The emergence of Pluribus, the latest original series, has immediately established a new high-water mark for prestige science fiction on television. This Apple TV+ hit presents a chilling and conceptually dazzling narrative. The story focuses on Carol Sturka, a cynically resistant author and one of the mere handful of people worldwide immune to this global Joining. As Carol navigates a world of forced happiness, the show masterfully blends noir tension with profound questions of autonomy, individuality, and the true cost of peace. Are there any movies which will captivate viewers similar to Pluribus?

If the themes of loss, societal shift, and existential dread in Pluribus captivated viewers, these shows offer similar emotional depth.

This Damon Lindelof series is a spiritual companion to Pluribus, centering on the emotional aftermath of the Sudden Departure, where 2 percent of the global population mysteriously vanishes. The show does not aim to solve the disappearance but instead focuses on how the survivors cope with colossal, unexplained grief, isolation, and the collapse of all certainties. Like Pluribus, it is fundamentally about the search for meaning and the challenging process of rebuilding a life after the world’s rules have been irrevocably rewritten. The series powerfully examines the fragility and resilience of the human spirit when societal foundations crumble.

Streaming Availability: Max (HBO), Showmax (regional), Apple TV, Google Play

The next show explores similar emotional themes of profound loneliness, but through a unique comedic lens.

While this Fox series is a comedy, it shares Pluribus's core emotional landscape, focusing on profound loneliness and depression in a largely empty, post-apocalyptic world. The protagonist, Phil Miller, struggles with isolation after a plague wipes out nearly everyone else, revealing a flawed, initially self-serving nature, much like Carol Sturka. The Last Man on Earth uses visual storytelling to convey a similar sense of eerie stillness and unsettling emptiness despite its modest budget. It is a funnier, lighter exploration of isolation's pain, proving that this deep emotional theme transcends specific genres.

Streaming Availability: Max (HBO), Showmax (regional)

The next series explores the same profound questions as Pluribus regarding free will and the nature of self.

Devs is conceptually linked to Pluribus by its shared interest in determinism and the limits of human autonomy within a high-tech setting. The Hulu series features a secretive quantum computing project that suggests all human choices are merely predetermined code unfolding, mirroring the existential dilemma in Pluribus, where a virus threatens to erase individual consciousness. Both narratives feature a lone woman, like Lily in Devs and Carol in Pluribus, who becomes a fulcrum against an overwhelming, all-knowing system, resisting the philosophical erasure of her sense of self.

Streaming Availability: Max (HBO), Showmax (regional)

The next short-lived series presents a similar psychological horror, even with a different kind of threat.

The short-lived ABC series Invasion presents a similar psychological horror as Pluribus, though the threat is a traditional alien takeover. The story follows a small Florida community being slowly infiltrated by extraterrestrial beings who merge with human hosts, raising the same questions about identity and what constitutes a human being. In both shows, characters must grieve loved ones who are physically present but psychologically absent. Invasion submerges viewers in paranoia, whereas Pluribus's protagonist, Carol, is explicitly aware of the threat, which only amplifies her sense of danger.

Streaming Availability: Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play

The next HBO hit is a clear thematic pairing with Pluribus, focusing on control and personal agency.

Westworld offers a clear thematic partnership with Pluribus, grappling with the ethical dimensions of control and free will through the artificial intelligence of the Hosts. The core question posed by the HBO series, whether life is meaningful if one’s path is engineered, is the same unsettling dilemma under the Pluribus hive mind. Both dramas portray an ordered existence, whether by AI code or viral consciousness, that comes at the steep cost of personal freedom, serving as potent allegories for how a perfectly ordered society can lead to the loss of individual autonomy.

Streaming Availability: Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon, Vudu

Here is another show that explores humanity's encounter with an alien intelligence and its consequences.

3 Body Problem shares a premise with Pluribus, exploring humanity’s encounter with an alien intelligence whose idea of helping results in civilization-altering consequences. The San-Ti panic when they discover humans can lie and act unpredictably, leading them toward control, much like the Pluribus. This concludes that human free will is too chaotic for global optimization. Pluribus essentially depicts life under a dominant power that genuinely believes it knows what is best for humanity, regardless of human consent, mirroring the quiet takeover scenario that could follow the events in 3 Body Problem.

Streaming Availability: Netflix (Original Series)

Finally, this last recommendation shares a deep spiritual kinship with Pluribus through an inversion of the control theme.

Severance possesses a deep spiritual kinship with Pluribus, focusing on corporate control through a subtle yet terrifying sci-fi premise. It examines a near-future where a surgical procedure splits employees’ memories in half, weaponizing the absence of memory and identity. Pluribus is an inversion: the Others achieve domination by enforcing a communal consciousness where everyone shares everything, effectively erasing personal emotion and individual resonance. Severance explores the terror of not knowing; Pluribus explores the horror of knowing too much, but being stripped of the capacity to feel.

Streaming Availability: Apple TV+ (Original Series)

These seven acclaimed dramas offer the same depth, mystery, and philosophical challenges as Pluribus.

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Which movie among these you are going to stream first after Pluribus? Let us know in the comment below.