40 Movies Like Apollo 13 (1995) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View Apollo 13 details →Ron Howard's 1995 drama recounts the true 1970 Apollo 13 mission, when technical failures scuttled the planned Moon landing and turned a routine flight into a desperate fight for survival. Stranded more than 200,000 miles from Earth, astronaut Jim Lovell and his crew work furiously alongside the ground team to jury-rig solutions and steer the crippled craft home. Howard emphasizes procedure, ingenuity and collective nerve over melodrama, drawing tension from real constraints rather than invention. It suits viewers who like grounded historical thrillers about problem-solving under pressure and teamwork against long odds. Methodical and absorbing, it finds its heroism in competence rather than spectacle.
If you loved Apollo 13 (1995) by Ron Howard, here are 40 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are First Man, The Tree of Life, Sully. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
The Best Movies Similar to Apollo 13
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with Apollo 13 in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
First Man
2018 · Damien Chazelle
A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
In common: Drama · History
The Tree of Life
2011 · Terrence Malick
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to
In common: Drama
Sully
2016 · Clint Eastwood
On 15 January 2009, the world witnessed the 'Miracle on the Hudson' when Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 souls aboard. However
In common: Drama · History
Only the Brave
2017 · Joseph Kosinski
Members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots battle deadly wildfires to save an Arizona town.
In common: Drama · History
Silence
2016 · Martin Scorsese
In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
In common: Drama · History
Lincoln
2012 · Steven Spielberg
The revealing story of the 16th US President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war,
In common: Drama · History
Mary Queen of Scots
2018 · Josie Rourke
In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim
In common: Drama · History
Elizabeth
1998 · Shekhar Kapur
The story of the ascension to the throne and the early reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, the endless attempts by her council to marry her off, the Catholic hatred of her and her romance with Lord Ro
In common: Drama · History
The 33
2015 · Patricia Riggen
Based on the true story of the collapse of a mine in San Jose, Chile—that left 33 miners isolated underground for 69 days.
In common: Drama · History
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
2019 · Chiwetel Ejiofor
Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.
In common: Drama · History
The Pursuit of Happyness
2006 · Gabriele Muccino
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
In common: Drama
Les Misérables
2012 · Tom Hooper
An adaptation of the successful stage musical based on Victor Hugo's classic novel set in 19th-century France. Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named
In common: Drama · History
Aftersun
2022 · Charlotte Wells
Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the fat
In common: Drama
The Hunt
2012 · Thomas Vinterberg
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutal
In common: Drama
Moonlight
2016 · Barry Jenkins
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while gra
In common: Drama
Silenced
2011 · Hwang Dong-hyuk
Based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five
In common: Drama
Marriage Story
2019 · Noah Baumbach
A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.
In common: Drama
Tokyo Story
1953 · Yasujirō Ozu
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a
In common: Drama
The Father
2020 · Florian Zeller
A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages and, as he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reali
In common: Drama
The Florida Project
2017 · Sean Baker
The story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle wi
In common: Drama
How to Have Sex
2023 · Molly Manning Walker
Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday—drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.
In common: Drama
The Babysitters
2008 · David Ross
Seventeen-year-old Shirley is a good student who works as a babysitter in order to make money for college. One night Michael, a father Shirley works for, confesses he's unhappy with married life. Shir
In common: Drama
Oppenheimer
2023 · Christopher Nolan
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
In common: Drama · History
Malena
2000 · Giuseppe Tornatore
12-year-old Renato experiences three significant events on the same day: the beginning of the Second World War, getting a bike, and witnessing the arrival of the gorgeous Malèna. Through his eyes, we
In common: Drama
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
2013 · Lars von Trier
A man named Seligman finds a fainted wounded woman in an alley and he brings her home. She tells him that her name is Joe and that she is nymphomaniac. Joe tells her life and sexual experiences with h
In common: Drama
Nuremberg
2025 · James Vanderbilt
In postwar Germany, an American psychiatrist must determine whether Nazi prisoners are fit to go on trial for war crimes, and finds himself in a complex battle of intellect and ethics with Hermann Gör
In common: Drama · History
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975 · Miloš Forman
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs
In common: Drama
Caligula
1979 · Tinto Brass
After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity.
In common: Drama · History
Hope
2013 · Lee Joon-ik
After 8-year-old So-won narrowly survives a brutal sexual assault, her family labors to help her heal while coping with their own rage and grief.
In common: Drama
American History X
1998 · Tony Kaye
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinh
In common: Drama
The Social Network
2010 · David Fincher
In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, Mark is one of
In common: Drama
Hidden Figures
2016 · Theodore Melfi
The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history
In common: Drama · History
Sentimental Value
2025 · Joachim Trier
Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora
In common: Drama
Wonder
2017 · Stephen Chbosky
The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.
In common: Drama
Ikiru
1952 · Akira Kurosawa
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
In common: Drama
There Will Be Blood
2007 · Paul Thomas Anderson
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him
In common: Drama
Like Stars on Earth
2007 · Aamir Khan
Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate. Colours, fish, dogs, and kites don't seem important to the adults, who are much more intere
In common: Drama
The Martian
2015 · Ridley Scott
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 pl
In common: Drama
Gravity
2013 · Alfonso Cuarón
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
In common: Drama
Moon
2009 · Duncan Jones
With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, Sam Bell is eager to return to Earth. Stationed alone at a Moon-based facility with his computer assistant GERTY, an unexpected accident sets off
In common: Drama
Popular Drama series
Breaking Bad
2008 · Michelle MacLaren
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
2023 · Kazutaka Yamanaka
After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s m
The Chosen
2019 · Tyler Thompson
The life of Christ through the eyes of those who encountered him.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
2025 · Park Sang-hyun
In Jeju, a spirited girl and a steadfast boy's island story blossoms into a lifelong tale of setbacks and triumphs — proving love endures across time.
