Several months after hitting theaters, 65 is now available on Netflix. The movie, which follows a man and a young girl in the wake of a cataclysmic crash as they discover that they’ve landed on Earth 65 million years ago, and are forced to fend off dinosaurs in order to survive. The movie didn’t do all that well in theaters, but it’s finding an audience on Netflix, leading many to wonder if there are other titles on the surface that have a similar feel. Survival sci-fi movies with original ideas can be hard to come by in modern Hollywood, but fear not!
There are certainly plenty of movies that have more than a little overlap with this Adam Driver movie. While there are no movies exactly like 65 on Netflix, these are three titles on the streaming service that may scratch the same itch.
The Thing (2011)
A prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 classic, The Thing follows a group of scientists in Antarctica who discover an alien who is capable of imitating any human perfectly. Featuring a cast that includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton, The Thing is plenty thrilling, and features a similar battle against a foreign species as 65. What The Thing has that 65 lacks, though, is an element of paranoia, as every member of the ensemble suddenly begins to wonder which of their colleagues is actually a fraud in disguise. It’s a surprisingly tense watch, and one that will leave you both thrilled and wondering whether it’s possible that everyone you know has been replaced by an alien life form.
Bird Box (2018)
Five years after its initial release, Bird Box still remains one of the most popular movies Netflix has ever released, and with good reason. The film tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world in which the only way to survive is to ensure that you don’t see the threat that is killing people all over the planet.
The movie shares many of the survivalist and thriller elements of 65, but with a different threat at its core. Sandra Bullock provides a compelling central performance, and the movie was so instantly popular with audiences that it eventually received a Spanish-language sequel, Bird Box Barcelona.
Annihilation (2018)
While it may be a little less action-forward than 65, Annihilation has the same sort of survival narrative. The film, which follows a group of scientists who venture into strange biological zone on Earth, only to discover that everything in that zone has been warped and changed by it, is by turns thrilling and disturbing.
Featuring an outstanding central performance from Natalie Portman, supporting work from Oscar Isaac, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and other major names, as well as compelling set pieces that run the gamut from horrific to surreal, Annihilation is a slightly challenging watch, but one that’s well worth the rewards you’ll receive for sitting down to watch it.
