Mind bending movies and TV shows

The list contains the best, new and most relevant mind bending movies ordered by relevance. The recommendation service has sorted out mind bending, twisted, mind blowing, psychological thriller, clever and psychological films and TV shows about / with twists and turns, plot twist, puzzle, death, mind game, flashback, trippy, alternate reality, existentialism and time travel plots mostly in Thriller, Mystery and Drama genres shot in USA, UK, Canada and other countries.
mind bending
 2584
mind bending movies
TOP 10 movies tagged as mind bending: Coherence (2013), Mr. Nobody (2009), Exam (2009), The Butterfly Effect (2004), Dark (2017), Source Code (2011), Ex Machina (2014), The Prestige (2006), Shutter Island (2010), The Adjustment Bureau (2011).

List of mind bending movies

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 7.2
 144K
Coherence (2013)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 89 min.
Story: On the night a comet is passing near Earth, eight friends at a dinner party experience a troubling chain of reality bending events. When the power goes out, they discover that the only house on the street left with power also holds many secrets.
Style: mind bending, psychological, suspenseful, mind blowing, confusing ...
Plot: alternate reality, twists and turns, parallel universe, parallel world, time loop, quantum physics, disorder, paranoia, dinner party, comet, couples, asteroids and comets ...
Time: 2010s, near future, distant future, year 2013, future ...
Place: usa, los angeles
Is relevant ?
 7.7
 245K
Mr. Nobody (2009)
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Country: Belgium, Germany, Canada, France, UK, Luxembourg, USA
Duration: 141 min.
Story: Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence with his wife and 3 children; one day, he wakes up as a mortal centenarian in the year 2092.
Style: psychological, surreal, philosophical, mind bending, thought provoking ...
Audience: date night, teens, adult
Plot: time, philosophy, destiny, alternate reality, surrealism, butterfly effect, depression, choice, utopia, twists and turns, multiple outcomes, parallel world ...
Time: future, year 2009, year 2011, distant future, 2010s ...
Place: canada
Is relevant ?
 6.8
 125K
Exam (2009)
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min.
Story: The final candidates for a highly desirable corporate job are locked together in an exam room and given a test so simple and confusing that tension begins to unravel.
Style: psychological, surprise ending, suspense, mind bending, twist ending ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, adult
Plot: mind game, survival, plot twist, twists and turns, psychology, surveillance, confinement indoors, psychologist, ambition, intrigue, rivalry, pandemic ...
Time: year 2009, future
Is relevant ?
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 113 min.
Story: 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 finds that every change he makes has unexpected ...
Style: psychological, mind bending, philosophical, suspense, dramatic ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, girls' night, adult
Plot: time travel, memory, time loop, butterfly effect, memory loss, twists and turns, alternate reality, psychology, time traveler, changing the past or future, mind control, destiny ...
Time: year 2004, 2000s, 2010s, 21st century
Place: usa
Is relevant ?
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 8.7
 438K
Dark (2017)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 1455 min.
TV show
Story: A missing child causes four families to help each other for answers. What they could not imagine is that this mystery would be connected to innumerable other secrets of the small town.
Style: mind bending, atmospheric, suspense, mysterious, suspenseful ...
Audience: teens
Plot: time travel, investigation, time loop, time machine, mysterious past, cave, time portal, missing child, repeated event, changing the future, deja vu, small town ...
Time: year 1986, year 2019, year 1953, 50s, 80s ...
Place: germany, chernobyl
Is relevant ?
 7.5
 547K
Source Code (2011)
Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada, France, Germany
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, discovering he's involved in a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. He learns he's part of a top-secret experimental program that enables ...
Style: surprise ending, suspense, clever, mind bending, thought provoking ...
Audience: boys' night, teens, chick flick
Plot: time loop, time travel, train, alternate reality, parallel universe, memory, twists and turns, save the day, destiny, changing the past or future, bomb, terrorism ...
Time: future, year 2011, 2010s, 21st century
Place: chicago, usa, somalia, afghanistan, illinois
Is relevant ?
