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The Andromeda Strain poster

Movies that feel likeThe Andromeda Strain (1971)

When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.

If you loved The Andromeda Strain, the closest films we have are Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Paradise (2023). All three share The Andromeda Strain's cerebral and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Born in Flames (1983).

🍅 68% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Wisecerebraltensecontemplative
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If The Andromeda Strain hit the spot, these will too

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

Cerebral and tense in the same breath

The difference: Trades the stillness of The Andromeda Strain for an angle of its own

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.

The Day the Earth Stood Still poster
The Day the Earth Stood Still
1951 · dir. Robert Wise
🍅 92%★ 7.7science fiction · thriller · drama

The same hand behind both of them: Robert Wise

The difference: Made in the 1950s, in a different era of the craft

An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.

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

Science fiction with a pulse of ideas, in both cases

The difference: Reviewed even better

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.

The Face of Another poster
The Face of Another
1966 · dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
🍅 86%★ 7.8drama · science fiction

Contemplative drama in both cases

A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his new doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality and causing him to question his identity.

The Quiet Earth poster
The Quiet Earth
1985 · dir. Geoff Murphy
🍅 75%★ 6.7drama · science fiction · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: disaster

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.

Liquid Sky poster
Liquid Sky
1982 · dir. Slava Tsukerman
🍅 93%★ 6science fiction · thriller · drama

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during an orgasm.

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

Science fiction built on ideas, twice over

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.

The Blackout poster
The Blackout
2019 · dir. Egor Baranov
🍅 57%★ 6thriller · science fiction · actionPrime Video

The same preoccupation in both: alien invasion

The difference: Leans harder into action than The Andromeda Strain does

Contact between most towns on Earth has been severed. A small ring-like area in Eastern Europe still has electricity, and maybe even life is being reported from space. What military forces find outside the ring is shocking.

The Flu poster
The Flu
2013 · dir. Kim Sung-soo
🍅 33%★ 6.6action · science fiction · thrillerPrime Video

Common ground: epidemic

The difference: 42 years apart, and the 2010s show

A case of the flu quickly morphs into a pandemic. As the death toll mounts and the living panic, the government plans extreme measures to contain it.

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

Contemplative thriller, and it commits to that

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.

Born in Flames poster
Born in Flames
1983 · dir. Lizzie Borden
🍅 89%★ 6.6drama · science fiction

Drama built on stillness, twice over

In near-future New York, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.

The Omega Man poster
The Omega Man
1971 · dir. Boris Sagal
🍅 65%★ 6.4science fiction · action · drama

Science fiction with a pulse of tension, in both cases

Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.

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