If you’ve ever watched movies like The Circle and found yourself trusting technology less than ever before, then you should definitely continue reading for more recommendations!
The Circle sees director James Ponsoldt marshal an A-list cast that includes Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, and Bill Paxton in a tale of a shady tech company.
Privacy, personal freedoms, and morals are at the center of the story, and the following titles all have narrative and thematic similarities that make them ideal companion pieces.
10 Paranoid Techno-Thriller Movies Like The Circle
1. Transcendence (2014)
Christopher Nolan’s longtime director of photography Wally Pfister makes his directorial debut in this heady sci-fi about a renegade scientist trying to create artificial intelligence.
Johnny Depp headlines a star-studded ensemble boasting Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Cillian Murphy, and Paul Bettany in a sci-fi thriller that lives on giving big ideas a shiny coat of Hollywood paint.
Movies like The Circle don’t always have to be rooted in realism, and Transcendence is one of the many that take storytelling liberties with the idea of how dangerous technological advances could be.
2. Paranoia (2013)
It shouldn’t be a surprise to find Robert Luketic’s glossy thriller on a list of paranoid techno movies like The Circle based on the title alone.
Liam Hemsworth stars as an ambitious tech company employee that ends up being dragged into the world of corporate espionage after making a small but costly mistake.
Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman bring the gravitas in a sleek and polished entry into the extensive back catalog of movies focusing on the lack of oversight in the tech industry.
3. I, Robot (2004)
Alex Proyas’ action-packed blockbuster sees Will Smith as a suspicious detective reliant on old-school methods in the near future where robots live side-by-side with humans.
Soon proven right not to trust the metallic public servants, Smith’s Del Spooner ultimately unravels a conspiracy with the potential to change the world as we know it.
Loaded with scale and spectacle, if you’re not in the mood for movies like The Circle but still want a gripping techno-thriller, except painted on a much larger canvas, then I, Robot is the perfect alternative!
4. Nerve (2016)
Emma Roberts and Dave Franco lend their youthful exuberance to Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s high-speed thriller about two unwitting bedfellows drawn into a dangerous online game.
The concept is as high as it gets, and presents a reality that doesn’t seem too far away as people around the world turn innocent lives into a game of cat and mouse for their own entertainment.
Plenty of movies like The Circle feature a lot of dialogue-heavy boardroom scenes, but Nerve flies by taking place almost entirely on the streets, and never slows down for a second.
5. Surrogates (2009)
Bruce Willis pulls double duty in Jonathan Mostow’s sci-fi blockbuster by playing both versions of himself in a future where humans remain largely indoors and have the titular androids live their lives.
The themes are even more prescient today in a time where millions of people live an entirely different life online, often presented as a much more glamorous alternative to the real thing.
Had Surrogates been released a decade later it would have found a much bigger audience given how timely the narrative seems when viewed through the lens of 2020, but it remains a solid choice for anyone looking for more movies like The Circle regardless.
6. Searching (2018)
Techno-thriller movies like The Circle aren’t bound to casting big stars and having high concepts, which is where Aneesh Chaganty’s gripping mystery comes in.
John Cho stars as a frantic father looking for his missing daughter, with the entire movie playing out entirely on computer monitors and cellphone screens, but it certainly isn’t a gimmick.
Taut, suspenseful, and relentlessly tense, Searching uses the constrictions of the format to the fullest and wrings every drop of excitement out of the premise as a result.
7. The Final Cut (2004)
Set in a future where memory implants can record entire lives, Robin Williams tries to destroy the footage hidden in his own mind but inadvertently discovers a dark secret about himself in the process.
Movies like The Circle often rely on realism to tell the story of technology gone wrong, but there’s nothing wrong with stretching the limits of plausibility if suits the context of the plot, and in this case it certainly does.
The Final Cut often falls into cliché and struggles to escape from the plot holes it constantly creates, but Williams is always good value when it comes to dropping the comedy and getting serious.
8. Anon (2018)
Director Andrew Niccol balances drama, sci-fi, and techno-thriller all at once as a detective crosses paths with a mysterious young woman who could potentially alter the fabric of society.
Set in a world where crime has been virtually erased, Anon is reminiscent of Minority Report, as well as Niccol’s previous forays into similar narrative territory like Gattaca and In Time.
Leads Amanda Seyfried and Clive Owen keep things ticking along in one of the many movies like The Circle that favors ambitious and complex ideas over the standard archetypes of the thriller.
9. The Signal (2014)
Another one of the movies like The Circle that leans heavier into sci-fi territory, The Signal finds three hackers getting a whole lot more than they bargained for after tracking a signal to the desert.
The budget isn’t quite there to match what director William Eubank clearly had in his head, but it packs in a lot more originality into 97 minutes than many blockbuster franchises could ever hope for.
The twists and turns keep coming right up until an ending that left viewers blind-sided, because there’s no way you’ll see it coming.
10. Replicas (2018)
A neuroscientist loses his family in a car crash and tries to download their memories into cloned host bodies in Jeffrey Machnamoff’s high concept parable of why grief and technology don’t mix.
Almost ponderous to a fault, the script isn’t quite up to scratch in order to fully explore the undeniably interesting themes at the core of the story.
Movies like The Circle don’t always have to be all-time greats, but Replicas remains a fitfully entertaining entry into the techno-thriller genre.