Interesting premises
by TompaDompa | created - 25 Aug 2013 | updated - 4 weeks ago | PublicSorted by year, and then alphabetically.
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1. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
PG | 104 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron
Votes: 24,853
A bureaucratic error in the afterlife forces a man to argue before an otherworldly court that he should be allowed to live.
2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
PG | 130 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 499,064
A man finds out what it would have been like, had he never been born.
3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
After a divorced New York mother hires a nice old man to play Santa Claus at Macy's, she is startled by his claim to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 54,908 | Gross: $2.65M
Santa Claus incognito in New York City.
4. Rashomon (1950)
Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
Director: Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura
Votes: 180,396 | Gross: $0.10M
Conflicting accounts are given about the same (unseen) event.
5. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A novelist aided by his future father-in-law conspires to frame himself for the murder of a burlesque dancer as part of an effort to ban capital punishment.
Director: Fritz Lang | Stars: Dana Andrews, Joan Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer, Arthur Franz
Votes: 5,899
A man frames himself for murder in an effort to discredit capital punishment.
6. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama
The jury in a New York City murder trial is frustrated by a single member whose skeptical caution forces them to more carefully consider the evidence before jumping to a hasty verdict.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler
Votes: 864,828 | Gross: $4.36M
A courtroom drama that only shows the jury deliberation.
7. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Approved | 81 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
After Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.
Director: Jack Arnold | Stars: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton
Votes: 19,967
A man starts shrinking uncontrollably in size.
8. The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
Approved | 91 min | Drama, Mystery
A doctor treats a woman suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.
Director: Nunnally Johnson | Stars: Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb, Edwin Jerome
Votes: 8,773
A woman with multiple personalities gradually loses control of which one's in charge at any given moment.
9. The Twilight Zone (1959–1964)
TV-PG | 51 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations, which they each try to solve in a remarkable manner.
Stars: Rod Serling, Robert McCord, Jay Overholts, James Turley
Votes: 93,123
Walking Distance (1959): A man returning to his home town finds that he's arrived at the time of his childhood. What You Need (1959): A street peddler has the ability to tell what people will soon urgently need. The Four of Us Are Dying (1960): A con man has the ability to change his face at will. The Purple Testament (1960): A soldier has the ability to see who will die next by looking at their faces. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (1960): Aliens turn the people of a neighbourhood against each other by causing (selective) technical malfunctions. A World of His Own (1960): A tape recorder brings to life that which is described to it. A Most Unusual Camera (1960): A camera takes pictures of the future. A Penny for Your Thoughts (1961): A bank teller gains the ability to hear people's thoughts. It's a Good Life (1961): A community lives under the tyrannical rule of an omnipotent six-year-old. A Kind of a Stopwatch (1963): A stopwatch stops time. The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross (1964): A man has the ability to trade attributes with others.
10. It Happened Here (1964)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, War
In 1940, Germany invades Britain and transforms it into a Fascist state where some Britons collaborate and others resist. In 1944, Pauline, an apolitical Irish nurse becomes a reluctant player in the fight between the two sides.
Directors: Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo | Stars: Pauline Murray, Sebastian Shaw, Bart Allison, Reginald Marsh
Votes: 1,256
Life in Nazi-occupied Britain.
11. Capricorn One (1977)
PG | 123 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
When the first manned flight to Mars is deemed unsafe and scrubbed on the launch pad, anxious authorities must scramble to save face and retain their funding - and so an unthinkable plot to fake the mission is hatched.
Director: Peter Hyams | Stars: Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Sam Waterston
Votes: 24,720
NASA fakes the Mars landing.
12. Life of Brian (1979)
R | 94 min | Comedy
Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Director: Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 421,807 | Gross: $20.05M
A man is mistaken for the Messiah.
13. Death Watch (1980)
R | 117 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a future where dying of illness is exceedingly rare, a terminally ill woman becomes a celebrity and a man with camera implants goes to secretly record her for a morbid TV show.
Director: Bertrand Tavernier | Stars: Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, Thérèse Liotard
Votes: 3,461
A man with camera implants secretly records a terminally ill woman for a morbid TV show.
