NoBadPicks

Movies Like Approaching the Unknown

If you loved Approaching the Unknown's Thriller and Drama storytelling, these films deliver a similar experience — carefully selected for tone, themes, and emotional depth. Each pick includes where to watch it right now.

Top Picks

Stowaway
6.0

Stowaway

2021

A three-person crew on a mission to Mars faces an impossible choice when an unplanned passenger jeopardizes the lives of everyone on board.

Moonshot
6.7

Moonshot

2022

In a future where Mars is terraformed and colonized by the best humanity has to offer, two very different college students wind up joining forces and sneak onboard a space shuttle to the red planet in order to be united with their significant others.

Space Oddity
6.1

Space Oddity

2023

A space-obsessed man gets the opportunity of a lifetime thanks to a Mars colonization program but finds his plans compromised by his feelings for a woman who brings him down to Earth.

Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods
7.3

Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods

2009

An alien similar to Ra appears out of the Stargate, killing five soldiers and kidnapping another, a year after the original Stargate mission. A new team is assembled, including some old members, and they go in search of the missing soldier in order to find out how Ra could still be alive. Meanwhile, the alien Goa'uld kidnap Sha're and Skaara, implanting them with symbiotes and making them Goa'uld hosts.

Stargate: Continuum
7.1

Stargate: Continuum

2008

Ba'al travels back in time and prevents the Stargate program from being started. SG-1 must somehow restore history.

The Martian
7.7

The Martian

2015

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

Doppelgänger
6.2

Doppelgänger

1969

A planet is discovered in the same orbit as Earth's but is located on the exact opposite side of the sun, making it not visible from Earth. The European Space Exploration Council decide to send American astronaut Glenn Ross and British scientist John Kane via spaceship to explore the other planet.

Zoe
5.9

Zoe

2018

Two colleagues at a revolutionary research lab design technology to improve and perfect romantic relationships. As their work progresses, their discoveries become more profound.

More Movies Like Approaching the Unknown

Spring
6.6

Spring

2014

A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret.

Voyagers
6.0

Voyagers

2021

With the future of the human race at stake, a group of young men and women -- bred for intelligence and obedience -- embark on an expedition to colonize a distant planet. When they uncover disturbing secrets about the mission, they defy their training and begin to explore their most primitive natures. As life on the ship descends into chaos, they soon become consumed by fear, lust and an insatiable hunger for power.

Pandorum
6.6

Pandorum

2009

Two crew members wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they've been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they're actually not alone – and the reality of their situation is more horrifying than they could have imagined.

Anniversary
6.8

Anniversary

2025

When Ellen and Paul’s son Josh introduces his new girlfriend at their 25th anniversary party, no one suspects that it is the beginning of the end for this happy family. The new girlfriend is Liz, Ellen’s former student, who left the university, some years before, after Ellen called her out in class for her radical ideology.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
6.3

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

2019

The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.

Die Alone
6.0

Die Alone

2024

Lost in a world reclaimed by nature and overrun by mysterious creatures, Ethan, a young man with amnesia navigates the dangerous landscape in search of his lost love Emma. His journey takes an unexpected turn when he encounters Mae, a hardened and eccentric survivor. Together, Ethan and Mae face threats both human and otherwise before a fateful encounter with Kai unravels a secret that lies just beyond Ethan's fractured memory.

Slash/Back
6.3

Slash/Back

2022

In a remote Arctic community, a group of Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion, all while trying to make it to the coolest party in town.

Afterburn
6.4

Afterburn

2025

Set against the backdrop of a postapocalyptic Earth whose Eastern Hemisphere was destroyed by a massive solar flare, leaving what life remains mutated from radiation and fallout. The story revolves around a group of treasure hunters who extract such objects as the Mona Lisa, the Rosetta Stone and the Crown Jewels while facing rival hunters, mutants and pirates.

Shuffle
6.4

Shuffle

2012

Lovell Milo is a man who begins experiencing his life out of order; every day he wakes up at a different age, on a different day of his life, never knowing where or when he’s going to be once he falls asleep. He’s terrified and wants it to stop - until he notices a pattern in his experience, and works to uncover why this is happening to him - and what or who is behind it.

Capricorn One
6.8

Capricorn One

1977

In order to protect the reputation of the American space program, a team of NASA administrators turn the first Mars mission into a phony Mars landing. Under threat of harm to their families the astronauts play their part in the deception on a staged set in a deserted military base. But once the real ship returns to Earth and burns up on re-entry, the astronauts become liabilities. Now, with the help of a crusading reporter, they must battle a sinister conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden.

Titan A.E.
6.6

Titan A.E.

2000

A young man finds out that he holds the key to restoring hope and ensuring survival for the human race, while an alien species called the Drej are bent on mankind's destruction.

2073
6.6

2073

2024

Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.

Why These Movies Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with Approaching the Unknown (2016): Thriller and Drama themes, similar narrative structure, and comparable emotional depth. NoBadPicks uses a combination of TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface films most likely to resonate with fans of Approaching the Unknown.

See full details for Approaching the Unknown (2016)

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