50 Movies Like Escape from New York (1981) You Need to Watch Next
In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam free. After the US president crash-lands inside, war hero Snake Plissken
Updated June 2026
View Escape from New York details →Where to watch(US)
View on JustWatch →Subscription
YouTube TV
PhiloRent / Buy
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At HomeAvailability may change. Data by JustWatch.
If you loved Escape from New York (1981) by John Carpenter, here are 50 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 Æon Flux, The Matrix, Minority Report. 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.
50 Movies Similar to Escape from New York
Æon Flux
2005 · Karyn Kusama
400 years into the future, disease has wiped out the majority of the world's population, except one walled city, Bregna, ruled by a congress of scientists. When Æon Flux, the top operative in the unde
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
The Matrix
1999 · Lana Wachowski
Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Minority Report
2002 · Steven Spielberg
John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for a
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
RoboCop
1987 · Paul Verhoeven
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the com
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
The Book of Eli
2010 · Albert Hughes
A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Death Race
2008 · Paul W. S. Anderson
Terminal Island, New York: 2020. Overcrowding in the US penal system has reached a breaking point. Prisons have been turned over to a monolithic Weyland Corporation, which sees jails full of thugs as
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Equilibrium
2002 · Kurt Wimmer
In a dystopian future, a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace with a drug, and displays of emotion are punishable by death. A man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overth
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
The Matrix Revolutions
2003 · Lilly Wachowski
The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.
In common: Action
Dredd
2012 · Pete Travis
In the future, America is a dystopian wasteland. The latest scourge is Ma-Ma, a prostitute-turned-drug pusher with a dangerous new drug and aims to take over the city. The only possibility of stopping
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Babylon A.D.
2008 · Mathieu Kassovitz
A veteran-turned-mercenary is hired to take a young woman with a secret from post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe to New York City.
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Cyborg
1989 · Albert Pyun
A martial artist hunts a killer in a plague-infested urban dump of the future.
In common: Action · Science Fiction
The Matrix Reloaded
2003 · Lilly Wachowski
The Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machi
In common: Action
Doomsday
2008 · Neil Marshall
The lethal Reaper virus spreads throughout Britain—infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. Authorities brutally and successfully quarantine the country but, three decades later, the viru
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Gamer
2009 · Brian Taylor
Mind-control technology has taken society by a storm, a multiplayer on-line game called "Slayers" allows players to control human prisoners in mass-scale. Simon controls Kable, the online champion of
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Death Race 2
2010 · Roel Reiné
In the world's most dangerous prison, a new game is born: Death Race. The rules of this adrenaline-fueled blood sport are simple, drive or die. When repentant convict Carl Lucas discovers there's a pr
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Mercy
2026 · Timur Bekmambetov
In the near future, a detective stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has ninety minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced AI Judge he once championed, before it determines his fate.
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
In Time
2011 · Andrew Niccol
In the not-too-distant future, the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live foreve
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Insurgent
2015 · Robert Schwentke
Beatrice Prior must confront her inner demons and continue her fight against a powerful alliance which threatens to tear her society apart.
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Terminator Salvation
2009 · McG
All grown up in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor must lead the resistance of humans against the increasingly dominating militaristic robots. But when Marcus Wright appears, his existence confuses th
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
The Island
2005 · Michael Bay
In 2019, Lincoln Six-Echo is a resident of a seemingly "Utopian" but contained facility. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully-controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to The I
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Mad Max
1979 · George Miller
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on st
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Total Recall
2012 · Len Wiseman
Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for implanted memories of being a spy. When the procedure goes wrong, Quaid becomes a wanted man by the pol
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Mad Max 2
1981 · George Miller
Max Rockatansky returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
The Running Man
1987 · Paul Michael Glaser
By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of gam
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
The Colony
2013 · Jeff Renfroe
Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature.
