Best tv shows like Taken
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Taken spans five decades and four generations, centering on three families: the Keys, Crawfords, and Clarkes. World War II veteran Russell Keys is plagued by nightmares of his abduction by aliens during the war; the Roswell incident transforms Owen Crawford from ambitious Air Force captain to evil shadow government conspirator; the unhappily married Sally Clarke is impregnated by an alien visitor. As the decades go by, the heirs of each are affected by the machinations of the aliens, culminating with the birth of Allie Keys, who is the final product of the aliens' experimentation and holds the key to their future.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 877 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, psychological, sentimental, atmospheric, stylized, depressing, thrilling, epic
Best tv shows and movies like Taken (2002):
Similar in 82%
Beyond The Sky (2018)
Plot Summary:
A documentary filmmaker travels to a UFO convention in New Mexico where he meets a local artist with a dark secret. As they follow a trail of clues they discover disturbing sightings and question all they believe when they become immersed in the enigmatic culture of the Pueblo Indians.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: exciting, disclosure, tense, captivating, suspense, intense, documentary filmmaking
Similar in 82%
Alien Abduction (2005)
Plot Summary:
After being abducted by extra terrestrials, Jean and her friends are committed to a top secret government run mental institution to undergo tests and be brainwashed.
IMDB Rating: 2.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, psychological, scary, independent film
Similar in 89%
First Wave (1998)
Plot Summary:
First Wave is a Canadian/American science fiction television series, filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that aired from 1998 to 2001 on the Sci-Fi Channel. The show was created by Chris Brancato, who co-wrote an early version of the script for the seminal X-Files episode "Eve". Francis Ford Coppola was executive producer on the show. In an unusual move, the Sci-Fi Channel picked up the series on a 66-episode contract. The show was subsequently canceled once the contract expired at the end of the third season due to disappointing ratings.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: exciting, bleak, serious, suspenseful, apocalyptic
Similar in 84%
Grey Skies (2010)
Plot Summary:
A group of old college friends reunite to relive their glory days by renting a beautiful cabin in the woods. As the sun sets on their first day in the cabin, bright flashes of light announce the arrival of mysterious creatures. These friends will have to outwit a force that is both inhuman and extremely intelligent in order to survive. The outcome will shock and amaze you as we come to realize... we are not alone in the universe.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 606
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, scary, serious, tense, psychological, cult film
Similar in 88%
Intruders (1992)
Plot Summary:
All over the world, people report they've been visited by aliens, taken aboard spaceships and medically examined. The authorities appear to know all about these visits but won't acknowledge it publicly. This film focuses on two 'victims' who struggle to live normal lives, but the aliens keep coming back. All is explained.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: slasher, semi serious
Similar in 77%
Communion (1989)
Plot Summary:
A novelist's wife and son see him changed by an apparent encounter with aliens in the mountains.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychological, scary, suspenseful, serious, disturbing, captivating, spiritual, christmas horror, mindfuck
Similar in 89%
Roswell (1994)
Plot Summary:
Based on the book "UFO Crash at Roswell" by Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt, Roswell follows the attempts of Major Jesse Marcel to discover the truth about strange debris found on a local rancher's field in July of 1947. Told by his superiors that what he has found is nothing more than a downed weather balloon, Marcel maintains his military duty until the weight of the truth, however out of this world it may be, forces him to piece together what really occurred.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, suspenseful, cynical
Similar in 80%
The Whispers (2015)
Plot Summary:
We love to play games with our children. But what happens when someone else starts to play with them too? Someone we don't know. Can't see. Can't hear. In The Whispers, someone or something -- is manipulating the ones we love most to accomplish the unthinkable. An unseen alien force has figured this human weakness out. They have invaded earth and are using our most unlikely resource to achieve world domination – our children.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, scary, tense, bleak, apocalyptic
Similar in 90%
Nightflyers (2018)
Plot Summary:
A crew of space explorers embark on an mission to find a mysterious alien ship.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: scary, psychological, exciting, suspenseful, space horror, tense, atmospheric, bleak, captivating, suspense
Similar in 77%
Invasion (2005)
Plot Summary:
