MovieChat Forums > Pandorum (2009) Discussion > If you liked Pandorum, you'll like...

If you liked Pandorum, you'll like...


I'm making this thread as a follow-up to this one from 2012, when the OP lists other movies and TV shows similar to Pandorum:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1188729/board/thread/195374661

Since that thread does a good job of including similar movies, I thought I'd add video games and books to the list:

Games:

- Dead Space - When Pandorum's trailer came out, at first a whole lot of people thought it was a movie adaptation of Dead Space. The plots are similar and Pandorum borrows from Dead Space's visual style. In Dead Space you play the role of an engineer sent to investigate the Ishimura, a "planet cracker" type ship inhabited by thousands. And of course when you arrive the ship isn't answering hails, the people are missing, and terrifying creatures are running around inside it...

- STASIS - You wake up on a ship to find everyone missing and evidence of violence everywhere. You spend the game trying to piece together what happened, and trying to find your wife and kids before the ship blows up.

- Alien: Isolation - Not only is this the best Alien game ever made, and not only is it almost photo-realistic and looks exactly like Ridley Scott's original Alien (1979), but almost the entire game involves trying to get off a ghost ship and an abandoned starbase. The derelicts have a xenomorph stalking them, and the AI has gone rogue with androids who will try to kill you on sight. You can also play missions that are recreations of the movie, playing as Ripley, Dallas, Parker, etc. The interior of the Nostromo is so detailed and so painstakingly recreated that immersion is through the roof.

- Mass Effect - Although this is not a series about ghost ships, there are several extended sequences involving investigating and battling through derelict ships in all three games. IIRC the second Mass Effect had several missions of that type.

- Deadnauts - The entire game is based around finding derelict ships, sending teams inside to loot them, and dealing with everything from hostile survivors to aliens and rogue AI. This is more of an abstract game, but it's creepy as hell, and you never know what's on the ship until you breach it and go in.


Books

- Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds -
Most of the book is set on the "Nostalgia for Infinity," a massive ship that's so old, no one is sure who built it or when. While it was built to carry hundreds of thousands of passengers in comfort, when the book opens the NFI is crewed by only 7 people, who are biomechanical traders/criminals. The ship is dilapidated, with entire districts abandoned, huge empty sleeper chambers, and an agricultural section that's overgrown, forming an expanding jungle that's swallowed several decks. Some of the crew won't even venture down to the decks in the lower hundreds because they don't know what's down there. Awesome book, awesome ship.

- Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson - A huge human colony ship inhabited people from a dozen different countries and cultures, on a 250 LY journey to colonize an Earth-like planet. The book splits between scenes when there's peace on the ship, and scenes when all order is lost, the factions are fighting each other, and the ship interior has turned into a warzone.


Got one to add? Let me know!

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I see quite a few visual similarities to Event Horizon, but that’s not surprising considering Paul W.S Anderson’s involvement.

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Well, they both copy "Alien" in the design department, but I don't really like Event Horizon and I think of Anderson as an "almost" guy. His movies are almost cool, but not quite there.

The movies exploit different sci-fi tropes. Event Horizon is a "ghost ship" story, while "Pandorum" is a "generation ship" story.

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I liked Event Horizon.

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Another for "Books" (well short story but anyways)

Across the Night Wall by By Martin Isitt
This is a short story set in William Hope Hodgson's Night Land setting. Involves a deep space colonization ship when the star eaters spread across the galaxy.

http://nightland.website/index.php/stories/night-land-stories/the-days-of-darkening/45-across-the-night-wall

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The book "Non-stop" by Brian Aldiss. I think they may have took from there few ideas, like the twitchy movements, mutated crew, amnesia in regards to the circumstances. And possibly other things...

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Anybody got a link to the thread being referenced in the OP?

I've been craving to see more films like this ever since I first saw this way back in 2009 or 2010.

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I don't think there is really anything like Pandorum. I thought it was spooky great when I saw it. Really nothing like it. Maybe Alien: Covenant has the same kind of feel in that there is something out there and you never know what it is, where it is going to show up, or what else there might be

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Bummer.

I was hoping for a few more similar films since I've been in the mood for it.

Kind of reminds me of a few films with a similar atmosphere from around that time that I can recall, such as Dante 01, Cargo (2009), Europa Report (2013), and maybe Eden Log (2007). Chrysalis (2007) also has a very similar atmosphere, but it's not really a space sci-fi film like the others.

I might check out the film Extracted (2012) as it sometimes appears in the recommended list alongside Pandorum.

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The Wayback Machine has a backup:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170210013828/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1188729/board/thread/195374661

But you will be disappointed.

A recent good space themed movie is Prospect (2018). It is not set in space, but on another planet. If you want it dark and enjoy b-movie cheesiness, there some good ones, albeit set on Earth: Hardware (1990), Split Second (1992), Death Machine (1994) (find the 2 hours long cut, upon release they massacred it to 90 mins). These movies basically rip-off Alien, Predator, Terminator and Blade Runner. Another good one set on another planet is Screamers (1995).

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Oops, now I remember that me and you already had a discussion about the mentioned movies.

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LOL yeah it happens... films like these are in such short supply that it's not uncommon to orbit around the same threads that might hint at something similar.

On the upside, there are always hidden gems here and there. But thanks again for the reminder about Prospect because I think I may or may not have added that to the list, but will definitely add it to the list for sure.

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In the "books" department, I'd humbly add my new novel "World in Exile." They don't have the budget to make a ship like that. It's everyone for himself!

Available on Amazon - author name Daniel G. Kuttner

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