Movies Like Interstellar: 12 to Stream in the UK (2026)
Twelve films that scratch the Interstellar itch — space epics, mind-benders and emotional sci-fi — each with the exact UK streaming or rental option, from Netflix and Now to Prime Video.
Interstellar is the rare blockbuster that lodges in your chest and stays there — part hard science, part spectacle, and part the story of a father who crosses the universe to keep a promise to his daughter. When it is over, most people want the same feeling again. The trouble is that “films like Interstellar” pull up the same handful of global lists, none of which tell a UK viewer the one thing that actually matters: where you can watch each one tonight.
So we did both jobs. Below are twelve films that capture different pieces of what made Interstellar special — the survival tension, the mind-bending structure, the emotional gut-punch, the sheer scale — ranked by how well they scratch the itch. Each entry says exactly where to stream or rent it in the UK, checked against live provider data in July 2026. Two of them even share Interstellar’s own cast.
The 12 best movies like Interstellar
The Martian (2015)
- Runtime
- 141 min
- Director
- Ridley Scott
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Drama, Adventure
- Starring
- Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig
Perfect if you loved the ingenuity and optimism.
Matt Damon went from a frozen planet in Interstellar to a red one here, and The Martian channels the same faith in human ingenuity. Stranded alone on Mars, an astronaut has to science his way through survival while Earth scrambles to bring him home. It trades cosmic despair for wit and problem-solving, making it the warmest, most rewatchable film on this list — the one to reach for when you want the wonder without the heartbreak.
Ad Astra (2019)
- Runtime
- 123 min
- Director
- James Gray
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Drama
- Starring
- Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tyler
Perfect if you loved the father-and-child heartbreak.
If what stayed with you about Interstellar was a parent and child separated by the void, Ad Astra is its quiet twin. Brad Pitt journeys to the edge of the solar system to find the father who abandoned him for the stars, and the film uses that trip as an excuse for some of the most beautiful space imagery of the decade. Slower and lonelier than Nolan’s film, but aiming for the exact same emotional core.
Contact (1997)
- Runtime
- 150 min
- Director
- Robert Zemeckis
- Genre
- Drama, Sci-Fi, Mystery
- Starring
- Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods
Perfect if you loved the science-versus-faith wonder.
Before he crossed a wormhole, Matthew McConaughey made first contact here. Contact is Interstellar’s spiritual ancestor: a scientist stakes everything on a signal from the cosmos, and the film wrestles with the same collision of hard science and human faith and love. Nearly thirty years on it remains one of the most intelligent, genuinely moving films ever made about looking up and wondering whether anyone is looking back.
Arrival (2016)
- Runtime
- 116 min
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
- Genre
- Drama, Sci-Fi, Mystery
- Starring
- Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Perfect if you loved the time-bending emotional twist.
Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival shares Interstellar’s secret: it is science fiction that is really about time, memory and love. When alien ships appear, a linguist is recruited to decode their language, and what she finds quietly reframes everything you thought the film was doing. The final twenty minutes land the kind of emotional gut-punch Nolan’s ending reaches for, and Amy Adams is extraordinary throughout.
Gravity (2013)
- Runtime
- 91 min
- Director
- Alfonso Cuarón
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Thriller, Drama
- Starring
- Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris
Perfect if you loved the white-knuckle survival tension.
Where Interstellar went vast, Gravity goes claustrophobic — and it is all the more terrifying for it. Alfonso Cuarón strands Sandra Bullock in orbit after debris destroys her shuttle, then never lets the tension drop across 91 breathless minutes. No wormhole, no grand theory; just the raw, primal dread of being alone above the Earth. Watch it on the biggest screen you own, with the lights off.
First Man (2018)
- Runtime
- 141 min
- Director
- Damien Chazelle
- Genre
- History, Drama
- Starring
- Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke
Perfect if you loved the real Apollo-era awe.
Damien Chazelle’s First Man is the true story behind the fiction: Neil Armstrong’s road to the Moon, told with the grief of a father who has lost a child folded into every launch. It swaps spectacle for something rawer and more intimate, shooting the Apollo missions like a rattling, white-knuckle ordeal. If Interstellar’s Apollo-era romance of exploration moved you, this is the real thing.
Sunshine (2007)
- Runtime
- 108 min
- Director
- Danny Boyle
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Starring
- Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans
Perfect if you loved the one-way-mission sacrifice.
Danny Boyle’s Sunshine sends a crew to reignite a dying Sun, and for two acts it is one of the most gorgeous and philosophical space films Britain has produced. Cillian Murphy leads a cast weighing one impossible mission against the survival of everyone back home — exactly the kind of sacrifice Interstellar asks of its heroes. The score alone will stay with you for weeks afterwards.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Runtime
- 149 min
- Director
- Stanley Kubrick
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Mystery, Adventure
- Starring
- Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
Perfect if you loved the pure philosophical spectacle.
Every film on this list owes a debt to 2001, Interstellar more than most. Kubrick’s 1968 landmark is less a story than an experience: the dawn of humanity, a murderous computer, and a final act that abandons plot for pure, transcendent imagery. It is demanding and unhurried, but if you want to understand where cinema’s great cosmic questions began, you start right here.