Invasion is an American science fiction television series that aired on ABC for only one season beginning in September 21, 2005. Somewhat similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the show told the story of the aftermath of a hurricane in which water-based creatures infiltrate a small Florida town and begin to take over the bodies of the town's inhabitants through a cloning process. The show was produced by Shaun Cassidy Productions and Warner Bros. Television. Due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the aftermath in the southern United States, early on-air promotions were quickly pulled by ABC. The advertising then switched emphasis completely to the alien invasion aspect of the series, while the hurricane received no mention. The premiere was also preceded with a warning that the show featured images of a fictional hurricane that viewers could be sensitive to.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, bleak, suspenseful, suspense, tense, disturbing, scary, atmospheric, epic, mysterious
Similar in 84%
V (1984)
Plot Summary:
Once again, Earth is the battleground. But now the aliens whose human guise hides their true reptilian natures are wiser. They believe the secret to their survival on Earth lies in the DNA of the newly born half-human, half-spaceling Starchild. But that's something the world's Resistance Fighters cannot allow.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: exciting, apocalyptic, atmospheric, epic, saga, spooky, serious, suspenseful, stylized, feel good
Similar in 85%
Dark Skies (1996)
Plot Summary:
Dark Skies is an American UFO conspiracy theory-based sci-fi television series that aired from the 1996 to 1997 season for 18 episodes, plus a two-hour pilot episode. The success of The X-Files on Fox proved there was an audience for science fiction shows, resulting in NBC commissioning this proposed competitor following a pitch from producers Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman. The series debuted September 21, 1996 on NBC, and was later rerun by the Sci-Fi Channel. Its tagline was "History as we know it is a lie.".
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: anthology, spooky, exciting, mind bending, serious, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Debris (2021)
Plot Summary:
Two federal agents from two different continents, and two different mindsets, must work together to investigate when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: tense, captivating, futuristic, exciting, sad
Similar in 78%
V (2009)
Plot Summary:
V is an American science fiction television series that ran for two seasons on ABC, from November 3, 2009 to March 15, 2011. A remake of the 1983 miniseries created by Kenneth Johnson, the new series chronicles the arrival on Earth of a technologically advanced alien species which ostensibly comes in peace, but actually has sinister motives. V stars Morena Baccarin, Lourdes Benedicto, Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Logan Huffman, Charles Mesure, Elizabeth Mitchell, Laura Vandervoort and Scott Wolf, and was executive produced by Scott Rosenbaum, Yves Simoneau, Scott Peters, and Jace Hall. The series was produced by The Scott Peters Company, HDFilms and Warner Bros. Television.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 58000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, apocalyptic, captivating, stylized, cliffhanger, tense, exciting, serious, atmospheric, sweet
Similar in 81%
The Andromeda Strain (2008)
Plot Summary:
A U.S. satellite crash-lands near a small town in Utah, unleashing a deadly plague that kills virtually everyone except two survivors, who may provide clues to immunizing the population. As the military attempts to quarantine the area, a team of highly specialized scientists is assembled to find a cure and stop the spread of the alien pathogen, code-named Andromeda.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 174 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, suspenseful, futuristic, melancholic, harsh, stylized, apocalyptic, exciting, suspense
Similar in 78%
The Astronaut's Wife (1999)
Plot Summary:
When astronaut Spencer Armacost returns to Earth after a mission that nearly cost him his life, he decides to take a desk job in order to see his beautiful wife, Jillian, more often. Gradually, Jillian notices that Spencer's personality seems to have changed, but her concerns fade when she discovers that she's pregnant. As Jillian grows closer to becoming a mother, her suspicions about Spencer return. Why does it seem as if he's a different person?.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 57000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, surprise ending, suspense, scary, psychological thriller, serious, disturbing, psychotronic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
The Arrival (1996)
Plot Summary:
Zane Ziminski is an astrophysicist who receives a message that seems to have extraterrestrial origins. Eerily soon after his discovery, Zane is fired. He then embarks on a search to determine the origins of the transmission that leads him into a Hitchcockian labyrinth of paranoia and intrigue.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, exciting, serious, intense, futuristic, surprise ending, atmospheric, mystical, apocalyptic
Similar in 78%
Resident Alien (2021)
Plot Summary:
Crash-landed alien Harry takes on the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor. Arriving with a secret mission, he starts off living a simple life…but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 45000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: entertaining, humorous, feel good, light, funny, psychological, captivating, atmospheric, sad, anime
