There’s no doubt about it: Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest filmmakers ever. He’s directed some of the most beloved and highest-grossing films of all time, including Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan. Spielberg’s influence has gotten to the point where the term “Spielbergian” is now commonly used in film circles to describe films that evoke his themes and approach.
Many things can make a film Spielbergian: ordinary people discovering something extraordinary, broken family dynamics, children in thrilling and suspenseful situations, references to World War II, and, of course, aliens. Most of all, the Academy Award-winning director is best known for instilling a sense of sentimental childlike wonder into his films. Many films over the years have adopted these traits, whether intentionally or not. These are some films that fans of Steven Spielberg will surely love, making for excellent companions to many of the director’s most acclaimed pictures.
10 ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ (2001)
Directed by Chris Columbus
Spielberg was interested in directing the first Harry Potter film when it first went into development; he originally envisioned it as an animated feature with Haley Joel Osment as the voice of the titular boy wizard and would use elements from multiple books. Obviously, it never came to fruition as Chris Columbus took over directing, and the rest is history. Nevertheless, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (titled The Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S.) still has that familiar Spielbergian feel.
Since Columbus wrote the Spielberg-produced Gremlins and The Goonies, it made sense for him to approach the direction of The Philosopher’s Stone like an ‘80s family adventure film for the early 2000s. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends come across spellbinding witches and wizards, extraordinary creatures, and perilous situations, all while the film remains whimsical and imaginative. Thanks to the Spielbergian influence, the series has captured the imagination of millions of young fans worldwide.
9 ‘The Vast of Night’ (2020)
Directed by Andrew Patterson
The Vast of Night is an incredible directorial debut from independent writer/director Andrew Patterson. Set in New Mexico in the 1950s, radio DJ Everett (Jake Horowitz) and switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick) discover a strange frequency on air and believe it could be of alien origin. The film premiered at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival, then acquired by Amazon Studios and released on Prime in 2020 to positive reviews.
The film feels like early Spielberg, with a big comparison being Close Encounters of the Third Kind. However, Patterson still crafts a compelling story with a limited budget, taking place all in one night with great performances and amazing camera work, especially in the long tracking shots. He brilliantly mixes sci-fi with mystery, as his characters are put through a suspenseful state of urgency, leading to an ending that might yield mixed reactions. Still, The Vast of Night deserves recognition as an underrated sci-fi indie gem.
8 ‘Real Steel’ (2011)
Directed by Shawn Levy
It’s Rocky, but with Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots! With Spielberg actually serving as an executive producer, Real Steel takes place in a world where human fighters have been replaced with robots. At the center, a former boxer named Charlie Keaton (Hugh Jackman) and his estranged son Max (Dakota Gayo) put together a new robot and trained it to become a champion. Directed by Shawn Levy, Real Steel is based on an episode of The Twilight Zone by Richard Matheson and was a moderate success with a familiar but entertaining story.
One of the most common Spielberg tropes is troubling father-son relationships, and that’s at the core of Real Steel; in order for the boxing robot to work, the relationship between Keaton and his son must be mended. The heart of the story also lies within their relationship with the robot, which they call Atom. Along with a mix of animatronics and CGI to create the robots and fights, Real Steel also feels nostalgic and exciting, like an old Spielberg film.
7 ‘Flight of the Navigator’ (1986)
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Often considered an underrated classic from the ’80s, Flight of the Navigator tells the story of a 12-year-old boy named David (Joey Kramer) in 1978 who somehow travels eight years into the future. Considered a missing person, he goes on an adventure with an alien spacecraft to get back to his time. From Grease director Randal Klesier and co-starring Sarah Jessica Parker in one of her earliest film roles, plus the late Paul Ruebens as the voice of the ship’s robotic computer guide, the film was a moderate success for the Walt Disney Company.
Flight of the Navigator
has some similarities with
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
, like with the young boy befriending an alien and going on the run from the government.
It can easily be argued that Flight of the Navigator would not exist without the influence of Spielberg, as it was released at a time when many family films were inspired by Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This one has some similarities, like with the young boy befriending an alien and going on the run from the government, but the time travel element makes the movie stand on its own. In some ways, it adds an eeriness to the story while still maintaining its adventurous tone.
Watch on Disney+
6 ‘Nope’ (2022)
Directed by Jordan Peele
The third film by writer-director Jordan Peele is, by far, his most ambitious one to date. Nope stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings who discover an unidentified flying object over their California ranch and try to capture evidence of it on camera. With plenty of scary moments, Nope was highly praised for its ending, Peele’s direction, and its themes centering around the dangers of spectacle and exploitation, specifically when it comes to handling animals and otherworldly creatures.