14. The Lathe of Heaven (1980 TV Movie)
105 min | Sci-Fi
In a highly controlled and overpopulated society, a man who has terrifying dreams that affect reality is assigned a psychiatrist who takes advantage of the situation.
Directors: Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton | Stars: Bruce Davison, Peyton E. Park, Niki Flacks, Kevin Conway
Votes: 2,810
A man's dreams have the power to alter reality.
15. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 466,505 | Gross: $13.78M
An alien life form perfectly imitates the humans it kills.
16. 1984 (1984)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a totalitarian future society, a man, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.
Director: Michael Radford | Stars: John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack
Votes: 78,987 | Gross: $8.40M
In a society where dissenting thoughts are illegal, the ubiquity of surveillance equipment means citizens never know whether they're being watched.
17. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
PG | 82 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
In 1935 New Jersey, a movie character walks off the screen and into the real world.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Irving Metzman
Votes: 55,261 | Gross: $10.63M
A movie character walks off the screen into the real world.
18. Big (1988)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
After wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.
Director: Penny Marshall | Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard
Votes: 239,917 | Gross: $114.97M
A boy ages from 12 to 30-ish overnight.
19. Without a Clue (1988)
PG | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
A drunken Sherlock Holmes is really just a cover for the real detective, Dr. Watson.
Director: Thom Eberhardt | Stars: Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, Jeffrey Jones, Lysette Anthony
Votes: 11,110 | Gross: $8.54M
Sherlock Holmes is used as a publicity front/cover by the real genius, Dr. Watson.
20. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
R | 99 min | Crime, Thriller
When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn
Votes: 1,088,010 | Gross: $2.83M
A heist film that doesn't show the heist.
21. Groundhog Day (1993)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
Votes: 684,959 | Gross: $70.91M
A man is forced to relive the day of an annual event he loathes, over and over again.
22. Last Action Hero (1993)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
With the help of a magic ticket, a young movie fan is transported into the fictional world of his favorite action movie character.
Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney, Charles Dance
Votes: 163,770 | Gross: $50.02M
Travel between reality and fictional universes, subject to their own specific laws of storytelling, is possible.
23. Forrest Gump (1994)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance
The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Votes: 2,256,457 | Gross: $330.25M
A man unwittingly influences several historic events.
24. Toy Story (1995)
G | 81 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's bedroom.
Director: John Lasseter | Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney
Votes: 1,068,340 | Gross: $191.80M
Toys are alive.
25. Ransom (1996)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Multi-millionaire Tom Mullen's son is kidnapped, but after initially agreeing to pay the ransom Mullen then decides to use the ransom money as a bounty.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Mel Gibson, Gary Sinise, Rene Russo, Brawley Nolte
Votes: 135,465 | Gross: $136.49M
A man decides against paying ransom in favour of putting a bounty on the kidnapper.
26. Thinner (1996)
R | 93 min | Fantasy, Horror
An obese attorney is cursed by a gypsy to rapidly and uncontrollably lose weight.
Director: Tom Holland | Stars: Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney, Bethany Joy Lenz
Votes: 33,600 | Gross: $15.17M
A curse makes a man lose weight rapidly, regardless of how much he eats.
27. Gattaca (1997)
PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.
Director: Andrew Niccol | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Gore Vidal
Votes: 323,159 | Gross: $12.34M
A man assumes the identity of a genetically superior one in a world where DNA testing is routine.
28. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano
Votes: 743,062 | Gross: $57.60M
A comedy that uses the Holocaust as a backdrop.
29. Liar Liar (1997)
PG-13 | 86 min | Comedy, Fantasy
A pathological liar-lawyer finds his career turned upside down when he inexplicably cannot physically lie for 24 whole hours.
Director: Tom Shadyac | Stars: Jim Carrey, Maura Tierney, Amanda Donohoe, Jennifer Tilly
Votes: 333,348 | Gross: $181.41M
A lawyer becomes incapable of lying.
