Run: 25 Movies like the Hunger Games to Fuel your Adrenaline

What other movies like The Hunger Games are out there? This article answers that very question.

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THE HUNGER GAMES

About The Hunger Games

Released in 2012, The Hunger Games is a dystopian science fiction action film based on novels of the same name. It’s set in the future in the nation of Panem, where a boy and a girl from each of the nation’s 12 Districts are chosen annually as “tributes” and are forced to fight to the death in ‘The Hunger Games.’

During a recent re-watch I started to think of all the other movies like The Hunger Games who some of you may want to tick off your bucket list. Below are my 25 picks. How many have you seen? Let me know in the comments.

1. Maze Runner (2014)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Maze Runner (2014)

Directed by Wes Ball, Maze Runner stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, and Patricia Clarkson. It was released in the year 2014.

Maze Runner is a dystopian science fiction film about a group of young men trapped in a maze and their struggle to get out alive. On the way they are faced with numerous obstacles like the maze itself rotating it’s routes and genetically engineered monsters. Because of all the running, by the time you’ve finished watching it you’ll feel like you’ve done two hours of cardio. Cardio sucks!

RELATED: 23 Movies like Maze Runner

2. Tron Legacy (2010)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Tron Legacy (2010)

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Tron: Legacy stars Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, and Michael Sheen. It was released in the year 2010.

Tron: Legacy is the sequel to the original Tron movie and is set 20 years after the first film’s series of events. The film culminates in an epic conclusion inside the virtual reality world. Pity we’ll never see a third Tron movie.

3. Love and Monsters (2020)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Love and Monsters (2020)

Directed by Michael Matthews, Love and Monsters stars Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Henwick, Dan Ewing, and Michael Rooker. It was released in the year 2020.

Love and Monsters is a post-apocalyptic film where the world is inhabited by kaiju-sized monsters. It’s part science fiction, part action and all heart. It’s about character Joel Dawson who gets separated from his girlfriend Aimee and will do anything he can to be reunited with her. Even if it means getting eaten alive.

4. Total Recall (1990)

Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Total Recall stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, and Ronny Cox. It was released in the year 1990.

Total Recall is a science fiction action film focusing on main character Douglas Quaid who visits a company called Rekall. While there he asks them to implant realistic false memories where he’s a secret agent on Mars. However, the procedure is interrupted when Quaid lashes out and he’s sent home.
When he wakes up at home he’s attacked by men and his wife. Pretty soon he gets roped into a mystery which makes him question his very reality,

5. The Game (1997)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Game (1997)

Directed by David Fincher, The Game stars Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, Deborah Kara Unger and James Rebhorn. It was released in the year 1997.

The Game is about a wealthy investment banker who receives a gift from his brother which is for a game that begins to take over every aspect of his life. Pretty soon things get out of hand and a larger conspiracy reveals itself. One which appears to be a real threat!

6. Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Directed by Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel stars Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. It was released in the year 2019.

Alita is a battle cyborg who is revived by Ido, a doctor, who realises that she actually has the soul of a teenager. Alita then sets out to learn about her past and find her true identity. Meanwhile, just like all good dystopian hellscapes, there’s the constant looming threat of augmented human-cyborgs and evil corporation to keep Alita busy.

7. The Matrix (1999)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Matrix (1999)

Written and directed by The Wachowskis, The Matrix stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. It was released in the year 1999.

The Matrix is the first movie in The Matrix franchise and focuses on Thomas Anderson, a hacker with the screen name Neo, who discovers that all is not as it seems. The world isn’t real. Instead, it is a virtual reality construct and the real world is a post-apocalyptic wasteland where humans are used as batteries to power a race of robots.

8. Ready Player One (2018)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Ready Player One (2018)

Directed by Steven Spielberg, Ready Player One stars stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, T.J. Miller, Simon Pegg, and Mark Rylance. It was released in the year 2018.

Ready Player One focuses on a futuristic world where most of humanity uses a virtual reality simulation called The Oasis. However, it is run by an evil corporation who wants to profiteer from the players. The plot focuses on a teen orphan (played by Tye Sheridan) who discovers clues to a contest which promises the winner total control and ownership of The Oasis.

RELATED: 25 Movies like Ready Player One

9. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Directed by Luc Besson, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets stars Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu and Rutger Hauer. It was released in the year 2017.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is about a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. When this metropolis comes under threat by a dark force, Special operatives Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace which may threaten the entire universe.

10. Children of Men (2006)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Children of Men (2006)

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men stars Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Charlie Hunnam. It was released in the year 2006.

Children of Men is a post-apocalyptic film set in 2027, after the human race has become 100% infertile. As a result, war has broken out, society has collapsed and the human race sits on a knife edge of extinction. The main plot centers on Theo, who is hired to keep the last pregnant woman on earth alive and to get her to her destination.

11. Ender’s Game (2013)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Ender’s Game (2013)

Directed by Gavin Hood, Ender’s Game stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld, and Abigail Breslin. It was released in the year 2013.

Ender’s Game is a futuristic science fiction movie about a gifted child who is sent to military academy as everyone prepares an upcoming alien invasion.

12. The Fifth Wave (2016)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Fifth Wave (2016)

Directed by J Blakeson, The Fifth Wave stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Alex Roe, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe, and Liev Schreiber. It was released in the year 2016.

The Fifth Wave is about an alien invasion of earth where the aliens use a number of techniques to easily destabilise world governments and allow for an easier take over. The techniques range from creating tsunamis and other natural disasters to taking human hosts to unleashing a flu-like pandemic. These are all done in “waves.” Whereas, the “fifth wave” is when the humans decide to fight back.

13. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Directed by Francis Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. It was released in the year 2013.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the first sequel in The Hunger Games franchise and follows the first movie, with the storyline taking place a few months after the events of the first film. In it, Katniss gets involved in another round of Hunger Games and this is set against her constant feeling that there’s a rebellion brewing between the Districts against the Capitol.

14. Snowpiercer (2013)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Snowpiercer (2013)

Directed by Bing Joon-Ho, Snowpiercer stars Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, Go Ah-sung, John Hurt, and Ed Harris. It was released in the year 2013.

Snowpiercer is about a mega-train housing the last remnants of the human race that constantly circles the globe while a catastrophe has caused the world to freeze. On the train, the lower class passengers who inhabit the tail end of the train get frustrated with their mistreatment and so decide to rebel against their upper class masters.

15. The Island (2005)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Island (2005)

Directed by Michael Bay, The Island stars Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Steve Buscemi. It was released in the year 2005.

The Island is a dystopian science fiction film where the members of this perfect society go about their day hoping they will one day win the lottery and be sent to The Island. However, one of the residents of this society figures out The Island is a cover as those who go there never come back. Together with his girlfriend, the two of them free the society and the authorities that pursue them. Eventually, upon realising they’re not the only humans left alive on the planet, they piece together that they are clones created from the bodies of the rich to harvest their organs if they get sick.

16. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

Directed by Wes Ball, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Ki Hong Lee, Barry Pepper, Lili Taylor, and Patricia Clarkson. It was released in the year 2015.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is the second film in the Maze Runner trilogy and follows the events after Thomas and his fellow Gladers escape the World Catastophe Kill Department (WCKD). From there they’re taken to a facility and told they’re immune to the deadly Flare virus but they soon learn this facility is also run by the WCKD who want to conduct experiments on them. They escape and, after dealing with various obstacles including zombified infected humans, they meet up with a freedom fighter group called The Right Arm and begin to plan their next move.

17. V for Vendetta (2005)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: V for Vendetta (2005)

Directed by James McTeigue, V for Vendetta stars Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, and John Hurt. It was released in the year 2005.

V for Vendetta is based on the Alan Moore, David Lloyd and Tony Weare graphic novel of the same name. It’s set in the future where an oppressive totalitarian government controls the movements of all of its citizens and so a masked anarchist tries to start a rebellion by committing numerous acts of terrorism.

18. The Book of Eli (2010)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Book of Eli (2010)

Directed by the Hughes Brothers, The Book of Eli stars Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals, Frances de la Tour, and Michael Gambon. It was released in the year 2010.

The Book of Eli kicks off by introducing us to a post-apocalyptic world laying in ruins. The movie follows Eli who seeks to deliver a mysterious book to a safe location and he’ll stop at nothing to achieve his mission.

19. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Directed by George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton. It was released in the year 2015.

The fourth film in the Mad Max series and a reboot of sorts, Mad Max: Fury Road follows Max Rocktansky who is captured by warlord Immortan Joe’s men. When Immortan Joe realises 5 of his wives are trying to escape in an oil rig he sends all his best warriors after him. While Max, strapped to one of their dusty road warrior vehicles, is alone for the ride – whether he wants to or not.

20. Divergent (2014)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Divergent (2014)

Directed by Neil Burger, Divergent stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Maggie Q, and Kate Winslet. It was released in the year 2014.

Divergent is about a dystopian society where, at the age of 16, each teenager is forced to undergo a serum-induced psychological aptitude test. The results then dictate which of 5 factions they will then be a part of. The film follows Beatrice Prior, born into the Abnegation faction, who along with others rebel against the system they’re born into.

21. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

Directed by Francis Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. It was released in the year 2014.

The third film in the Hunger Games series, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 follows Katniss closely as she’s turned into a symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol as she’s drawn into yet another Hunger Games bout.

22. Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)

Directed by Wes Ball, Maze Runner: The Death Cure stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Walton Goggins, Ki Hong Lee, Barry Pepper, Will Poulter, and Patricia Clarkson. It was released in the year 2018.

The last film in the Maze Runner franchise, Maze Runner: The Death Cure involves Thomas and his fellow immunes breaking into the ultimate WKCD stronghold to rescue one of their own.

23. Chaos Walking (2021)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Chaos Walking (2021)

Directed by Doug Liman, Chaos Walking stars Daisy Ridley, Tom Holland, Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas, and David Oyelowo. It was released in the year 2021.

Chaos Walking follows a young man who lives in a dystopian world without women, where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts in streams of images, words and sounds, called “Noise”. Then when a woman crash-lands on the planet, he does everything he can to try and protect her from danger.

24. Insurgent (2015)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: Insurgent (2015)

Directed by Robert Schwentke, Insurgent stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Octavia Spencer, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet. It was released in the year 2015.

The second film in the Divergent franchise, Insurgent follows Tris and Four, her Dauntless instructor, as they’re on the run. Meanwhile, thanks to the events in the first Divergent film, the five factions and the faction system as a whole are collapsing and many power players are making moves to gain overall control.

25. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)

25 Movies like The Hunger Games: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2014)

Directed by Francis Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. It was released in the year 2015.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 picks up immediately after the first Mockingjay movie. With The Hunger Games mostly behind her, Katniss heads to the Capitol with Peeta, Gale, Finnick, and other members of the rebellion – to kill President Snow.

What did you think of this list of ‘Movies like The Hunger Games’?

What did you think of The Hunger Games? Have you seen any of these films before?
Let us know what you think on social media.

The Hunger Games (2012) - Movie Still

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