The Best Books, Movies, Video Games, and Podcasts to Listen to After Watching for All Mankind.
In a genre dominated by dark, dystopian visions of the future, For All Mankind is a powerful counterpoint: an alternate history that imagines a timeline in which the Soviet Union beat America to the moon, prolonging the space race and laying the groundwork for a more egalitarian, technologically advanced 20th and 21st centuries.
If you’ve just finished the recently released fifth season and are craving some sci-fi positivity, you’re probably already eagerly awaiting the spin-off of Star City and have likely already checked out our list of similarly themed series . So, it’s time to explore other media. Here are the best films, books, games, and podcasts with a similarly stellar vibe.
Best books like For All Mankind.
For All Mankind is a rich, romance-style series with a deeply developed world and great characters, meaning a good book is your best bet for filling that rocket-like void in your life.
“The Calculating Stars ” by Mary Robinette Koval
This award-winning novel , the first in a series, is perfect for fans of the For All Mankind series . It’s an alternate history depicting a devastating meteorite impact that nearly wiped out civilization and plunged the world into ecological disaster. In a desperate attempt to rebuild and save humanity, a labor shortage forces women to take on roles traditionally relegated to them, including a race to the stars. Despite the cataclysmic event that begins the story, it’s an optimistic science fiction story that shows humanity can always overcome any situation, and fans of the series are sure to enjoy it.
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
If your favorite parts of For All Mankind revolved around the terrifying preparation for spaceflight and the experience itself, especially in the early seasons, then this legendary work of “new journalism” is just what you need. It chronicles the early days of U.S. rocketship development, Project Mercury, and the first astronauts, detailing the incredibly difficult and dangerous work these men undertook. It also examines the impact their careers had on their families and provides real-life facts that make the series even more compelling.
The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
If you liked For All Mankind’s depiction of the colonization of Mars—its realistic, plausible approach that makes it all seem thrillingly possible— check out Robinson’s Nebula- and Hugo-winning series . It shares the same basic optimism, imagining a reality where a world driven by looming environmental catastrophe unites to terraform and colonize Mars. It has a similar scope, spanning nearly two centuries of future history, beginning in 2026, and offers a sensible perspective on what a project of such magnitude would entail.
Singer Distance, Ethan Chatanier
The series “For All Mankind” lacks alien life—unless, of course, you count the microscopic cells discovered on Saturn’s moon Titan. If you’re looking for aliens to spice things up, Chatanier’s novel will delight you, as it depicts a world where humanity began a difficult dialogue with the Martians in 1894, involving enormous hieroglyphs carved into the Martian surface and complex mathematical calculations. When humanity fails to solve the Martian equations, the red planet falls silent for decades until a brilliant young student formulates a message that reopens the dialogue, with fateful consequences.
Atmosphere , Taylor Jenkins Reed
Part of the charm of For All Mankind lies in the characters and their relationships. If you’re looking for a similar atmosphere, Atmosphere is the perfect choice. In the early 1980s, astrophysicist Joan Goodwin is thrilled when NASA announces a program to recruit women scientists to the space program. Training to become an astronaut is challenging and rewarding, as are the relationships she develops with her colleagues. Not everyone is friends, and not everything is perfect, and the impending disaster of 1984 casts a shadow over everything—but the story celebrates exceptional people and humanity’s immense potential in a way that fans of the show will understand.
Best movies similar to For All Mankind.
One of the main strengths of For All Mankind is its combination of intimate human drama and breathtaking cosmic vistas. If you want to experience this in full-length format, watch these films.
Apollo 13 (1995)
In the early seasons of For All Mankind, the thrilling moments typically focused on the incredibly dangerous first attempts to launch from Earth and travel to the Moon and beyond. Apollo 13 captures the real-life drama and tension of the 1970 lunar mission, which went horribly wrong, stranding three astronauts in a damaged lunar module and forcing them to desperately attempt, back on Earth, to solve a multitude of physics problems and bring them home alive. It’s the perfect choice if you crave the atmosphere of the space race. Rent Apollo 13 on Prime Video .
The Martian (2015)
Space is a dangerous place, just like the other planets in our solar system. The film “The Martian” captures both the wonder of exploration and the human drive to survive and overcome adversity, making “For All Mankind” a unique experience, telling the story of astronaut Mark Watney, stranded on Mars with insufficient resources for long-term survival. It’s tense, gripping, and ultimately a celebration of the human spirit as the world puts aside political differences and unites to mount a massive rescue mission. Watch “The Martian” on Fubo or rent it on Prime Video .
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
It’s a completely Earth-based world with a distinctly different aesthetic—less realistic than “computer-generated retrofuturism”—but Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow captures the exhilarating energy of For All Mankind while presenting an alternate history where humanity develops technology in a completely different way. This universe features airships, giant robots, and a flying legion of old-school fighters that owes much to the aesthetics of 1930s science fiction, but beneath all the CGI lies a celebration of humanity’s courage and resilience that will delight fans of the series. Watch Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow on Hoopla or rent it on Prime Video .
First Man (2018)
Another film exploring the incredible courage and determination of the early astronauts, First Man follows Neil Armstrong (played by Ryan Gosling), the first person to walk on the moon. In the early 1960s, Armstrong grappled with the death of his young daughter and joined the Gemini program at a time when the Soviet Union was thought to be ahead of the United States in the space race. The film explores the profound personal costs of all the men and women involved in this massive project, from lost lives to serious injuries and emotional distress, accurately revealing just how horrifyingly primitive the technology used to reach the moon was. Watch First Man on Prime Video .
