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The Terminal poster

Movies that feel likeThe Terminal (2004)

An Eastern European tourist unexpectedly finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there.

If you loved The Terminal, the closest films we have are The Bucket List (2007), Elling (2001) and 50/50 (2011). All three share The Terminal's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Ghost World (2001).

🍅 61% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Steven Spielbergwittyplayfulcontemplativewarm
8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Hulu · Paramount Plus Premium

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If The Terminal hit the spot, these will too

The Bucket List poster
The Bucket List
2007 · dir. Rob Reiner
🍅 40%★ 7.3drama · comedy

An unlikely friendship built out of a strange, forced circumstance

The difference: A terminal-illness travel drama, far heavier stakes than a stuck traveler

Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.

Elling poster
Elling
2001 · dir. Petter Næss
🍅 85%★ 7.4comedy · drama

The same mix in both: wit, then play

40-year-old Elling, sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution when his mother, who has sheltered him his entire life, dies. There he meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and female-obsessed virgin, also in his 40s.

50/50 poster
50/50
2011 · dir. Jonathan Levine
🍅 93%★ 7.6comedy · drama

Warmth and humor carrying someone through an absurd situation

The difference: A cancer-diagnosis drama, much heavier than one man's airport limbo

Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

Ghost World poster
Ghost World
2001 · dir. Terry Zwigoff
🍅 93%★ 7.3comedy · drama

A wry, gentle character study about someone stuck between two worlds

The difference: A post-graduation friendship drama, no immigration or airport setting

Two quirky, cynical, teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives following high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle-aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.

Son of Rambow poster
Son of Rambow
2007 · dir. Garth Jennings
🍅 73%★ 7comedyParamount+

An unlikely friendship blooming out of pure circumstance and boredom

The difference: A scrappy kids' filmmaking caper, no immigration or airport setting

Will is looking for an escape from his family when he encounters Lee, the school bully. Armed with a video camera and a copy of Rambo, Lee plans to make his own action-packed video epic.

The Intouchables poster
The Intouchables
2011 · dir. Éric Toledano
🍅 75%★ 8.5drama · comedy

An unlikely friendship crossing a divide neither expected to bridge

The difference: A quadriplegic-care drama based on true events, not an airport limbo

A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.

The Intern poster
The Intern
2015 · dir. Nancy Meyers
🍅 59%★ 7.1comedyParamount+

A fish-out-of-water adjusting to a world that doesn't quite fit them

The difference: A workplace mentorship story, not an immigration standoff at an airport

70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker has discovered that retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin.

That's Life poster
That's Life
1998 · dir. Massimo Venier
★ 7comedy

Comedy with a pulse of warmth, in both cases

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

While on the run from the police, an unlikely companionship blossoms between a funny con man who just broke out of jail, the bumbling cop whose car he seized at gunpoint, and a nitpicking civilian he unwittingly took hostage.

Three Men and a Leg poster
Three Men and a Leg
1997 · dir. Aldo Baglio
★ 7.7comedy

Both lean on wit more than on drama

Friends Aldo, Giovanni, and Giacomo cross Italy from north to south for Giacomo's wedding: the father of the bride, a despotic magnate who is both their boss and father-in-law—since Aldo and Giovanni have also married into the family not for love but for money, a fate now awaiting Giacomo—has entrusted them with a priceless piece of modern art, one that looks just like a rather unremarkable wooden leg.

Grown Ups poster
Grown Ups
2010 · dir. Dennis Dugan
🍅 10%★ 6comedyHuluStarz

Warm, easygoing comedy that finds humor in everyday circumstance

The difference: A childhood-friends reunion weekend, not a stranded traveler's story

After their high school basketball coach passes away, five good friends and former teammates reunite for a Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The Internship poster
The Internship
2013 · dir. Shawn Levy
🍅 34%★ 6.3comedyMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: friendship

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Two recently laid-off men in their 40s try to make it as interns at a successful Internet company where their managers are in their 20s.

Clerks poster
Clerks
1994 · dir. Kevin Smith
🍅 90%★ 7.7comedyParamount+

Playful comedy, and it commits to that

Convenience and video store clerks Dante and Randal are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed and bored out of their minds. So in between needling customers, the counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their love lives.

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