 7.7
 582K
Ex Machina (2014)
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story: Caleb, a 26 year old coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds ...
Style: psychological, futuristic, philosophical, twist ending, mind bending ...
Audience: girls' night, adult
Plot: artificial intelligence, robot, androids, existentialism, technology, cyberpunk, isolation, cyborgs, manipulation, androids and robots, female robot, psychology ...
Time: future, 2010s, year 2015, year 2014, year 2016 ...
Place: england
Is relevant ?
 8.5
 1.4M
The Prestige (2006)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 130 min.
Story: A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
Style: surprise ending, twist ending, clever, atmospheric, psychological ...
Audience: family friendly, teens, chick flick
Plot: twists and turns, obsession, plot twist, magic, magician, secret, rivalry, uninhibited rivalry, magic trick, illusionist, illusion, deception ...
Time: victorian era, 19th century, year 2006, edwardian era, future ...
Place: london, colorado, britain, peru, los angeles ...
Is relevant ?
 8.2
 1.4M
Shutter Island (2010)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min.
Story: World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by his troubling visions and also by a mysterious doctor.
Style: psychological, surprise ending, twist ending, suspense, confusing ...
Audience: date night, chick flick, adult
Plot: twists and turns, plot twist, investigation, mental illness, insanity, psychology, memory, paranoia, mental disorder, psychiatrist, schizophrenia, mental institution ...
Time: 1950s, year 2010, year 1954, 2010s, 2000s ...
Place: boston, persia, iran, america
Is relevant ?
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: 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 destined greatness to be with the only woman ...
Style: mind bending, philosophical, romantic, surreal, suspense ...
Audience: chick flick, teens, date night, adult
Plot: destiny, politics, alternate reality, love story, power of love, fall in love, fictional reality, changing the past or future, twists and turns, creator, mind control, forbidden love ...
Time: future, year 2011, 2010s, 21st century
Place: new york, usa, brooklyn new york city
Is relevant ?
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 95 min.
Story: Five college friends spend the weekend at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.
Style: scary, mind bending, bloody, surreal, twist ending ...
Audience: teens, adult
Plot: monster, supernatural, creature, survival, cabin in the woods, trapped, zombie, fear, werewolf, dark humor, death, danger ...
Time: 2010s, year 2012, year 2000, 20th century, 2000s ...
Place: usa
Is relevant ?
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Computer scientist Hannon Fuller has discovered something extremely important. He's about to tell the discovery to his colleague, Douglas Hall, but knowing someone is after him, the old man leaves a letter in his computer generated parallel ...
Style: mind bending, intellectual, twist ending, neo noir, atmospheric ...
Plot: virtual reality, alternate reality, cyberpunk, time travel, cyberspace, computer system, parallel universe, twists and turns, artificial intelligence, parallel world, consciousness, imaginary ...
Time: future, 90s, 1930s, year 1999, 20th century ...
Place: los angeles, usa
Is relevant ?
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Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 113 min.
Story: Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same ...
Style: futuristic, mind bending, exciting, clever, captivating ...
Audience: teens, boys' night, family friendly, chick flick
Plot: time loop, time travel, alien invasion, alien, invasion, battles, repeated event, military, danger, soldier, time paradox, space and aliens ...
Time: future, year 2014, near future, 2010s, 2020s ...
Place: france, paris france, united kingdom, europe, big ben london ...
Is relevant ?
 7.3
 266K
Identity (2003)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Complete strangers stranded at a remote desert motel during a raging storm soon find themselves the target of a deranged murderer. As their numbers thin out, the travelers begin to turn on each other, as each tries to figure out who the killer is.
Style: twist ending, suspense, scary, suspenseful, surprise ending ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: serial killer, twists and turns, murder mystery, mental disorder, investigation, psychology, murderer, mental illness, motel, split personality, psychopath, rainstorm ...
Time: year 2003, 2000s, 21st century
Place: nevada, usa, florida
Is relevant ?