30. The Game (1997)
R | 129 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn
Votes: 429,263 | Gross: $48.32M
A man gets caught in a live action role-playing game, unaware that it is one.
31. Dark City (1998)
R | 100 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world no one else ever seems to wake up from.
Director: Alex Proyas | Stars: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt
Votes: 212,249 | Gross: $14.38M
People's memories are regularly erased and replaced.
32. Pleasantville (1998)
PG-13 | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Two 1990s teenage siblings find themselves transported to a 1950s sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that colorless, complacent world.
Director: Gary Ross | Stars: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy
Votes: 136,308 | Gross: $40.57M
1990s teenagers get trapped inside a 1950s sitcom.
33. Sliding Doors (1998)
PG-13 | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
After personal and professional setbacks, a woman experiences an alternate reality.
Director: Peter Howitt | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Votes: 71,490 | Gross: $11.88M
Two different stories run in parallel, showing how one tiny detail can completely change a woman's life.
34. The Truman Show (1998)
PG | 103 min | Comedy, Drama
An insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich
Votes: 1,196,107 | Gross: $125.62M
A man discovers his life is a reality TV show.
35. Fight Club (1999)
R | 139 min | Drama
An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier
Votes: 2,323,327 | Gross: $37.03M
A movie about a man who unknowingly has multiple personalities, from the perspective of one of them.
36. The Matrix (1999)
R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 2,052,682 | Gross: $171.48M
What people believe is reality is in fact a computer simulation that they live in.
37. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
R | 100 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A computer scientist running a virtual reality simulation of 1937 becomes the primary suspect when his colleague and mentor is murdered.
Director: Josef Rusnak | Stars: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 77,262 | Gross: $15.50M
A man running a simulated reality inhabited by computer programs (who think they're human) discovers that he, too, is a computer program in a simulation.
38. Final Destination (2000)
R | 98 min | Horror, Thriller
After getting a premonition about a plane crash on his school trip, Alex, a student saves a few of his classmates. However, their situation gets complicated when death starts chasing them.
Director: James Wong | Stars: Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke
Votes: 279,433 | Gross: $53.33M
A group of people that barely avoid dying in a freak accident start having subsequent life-threatening freak accidents as Death seeks to correct the error.
39. Memento (2000)
R | 113 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 1,322,661 | Gross: $25.54M
A movie told in reverse.
40. Unbreakable (2000)
PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark
Votes: 441,646 | Gross: $95.01M
"What if Superman was here on Earth, and didn't know he was Superman?"
- Quentin Tarantino's description
41. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
G | 92 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
In order to power the city, monsters have to scare children so that they scream. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, two monsters realize things may not be what they think.
Directors: Pete Docter, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich | Stars: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 978,692 | Gross: $289.92M
The monsters in your closet are real, afraid of you, and simply doing their job.
42. The Others (2001)
PG-13 | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann
Votes: 393,169 | Gross: $96.52M
A haunted house movie, as seen from the ghosts' perspective.
43. Cabin Fever (2002)
R | 93 min | Horror
Five college graduates rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a horrifying flesh-eating virus, which attracts the unwanted attention of the homicidal locals.
Director: Eli Roth | Stars: Jordan Ladd, Rider Strong, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent
Votes: 83,685 | Gross: $21.16M
A horror movie where the killer is an infectious disease.
44. Equilibrium (2002)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In an oppressive future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system and state.
Director: Kurt Wimmer | Stars: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs
Votes: 346,974 | Gross: $1.20M
Emotions are outlawed.
45. Minority Report (2002)
PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
John works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow
Votes: 584,258 | Gross: $132.07M
Thanks to precognition, murders can be predicted, and thus prevented.
46. Infernal Affairs (2002)
R | 101 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A story between a mole in the police department and an undercover cop. Their objectives are the same: to find out who is the mole, and who is the cop.
Directors: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak | Stars: Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Eric Tsang
Votes: 131,405 | Gross: $0.17M
A mole in the police department and an undercover cop both try to find out who the other infiltrator is, while avoiding being found out themselves.
