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Self/less poster

Movies that feel likeSelf/less (2015)

An extremely wealthy elderly man dying from cancer undergoes a radical medical procedure that transfers his consciousness to the body of a healthy young man but everything may not be as good as it seems when he starts to uncover the mystery of the body's origins and the secret organization that will kill to keep its secrets.

If you loved Self/less, the closest films we have are Contagion (2011), Looper (2012) and Cell 211 (2009). All three share Self/less' tense and melancholy feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Greenland (2020).

🍅 18% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Tarsem Singhcerebralkinetictensemelancholy
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Self/less hit the spot, these will too

Contagion poster
Contagion
2011 · dir. Steven Soderbergh
🍅 85%★ 6.8drama · thriller · science fictionMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: terminal illness

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

As an epidemic of a lethal airborne virus - that kills within days - rapidly grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself.

Looper poster
Looper
2012 · dir. Rian Johnson
🍅 93%★ 7.4action · thriller · science fictionStarz

Cerebral and kinetic in the same breath

In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

Cell 211 poster
Cell 211
2009 · dir. Daniel Monzón
🍅 98%★ 7.6action · thriller · dramaNetflix

Both land tension and melancholy at once

The difference: Easier on the ideas than Self/less

The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

War Machine poster
War Machine
2026 · dir. Patrick Hughes
🍅 66%★ 6.3action · science fiction · thrillerNetflix

Science fiction with a pulse of ideas, in both cases

The difference: Trades the melancholy of Self/less for an angle of its own

On one last grueling mission during Army Ranger training, a combat engineer must lead his unit in a fight against a giant otherworldly killing machine.

Predators poster
Predators
2010 · dir. Nimród Antal
🍅 66%★ 6.4science fiction · action · thriller

Action built on momentum, twice over

A group of cold-blooded killers find themselves trapped on an alien planet to be hunted by extraterrestrial Predators.

Greenland poster
Greenland
2020 · dir. Ric Roman Waugh
🍅 78%★ 6.4thriller · action · science fictionMax

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

John Garrity, his estranged wife and their young son embark on a perilous journey to find sanctuary as a planet-killing comet hurtles toward Earth. Amid terrifying accounts of cities getting levelled, the Garritys experience the best and worst in humanity. As the countdown to the global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.

Knowing poster
Knowing
2009 · dir. Alex Proyas
🍅 35%★ 6.2science fiction · thriller

Melancholy science fiction in both cases

A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

The Happening poster
The Happening
2008 · dir. M. Night Shyamalan
🍅 17%★ 5thriller · science fiction

Cerebral thriller, and it commits to that

When a deadly airborne virus threatens to wipe out the northeastern United States, teacher Elliot Moore and his wife Alma flee from contaminated cities into the countryside in a fight to discover the truth. Is it terrorism, the accidental release of some toxic military bio weapon -- or something even more sinister?

The Flu poster
The Flu
2013 · dir. Kim Sung-soo
🍅 33%★ 6.6action · science fiction · thrillerPrime Video

Both are built on the same subject: doctor

A case of the flu quickly morphs into a pandemic. As the death toll mounts and the living panic, the government plans extreme measures to contain it.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure poster
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
2018 · dir. Wes Ball
🍅 43%★ 6.3science fiction · action · adventureMax

One thread runs through both: terminal illness

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than Self/less does

Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions the Gladers have been asking since they first arrived in the maze.

The Blackout poster
The Blackout
2019 · dir. Egor Baranov
🍅 57%★ 6thriller · science fiction · actionPrime Video

Action with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

Contact between most towns on Earth has been severed. A small ring-like area in Eastern Europe still has electricity, and maybe even life is being reported from space. What military forces find outside the ring is shocking.

Next poster
Next
2007 · dir. Lee Tamahori
🍅 28%★ 6.2action · science fiction · thriller

Science fiction built on tension, twice over

Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson has a secret which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling "winnings." But when a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles, government agent Callie Ferris must use all her wiles to capture Cris and convince him to help her stop the cataclysm.

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The best-reviewed films that share Self/less’ defining feeling.