50 Movies Like The Butterfly Effect (2004) You Need to Watch Next
A young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon find
Updated June 2026
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If you loved The Butterfly Effect (2004) by J. Mackye Gruber, 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 Predestination, Next, Source Code. 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 The Butterfly Effect
Predestination
2014 · Michael Spierig
Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment
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Next
2007 · Lee Tamahori
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
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Source Code
2011 · Duncan Jones
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
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Déjà Vu
2006 · Tony Scott
Called in to recover evidence in the aftermath of a horrific explosion on a New Orleans ferry, Federal agent Doug Carlin gets pulled away from the scene and taken to a top-secret government lab that u
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57 Seconds
2023 · Rusty Cundieff
When a tech blogger lands an interview with a tech guru and stops an attack on him, he finds a mysterious ring that takes him back 57 seconds into the past.
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Coherence
2014 · James Ward Byrkit
Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.
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Project Almanac
2015 · Dean Israelite
A group of teens discover secret plans of a time machine, and construct one. However, things start to get out of control.
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Sunshine
2007 · Danny Boyle
Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is
In common: Science Fiction · Thriller
Brick
2025 · Philip Koch
When a mysterious brick wall encloses their apartment building overnight, Tim and Olivia must unite with their wary neighbors to get out alive.
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The Happening
2008 · M. Night Shyamalan
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
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Tenet
2020 · Christopher Nolan
Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in some
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The One
2001 · James Wong
A sheriff's deputy fights an alternate universe version of himself who grows stronger with each alternate self he kills.
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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: Science Fiction · Thriller
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
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Star Trek: First Contact
1996 · Jonathan Frakes
The Borg, a relentless race of cyborgs, are on a direct course for Earth. Violating orders to stay away from the battle, Captain Picard and the crew of the newly-commissioned USS Enterprise E pursue t
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Terminator Genisys
2015 · Alan Taylor
The year is 2029. John Connor, leader of the resistance continues the war against the machines. At the Los Angeles offensive, John's fears of the unknown future begin to emerge when TECOM spies reveal
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Planet of the Apes
2001 · Tim Burton
After a spectacular crash-landing on an uncharted planet, brash astronaut Leo Davidson finds himself trapped in a savage world where talking apes dominate the human race. Desperate to find a way home,
In common: Science Fiction
Terminator: Dark Fate
2019 · Tim Miller
Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up w
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Looper
2012 · Rian Johnson
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 g
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991 · James Cameron
Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Sky
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Twelve Monkeys
1995 · Terry Gilliam
In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivor
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Time Trap
2017 · Mark Dennis
A group of students become trapped inside a mysterious cave where they discover time passes differently underground than on the surface.
In common: Science Fiction
Lucy
2014 · Luc Besson
A woman, accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.
In common: Science Fiction
The Day After Tomorrow
2004 · Roland Emmerich
After paleoclimatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by UN officials when presenting his environmental concerns about the beginning of a new Ice Age, his research proves true when a superstorm develo
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Masters of the Universe
1987 · Gary Goddard
When the evil Skeletor finds a mysterious power called the Cosmic Key, he becomes nearly invincible, seizing Castle Grayskull and the surrounding city. The Sorceress is now Skeletor's prisoner and he
Contagion
2011 · Steven Soderbergh
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
In common: Science Fiction · Thriller
The Abyss
1989 · James Cameron
A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocea
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The Platform
2019 · Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
A slab of food descends down a vertical facility. The residents above eat heartily, leaving those below starving and desperate. A rebellion is imminent.
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The Core
2003 · Jon Amiel
Geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes discovers that an unknown force has caused the earth's inner core to stop rotating. With the planet's magnetic field rapidly deteriorating, our atmosphere literally starts
In common: Science Fiction · Thriller
The Circle
2017 · James Ponsoldt
A young tech worker takes a job at a powerful Internet corporation, quickly rises up the company's ranks, and soon finds herself in a perilous situation concerning privacy, surveillance and freedom. S
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Replicas
2018 · Jeffrey Nachmanoff
A scientist becomes obsessed with returning his family to normalcy after a terrible accident.
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Greenland 2: Migration
2026 · Ric Roman Waugh
Having found the safety of the Greenland bunker after the comet Clarke decimated the Earth, the Garrity family must now risk everything to embark on a perilous journey across the wasteland of Europe t
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Jurassic World Dominion
2022 · Colin Trevorrow
Four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed, dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human
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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
2018 · J. A. Bayona
Three years after Jurassic World was destroyed, Isla Nublar now sits abandoned. When the island's dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen and Claire mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinos
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Limitless
2011 · Neil Burger
The life of an unsuccessful writer is transformed by a top-secret 'smart drug' that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract sha
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Godzilla
1998 · Roland Emmerich
French nuclear tests irradiate an iguana into a giant monster that viciously attacks freighter ships in the Pacific Ocean. A team of experts, including Niko Tatopoulos, conclude that the oversized rep
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Self/less
2015 · Tarsem Singh
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 see
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Spectral
2016 · Nic Mathieu
A special-ops team is dispatched to fight supernatural beings that have taken over a European city.
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Left Behind
2014 · Vic Armstrong
A small group of survivors are left behind after millions of people suddenly vanish during the rapture and the world is plunged into chaos and destruction.
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The Adjustment Bureau
2011 · George Nolfi
A man glimpses the future Fate has planned for him – and chooses to fight for his own destiny. Battling the powerful Adjustment Bureau across, under and through the streets of New York, he risks his d
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Apex
2021 · Edward Drake
Ex-cop Thomas Malone is serving a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. He is offered a chance at freedom if he can survive a deadly game of Apex, in which six hunters pay for the pleasure of hu
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Outside the Wire
2021 · Mikael Håfström
In the near future, a drone pilot is sent into a deadly militarized zone and must work with an android officer to locate a doomsday device.
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Cube
1998 · Vincenzo Natali
A group of strangers find themselves trapped in a maze-like prison. It soon becomes clear that each of them possesses the peculiar skills necessary to escape, if they don't wind up dead first.
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The X-Files
1998 · Rob Bowman
Mulder and Scully, now taken off the FBI's X Files cases, must find a way to fight the shadowy elements of the government to find out the truth about a conspiracy that might mean the alien colonizatio
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Universal Soldier
1992 · Roland Emmerich
An American soldier who had been killed during the Vietnam War is revived 25 years later by the military as a semi-android, UniSols, a high-tech soldier of the future. After the failure of the initiat
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The Gorge
2025 · Scott Derrickson
Two highly trained operatives grow close from a distance after being sent to guard opposite sides of a mysterious gorge. When an evil below emerges, they must work together to survive what lies within
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War Machine
2026 · Patrick Hughes
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.
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The Running Man
2025 · Edgar Wright
Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards is convinced by The Running Man's charming but ruthless producer to enter the deadly competition game as a last resort. But Ben's defian
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War of the Worlds
2025 · Rich Lee
Will Radford is a top analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the gov
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28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2026 · Nia DaCosta
Dr. Kelson finds himself in a shocking new relationship - with consequences that could change the world as they know it - and Spike's encounter with Jimmy Crystal becomes a nightmare he can't escape.
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