Alternate reality movies and TV shows

The list contains the best, new and most relevant alternate reality movies ordered by relevance. The recommendation service has sorted out intellectual, atmospheric, mind bending, thought provoking, serious and clever films and TV shows about / with alternate reality, parallel universe, time travel, supernatural, alternate timeline, dystopia, time, twists and turns, distopia and death plots mostly in Sci-Fi, Drama and Thriller genres shot in USA, UK, Canada and other countries.
alternate reality
 1392
alternate reality movies
TOP 10 movies tagged as alternate reality: Awake (2012), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), Inception (2010), Coherence (2013), Pleasantville (1998), A Rough Draft (2018), Source Code (2011), The Discovery (2017), The Truman Show (1998).

List of alternate reality movies

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 7.9
 21K
Awake (2012)
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min.
TV show
Story: Michael lives in two separate realities after a car accident. In one reality, his wife Hannah survives the accident; in the other reality, his son Rex survives. Michael does not know which reality is "real", and uses the wristbands to ...
Style: psychological, mind bending, detective, serious, emotional ...
Plot: alternate reality, double life, car accident, grief, police investigation, family problems, loss, therapy, sanity, loss of spouse, loss of loved one, family relations ...
Time: future, 21st century
Place: usa
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 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 ?
 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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 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 ?
 7.5
 136K
Pleasantville (1998)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story: Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's ...
Style: touching, humorous, feel good, visual, surreal ...
Audience: teens, date night, kids, teen fantasy, teen drama
Plot: small town, coming of age, time travel, alternate reality, adolescence, parallel world, utopia, siblings relations, american dream, fantasy world, small town life, parallel universe ...
Time: 1950s, 50s, 90s, future, year 1998 ...
Place: america, france, paris france
Is relevant ?
A Rough Draft (2018)
Genre: Sci-Fi
Country: Russia
Duration: 116 min.
Story: Young Muscovite Kirill is a talented designer of computer games. One day, he is completely erased from the memory of everyone he knew and loved. Kirill learns that he has been chosen for an important and mysterious mission: to become a customs ...
Style: stylized, surreal, dark fantasy, atmospheric, weird
Plot: alternate reality, parallel universe, curses spells and rituals, chosen one, imagination, heroes, supernatural, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, danger, twists and turns, adaptation, witch ...
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 ?
 6.2
 37K
The Discovery (2017)
Genre: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min.
Story: In the near future, due to a breakthrough scientific discovery by Dr. Thomas Harbor, there is now definitive proof of an afterlife. While countless people have chosen suicide to reset their existence, others try to decide what it all means. Among ...
Style: enigmatic, psychological, philosophical, intellectual, dark ...
Plot: suicide, afterlife, alternate reality, life after death, macabre, science, self discovery, religion, plot twist, dream, life philosophy, philosophy ...
Time: future, distant future, year 2017
Is relevant ?
 8.2
 1.2M
The Truman Show (1998)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story: Truman Burbank is the star of "The Truman Show", a 24-hour-a-day "reality" TV show that broadcasts every aspect of his life -- live and in color -- without his knowledge. His entire life has been an unending soap opera for ...
Style: philosophical, thought provoking, psychological, surreal, touching ...
Audience: teens, family outing, teen drama
Plot: self discovery, simulated reality, alternate reality, freedom, video surveillance, small town, fictional reality show, hidden camera, utopia, dystopia, paranoia, god complex ...
Time: 90s, 20th century, year 1998, future
Place: florida, persia, america, usa
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 ?
 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 ?
Related movie lists
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 ?
 7.4
 20K
Sliders (1995)
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story: In his basement in San Francisco, boy-genius Quinn Mallory unlocks the doorway to an infinite number of Earths. During a test run, Quinn invites co-worker Wade Wells and his teacher Professor Maximillian Arturo to see his new invention. But an ...
Style: clever, exciting, atmospheric, suspenseful, serious ...