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Demolition Man
1993 · Marco Brambilla
In 1996, brash L.A. detective John Spartan and maniac killer Simon Phoenix are both sentenced to decades in a cryogenic prison as punishment for a rescue mission gone wrong. When Phoenix escapes 36 ye
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Upgrade
2018 · Leigh Whannell
A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhan
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
The 6th Day
2000 · Roger Spottiswoode
A world of the very near future in which cattle, fish, and even the family pet can be cloned. But cloning humans is illegal - that is until family man Adam Gibson comes home from work one day to find
In common: Action
Repo Men
2010 · Miguel Sapochnik
In the future, medical technology has advanced to the point where people can buy artificial organs to extend their lives. But if they default on payments, an organization known as the Union sends agen
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Alita: Battle Angel
2019 · Robert Rodriguez
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 t
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Serenity
2005 · Joss Whedon
When the renegade crew of Serenity agrees to hide a fugitive on their ship, they find themselves in an action-packed battle between the relentless military might of a totalitarian regime who will dest
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Ghost in the Shell
2017 · Rupert Sanders
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.
In common: Action · Science Fiction
The Matrix Resurrections
2021 · Lana Wachowski
Plagued by strange memories, Neo's life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself back inside the Matrix.
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Total Recall
1990 · Paul Verhoeven
Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Rekall, a virtual vacation company that manufactures memories. When something goes wrong during Quaid's memory imp
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Surrogates
2009 · Jonathan Mostow
Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of oth
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Judge Dredd
1995 · Danny Cannon
In a dystopian future, Dredd, the most famous judge (a cop with instant field judiciary powers) is convicted for a crime he did not commit while his murderous counterpart escapes.
In common: Action · Science Fiction
The Maze Runner
2014 · Wes Ball
A teenager with no memory of his past finds himself among a group of boys living in a walled enclosure surrounded by a massive, ever-changing maze. As he struggles to adapt to their rules and society,
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
2014 · Matt Reeves
A group of scientists in San Francisco struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of a plague that is wiping out humanity, while Caesar tries to maintain dominance over his community of intelligent apes.
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
2015 · Wes Ball
Thomas and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate la
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011 · Rupert Wyatt
A highly intelligent chimpanzee named Caesar has been living a peaceful suburban life ever since he was born. But when he gets taken to a cruel primate facility, Caesar decides to revolt against those
In common: Action · Science Fiction
The Hunger Games
2012 · Gary Ross
In a dystopian society where the Capitol forces each district to send two young tributes to fight to the death in a televised spectacle, a girl volunteers to take her sister’s place, setting the stage
In common: Action · Science Fiction
V for Vendetta
2006 · James McTeigue
In a world in which Great Britain has become a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as “V” conducts guerrilla warfare against the oppressive British government. When V rescues a young woman fr
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Starship Troopers
1997 · Paul Verhoeven
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally t
In common: Action · Science Fiction
What Happened to Monday
2017 · Tommy Wirkola
In a world where families are limited to one child due to overpopulation, a set of identical septuplets must avoid being put to a long sleep by the government and dangerous infighting while investigat
In common: Action · Science Fiction
They Live
1988 · John Carpenter
A lone drifter stumbles upon a unique pair of sunglasses that reveal aliens are systematically gaining control of the Earth by masquerading as humans and lulling the public into submission.
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Elysium
2013 · Neill Blomkamp
In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes
In common: Action · Science Fiction
The Terminator
1984 · James Cameron
In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgen
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
World War Z
2013 · Marc Forster
Life for former United Nations investigator Gerry Lane and his family seems content. Suddenly, the world is plagued by a mysterious infection turning whole human populations into rampaging mindless zo
In common: Action · Science Fiction
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
2003 · Jonathan Mostow
It's been 10 years since John Connor saved Earth from Judgment Day, and he's now living under the radar, steering clear of using anything Skynet can trace. That is, until he encounters T-X, a robotic
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller
Children of Men
2006 · Alfonso Cuarón
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help sc
In common: Action · Science Fiction · Thriller