12 Best Movies Like The Truman Show

It's hard to believe that it's been 27 years since "The Truman Show" was released, especially because its ahead-of-its-time storyline still feels relevant and plausible. When it first hit theaters in 1998, reality TV as we know it was a relatively new concept, with the 1992 launch of MTV's "The Real World" introducing a whole new way for viewers to become shameless voyeurs.

At the time, the Jim Carrey-led film lightheartedly tapped into an undercurrent of uneasiness about what might be to come in that realm, which is surely still a subconscious concern that exists three decades later after the meteoric rise of unscripted television and social media. Beyond that, though, "The Truman Show" also helped round out a collection of modern-day movies that focused on mind-bending reality-meets-fantasy storylines that questioned the meaning of existence and revealed a deeper self-awareness when it came to characters.

The film revolves around the happy-go-lucky Truman Burbank (Carrey), who is unknowingly living his life as the main character on a reality TV show in which he was born and raised surrounded by actors. Their job is to make him believe he is living in the real world, instead of inside a giant domed soundstage being filmed and broadcast to millions of viewers. One day, though, a stage light comes crashing down out of the sky as he walks out of his front door, setting off a series of events that lead to Truman slowly realizing that he's been living in an artificial world filled with fake family and friends.

While "The Truman Show" is still in a league of its own, it's sure to whet your appetite for similar reality-bending films that explore how life is sometimes not what it seems. Here are 12 more films you should check out.

Released just a few months after "The Truman Show," 1998's "Pleasantville" shares some similarities with its predecessor. Starring Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as twin siblings David and Jennifer, the film follows the teenagers as they are sucked into their television set and become trapped on the seemingly idyllic 1950s-era sitcom "Pleasantville."

David and Jennifer find themselves quickly being accepted into the picture-perfect suburban town as characters Bud and Mary Sue Parker. Their new world, though, is all in black and white. While David is immediately swept up by the simplistically corny setting, Jennifer is not so smitten, and her rebellious nature soon turns the TV town upside down when unbridled realism suddenly starts adding color — and controversy — to an otherwise dull existence.

Like "The Truman Show," the "Pleasantville" storyline tackles the idea of being entangled in a TV show against your will and slowly peeling back the layers of your reality. And once those layers are exposed, there is no turning back.

While "The Truman Show" predates "The Matrix" by almost a year, the latter is much more often associated with changing the cinematic landscape and ushering in a new era of what it means to question reality — and for good reason. Both in terms of technology and storyline, "The Matrix" was unlike anything moviegoers had seen before its 1999 release.

When "The Matrix" begins, we are introduced to mild-mannered computer programmer Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who goes by the hacker pseudonym Neo when he sells illegal software by night. After a mysterious message appears on his monitor saying "Follow the white rabbit," Neo embarks on a labyrinthine descent into the discovery of The Matrix and the truth about the world as he knows it. In the real world, Neo is just a lifeless body in a vat controlled by robots and computers that use countless humans to feed off. Turns out, uncontrolled Artificial Intelligence ravaged the real world and reduced it to a computer-generated dream designed to corral humans into a well-controlled virtual life.

While the original "Matrix" is the showpiece of the franchise, there were three other feature films released that expanded on the mind-bending world, making it a much more in-depth exploration of self-awareness and altered states of being than "The Truman Show."

Despite Jim Carrey often being associated with silly blockbusters such as "The Mask" and "Dumb & Dumber," he went through a prolific period of trying his hand at deeper roles. While "The Truman Show" was the most successful when it came to box office revenue, he also earned critical acclaim for the Andy Kaufman biopic "Man on the Moon," the real-life gay love story "I Love You Phillip Morris," and the surreal Charlie Kaufman-penned "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Similar to the reality-twisting discoveries in "The Truman Show," 2004's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" features a man experiencing a mind-altering awakening. As Joel Barish, Carrey undergoes a procedure to erase all memories of his ex (Kate Winslet) after a painful breakup. But as he lies in a deep sleep during the process, he realizes he doesn't want to forget every moment that's disappearing. At the same time, the nonlinear narrative follows Joel after he wakes up with his memory wiped clean as he impulsively makes a decision that leads him back to his ex, who has also had her memory sanitized. The film's depiction of memory — and specifically, how it can be manipulated — makes "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" a truly unique experience.