Audience: teens, kids
Plot: parallel world, alien invasion, alternate reality, danger, alternate dimension, getting home, hopes, life changing experience, time portal, time travel, portal, experiment gone awry ...
Time: 90s, 20th century, 2000s
Place: san francisco, usa, bay area, california
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 ?
 8.0
 680K
Groundhog Day (1993)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story: A narcissistic TV weatherman, along with his attractive-but-distant producer and mawkish cameraman, is sent to report on Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney, where he finds himself repeating the same day over and over.
Style: feel good, philosophical, romantic, humorous, sentimental ...
Audience: date night, kids, chick flick, teens, family outing ...
Plot: time loop, existentialism, small town, groundhog day, winter, time travel, time warp, time, life philosophy, redemption, fall in love, repeated event ...
Time: 20th century, year 1993, 90s
Place: pennsylvania, usa, persia, america, pittsburgh
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 ?
The Invention of Lying (2009)
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Set in a world where the concept of lying doesn't exist, a loser changes his lot when he invents lying and uses it to get ahead.
Style: philosophical, funny, humorous, romantic, satirical ...
Audience: chick flick, teens, teen drama
Plot: atheism, society, alternate reality, rags to riches, love and romance, misfit, truth, love triangle, satire, life after death, life philosophy, existentialism ...
Time: year 2009, 2000s, 13th century, 21st century
Is relevant ?
Related movie lists
cyberpunk movies
906
utopia movies
636
time movies
903
The Man in the High Castle (2015)
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Canada
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story: Based on Philip K. Dick's award-winning novel, The Man in the High Castle explores what it would be like if the Allied Powers had lost WWII, and Japan and Germany ruled the United States.
Style: suspenseful, serious, tense, apocalyptic, captivating ...
Audience: family friendly, adult
Plot: alternate reality, resistance, fascism, alternate history, assassination, espionage, political intrigue, multiverse, spy, time traveler, freedom fighter, betrayal ...
Time: 60s, post world war two, 20th century, year 1962
Place: japan, usa, berlin germany, new york, san francisco ...
Is relevant ?
 8.4
 256K
Fringe (2008)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 46 min.
TV show
Story: FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop and his scheming, reluctant son Peter uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realize they may be a part of a larger, ...
Style: serious, suspenseful, scary, surreal, detective ...
Audience: boys' night, teens
Plot: supernatural, investigation, mad scientist, time travel, parallel universe, fbi, alternate dimension, top secret, alternate reality, experiment, danger, paranormal activity ...
Time: 2000s, future, 2010s, near future, 21st century
Place: harvard university, usa, massachusetts, boston
Is relevant ?
 7.7
 261K
Coraline (2009)
Genre: Animation, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 100 min.
Story: When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents. She finds a hidden door with a bricked up passage. During the night, she crosses the passage and finds a parallel world where everybody has buttons instead of eyes, ...
Style: gothic, surreal, dark fantasy, dark, scary ...
Audience: kids, family friendly, girls' night, teens, family outing ...
Plot: stop motion, children, monster, parallel world, alternate reality, weirdo, doll, secret place, heroine, fantasy world, loneliness, imagination ...
Time: year 2009, future, y2k, 2000s, 21st century
Place: oregon, michigan, usa, texas
Is relevant ?
 6.4
 191K
Tomorrowland (2015)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Spain, France, Canada, UK, China, Italy, Germany
Duration: 130 min.
Story: Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and ...
Style: exciting, visually appealing, thought provoking, visually stunning, captivating ...
Audience: kids, teens, family outing
Plot: utopia, youth, young heroes, time travel, androids and robots, robot, apocalypse, alternate reality, heroes, post apocalyptic, artificial intelligence, obsessive quest ...
Time: future, year 2015, 60s, 2010s
Place: florida, new york, paris france, houston texas, africa
Is relevant ?
 8.7
 634K
Black Mirror (2011)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story: A contemporary British re-working of The Twilight Zone with stories that tap into the collective unease about our modern world.  Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we've had time to ...
Style: serious, philosophical, thought provoking, anthology, clever ...
