16 Sci-Fi Movies On Netflix Perfect For Escaping This Reality To An Even Weirder One

In a world where unemployment is over 45%, where public schools have been eliminated, and no one stands a chance of getting ahead without wealth and connections, one mother (Jacqueline Kim, who also serves as the film’s writer) is willing to sacrifice whatever it takes – including her own consciousness as she moves into a new body – to help her brilliant daughter (Samantha Kim) in 2015’s Advantageous.

Audiences must choose what actions the protagonist, programmer Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), takes in this interactive psychological thriller as he adapts a choose-your-own-adventure book in video game format. Bandersnatch can be fully enjoyed by someone even if they haven’t watched the Black Mirror series, but for fans of the sci-fi show, the film is also riddled with fun-to-find Easter eggs.

What if there was definitive proof of an afterlife? That simple question has deep, and sometimes horrifying consequences in this Netflix Original film starring Rooney Mara, Jason Segel, Robert Redford, and Jesse Plemons. Despite how society chooses to embrace this concept, at the core of this film is a tragic romance.

In this Korean sci-fi thriller, an investigative journalist has a lot of enemies. So when his son goes missing, he desperately turns to lucid dreaming, an actual technique you can learn with practice. Working with a psychiatrist, they scour his unconscious for any potential clues to find his son’s abductor.

Following an extinction event, a robot, Mother (Rose Byrne), grows a human embryo in a bunker for the purpose of repopulating humanity in the 2019 thriller I Am Mother. As the girl, Daughter (Clara Rugaard), grows up, she becomes increasingly curious about the outside world — especially after meeting a woman (Hilary Swank) who shares some disturbing revelations about humans.

A brutal take on industrial farming, corporate greed, and genetic modification, Netflix Original Okja is at its heart a tale of a girl and the beloved genetically-engineered pet pig she'll do anything to get back. The 2017 ensemble film by Parasite director Bong Joon-ho stars Tilda Swinton, Lily Collins, Steven Yeun, and Jake Gyllenhaal, among others.

Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan star as a pair of best friends and paramedics who find themselves getting called to the scenes of grisly accidents tied to a mysterious new drug Synchronic. As they look into the psychedelic, they have a mind-bending realization about the nature of reality and time, leading to grim, but trippy adventures anchored by the leads’ easy chemistry.

If you were wondering what it might be like if Mackie took the super-soldier serum in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Outside the Wire might be of interest. In the 2036-set Netflix Original, Mackie plays a droid who double-crosses Damson Idris’ character and seeks to end the enhanced-soldier program by obtaining nuclear missiles and launch codes for a planned attack against the United States.

A copycat serial killer keeps reappearing every decade in 2019’s In The Shadow of the Moon, but the murderer isn’t who he seems. This crime thriller starts out like your typical cat-and-mouse flick about a cop (Boyd Holbrook) chasing down a criminal, but it quickly morphs into a time-travel saga with smart sci-fi elements that only add to the movie’s gripping central mystery.

When confronted with an external force that kills when tempted souls open their eyes and see it, Sandra Bullock, Machine Gun Kelly, Trevante Rhodes, and a stacked roster of more Hollywood stars must devise a plan to travel to safety without taking a peek. The task is made even more difficult as the mysterious presence tries to coerce the characters into opening their eyes by using their worst fears against them.

Project Power spins the beloved superhero angle and discovers what happens when a pill gives users unpredictable superpowers in five-minute increments. When crime rates hit a new level, Jamie Foxx, Dominique Fishback, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s characters search for the creators and consider taking the pill themselves. MGK fans will want to check out his feature in here, too.

When a young woman (Mélanie Laurent) wakes up trapped in a cryogenic unit with falling oxygen levels, she must quickly figure out a way to survive. This claustrophobic, nail-biter of a film — the 2021 reimagining of a ’90s classic — will keep you in its thrall until the very end.

When living on Earth is no longer viable, humans must turn to space — specifically, Eden, a colony ruled by a corporation — to survive. Much like life on the home planet, humans’ pollution knows no bounds, and there are 1.7 tons of space debris drifting about. In Space Sweepers, an interplanetary crew of misfits seeks payment for cleaning up the mess of the wealthy but finds a stowaway robot child in the process.

When Laura (Zoe Saldaña) goes missing, her husband Adam (Ryan Reynolds) travels through time to find her only to barrel into the wrong year. There he meets his younger self (Walker Scobell) and enlists his help in reversing the events of the past. The movie also marks the reunion of Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo – one fans have been waiting on since 2004’s 13 Going On 30.

This visually arresting 2010 Christopher Nolan film starring Leonardo DiCaprio will haunt you for days. Dom (DiCaprio) has a special skill: he can infiltrate dreams, mostly to extract top secret information. When he’s offered a deal he couldn’t resist, Dom has to carry out the impossible task of implanting a thought in someone’s dream subconscious. Be forewarned, the end is a doozy.

Chris Hemsworth trades in his superhero cape to play an evil genius in the 2022 film Spiderhead. As Steve, Hemsworth administers mind-altering experimental drugs at a criminal facility in exchange for shorter sentences for the inmates (some played by Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett). But when one’s prison changes from a physical cell to a mind cage, what is considered freedom?

Reporting by Danielle Burgos, Sadie Gennis, Shannon Barbour, and Alyssa Lapid