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The Day After Tomorrow poster

Movies that feel likeThe Day After Tomorrow (2004)

After paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by UN officials when presenting his environmental concerns about the beginning of a new Ice Age, his research proves true when a superstorm develops, setting off catastrophic natural disasters throughout the world. Trying to get to his son, Sam, who is trapped in New York City with his friend Laura and others, Jack and his crew must travel to get to Sam before it's too late.

If you loved The Day After Tomorrow, the closest films we have are The Abyss (1989), War of the Worlds (2005) and The Rocketeer (1991). All three share The Day After Tomorrow's cerebral and epic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Paradise (2023).

🍅 46% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Roland Emmerichcerebraltenseepic
12 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Hulu

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If The Day After Tomorrow hit the spot, these will too

The Abyss poster
The Abyss
1989 · dir. James Cameron
🍅 75%★ 7.5adventure · thriller · science fictionDisney+

Science under pressure at nature's most hostile frontier

The difference: Slow, submerged and intimate — wonder replaces the disaster rush

A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it.

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

A father clawing through apocalypse to keep his kids alive

The difference: Relentlessly bleak — Spielberg strips out the comfort and the quips

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 Rocketeer poster
The Rocketeer
1991 · dir. Joe Johnston
🍅 73%★ 6.6adventure · science fictionDisney+

Cerebral where it counts, epic underneath

The difference: Reviewed even better

A stunt pilot comes across a prototype jetpack that gives him the ability to fly. However, evil forces of the world also want this jetpack at any cost.

Predator poster
Predator
1987 · dir. John McTiernan
🍅 65%★ 7.8science fiction · action · adventure

Science fiction built on tension, twice over

The difference: Sits closer to action than The Day After Tomorrow does

A team of elite commandos on a secret mission in a Central American jungle come to find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.

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

Thriller with a pulse of ideas, in both cases

The difference: Takes it somewhere less epic than The Day After Tomorrow does

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.

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

Both lean on tension more than on adventure

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.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom poster
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
2018 · dir. J. A. Bayona
🍅 47%★ 6.2adventure · science fiction · thrillerHulu

Epic science fiction, and it commits to that

Three years after Jurassic World was destroyed, Isla Nublar now sits abandoned. When the island's dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen and Claire mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.

Godzilla poster
Godzilla
1998 · dir. Roland Emmerich
🍅 20%★ 5.5science fiction · action · thriller

Emmerich trashing Manhattan again, scientists scrambling underfoot

The difference: One monster instead of a planet — dumber and far worse reviewed

French nuclear tests irradiate an iguana into a giant monster that viciously attacks freighter ships in the Pacific Ocean. A team of experts, including Niko Tatopoulos, conclude that the oversized reptile is the culprit. Before long, the giant lizard is loose in Manhattan as the US military races to destroy the monster before it reproduces and it's spawn takes over the world.

2012 poster
2012
2009 · dir. Roland Emmerich
🍅 40%★ 5.9action · adventure · science fictionHuluStarz

Emmerich going bigger — the whole crust fails, and a family runs

The difference: Any restraint is gone — pure demolition with thinner science

Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.

Independence Day: Resurgence poster
Independence Day: Resurgence
2016 · dir. Roland Emmerich
🍅 29%★ 5.2action · adventure · science fiction

Global catastrophe met with coordinated, defiant human resistance

The difference: A late sequel running on fumes — the awe doesn't land twice

We always knew they were coming back. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.

Push poster
Push
2009 · dir. Paul McGuigan
🍅 23%★ 6.1science fiction · action · adventure

Slick effects-driven peril with rules the heroes learn on the run

The difference: Psychic conspiracy noir — small, murky and nothing like a disaster

After his father, an assassin, is brutally murdered, Nick Gant vows revenge on Division, the covert government agency that dabbles in psychic warfare and experimental drugs. Hiding in Hong Kong's underworld, Nick assembles a band of rogue psychics dedicated to destroying Division. Together with Cassie, a teenage clairvoyant, Nick goes in search of a missing girl and a stolen suitcase that could be the key to accomplishing their mutual goal.

Battleship poster
Battleship
2012 · dir. Peter Berg
🍅 33%★ 5.8thriller · action · adventureNetflix

Military hardware and improvised heroics against overwhelming force

The difference: Board-game bombast — proudly dumb where Emmerich plays it straight

When mankind beams a radio signal into space, a reply comes from ‘Planet G’, in the form of several alien crafts that splash down in the waters off Hawaii. Lieutenant Alex Hopper is a weapons officer assigned to the USS John Paul Jones, part of an international naval coalition which becomes the world's last hope for survival as they engage the hostile alien force of unimaginable strength. While taking on the invaders, Hopper must also try to live up to the potential that his brother, and his fiancée's father—an Admiral—expect of him.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Day After Tomorrow’s defining feeling.