47. Identity (2003)
R | 90 min | Mystery, Thriller
Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Votes: 267,141 | Gross: $52.16M
A man's multiple personalities start killing each other off.
48. 50 First Dates (2004)
PG-13 | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Henry Roth is a man afraid of commitment until he meets the beautiful Lucy. They hit it off and Henry think he's finally found the girl of his dreams until discovering she has short-term memory loss and forgets him the next day.
Director: Peter Segal | Stars: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin
Votes: 382,092 | Gross: $120.91M
A man initiates a romantic relationship with a woman suffering from anterograde amnesia.
49. The Butterfly Effect (2004)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber | Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson
Votes: 521,073 | Gross: $57.94M
A man discovers a way to alter certain events in his past.
50. Æon Flux (2005)
PG-13 | 93 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Æon Flux is a mysterious assassin working for the Monicans, a group of rebels trying to overthrow the government. When she is sent on a mission to kill the Chairman, a whole new mystery is found.
Director: Karyn Kusama | Stars: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sophie Okonedo, Marton Csokas
Votes: 132,765 | Gross: $25.87M
Humanity has unknowingly been infertile for centuries, and the population is replaced by covert cloning.
51. Hoodwinked! (2005)
PG | 80 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, the Woodsman and Granny all tell the police the events that led up to their encounter.
Directors: Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, Tony Leech | Stars: Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Patrick Warburton, Jim Belushi
Votes: 66,289 | Gross: $51.39M
Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, the Woodsman, and Granny all tell the police the events that led up to their encounter.
52. Prison Break (2005–2017)
TV-14 | 44 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A structural engineer installs himself in a prison he helped design, in order to save his falsely accused brother from a death sentence by breaking themselves out from the inside.
Stars: Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller, Amaury Nolasco, Robert Knepper
Votes: 579,230
A man intentionally goes to prison in order to break his brother out of it.
53. Sky High (2005)
PG | 100 min | Action, Comedy, Family
Set in an era where superheroes are commonly known and accepted, young William Stronghold, the son of the Commander and Jetstream, tries to find a balance between being a normal teenager and an extraordinary being.
Director: Mike Mitchell | Stars: Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, Michael Angarano, Danielle Panabaker
Votes: 94,642 | Gross: $63.95M
Superhero (and sidekick) high school.
54. 2:37 (2006)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama
At 2:37, someone commits suicide in the school lavatory. The day is told up to that point from the viewpoint of six different students.
Director: Murali K. Thalluri | Stars: Teresa Palmer, Frank Sweet, Sam Harris, Charles Baird
Votes: 7,362
At 2:37, someone commits suicide in the school lavatory. The day is told up to that point from the viewpoint of six different students.
55. Children of Men (2006)
R | 109 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine
Votes: 529,325 | Gross: $35.55M
A dystopian future where humanity has been infertile for almost twenty years.
56. Click (2006)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A workaholic architect finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices.
Director: Frank Coraci | Stars: Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, David Hasselhoff
Votes: 356,668 | Gross: $137.36M
A man comes into possession of a magical remote that allows him to fast-forward through boring parts of his life.
57. Deja Vu (2006)
PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
After a ferry is bombed in New Orleans, an A.T.F. agent joins a unique investigation using experimental surveillance technology to find the bomber, but soon finds himself becoming obsessed with one of the victims.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel, Val Kilmer
Votes: 327,579 | Gross: $64.04M
A device that allows you to peer a certain amount of time into the past is used to solve past crimes and prevent future ones.
58. Dexter (2006–2013)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
He's smart. He's lovable. He's Dexter Morgan, America's favorite serial killer, who spends his days solving crimes and nights committing them.
Stars: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas, James Remar
Votes: 765,790
A serial killer works as a forensic analyst.
59. Idiocracy (2006)
R | 84 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Corporal Joe Bauers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.
Director: Mike Judge | Stars: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Crews
Votes: 182,231 | Gross: $0.44M
A man from the present arrives in the future, where everyone is stupid because dumb people have more kids than smart people do.