2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
While Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was psychedelic and very Kubrickian, its 1984 sequel is much more realistic and grounded in the Cold War. The result is a human-centered space story that should appeal to fans of For All Mankind . Nine years after the disaster that left the US astronaut David Bowman and the crew of the Discovery , the US and USSR race to Jupiter to find out what happened. The Soviets complete their ship first, but need American help to reactivate the HAL 9000 computer aboard Discovery before the ship crashes into Jupiter’s moon Io, so a tense joint mission is formed. It’s a surprisingly optimistic story, with little of the original film’s bleak style. Watch 2010: The Year We Made Contact on Prime Video .
The best video games like For All Mankind.
Looking for a more interactive and challenging experience similar to For All Mankind ? Then check out these video games that bring space-themed games to your console or computer in a completely new and engaging way.
No Man’s Sky
Want stars? No Man’s Sky will give you stars—a virtually endless supply, procedurally generated and full of unexpected challenges and opportunities. You can explore the world, conduct business, and engage in existential battles with aliens, and you can do so as much as you want, as the game is as close to the infinite nature of the universe as possible on modern consoles. If what attracts you most to For All Mankind is humanity’s potential to explore the universe, then this is the game for you.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Kerbal Space Program
Do you enjoy a detailed exploration of the resources, workforce, and problem-solving required to manage a massive space program? Then Kerbal Space Program and its sequel are just for you. The Keralians live on the planet Kerbin and have just built a spaceport. You’ll design rockets and other spacecraft, launch them, and carry out missions throughout the nearby solar system. The physics and planets are modeled after our own and are remarkably accurate, allowing you to experience the challenges of getting a crew to the Moon and back safely.
Platforms: Steam
Elite Dangerous
Like No Man’s Sky , Elite Dangerous offers you the opportunity to explore and interact with the entire universe, fulfilling the implied promise of For All Mankind . Unlike that game, the universe in Elite Dangerous is modeled after the real universe we inhabit—while the systems you visit are procedurally generated, the data used to create them is taken from reliable astronomical observations. This means you can explore planets and systems that could actually exist in the universe, using spaceships and equipment that have the same practical, industrial look and feel as the ships in the series.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Steam
Starfield
Starfield is another open-world space exploration game that adopts the realism and bold tone of For All Mankind, set in a universe based on real physics and known star systems. If you’re looking for all of that, as well as a more cohesive story than other open-world space games, this is the game for you: you play as a member of a legendary team of explorers searching for ancient artifacts that may hold the key to one of the greatest discoveries in human history.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Steam
Survival on Mars
For many fans, the Martian settlement in For All Mankind is the most captivating setting: a practical, realistic setting where humanity leads a relatively ordinary life despite the harsh conditions. If you want to delve deeper into the logistical challenges of human survival on the red planet, check out Surviving Mars , where you play as an overseer responsible for designing, building, and maintaining a colony on Mars, as well as ensuring the colonists’ survival. The game offers numerous challenges, including colonist personality traits, diseases, resource management, and even rebellions, but that’s precisely what makes it so engaging.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Steam
Best podcasts like For All Mankind
Over the course of five seasons, For All Mankind created a rich and complex fictional world with a diverse cast of characters. If you’d like to delve deeper into the story, learn more about the backstory, or enjoy a similarly entertaining experience, listen to these podcasts.
For All Mankind: The Official Podcast
The official Apple TV+ podcast is the perfect place to learn all the details about each episode, the cast and crew, and the inspirations that influenced the storyline. Learning about the real-life technologies and projects that inspired the events depicted in the series is fascinating, and it’s precisely for this kind of detail that podcasts were created. You’ll even hear interviews with real astronauts and astrophysicists.
Happy Valley: A Podcast for All Humanity
If you prefer interacting with other fans over corporate podcasts, check out Happy Valley , hosted by superfans Brian Chaney and Donny Gordon. Listen to their engaging discussions of episode breakdowns, fan theories, and real-life parallels hidden within the show.
Marsfall
If you’ve been captivated by the Mars story on the For All Mankind podcast, be sure to listen to this tense and gripping account of the adventures of colonists settling on the red planet in 2047. The podcast spares no one, showing the constant life-or-death struggle on a planet unsuited to human habitation.
ars PARADOXICA
If you loved the early seasons of For All Mankind for the way they twisted history (and the gender and racial prejudices of the time), check out Paradox Series . It’s the story of Dr. Sally Grissom, a scientist who travels back in time to 1943 and is recruited by the Office of Anomalous Development Resources (ODAR) to work on time travel and other technologies that could help America win World War II and defend itself against the Soviet Union in the Cold War and beyond, rewriting history in an increasingly chaotic manner.
13 minutes to the Moon
Want to learn more about the real-life 1969 lunar mission and the enormous effort required to bring it to fruition? Then this podcast is for you. Produced by the BBC, it offers an in-depth and gripping exploration of the social, political, economic, and technological challenges the mission faced, revealing the personalities of those who fought for funding, developed key technologies, and were directly present in the cockpits during the dangerous tests and initial flights of the decade-long, literal lunar project.