Although much bleaker and more fatalistic than "The Truman Show," the 2001 Jake Gyllenhaal-starring "Donnie Darko" explores similar concepts of free will, consciousness, and a warped perception of reality after the title character sleepwalks out of his house one night and encounters a monstrous rabbit who warns him that the world will end in 28 days at a very specific time.

Upon finding his way back home the next morning, the emotionally troubled teen discovers that this bizarre incident saved him from being crushed by a jet engine that crashed through the roof of his house into his bedroom. What unfolds over the next 28 days takes Donnie to dark places as he starts to question reality and ponder the possibility of time travel as his sleepwalking episodes continue to lead him to the humanlike hare and down an inevitable path of death and destruction.

Like the lead character in "The Truman Show," the Donnie Darko character also peels back layers of reality while searching for answers about life and the world around him. Unlike "Truman" though, there may not be a happy ending.

While everyone's life is a story unfolding, "Stranger Than Fiction" takes that idea one step further. With a "Truman Show"-like storyline about an Average Joe discovering he is the unwitting main character in a novel, this 2006 film starring Will Ferrell puts its own unique spin on what it means to become self-aware while prying eyes follow your every move as your life falls apart.

When mundane IRS auditor Harold Crick (Ferrell) starts hearing a voice in his head narrating his life, he begins to realize he is not in control of his own destiny, as the voice continually references his impending death. While searching for ways to distract himself from his inevitable demise, Harold stumbles upon the real-life author who is invading his thoughts and seeks her out, only to discover that she indeed plans on killing him in hopes of generating her next best-seller. But the author's eventual change of heart sets in motion a new path for her main protagonist, who — much like Truman in "The Truman Show" — is able to shape his own destiny by separating fact from fiction.

Released in 2012, "The Cabin in the Woods" takes the prying surveillance tactics and altered reality of "The Truman Show" to the next harrowing level, with the Joss Whedon creation resembling a twisted horror movie take on Jim Carrey's classic, where an unwitting group of college kids head to a remote cabin expecting a fun getaway but instead get killed off one by one. The twist is that the gory goings-on are being controlled in an underground laboratory by scientists who are part of a global syndicate that engineers similar situations around the world.

After secretly being given mind-altering drugs, the friends are led to believe that their actions have unleashed vengeful zombies with a taste for blood. As the 20-somethings — including Chris Hemsworth as "The Athlete" — try to escape, the mad scientists use reality-bending manipulation tactics (like enveloping the cabin in an invisible force field) in order to corral and kill their test subjects. What's revealed in the end is a ridiculously convoluted — but oddly satisfying — reason for the gory, madcap theatrics.

While Truman Burbank was able to escape his shrewdly orchestrated world, the same can't be said for the kids in "The Cabin in the Woods."

If you ever wanted to crawl into someone's head and see what's going on in there, then this is the movie for you — especially if said person is actor John Malkovich. Aside from its literal mind-bending antics, "Being John Malkovich" shares the voyeuristic nature of "The Truman Show."

When an unemployed puppeteer (John Cusack) takes a humdrum job at an eccentric doctor's office, he accidentally finds a door that's secretly a hidden portal into Malkovich's mind. When inside, he can control the actor — and things spin out of control from there, with a revolving door of visitors moving in and out of Malkovich's head, eventually making the actor suspicious of his loss of self-control. Things then become an even more of a jumbled mess, albeit an enjoyable one for viewers.

Similar to "The Truman Show," this 1999 surrealist fantasy film was in a class by itself when it was first released. It became a career-defining feature film debut for screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who went on to create the similarly unusual "Adaptation," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and "I'm Thinking of Ending Things."