Audience: teens, family friendly
Plot: technology, dystopia, twists and turns, human nature, satire, dystopian future, social decay, society, computers and web, media satire, alternate reality, media ...
Time: future, 2010s, near future
Place: england, london
Is relevant ?
Related movie lists
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: In 1984, a young programmer begins to question reality as he adapts a dark fantasy novel into a video game. A mind-bending tale with multiple endings.
Style: psychedelic, tech noir, mind bending, psychological, non-linear ...
Plot: computer, alternate reality, programmer, video game, free will, time travel, repeated scene, cyberpunk, technology, computer game, conspiracy, plot twist ...
Time: 80s, near future, 2010s, year 1984
Is relevant ?
 7.4
 115K
Frequency (2000)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min.
Story: When a rare phenomenon gives police officer John Sullivan the chance to speak to his father, 30 years in the past, he takes the opportunity to prevent his dad's tragic death. After his actions inadvertently give rise to a series of brutal ...
Style: psychological, feel good, suspense, serious, suspenseful ...
Audience: kids, boys' night
Plot: time travel, radio, father son relationship, investigation, parallel universe, butterfly effect, time, altering history, murder, serial killer, changing the past or future, rescue ...
Time: future, year 1969, year 1999, year 2000, y2k ...
Place: new york, usa
Is relevant ?
 6.8
 119K
The Family Man (2000)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min.
Story: Jack's lavish, fast-paced lifestyle changes one Christmas night when he stumbles into a grocery store holdup and disarms the gunman. The next morning he wakes up in bed lying next to Kate, his college sweetheart he left in order to pursue his ...
Style: feel good, touching, inspirational, sweet, sentimental ...
Audience: family outing, date night, chick flick, teens
Plot: christmas, midlife crisis, road not taken, destiny, parallel universe, life changing experience, alternate reality, lost love, fish out of water, lifestyle change, time travel, family relations ...
Time: year 2000, 90s, 20th century, 80s, 2000s ...
Place: new jersey, usa, manhattan new york city, new york
Is relevant ?
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Germany, Czech Republic, UK
Duration: 110 min.
Story: To prevent a world war from breaking out, famous characters from Victorian literature band together to do battle against a cunning villain.
Style: entertaining, exciting, atmospheric, offbeat, action packed ...
Audience: manly, boys' night, teens
Plot: steampunk, vampire, superhero, comic book, adventurer, heroic mission, secret service, immortality, comic hero, ghost ship, alternate reality, alter ego ...
Time: victorian era, year 2003, 20th century, 19th century, future ...
Place: venice, britain, europe, kenya, mediterranean sea ...
Is relevant ?
 7.6
 47K
Timeless (2016)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story: A mysterious criminal steals a secret state-of-the-art time machine, intent on destroying America as we know it by changing the past. Our only hope is an unexpected team: a scientist, a soldier and a history professor, who must use the ...
Style: romantic, exciting, light, surprise ending, intellectual ...
Audience: kids
Plot: time travel, time machine, alternate reality, alternate timeline, murder, female scientist, fighting crime, betrayal, mother daughter relationship, team, shooting, conspiracy ...
Place: san francisco
Is relevant ?
 6.0
 15K
Parallels (2015)
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min.
Story: An underground MMA fighter must confront his sister and his past in an adventure through parallel universes
Style: futuristic, suspense, enigmatic, confusing, clever ...
Audience: teens
Plot: parallel universe, plot twist, time, alternate universe, teleportation, survival, betrayal, multiverse, alternate reality, clone, twists and turns, dystopia ...
Time: future
Is relevant ?
 6.8
 107K
eXistenZ (1999)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Canada, UK, France, USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story: A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.
Style: surreal, psychological, mind bending, psychedelic, disturbing ...
Plot: virtual reality, cyberpunk, alternate reality, twists and turns, cyberspace, dystopia, distopia, escape from reality, dystopian future, conspiracy, video game, parallel world ...
Time: future, 90s, year 1999, near future
Is relevant ?
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