 7.6
 245K
21 Grams (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story: This is the story of three gentle persons: Paul Rivers an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré, Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife, happily married and mother of two little girls, and Jack Jordan, an ...
Style: mind bending, emotional, bleak, gloomy, depressing ...
Plot: life is a bitch, guilt, tragedy, grief, drug addiction, multiple storylines, drug addict, drug, loneliness, loss, mathematician, hit and run ...
Time: year 2003, 2000s, 21st century
Place: usa, new mexico, persia
Is relevant ?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Genre: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story: Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his ...
Style: psychological, surreal, melancholic, romantic, mind bending ...
Audience: date night, chick flick, teens, girls' night, adult
Plot: memory, surrealism, dream, love, love story, memory loss, existentialism, loneliness, couples, amnesia, relationships, introspection ...
Time: 2000s, year 2004, future, year 2003, 21st century
Place: persia, america, usa, new york
Is relevant ?
 8.7
 2.1M
Interstellar (2014)
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, UK, Canada
Duration: 169 min.
Story: Interstellar chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
Style: futuristic, mind bending, cerebral, philosophical, thought provoking ...
Audience: teens, date night, kids, chick flick, girls' night ...
Plot: space travel, time travel, outer space, father daughter relationship, nasa, astronaut, space, survival, end of the world, distopia, natural disaster, apocalypse ...
Time: future, year 2014, 2010s, near future, 21st century
Place: los angeles, colorado
Is relevant ?
 7.3
 133K
I Origins (2014)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: I Origins follows a molecular biologist studying the evolution of the human eye. He finds his work permeating his life after a brief encounter with an exotic young woman who slips away from him. As his research continues years later with his lab ...
Style: thought provoking, spiritual, mind bending, philosophical, enigmatic ...
Plot: reincarnation, eye, metaphysics, spirituality, religion, genetics, buddhism, atheism, evolution, society, love story, elevator ...
Time: year 2014, 2010s, 90s, year 1998, year 2012 ...
Place: india, usa, new york, asia, new haven connecticut ...
Is relevant ?
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 7.6
 413K
The Machinist (2004)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: Spain, France, UK, USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story: The Machinist is the story of Trevor Reznik, a lathe-operator who is dying of insomnia. In a machine shop, occupational hazards are bad enough under normal circumstances; yet for Trevor the risks are compounded by fatigue. Trevor has lost the ...
Style: psychological, twist ending, surprise ending, surreal, mind bending ...
Audience: adult
Plot: insomnia, insanity, obsession, mysterious character, losing-it hero, paranoia, hallucination, life is a bitch, uncover truth, schizophrenia, secrets, mental illness ...
Time: year 2004, 2000s, 21st century
Place: persia, america, usa, los angeles
Is relevant ?
 7.1
 246K
Cube (1997)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Seven strangers are taken out of their daily lives and placed mysteriously in a deadly cube where they all agree they must find their way out.
Style: psychological, surreal, suspenseful, mind bending, psychological thriller ...
Audience: boys' night, adult
Plot: survival, trap, trapped, claustrophobia, isolation, mathematics, maze, escape, group of strangers, survival horror, death, game of death ...
Time: 90s, future, 20th century
Is relevant ?
 7.6
 211K
Dark City (1998)
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
Style: neo noir, mind bending, psychological, suspense, gothic ...
Audience: adult
Plot: investigation, memory, cyberpunk, alternate reality, distopia, alien race, trippy, dystopian future, virtual reality, amnesia, memory loss, experiment ...
Time: future, year 1998, distant future, 90s, 20th century ...
Place: persia
Is relevant ?
 8.0
 644K
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min.
Story: 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 survivors into underground communities. But when ...
Style: psychological, surreal, twist ending, non-linear, atmospheric ...
Plot: time travel, insanity, post apocalyptic, apocalypse, virus, time loop, post apocalypse, paranoia, psychology, end of the world, twists and turns, epidemic ...
Time: future, 90s, 20th century, year 1995, distant future ...
