10 Movies Like 'Interstellar' To Get Your Sci-Fi Fix
Over a decade after its release, Interstellar (2014) remains both a quintessential sci-fi movie and one of filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s greatest hits. The epic, visually stunning film blends high-concept sci-fi with a touching story about a father-daughter bond that transcends time and space. In typical Nolan fashion, it’s not just thrilling, epic in scope, and dazzling to comprehend, but also intellectually stimulating.
Interstellar stands out in the sci-fi genre for its massive scope, audacious premise, and complex ideas. Although no film can quite replicate Interstellar, a few have reached a similar level with comparable vision, complexity, and scope. Use our guide to find the 10 sci-fi movies you must see if you loved Interstellar.
2001: A Space Odyssey is Stanley Kubrick’s classic epic sci-fi feature. Like Interstellar, it’s very much a cornerstone of the sci-fi genre. The film spans centuries, tracking humanity's evolution from prehistoric times to the future, where a group of astronauts sets out to investigate an alien monolith.
2001: A Space Odyssey revolutionized the sci-fi genre, paving the way for films like Interstellar by proving sci-fi movies can have visuals, realism, complex science, and even philosophical concepts. While 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar have very different premises, they both have an ambitious vision. If you love how thought-provoking Interstellar is, you won’t want to miss 2001: A Space Odyssey and its many interpretations.
Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a cyberpunk sci-fi film set in a dystopian future where bioengineered synthetic beings, Replicants, serve as a labor force for space colonies. In the film, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) sets out to hunt down a group of rebel Replicants, but his life and perspective change drastically when he falls for the Replicant Rachael (Sean Young).
Like Interstellar, Blade Runner is a science fiction masterpiece that blends sci-fi visuals and worldbuilding with thought-provoking themes open to interpretation and analysis. For viewers seeking the thoughtful nature of Interstellar but with a little more introspective and layered storytelling, Blade Runner is an excellent watch.
The Right Stuff is an epic historical drama that tells the story of the Mercury Seven, seven military pilots who joined the United States’ first spaceflight program, Project Mercury. Unlike most titles on this list, The Right Stuff is based on a true story and isn’t a work of science fiction. However, it is one of the movies Nolan directly credited with inspiring Interstellar.
The film probes Project Mercury’s physical and emotional toll on its astronauts, including the disputes, pressure, and the effects on their personal lives. In a way, The Right Stuff parallels Interstellar through its tale of astronauts taking on bigger-than-life missions and making sacrifices for a future they may never experience. You'll feel the same emotion for the astronauts in The Right Stuff that you feel for Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) in Interstellar, but even more profoundly because it's based on true events.
Contact is a sci-fi drama that centers on Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster), a search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence (SETI) scientist, who discovers a signal from the Vega star. While she’s eager to be the one to decipher the message and make first contact, she faces pushback from the federal government and religious fanatics. Contact follows a similar model to Interstellar, blending space exploration and stunning visuals with cerebral storytelling.
The similarities don’t end there: both films center a father-daughter relationship and feature a strong performance from McConaughey. Additionally, astrophysicist Kip Thorne consulted on Interstellar and on the novel that inspired Contact. Their similar premises and ideas make Contact feel almost like a prequel to Interstellar.
Moon tells the story of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a man on a solitary mission for Lunar Industries to mine helium-3 on the moon. However, when he discovers what appears to be his doppelganger on the moon, he unravels a deep conspiracy within Lunar Industries. Unlike Interstellar, Moon is more minimalist, with a smaller cast and modest visuals.
Still, it parallels the Nolan movie with its brainy, intense premise and philosophical themes. The smaller scope also gives it its own merits, allowing it to function more profoundly as a character study and explore ideas about isolation, loneliness, and identity. If you loved Interstellar and want the same scientific complexity in a more intimate setting, Moon is a great fit.
Nolan’s Inception follows Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a thief who infiltrates his victims’ dreams. Soon, he takes on his biggest con yet: a lucrative offer to implant a thought into a target’s mind. On the surface, Inception and Interstellar are quite different, as one follows a group of scientists desperate to save humanity, and the other follows a group of thieves pulling off a grand heist.
However, Inception and Interstellar share a similar level of complexity. Inception matches Interstellar's cerebral storytelling with a mind-bending premise that often blurs the line between reality and the subconscious. It delivers the complexity and visuals of Interstellar but trades space exploration for an equally captivating deep dive into dreams.
Gravity is a sci-fi thriller that follows Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Lt. Matthew Kowalski (George Clooney) after a routine mission goes awry and they become stranded in deep space. The film is intense and visually dazzling, depicting both the beauty and terror of deep space. While it’s not entirely scientifically accurate, it’s scientific enough to feel real and add to the thrilling, bleak premise.
Like Interstellar, Gravity has moments that take your breath away. It captures the vastness and beauty of outer space in a way few other films have. If you loved the visuals and deep-space exploration of Interstellar, you'll love Gravity.
Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival is a sci-fi drama that centers on a linguist, Louise Banks (Amy Adams), who races against the clock to establish communication with extraterrestrials after their arrival on Earth sparks panic and fear. It’s a unique sci-fi film that takes a realistic approach to the alien arrival trope.
Instead of the typical alien invasion plot, it explores how world governments would respond to an extraterrestrial threat and even the hypothetical steps linguists would take to decipher an alien language. Arrival has the same intelligent, thought-provoking storytelling that makes Interstellar stand out.
Tenet is another Christopher Nolan sci-fi film. It feels like a cross between Inception and Interstellar, with its scientific concepts and complex premise. In the film, the Protagonist (John David Washington), a CIA operative, is recruited to Tenet, a secretive organization that traces objects with inverted entropy that move backward through time. Within the organization, the Protagonist warps time to prevent another world war.
Both Tenet and Interstellar take a nontraditional approach to time travel. From time inversion to time dilation, the movies turn sci-fi tropes on their head with a more complex and audacious approach to time. Interstellar fans who love movies that challenge their perception of time will love Tenet.
Project Hail Mary tells the story of Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a former science teacher who joins a secret mission to save Earth after an alien microbe wreaks havoc on the Sun. What makes Project Hail Mary and Interstellar most similar is the human element at the center of both stories.
Both are complex stories that explore scientific concepts and take viewers on a visually dazzling space adventure, but they also show humanity at its most vulnerable and how the desire for connection persists in the most extreme situations. If you love the heart of Interstellar, Project Hail Mary doubles it with a hopeful, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking tale of friendship.