60. It's a Boy Girl Thing (2006)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Sworn enemies find themselves in each other's bodies, and use this to ruin each other's lives.
Director: Nick Hurran | Stars: Samaire Armstrong, Kevin Zegers, Sherry Miller, Robert Joy
Votes: 42,817
Two students who strongly dislike each other wake up in each other's bodies.
61. Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
I.R.S. auditor Harold Crick suddenly finds his mundane Chicago life to be the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire existence, from his work to his love life to his death.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah
Votes: 236,444 | Gross: $40.14M
A man discovers that his life is literally being written as he lives it.
62. Unknown (I) (2006)
Not Rated | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Five men wake up in a locked-down warehouse with no memory of who they are. They are forced to figure out who is good and who is bad to stay alive.
Director: Simon Brand | Stars: Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Bridget Moynahan, Joe Pantoliano
Votes: 31,458 | Gross: $0.14M
A group of people wake up in an enclosed space with no recollection of their identities.
63. 1408 (2007)
PG-13 | 104 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A man who specialises in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.
Director: Mikael Håfström | Stars: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Tony Shalhoub
Votes: 294,098 | Gross: $71.99M
A horror movie where the antagonist is a hotel room.
64. Next (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A Las Vegas magician who can see into the future is pursued by FBI agents seeking to use his abilities to prevent a nuclear terrorist attack.
Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann
Votes: 166,385 | Gross: $18.21M
A man can see a short amount of time into the future.
65. Premonition (I) (2007)
PG-13 | 96 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A depressed woman learns that her husband was killed in a car accident the previous day, then awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home; then awakens the day after that to find that he's dead.
Director: Mennan Yapo | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Amber Valletta, Shyann McClure
Votes: 81,711 | Gross: $47.85M
A woman experiences the days of a week out of order.
66. The Man from Earth (2007)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he has a longer and stranger past than they can imagine.
Director: Richard Schenkman | Stars: David Lee Smith, Tony Todd, John Billingsley, Ellen Crawford
Votes: 200,160
A man tries to convince his colleagues that he has lived for several thousand years.
67. Hancock (2008)
PG-13 | 92 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
Hancock is a superhero whose ill-considered behavior regularly causes damage in the millions. He changes when the person he saves helps him improve his public image.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Jae Head
Votes: 511,549 | Gross: $227.95M
A superhero is shunned by the public for causing more harm than he does good.
68. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
PG-13 | 166 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with consequences.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond
Votes: 695,595 | Gross: $127.51M
A man ages backwards.
69. Cell 211 (2009)
113 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.
Director: Daniel Monzón | Stars: Luis Tosar, Alberto Ammann, Antonio Resines, Manuel Morón
Votes: 70,764
A prison guard who is caught in a riot pretends to be an inmate.
70. Dorian Gray (2009)
R | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
Director: Oliver Parker | Stars: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, John Hollingworth
Votes: 68,099
A portrait of a man ages in his stead.
71. Planet 51 (2009)
PG | 91 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
An alien civilization is invaded by Astronaut Chuck Baker, who believes that the planet was uninhabited. Wanted by the military, Baker must get back to his ship before it goes into orbit without him.
Directors: Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad, Marcos Martínez | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Jessica Biel, Justin Long
Votes: 58,591 | Gross: $42.09M
An alien planet experiences a human invasion.
72. The Invention of Lying (2009)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
A comedy set in a world where no one has ever lied, until a writer seizes the opportunity for personal gain.
Directors: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson | Stars: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K.
Votes: 148,934 | Gross: $18.44M
Everyone is unaware of the concept of lying, until one man comes up with it.
73. The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Henry DeTamble, a librarian, possesses a unique gene that lets him involuntarily travel through time. His wife, Claire Abshire, finds it difficult to cope with it.
Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston, Michelle Nolden
Votes: 157,896 | Gross: $63.41M
A man who intermittently time travels involuntarily initiates a romantic relationship with a woman who has received multiple visits from his future self.
74. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,550,316 | Gross: $292.58M
Shared dreams make it possible to explore other people's subconscious.
