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Super 8 poster

Movies that feel likeSuper 8 (2011)

In late 1970s Ohio, a group of friends filming a homemade zombie movie witness a devastating train derailment. Soon after, their quiet town is gripped by unexplained disappearances, strange phenomena, and a growing sense of fear, as they uncover that something terrifying has been set loose.

If you loved Super 8, the closest films we have are Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Sunshine (2007) and Mud (2013). Most of the picks below share Super 8's awe and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Spacewalker (2017).

🍅 81% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. J.J. Abramsawewistfultensewarm
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Disney Plus

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If Super 8 hit the spot, these will too

Star Trek Into Darkness poster
Star Trek Into Darkness
2013 · dir. J.J. Abrams
🍅 84%★ 7.7action · adventure · science fictionParamount+

The same director's eye for wonder chasing down a mystery

The difference: Franchise-scale spectacle, not a handful of kids with a camera

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.

Sunshine poster
Sunshine
2007 · dir. Danny Boyle
🍅 77%★ 7.2science fiction · thrillerPrime Video

Wonder and dread pulling in opposite directions at once

The difference: Deep-space stakes replace small-town mystery entirely

Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.

Mud poster
Mud
2013 · dir. Jeff Nichols
🍅 97%★ 7.3drama

Wistful and warm in the same breath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less awestruck than Super 8 does

Two teenage boys find a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River and help him reunite with his lover and escape an avenging family and their armed posse.

Chronicle poster
Chronicle
2012 · dir. Josh Trank
🍅 85%★ 7science fiction · drama · thriller

Teenagers discovering something extraordinary changes their friendship's rules

The difference: Darker, angrier arc — this one curdles instead of staying warm

Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.

The Florida Project poster
The Florida Project
2017 · dir. Sean Baker
🍅 96%★ 7.6drama

Wistful thriller in both cases

The difference: Easier on the awe than Super 8

The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.

Europa Report poster
Europa Report
2013 · dir. Sebastián Cordero
🍅 81%★ 6.4science fiction · thriller · dramaNetflix

Awe and danger sitting right next to each other throughout

The difference: A found-footage space mission, not kids with a Super 8 camera

A crew travels to Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, to investigate signs of life in its subsurface ocean, but disaster cuts them off from Earth, leading to a tense and dangerous exploration.

The Day the Earth Stood Still poster
The Day the Earth Stood Still
2008 · dir. Scott Derrickson
🍅 21%★ 5.5drama · science fiction · thrillerPrime Video

One thread runs through both: alien

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

A representative of an alien race that went through drastic evolution to survive its own climate change, Klaatu comes to Earth to assess whether humanity can prevent the environmental damage they have inflicted on their own planet. When barred from speaking to the United Nations, he decides humankind shall be exterminated so the planet can survive.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker poster
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
2019 · dir. J.J. Abrams
🍅 51%★ 6.3adventure · action · science fictionDisney+

J.J. Abrams directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than Super 8 does

The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.

The Spacewalker poster
The Spacewalker
2017 · dir. Dmitry Kiselyov
★ 7.2adventure · drama · historyPrime Video

Both land awe and tension at once

March 1965. In the heat of the Cold War, the USA and the USSR are competing for supremacy in space. What both superpowers aim for in this race, is to be the first to have a man walk in outer space. To accomplish that, no price is too high and no risk is too great. Now it’s up to the unlikely duo of a seasoned war veteran and a hot-headed test-pilot to fulfill this mission. Two men in a tiny spaceship, without proper testing, facing the complete unknown. They were supposed to do what no man has done before—and no man imagined what would happen next.

Hanna poster
Hanna
2011 · dir. Joe Wright
🍅 71%★ 6.7action · thriller · adventure

Science fiction with a pulse of tension, in both cases

Raised by her father, an ex-CIA agent, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna's upbringing has been geared to making her the perfect assassin. Sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys across Europe, eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence.

Project Hail Mary poster
Project Hail Mary
2026 · dir. Phil Lord
🍅 95%★ 8.2science fiction · adventurePrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: alien

Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction.

Gravity poster
Gravity
2013 · dir. Alfonso Cuarón
🍅 96%★ 7.7science fiction · thriller · dramaParamount+

Awestruck mystery, and it commits to that

Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.

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The best-reviewed films that share Super 8’s defining feeling.