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Blade Runner 2049 poster

Movies that feel likeBlade Runner 2049 (2017)

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

If you loved Blade Runner 2049, the closest films we have are Dune (2021), Cloud Atlas (2012) and Advantageous (2015). All three share Blade Runner 2049's cerebral and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Phoenix (2014).

🍅 88% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Denis Villeneuvecerebralcontemplativebleakatmospheric
10 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Paramount Plus Premium · Kino Film Collection

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If Blade Runner 2049 hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Blade Runner (1982)

Dune poster
Dune
2021 · dir. Denis Villeneuve
🍅 83%★ 8science fiction · adventureMax

Overwhelming scale and sound that dwarf the person at the center

The difference: Myth and empire politics — outward destiny, not inward loneliness

Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence - a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential - only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

Cloud Atlas poster
Cloud Atlas
2012 · dir. Lilly Wachowski
🍅 65%★ 7.3drama · science fiction

Big philosophical reach about what a manufactured life is worth

The difference: Sprawling across centuries and tones — restless where 2049 is still

A set of six nested stories spanning time between the 19th century and a distant post-apocalyptic future. Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. Action, mystery and romance weave through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. Based on the award winning novel by David Mitchell. Directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis.

Advantageous poster
Advantageous
2015 · dir. Jennifer Phang
🍅 87%★ 6science fiction · drama

A quiet dystopia where personhood is something the economy prices

The difference: Micro-budget intimacy — a mother's story, no noir or scale

In a near-future city where soaring opulence overshadows economic hardship, Gwen and her daughter, Jules, do all they can to hold on to their joy, despite the instability surfacing in their world.

Chappie poster
Chappie
2015 · dir. Neill Blomkamp
🍅 32%★ 6.8crime · action · science fiction

A machine child asking what makes a soul, in a broken near-future

The difference: Loud and scrappy — sentiment and gunfire crowd out the mystery

Every child comes into the world full of promise, and none more so than Chappie: he is gifted, special, a prodigy. Like any child, Chappie will come under the influence of his surroundings—some good, some bad—and he will rely on his heart and soul to find his way in the world and become his own man. But there's one thing that makes Chappie different from any one else: he is a robot.

Snowpiercer poster
Snowpiercer
2013 · dir. Bong Joon Ho
🍅 94%★ 7.1action · science fiction · drama

A grimy class allegory pushed forward with unblinking bleakness

The difference: Violent and satirical — momentum instead of contemplative stillness

In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard the Snowpiercer; a train that travels around the globe via a perpetual-motion engine.

Metropolis poster
Metropolis
1927 · dir. Fritz Lang
🍅 97%★ 8.2drama · science fiction

Common ground in both: the future and dystopia

The difference: Takes it somewhere less atmospheric than Blade Runner 2049 does

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Ghost in the Shell poster
Ghost in the Shell
2017 · dir. Rupert Sanders
🍅 42%★ 6.3science fiction · drama · actionParamount+

Neon-drenched cyberpunk circling the question of a manufactured self

The difference: Action-forward and shallow — the philosophy never sinks in

In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human saved from a terrible crash, then cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.

The Giver poster
The Giver
2014 · dir. Phillip Noyce
🍅 34%★ 6.4drama · science fiction

A controlled world where memory is the most dangerous thing in it

The difference: YA-simple and brightly resolved — none of the crushing atmosphere

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

Code 46 poster
Code 46
2003 · dir. Michael Winterbottom
🍅 52%★ 6.1drama · science fiction · thriller

One thread runs through both: the future

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

In a dystopian future, insurance fraud investigator William Gold arrives in Shanghai to investigate a forgery ring for "papelles", futuristic passports that record people's identities and genetics. Gold falls for Maria Gonzalez, the woman in charge of the forgeries. After a passionate affair, Gold returns home, having named a coworker as the culprit. But when one of Gonzalez's customers is found dead, Gold is sent back to Shanghai to complete the investigation.

Alita: Battle Angel poster
Alita: Battle Angel
2019 · dir. Robert Rodriguez
🍅 61%★ 7.3action · science fiction · adventureRent or buy

A cyborg with a lost past hunting her identity in a stratified world

The difference: Kinetic YA-flavored spectacle — wonder over melancholy

When Alita awakens with no memory of who she is in a future world she does not recognize, she is taken in by Ido, a compassionate doctor who realizes that somewhere in this abandoned cyborg shell is the heart and soul of a young woman with an extraordinary past.

Phoenix poster
Phoenix
2014 · dir. Christian Petzold
🍅 98%★ 7.3drama

Contemplative where it counts, atmospheric underneath

In the aftermath of WWII, German-Jewish cabaret singer Nelly has to undergo facial reconstructive surgery following her survival from Auschwitz. Without recognising Nelly, her former husband Johnny asks her to help him claim his wife’s inheritance. To see if he's betrayed her, she agrees, becoming her own doppelgänger.

THX 1138 poster
THX 1138
1971 · dir. George Lucas
🍅 72%★ 6.6science fiction · drama

The same preoccupation in both: dystopia

The difference: 46 years apart, and the 1970s show

People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.

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The best-reviewed films that share Blade Runner 2049’s defining feeling.