Similar in 90%
Project Blue Book (2019)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of the true top secret U.S. Air Force-sponsored investigations into UFO-related phenomena in the 1950s and ’60s, known as “Project Blue Book.”.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, captivating, exciting, suspense, suspenseful, atmospheric, thought provoking, anthology, historical drama, corny
Similar in 80%
Torchwood (2006)
Plot Summary:
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from the 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. Torchwood follows the exploits of a small team of alien hunters, who make up the Cardiff branch of the fictional Torchwood Institute, which deals mainly with incidents involving extraterrestrials.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Action, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, Canada, USA
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, captivating, detective, sexy, apocalyptic, thrilling, exciting, odd
Similar in 79%
The X Files (1998)
Plot Summary:
Mulder and Scully, now taken off the FBI's X Files cases, must find a way to fight the shadowy elements of the government to find out the truth about a conspiracy that might mean the alien colonization of Earth.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 109000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, scary, cerebral, psychological, neo noir, psychological thriller, political, apocalyptic, novela
Similar in 81%
The Abyss (1989)
Plot Summary:
A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean's surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 188000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, exciting, tense, psychological, suspense, serious, epic, futuristic, visually stunning, enigmatic
Similar in 82%
The Event (2010)
Plot Summary:
The Event is an emotional, high-octane conspiracy thriller that follows Sean Walker, an everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his would-be fiancée Leila, and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, mind bending, serious, suspenseful, non-linear, intellectual, detective, cliffhanger, atmospheric
Similar in 81%
The 4400 (2004)
Plot Summary:
4400 centers on the return of 4400 people who, previously presumed dead or reported missing, reappear on Earth. Though they have not aged physically, some of them seem to have deeper alterations ranging from superhuman strength to an unexplained healing touch. A government agency is formed to track the 4400 people after one of them commits a murder.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, serious, tense, suspense, exciting, atmospheric, bad ending, anthology, apocalyptic, spooky
Similar in 75%
The Forgotten (2004)
Plot Summary:
Telly Paretta is a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of her 8-year-old son. She is stunned when her psychiatrist reveals that she has created eight years of memories about a son she never had. But when she meets a man who has had a similar experience, Telly embarks on a search to prove her son's existence, and her sanity.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 68000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, mind bending, surprise ending, enigmatic, twist ending, suspenseful, suspense, psychological thriller, mindfuck, intense
Similar in 79%
Fire in the Sky (1993)
Plot Summary:
A group of men who were clearing bush for the government arrive back in town, claiming that their friend was abducted by aliens. Nobody believes them, and despite a lack of motive and no evidence of foul play, their friends' disappearance is treated as murder.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, scary, disturbing, psychological, cult classic, suspense, retro, psychedelic, slasher, surreal
Similar in 81%
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Plot Summary:
After an encounter with UFOs, a line worker feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 213000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, UK, China
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, breathtaking, captivating, cerebral, atmospheric, visually appealing, visual, futuristic, light, sentimental
Similar in 77%
Contact (1997)
Plot Summary:
Contact is a science fiction film about an encounter with alien intelligence. Based on the novel by Carl Sagan the film starred Jodie Foster as the one chosen scientist who must make some difficult decisions between her beliefs, the truth, and reality.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 289000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: cerebral, inspirational, philosophical, futuristic, emotional, mind blowing, captivating, suspenseful, exciting, thought provoking
Similar in 90%
The X-Files (1993)
Plot Summary:
The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 243000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: captivating, atmospheric, psychological, mind bending, detective, suspense, exciting, spooky, thrilling, psychological thriller
Similar in 78%
Stranger Things (2016)
Plot Summary:
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 13000000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 51 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, suspenseful, sincere, disturbing, thought provoking, epic, psychological thriller, retro, spectacular