits to that

Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Rekall, a virtual vacation company that manufactures memories. When something goes wrong during Quaid's memory implant procedure, his life turns upside down, leading him to question what is reality and what isn't.

Feels alike?
Slaughterhouse-Five poster
Slaughterhouse-Five
1972 Β· dir. George Roy Hill
πŸ… 82%β˜… 6.8drama Β· science fiction Β· war

Cerebral science fiction in both cases

Billy Pilgrim, a veteran of the Second World War, finds himself mysteriously detached from time, so that he is able to travel, without being able to help it, from the days of his childhood to those of his peculiar life on a distant planet called Tralfamadore, passing through his bitter experience as a prisoner of war in the German city of Dresden, over which looms the inevitable shadow of an unspeakable tragedy.

Feels alike?
The Fifth Element poster
The Fifth Element
1997 Β· dir. Luc Besson
πŸ… 70%β˜… 7.6science fiction Β· action Β· adventure

Both trade on scale more than on being adventure

In 2257, a taxi driver is unintentionally given the task of saving a young girl who is part of the key that will ensure the survival of humanity.

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The Creator poster
The Creator
2023 Β· dir. Gareth Edwards
πŸ… 67%β˜… 6.7science fiction Β· action Β· adventure

Both keep circling back to space station

Amid a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the warβ€”and mankind itself.

Feels alike?

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The best-reviewed films that share Silent Running's defining feeling.