75. Megamind (2010)
PG | 95 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
Evil genius Megamind finally defeats his do-gooder nemesis, Metro Man, but is left without a purpose in a superhero-free world.
Director: Tom McGrath | Stars: Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey
Votes: 295,755 | Gross: $148.42M
A superhero movie, as seen from the villain's perspective.
76. Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Horror
Affable hillbillies Tucker and Dale are on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin when they are mistaken for murderers by a group of preppy college students.
Director: Eli Craig | Stars: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss
Votes: 193,489 | Gross: $0.22M
Instead of ignorance of horror tropes proving dangerous, familiarity with them does.
77. Black Mirror (2011– )
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Featuring stand-alone dramas -- sharp, suspenseful, satirical tales that explore techno-paranoia -- "Black Mirror" is a contemporary reworking of "The Twilight Zone" with stories that tap into the collective unease about the modern world.
Stars: Wunmi Mosaku, Monica Dolan, Daniel Lapaine, Hannah John-Kamen
Votes: 639,765
The Entire History of You (2011): People are able to rewatch their automatically recorded memories. Be Right Back (2013): A woman copes with loss by interacting with an artificial facsimile of the deceased. White Bear (2013): As punishment for a crime, a woman repeatedly has her memory erased and gets emotionally torturous poetic justice. The Waldo Moment (2013): A cartoon character runs for office. Hang the DJ (2017): A matchmaking system chooses relationships with preset durations for its users in order to ultimately determine their ideal partners.
78. In Time (2011)
PG-13 | 109 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Will Salas is accused of murder and on the run with a hostage.
Director: Andrew Niccol | Stars: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde
Votes: 446,243 | Gross: $37.52M
Time is the currency. When you run out, you die.
79. Limitless (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100% of his brain's abilities transforms a struggling writer into a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with many dangers.
Director: Neil Burger | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro
Votes: 612,311 | Gross: $79.25M
A man comes across a (literally) mind-enhancing drug.
80. Perfect Sense (2011)
R | 92 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
A chef and a scientist fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions.
Director: David Mackenzie | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Eva Green, Lauren Tempany, Connie Nielsen
Votes: 63,944 | Gross: $0.00M
People gradually lose their perceptory senses.
81. Source Code (2011)
PG-13 | 93 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
A soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.
Director: Duncan Jones | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Votes: 549,687 | Gross: $54.71M
A man gathers intelligence by repeatedly living through the last minutes of another's life.
82. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Five college friends head out to a remote cabin for a getaway, but things don't go as planned when they start getting killed. They soon discover that there is more to the cabin than it seems.
Director: Drew Goddard | Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz
Votes: 450,615 | Gross: $42.07M
Horror tropes are enforced by an outside influence.
83. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
PG | 101 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.
Director: Rich Moore | Stars: John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman
Votes: 458,350 | Gross: $189.42M
Video game characters are alive.
84. Coherence (2013)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
Director: James Ward Byrkit | Stars: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen
Votes: 145,881 | Gross: $0.07M
An anomaly allows interactions between the different realities of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
85. Gravity (2013)
PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first time on a space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen
Votes: 863,125 | Gross: $274.09M
Astronauts adrift in space try to make it back to Earth.
86. Her (2013)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara
Votes: 669,463 | Gross: $25.57M
A man initiates a romantic relationship with a non-corporeal artificial intelligence.
87. Look Who's Back (2015)
Not Rated | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Adolf Hitler wakes up in the 21st century. He quickly gains media attention, but while Germany finds him hilarious and charming, Hitler makes some serious observations about society.
Director: David Wnendt | Stars: Oliver Masucci, Thomas M. Köppl, Marc-Marvin Israel, David Gebigke
Votes: 49,626
Adolf Hitler wakes up in present-day Germany.
88. Hardcore Henry (2015)
R | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Henry is resurrected from death with no memory, and he must save his wife from a telekinetic warlord with a plan to bio-engineer soldiers.