Where to watch (UK)
Inception (2010)
- Runtime
- 148 min
- Director
- Christopher Nolan
- Genre
- Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure
- Starring
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe
Perfect if you loved the puzzle-box structure.
People who search for films like Interstellar almost always mean Nolan’s other masterpiece too. Inception swaps outer space for inner space — a heist inside layered dreams — but the DNA is identical: bending time, an emotional wound at the centre, and a puzzle-box structure that rewards a second watch. If you loved untangling Interstellar, this is the obvious next stop.
Moon (2009)
- Runtime
- 97 min
- Director
- Duncan Jones
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Drama
- Starring
- Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott
Perfect if you loved the quiet, cerebral loneliness.
Moon is the small, cerebral gem of this list. Sam Rockwell plays a lone worker nearing the end of a solitary lunar contract when a discovery upends everything he believes about himself. Duncan Jones builds a haunting story about identity and isolation on a modest budget, and it lingers far longer than films ten times its size. Quiet, clever and deeply, achingly human.
Where to watch (UK)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
- Runtime
- 164 min
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Drama
- Starring
- Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas
Perfect if you loved the breathtaking visual scale.
Villeneuve again, and arguably the most beautiful science-fiction film ever made. Blade Runner 2049 is a slow, existential detective story about what it means to be real, wrapped in imagery so painterly you could pause on any frame and hang it. It asks its big questions with the same patience Interstellar does, and Roger Deakins’ Oscar-winning cinematography is worth the running time on its own.
Where to watch (UK)
Dune (2021)
- Runtime
- 155 min
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
- Genre
- Sci-Fi, Adventure
- Starring
- Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac
Perfect if you loved the sheer operatic scale.
If Interstellar left you hungry for scale, Dune is where you graduate to. Villeneuve turns Frank Herbert’s epic into a wall of sound and vision — vast ships, vaster deserts, and a Hans Zimmer score that physically rattles your chest. It is the modern blockbuster that best recaptures the awe of sitting in a dark room and feeling very, very small.
Where to watch (UK)
The full list at a glance
| Film | Runtime | TMDb | Where to watch (UK) |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Martian (2015) | 141 min | 7.7/10 | Prime Video |
| Ad Astra (2019) | 123 min | 6.1/10 | Prime Video |
| Contact (1997) | 150 min | 7.4/10 | Prime Video |
| Arrival (2016) | 116 min | 7.6/10 | Netflix |
| Gravity (2013) | 91 min | 7.2/10 | Now (Sky Cinema) |
| First Man (2018) | 141 min | 7/10 | Prime Video |
| Sunshine (2007) | 108 min | 7/10 | Prime Video |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | 149 min | 8/10 | Rent/buy |
| Inception (2010) | 148 min | 8.4/10 | Now (Sky Cinema) |
| Moon (2009) | 97 min | 7.6/10 | Rent/buy |
| Blade Runner 2049 (2017) | 164 min | 7.6/10 | Rent/buy |
| Dune (2021) | 155 min | 7.8/10 | Rent/buy |
Streaming availability changes often. The table and the notes above were checked against live UK provider data in July 2026; if a film has moved by the time you read this, the rent-or-buy option is the reliable fallback.
How we picked these
We started from what people actually mean when they search for films like Interstellar, then grouped the candidates by the four things the film does best: survival tension, mind-bending structure, emotional weight and pure scale. Every pick had to deliver at least one of those as strongly as Interstellar itself, which is why a few famous space films did not make the cut and a couple of quieter ones did. We then pulled current runtime, rating and UK streaming data for each so the list is genuinely usable, not just a set of titles to go hunting for.
For more on getting the best picture out of these films at home, our guide to 4K and HDR streaming in the UK covers what your connection and TV need, and if you are weighing up which services to pay for, the best IPTV services in the UK for 2026 ranks the ones worth your money.
Film data, ratings and posters from The Movie Database (TMDb). This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best movie like Interstellar?
It depends on what you loved. For the same optimistic sense of wonder, The Martian is the easiest recommendation. For the emotional, time-bending side, Arrival and Contact come closest, and both feature actors from Interstellar's own cast — Matthew McConaughey led Contact, and Matt Damon starred in The Martian.
Are there movies like Interstellar on Netflix UK?
Yes. Arrival is the standout pick currently streaming on Netflix in the UK. Several others on this list sit on Prime Video, Disney+ or Now (Sky Cinema) rather than Netflix, so the full list below shows exactly where each one lives.
What should I watch if I liked the emotional side of Interstellar?
Contact, Ad Astra and Arrival all put a human relationship at the centre of a cosmic story, just as Interstellar does with its father and daughter. Ad Astra in particular is built around a son searching space for the father who left him.
Is there a film like Interstellar by Christopher Nolan?
Inception. It swaps outer space for layered dreams, but it shares Interstellar's bending of time, its puzzle-box structure and its emotional wound at the centre. It is the film most people pair with Interstellar in searches.
How can I watch these films if they are not on my subscription?
Every title here can be rented or bought even when it is not on a subscription service. In the UK, Apple TV, Prime Video, Rakuten TV and Google Play rent most of them for around £3.49 to £3.99, which is cheaper than a month of a service you would only use once.
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