Movies on Netflix You Have to Watch Twice to Fully Understand

Some films invite you to lean in a little closer. Netflix carries a deep bench of originals and international releases that play with nonlinear timelines, time loops, shifting identities, and unreliable points of view. These movies use structure and detail in ways that reward a second pass.

This list gathers titles that build their puzzles through narrative design, editing, and careful visual or sonic clues. You will find science fiction, thrillers, and mysteries from directors across the world, with casts that bring complex ideas to life through performance and craft.

‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ (2020)

Charlie Kaufman adapts Iain Reid’s novel with Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons leading a story that folds memories, fantasy, and performance into one setting. The film places a couple’s road trip next to scenes in a high school, with Toni Collette and David Thewlis appearing in shifting forms that mirror the lead character’s inner life.

The production blends theatrical staging, changing costumes, and references to classic films and musicals to blur time and identity. Dialogue passages quote criticism and poetry, and the edit uses abrupt transitions to place multiple interpretations side by side.

‘Annihilation’ (2018)

Alex Garland directs Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Oscar Isaac in a story about a scientific expedition into a quarantined zone called the Shimmer. The narrative moves between an interrogation room and the expedition itself, layering field notes, recordings, and biological anomalies.

Visual motifs repeat across plants, animals, and human behavior, while sound design ties scenes together with echoes and distortions. Netflix handled distribution in many territories, making the film widely available outside theatrical markets.

‘The Platform’ (2019)

Director Galder Gaztelu Urrutia sets the action inside a vertical prison where food descends on a platform from top levels to bottom. Iván Massagué stars as a volunteer inmate who observes how the system changes behavior and language as the months pass.

Production design marks each level with identical concrete geometry, while the camera frequently centers the platform shaft to reinforce the rules of the space. Chaptered scenes and paired cellmates create patterns that mirror social experiments.

‘I Am Mother’ (2019)

Grant Sputore’s film follows a teenage girl raised by a robot called Mother inside a sealed facility. Clara Rugaard plays the Daughter, with Hilary Swank entering the bunker and Rose Byrne providing the voice of the machine.

The script uses tests, ethical prompts, and archived footage to examine how trust is formed. Practical robotics and controlled lighting keep the bunker geography consistent, which lets small continuity choices carry meaning.

‘The Discovery’ (2017)

Director Charlie McDowell presents a world where a scientist proves the existence of an afterlife. Robert Redford plays the researcher, with Jason Segel and Rooney Mara exploring the social aftermath of that finding.

Plot threads move through a coastal estate, a research machine, and recorded brain activity that reveals buried memories. The film tracks cause and effect through repeated images, monitors, and numbered trials.

‘ARQ’ (2016)

Tony Elliott writes and directs a contained time loop thriller set in a home laboratory during a break-in. Robbie Amell and Rachael Taylor reset the same morning as they try to keep a prototype out of corporate hands.

The story maps each loop with small changes in dialogue, costume smears, and improvised tactics. Camera placement and clock faces orient the viewer, while the script limits information to what the characters can learn within each cycle.

‘Fractured’ (2019)

Brad Anderson’s thriller follows a man searching a hospital for his missing wife and child after an emergency room visit. Sam Worthington leads a cast that includes Lily Rabe and Stephen Tobolowsky.

Cinematography uses wide sterile corridors and reflective surfaces to question what has been seen. Medical records, intake forms, and security footage become plot devices that reframe earlier scenes.

‘Cam’ (2018)

Madeline Brewer stars in a story by Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber about a webcam performer who finds a duplicate of herself streaming under her name. The film examines identity, ownership, and platform rules through the mechanics of live shows and subscriber behavior.

Interface screens and chat logs function as story beats, while mirrored sets and lighting separate the real room from the copy. The production consulted on creator workflows, which grounds the technical details.

‘The Perfection’ (2019)

Richard Shepard directs Allison Williams and Logan Browning in a music world thriller structured in chapters. Each section revisits previous events with new context, using title cards and deliberate rewinds to reposition the story.

Sound and image track vibrations, metronomes, and performance cues, turning musical precision into narrative structure. Practical effects and match cuts tie locations together as the plot crosses continents.

‘Hold the Dark’ (2018)

Jeremy Saulnier adapts William Giraldi’s novel with Jeffrey Wright, Riley Keough, and Alexander Skarsgård. A writer travels to a remote Alaskan village to investigate a missing child, and the search opens onto local conflict and ritual.