Director: Ilya Naishuller | Stars: Sharlto Copley, Tim Roth, Haley Bennett, Danila Kozlovskiy
Votes: 101,879 | Gross: $9.25M
An action movie shown entirely from a first-person perspective.
89. Inside Out (I) (2015)
PG | 95 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.
Directors: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen | Stars: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling
Votes: 785,218 | Gross: $356.46M
A movie set in the human mind, with emotions as characters.
90. The Age of Adaline (2015)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A young woman, born at the turn of the 20th century, is rendered ageless after an accident. After many solitary years, she meets a man who complicates the eternal life she has settled into.
Director: Lee Toland Krieger | Stars: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker
Votes: 203,052 | Gross: $42.48M
A woman stops aging.
91. The Final Girls (2015)
PG-13 | 91 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A young woman grieving the loss of her mother, a famous scream queen from the 1980s, finds herself pulled into the world of her mom's most famous movie. Reunited, the women must fight off the film's maniacal killer.
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson | Stars: Taissa Farmiga, Malin Akerman, Adam Devine, Thomas Middleditch
Votes: 51,727
2010s teenagers get trapped inside a 1980s slasher.
92. Your Name. (2016)
PG | 106 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Two teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things manage to become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.
Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryo Narita, Aoi Yûki
Votes: 320,146 | Gross: $5.02M
Two strangers intermittently swap bodies.
93. What Happened to Monday (2017)
TV-MA | 123 min | Action, Crime, Fantasy
In a world where families are limited to one child due to overpopulation, a set of identical septuplets must avoid being put to a long sleep by the government and dangerous infighting while investigating the disappearance of one of their own.
Director: Tommy Wirkola | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close, Willem Dafoe, Marwan Kenzari
Votes: 134,459
In a future society with a one-child policy, identical septuplets taking turns as a shared identity have to figure out what to do when one of them goes missing.
94. The Guilty (2018)
R | 85 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A police officer assigned alarm dispatch duty enters a race against time when he answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman.
Director: Gustav Möller | Stars: Jakob Cedergren, Jessica Dinnage, Omar Shargawi, Johan Gotthardt Olsen
Votes: 64,422 | Gross: $0.21M
A police procedural shown entirely from the perspective of an emergency services dispatcher.
95. Every Day (2018)
PG-13 | 97 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A shy teenager falls for a spirit who wakes up in the body of a different person every morning.
Director: Michael Sucsy | Stars: Angourie Rice, Justice Smith, Debby Ryan, Jeni Ross
Votes: 23,610 | Gross: $6.10M
A student initiates a romantic relationship with an entity that switches body every day.
96. Brightburn (2019)
R | 90 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister?
Director: David Yarovesky | Stars: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Abraham Clinkscales
Votes: 107,787 | Gross: $17.30M
What if Superman were evil?
97. Klaus (2019)
PG | 96 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A simple act of kindness always sparks another, even in a frozen, faraway place. When Smeerensburg's new postman, Jesper, befriends toymaker Klaus, their gifts melt an age-old feud and deliver a sleigh full of holiday traditions.
Directors: Sergio Pablos, Carlos Martínez López | Stars: Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso
Votes: 189,624
Santa's origin story.
98. Yesterday (III) (2019)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Music
A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino, Ellise Chappell
Votes: 167,687 | Gross: $73.29M
An aspiring musician finds himself in a world where The Beatles never existed.
99. Superman: Red Son (2020 Video)
PG-13 | 84 min | Animation, Action, Sci-Fi
What if baby Kal-El's rocket landed not in Kansas, but in the Soviet Union? That is the premise of this Elseworld's tale from DC Comics.
Director: Sam Liu | Stars: Jason Isaacs, Amy Acker, Diedrich Bader, Vanessa Marshall
Votes: 16,861
What if Superman grew up in the Soviet Union?
100. The Father (I) (2020)
PG-13 | 97 min | Drama, Mystery
A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages. As he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.
Director: Florian Zeller | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Olivia Williams
Votes: 193,124
A movie about a man suffering from dementia, shown from his perspective.
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