26 films

Consciousness hiding in abstractions

Emotions, ideas and forces given an interior life.

Every film here has been read through the same lens: which rung of the E0–E14 reality ladder its story fights on, whether it moves consciousness off the human, and which rule of its world it alters. Ordered by how many people have rated them.

Inside Out (2015)★ 7.9emotion, memory, identity, pubertySoul (2020)★ 8.1purpose, identity, afterlife, bureaucracyJojo Rabbit (2019)★ 8.0prejudice, identity, warShazam! (2019)★ 7.0power, family, identity, magicRise of the Guardians (2012)★ 7.4belief, myth, childhood, fearInside Out 2 (2024)★ 7.5emotion, identity, memory, adolescenceMeet Joe Black (1998)★ 7.4death, mortality, love, corporateCollateral Beauty (2016)★ 7.2love, time, death, griefThe Seventh Seal (1957)★ 8.2death, faith, meaning, existentialThe Book of Life (2014)★ 7.5love, tradition, mortality, familyThe Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)★ 6.4desire, imagination, temptation, mortalityThe Shack (2017)★ 7.5faith, grief, forgiveness, familyPleasantville (1998)★ 7.3prejudice, conformity, tradition, changeLegend (1985)★ 6.2faith, otherness, power, loveThe Night House (2021)★ 6.6Riley's First Date? (2015)★ 7.2family, communication, generational, memoryThe Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)★ 6.6identity, tradition, grief, faithDay & Night (2010)★ 7.7prejudice, identity, othernessSlumberland (2022)★ 7.3dreams, grief, identity, bureaucracyHeavy Metal (1981)★ 6.5power, corruption, technology, warDrop Dead Fred (1991)★ 5.8imagination, repression, identityPaper Man (2009)★ 6.3imagination, loneliness, familyOrpheus (1950)★ 7.6death, poetry, memory, loveSaint Seiya: Warriors of the Final Holy Battle (1989)★ 7.3faith, war, destinyThe Imaginary (2023)★ 7.6imagination, memory, forgetting, creativityA Writer's Odyssey 2 (2025)★ 5.3storytelling, freewill, determinism, author

Other ways in

Films that move consciousness off the humanFilms that alter a rule of realityFilms about identityFilms about prejudiceFilms about familyConsciousness hiding in monstersFilms about technologyConsciousness hiding in animalsFilms about survivalFilms about loveFilms about mortalityConsciousness hiding in aliensConsciousness hiding in the deadFilms about memoryFilms about warConsciousness hiding in machinesFilms about griefFilms about faithFilms about controlFilms about classFilms about othernessFilms about justiceConsciousness hiding in objectsConsciousness carried elsewhere