feelsalike.comSign in
The Game poster

Movies that feel likeThe Game (1997)

In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins.

If you loved The Game, the closest films we have are Pi (1998), Disturbia (2007) and Lost Highway (1997). All three share The Game's contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Lady Vanishes (1938).

🍅 77% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. David Finchercontemplativetensetwistyparanoid
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

Not on subscription streaming right now. Rent or buy below.

See it on the Mood Map

If The Game hit the spot, these will too

Pi poster
Pi
1998 · dir. Darren Aronofsky
🍅 88%★ 7.3mystery · drama · thrillerPrime Video

A brilliant loner losing his grip on what's real, scene by scene

The difference: Abrasive black-and-white experiment — migraine, not thrill ride

A mathematical genius discovers a link between numbers and reality, and thus believes he can predict the future.

Disturbia poster
Disturbia
2007 · dir. D.J. Caruso
🍅 69%★ 6.8thriller · drama · mysteryParamount+

Housebound paranoia where every neighborly detail turns sinister

The difference: A teen-thriller frame with far more conventional payoffs

Kale has a life most teenagers would envy. He spends his days endlessly playing video games, surfing the net, eating junk food and watching cable. He has complete free reign of the house, and a beautiful young hottie named Ashley has just moved in next door. There’s only one problem—he’s not allowed to leave the house. Kale’s under court-ordered house arrest for three months, and if he takes one step beyond a 100-foot perimeter of the house, his next confinement will be in a real prison.

Lost Highway poster
Lost Highway
1997 · dir. David Lynch
🍅 70%★ 7.6drama · thriller · mystery

Identity dissolving mid-story with no promise the pieces reconnect

The difference: Pure Lynch dream logic — it never intends to explain itself

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

Red Eye poster
Red Eye
2005 · dir. Wes Craven
🍅 80%★ 6.4thriller · mysteryParamount+

One ordinary person trapped inside a stranger's meticulous plan

The difference: A straight survival sprint — no ambiguity about what's real

An overnight flight to Miami quickly becomes a battle for survival when Lisa realizes her seatmate plans to use her as part of a chilling assassination plot against the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. If she refuses to cooperate, her own father will be killed. As the miles tick by, she's in a race against time to find a way to warn the potential victims before it's too late.

Three Days of the Condor poster
Three Days of the Condor
1975 · dir. Sydney Pollack
🍅 88%★ 7.4thriller · mystery

An ordinary week ambushed by a conspiracy with no visible edges

The difference: Cold 70s spycraft — institutional menace, not a personal game

When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.

The Man Who Knew Too Much poster
The Man Who Knew Too Much
1956 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 89%★ 7.4thriller · mystery · drama

Hitchcock dragging an ordinary couple through machinery they can't see

The difference: Classical 50s suspense — wholesome leads, tidier resolution

An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.

Angels & Demons poster
Angels & Demons
2009 · dir. Ron Howard
🍅 36%★ 6.7thriller · mysteryNetflixStarz

A scavenger hunt of planted clues run by unseen orchestrators

The difference: Pulpy airport-novel plotting — spectacle over psychology

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is recruited by the Vatican to investigate the apparent return of the Illuminati – a secret, underground organization – after four cardinals are kidnapped on the night of the papal conclave.

The Lady Vanishes poster
The Lady Vanishes
1938 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 98%★ 7.7mystery · thrillerMax

Tense where it counts, twisty underneath

The difference: Easier on the stillness than The Game

On a train headed for England a group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche. Holed up in a hotel in a fictional European country, young Iris befriends elderly Miss Froy. When the train resumes, Iris suffers a bout of unconsciousness and wakes to find the old woman has disappeared. The other passengers ominously deny Miss Froy ever existed, so Iris begins to investigate with another traveler and, as the pair sleuth, romantic sparks fly.

Zodiac poster
Zodiac
2007 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 90%★ 7.7crime · mystery · thrillerParamount+

Fincher's San Francisco again, ruled by a puzzle nobody can close

The difference: A slow procedural marathon — obsession without catharsis

Police conduct a manhunt for the Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s, taunting police with letters, bloodstained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers.

Blow Out poster
Blow Out
1981 · dir. Brian De Palma
🍅 88%★ 7.4crime · mystery · thrillerPrime Video

Paranoid thriller in both cases

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than The Game does

While recording sound effects for a slasher flick, Jack Terry stumbles upon a real-life horror: a car careening off a bridge and into a river. Jack jumps into the water and fishes out Sally from the car, but the other passenger is already dead — a governor intending to run for president. As Jack does some investigating of his tapes, and starts a perilous romance with Sally, he enters a tangled web of conspiracy that might leave him dead.

Enemy poster
Enemy
2014 · dir. Denis Villeneuve
🍅 74%★ 6.9thriller · mystery

Mystery built on tension, twice over

A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.

Gone Baby Gone poster
Gone Baby Gone
2007 · dir. Ben Affleck
🍅 94%★ 7.6crime · drama · mysteryParamount+

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans harder into crime than The Game does

When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

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