In the not-so-distant future, 118-year-old Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) is the last mortal human on earth, and before his death he recounts his past by pondering all the ways in which his life could have gone differently had he just made different decisions. The out-of-sequence events mainly explore his life after his parents divorced when he was nine, looking at a series of possibilities that could have unfolded if he had spent life with his mother versus life with his father.

While "Mr. Nobody" barely registered in the United States when it first came out in 2009, having only been released in a handful of other countries, it has since found somewhat of a cult following among non-linear science-fiction lovers because of its complex, multiverse-like storyline.

The way in which the now-immortal world watches and analyzes Mr. Nobody's impending death invokes shades of "The Truman Show," with a life being picked apart by both self-reflection and voyeurism. Only for Mr. Nobody, the only escape is his time finally running out.

In the 30-plus years since "Groundhog Day" came out, the Bill Murray-led film about a weatherman infinitely trapped in the same 24-hour period has become a bona fide cult classic. As with "The Truman Show," the cynical main character, Phil Connors (Murray), must work within the parameters of his life to figure out how to escape the situation that he's in.

When the meteorologist embarks on his annual trip to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the local weather event featuring a groundhog searching for its shadow, he finds himself reliving the same annoying day over and over with no explanation. While he wakes up knowing exactly what's going to happen and everyone else's every move, no one around him is experiencing the same déjà vu. This leaves Phil to figure out on his own what needs to change in order for him to not wake up to the same Sonny & Cher song in the same rinky-dink hotel every day for eternity.

Released in 1993, five years before "The Truman Show," "Groundhog Day" was a precursor of what was to come with comedic self-awareness and reality-meets-fantasy films.

Earning Michael Keaton his first Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination after a 30-plus-year career, "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" was an unexpected career comeback for the actor arguably best known for "Batman" and "Beetlejuice." In a similar swipe at life-imitates-art storyline à la "The Truman Show," Keaton plays a washed-up actor whose name is synonymous with his dusty role as the superhero Birdman.

This 2014 film deals with a protagonist, Riggan Thomson (Keaton), facing a twisted reality — albeit in his own mind — as he struggles with the incessant gawking of the outside world as a fading celebrity. In "Birdman," Thomson embarks on an embattled comeback bid by inadequately helming a more serious Broadway play in hopes of shaking the stigma of his Birdman alter-ego. The film appears as if it was almost entirely shot in one take and features Thomson fantasizing that he has supernatural abilities similar to Birdman as the actor himself spirals out of control.

The 1980s classic "The NeverEnding Story" came out years ahead of "The Truman Show," but deals with similar themes of a story within story and burgeoning self-awareness. When a kid named Bastian (Barret Oliver) picks up a mysterious book, he is sucked into the fantasy world within, unknowingly guiding the main character Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) through his journey to save Fantasia. Eventually, the book's characters even call out to Bastian for guidance and help, as children reading the book allow the story to continue.

Released in 1984, "The NeverEnding Story" came in a year full of memorable fantasy films that people of a certain age hold dear to this day, including "Ghostbusters," "Gremlins," and "Dune." From dog-faced Falkor the luck dragon to the sadness of the swamp-swallowed horse Artax, the movie continues to live on through pop-culture references and never-ending rumors and reports about an upcoming remake.

"Fight Club" is yet another film that stands out among a crowded field, as it really warped the minds of viewers when it came out in 1999, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton as conflictedly intertwined acquaintances that rely on each other to start a brutal underground fight club that goes awry.

But "Fight Club" has touches of "The Truman Show" within its violent storyline, in that its main character, often just referred to as The Narrator (Norton), is literally on a reality bender that leads him on a twisted journey of self-discovery as he blindly follows a magnetic mastermind named Tyler Durden (Pitt). As the brutality increases in The Narrator's life, so does his self-disgust with both himself and Tyler. As Tyler becomes a subterranean celebrity that people misguidedly look up to, The Narrator is left to wonder where he really fits into this world — and how he can escape.