Spielberg himself has built a career on characters witnessing spectacles, many of them being alien-related; they have that Spielbergian gaze when seeing something extraordinary off-screen. Peele captures a similar gaze when the main characters of Nope look up in the sky at their alien visitor—although it’s learned they need to look down to be safe from it, adding to the horror of the story. Regardless, Nope is still a great Spielbergian-esque film that mixes suspense with wonder.
5 ‘Jumanji’ (1995)
Directed by Joe Johnston
The late and great Robin Williams left behind a legacy of beloved films, and Jumanji is no exception. Based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg, it tells the story of a sister and brother (Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce) who discover a magical jungle-themed board game that comes to life when played and end up freeing a man (Williams) who has been trapped in it for decades. It was also directed by someone quite familiar with the works of Spielberg: Joe Johnston, who won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Jumanji features a common Spielbergian theme with the troubled father-son relationship between Williams’s Alan Parrish and his father, played by Jonathan Hyde. Additionally, it bears similar comparisons to Jurassic Park: characters are constantly on the run from dangerous creatures, with many of these amazing scenes featuring both animatronics and CGI. While not as groundbreaking as Spielberg’s dinosaur epic, Jumanji is still a beloved modern classic that dares to be wild.
4 ‘Alien’ (1979)
Directed by Ridley Scott
New life has been breathed into the Alien franchise thanks to the recent release of Alien: Romulus. The success of the classic horror/sci-fi series goes all the way back to the 1970s, when writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett used a simple but effective pitch to get the first film into orbit: “Jaws in space.” Since then, those three words have become the benchmark for how to pitch films, and it could not have happened without Spielberg.
Since Jaws was a massive hit in 1975, it was inevitable that other films would follow its formula. But director Ridley Scott took Alien and its simple premise of a spacecraft crew—with a star-making turn for Sigourney Weaver—encountering a deadly alien life form and made it stand out on its own as a horror classic. He used the technique of showing less to make a scarier viewing experience, letting the fear and anticipation build up to horrifying spectacles, like the infamous chest-burster scene. Like Jaws, Alien elevated the idea of what monster movies could be.
Watch on Netflix
3 ‘Hugo’ (2011)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time. He and Spielberg were among the many filmmakers of the New Hollywood era that began in the late ‘60s and rose to success in the ‘70s. Scorsese is best known for making violent R-rated films centered around corrupt protagonists and gangsters, so who would have thought he’d ever make a 3-D family picture? Hugo was released to disappointing box office results but a strongly positive reception, with many considering it to be one of Scorese’s best and most poignant works.
Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is a young orphan living in a Paris train station in the 1930s who gets involved in a mystery surrounding a gift from his late father (Jude Law) and the reclusive filmmaker Georges Méliès (Sir Ben Kingsley). It would be no surprise to think the film would feel more suited for Spielberg to direct, but Scorsese knew what needed to be brought here. Allowing him to diversify his filmography, Hugo is Scorsese’s love letter to the history of filmmaking and a call for stronger film preservation.
2 ‘The Iron Giant’ (1999)
Directed by Brad Bird
Before bringing us such beloved hits such as The Incredibles and Ratatouille at Pixar, Brad Bird and Warner Bros. Animation gave the world The Iron Giant. The now-modern classic is set in the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, where a young boy named Hogarth (Eli Marienthal) befriends a giant alien robot (Vin Diesel) that’s being tracked down by the U.S. government. Despite a mixed contemporary reception, it grew in popularity over the years and is now regarded as one of the best non-Disney/Pixar animated films.
It’s obvious that the one film The Iron Giant gets compared to the most is E.T.: both center around a young boy and his alien best friend that the government is looking for. The Iron Giant leans more into its social commentary surrounding Cold War paranoia, but no one would argue that it’s an unflattering comparison. In fact, Spielberg even granted the Iron Giant a cameo appearance in his film Ready Player One. For a film that came and went in 1999 and took years to build a following, it’s an accomplishment for it to be honored by the director it paid homage to.
1 ‘Super 8’ (2011)
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Super 8 has often been described as “Stranger Things before Stranger Things.” The 2011 film by writer/director J.J. Abrams hits several of the familiar Spielbergian hallmarks: ordinary children making an extraordinary discovery, a troubled father/son relationship, and, once again, aliens. Furthermore, Spielberg himself was a producer, strengthening the connection between the movie and the director’s style.
Abrams essentially combined two different story ideas: there’s the plotline about a group of kids in 1979 making a short film, which is reminiscent of both Abrams and Spielberg’s childhoods, and adding an alien invasion story is the icing on the cake. Super 8 is the quintessential homage film, and like Hugo, which was also released the same year, it’s another love letter to filmmaking. While the ending is famously divisive, Super 8 remains an entertaining and imaginative film that also manages to be endearing and even funny at times, and the best example of a non-Spielberg film to watch if you like Steven Spielberg.