Place: philadelphia, maryland, baltimore, usa, pennsylvania ...
Is relevant ?
 8.8
 2.5M
Inception (2010)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 148 min.
Story: Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another ...
Style: psychological, mind bending, clever, cerebral, surreal ...
Audience: teens, date night, adult
Plot: dream, virtual reality, memory, alternate reality, twists and turns, imagination, subconscious, philosophy, existentialism, fictional reality, heist, puzzle ...
Time: year 2010, future, 2000s, 2010s, near future
Place: paris france, japan, los angeles, iran, tokyo ...
Is relevant ?
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 8.8
 2.3M
Fight Club (1999)
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 139 min.
Story: A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the ...
Style: surprise ending, psychological, twist ending, cerebral, philosophical ...
Audience: manly, boys' night, chick flick, girls' night, adult
Plot: twists and turns, psychology, fight, plot twist, schizophrenia, self destructing, insanity, fighting the system, split personality, losing-it hero, against the rules, nihilism ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, year 1999, year 2013
Place: delaware, america, los angeles, iran, seattle ...
Is relevant ?
 8.0
 845K
Donnie Darko (2001)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min.
Story: After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Style: psychological, surreal, mind bending, atmospheric, independent film ...
Audience: teens, date night, adult, teen drama
Plot: mental illness, time travel, psychology, imaginary friend, insanity, schizophrenia, parallel universe, surrealism, suburbs, time loop, social misfits, youth ...
Time: year 2001, 80s, 2000s, future, 20th century ...
Place: virginia, america, los angeles, usa
Is relevant ?
 7.7
 426K
The Game (1997)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min.
Story: In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a coldhearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad -- a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nearly a nanosecond, ...
Style: psychological, surprise ending, suspense, twist ending, neo noir ...
Audience: adult
Plot: twists and turns, mind game, manipulation, psychology, game, uncover truth, life turned upside down, existentialism, scheme, disorder, life & death, surveillance ...
Time: 20th century, year 1997, 90s
Place: san francisco, usa, bay area, california, seattle ...
Is relevant ?
 5.9
 81K
Premonition (2007)
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story: A depressed housewife who learns her husband was killed in a car accident the day previously, awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home, and then awakens the day after to a world in which he is still dead.
Style: surprise ending, psychological, mind bending, suspenseful, serious ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: time travel, destiny, alternate reality, time loop, memory loss, parallel world, dealing with death, life & death, foreknowledge, deja vu, death, family problems ...
Time: year 2007, 21st century
Place: usa
Is relevant ?
 7.0
 372K
Constantine (2005)
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 121 min.
Story: John Constantine has literally been to Hell and back. When he teams up with a policewoman to solve the mysterious suicide of her twin sister, their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists beneath the landscape of ...
Style: dark fantasy, gothic, suspense, satanic, stylized ...
Audience: family friendly, chick flick, boys' night, teens, adult
Plot: supernatural, demon, occult, devil, angel, exorcism, good versus evil, demonic possession, heaven and hell, hell, superhero, suicide ...
Time: year 2005, 2000s, 21st century
Place: california, los angeles, usa, mexico
Is relevant ?
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 147 min.
Story: After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesic, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Style: surreal, psychological, art house, neo noir, atmospheric ...
Audience: date night, adult
Plot: surrealism, twists and turns, lesbian, amnesia, obsession, hollywood, nightmare, hallucination, doppelganger, alternate reality, filmmaking, dream ...
Time: 2000s, year 2001, future, 20th century, 21st century
Place: los angeles, persia, usa, california
Is relevant ?
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.
Style: psychedelic, psychological, philosophical, mind bending, bleak ...
Audience: teens, kids, adult
Plot: cyberpunk, drug abuse, trippy, schizophrenia, losing-it hero, addiction, dystopia, dystopian future, society, fighting crime, consciousness, drug ...
Time: future, year 2006, 2000s, near future, 21st century
Place: california, texas, usa, san diego california
Is relevant ?
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