Sparse dialogue, long takes, and natural light foreground landscape as an active force. The film uses masks, carvings, and weather as repeating signals that link characters without direct explanation.

‘The Ritual’ (2017)

David Bruckner’s adaptation of Adam Nevill’s novel follows four friends who hike through a Scandinavian forest after a tragedy. Rafe Spall leads a cast whose dynamics are explored through campfire conversations and shared nightmares.

Set design builds a path of shrines and a village with runic markings that map belief systems. Flash images reappear in new contexts, while sound cues connect dreams to waking scenes.

‘Apostle’ (2018)

Gareth Evans sets a rescue mission on a remote island run by a religious community. Dan Stevens plays the outsider who infiltrates the group, with Michael Sheen as the leader and Lucy Boynton among the villagers.

Production uses period tools, hand cranks, and harvest machinery to reveal the economy of the settlement. Ritual spaces, hidden tunnels, and botanical diagrams create a second layer of information beneath the surface plot.

‘Shimmer Lake’ (2017)

Oren Uziel structures a small town crime story in reverse, with each day stepping backward to reveal cause and motive. Benjamin Walker, Rainn Wilson, and Wyatt Russell headline the ensemble.

Title cards mark days of the week, and recurring props link characters across the timeline. The script plants jokes and clues that change meaning when seen in earlier scenes.

‘Calibre’ (2018)

Writer director Matt Palmer follows two friends on a hunting trip in the Scottish Highlands that goes wrong. Jack Lowden and Martin McCann anchor a story that centers on community pressure and split second choices.

Geography and travel times are tracked carefully, with maps, roads, and pub interiors forming a closed system. The edit emphasizes routine and repetition to show how lies require maintenance.

‘In the Shadow of the Moon’ (2019)

Jim Mickle directs Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, and Michael C Hall in a thriller about a police officer who encounters the same suspect at long intervals. The case reopens as new technology appears and old evidence resurfaces.

Hair, badges, and transport mark time, while the plot uses medical devices and chemical markers to connect crimes. Expository scenes rely on lab reports and training footage to lay out the method behind the events.

‘Mirage’ (2018)

Oriol Paulo crafts a time slip mystery that links a family living in one house to a boy from a past storm. Adriana Ugarte, Chino Darín, and Javier Gutiérrez lead the cast.

Television recordings, home videos, and a malfunctioning camera serve as anchors between timelines. The script uses police files and hospital charts to track changes that ripple through the characters’ lives.

‘The Call’ (2020)

Director Lee Chung Hyun pairs Park Shin Hye and Jun Jong Seo in a thriller where a phone connects two women who live in the same house in different times. The story escalates as information crosses the line between eras.

Production design mirrors rooms across timelines, and hair and wardrobe signal the passage of time inside the house. Calendar pages, photographs, and floor plans show how small choices alter later scenes.

‘Forgotten’ (2017)

Jang Hang Jun’s mystery follows a young man who begins to question his memories after his brother returns home changed. Kang Ha Neul and Kim Mu Yeol headline a story that shifts point of view as new evidence appears.

The film uses diaries, surveillance angles, and police interviews to rebuild the past. Street routes, apartment layouts, and recurring numbers provide a map for piecing together the truth.

‘Tau’ (2018)

Federico D’Alessandro directs Maika Monroe as a woman trapped inside a smart house controlled by an artificial intelligence voiced by Gary Oldman. Ed Skrein plays the inventor who accelerates experiments to meet a deadline.

The house is segmented into zones with color coded lighting and distinct sound textures, which helps track progress and setbacks. Puzzles, pattern recognition, and vocabulary lessons become plot mechanics inside the confined space.

‘Spectral’ (2016)

Nic Mathieu’s action science fiction film follows a special ops team and a scientist investigating deadly apparitions in an urban war zone. James Badge Dale and Emily Mortimer lead the ensemble.

The story draws on prototype weaponry, thermal cameras, and material science to explain the threat. Visual effects teams built consistent behavior rules for the entities, allowing equipment readouts to guide the mission.

‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ (2018)

Julius Onah’s entry in the anthology franchise places an international crew on a space station during an energy experiment. Gugu Mbatha Raw, Daniel Brühl, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi are among the cast.

Parallel world logic shapes the incidents on board, with labeled compartments and maintenance shafts forming a puzzle box. The film debuted on Netflix immediately after the championship game broadcast, which framed the surprise release.

‘Extinction’ (2018)

Director Ben Young casts Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan as parents who experience recurring visions before an attack on their city. The plot uses dreams, work memos, and misfiled records to point toward a larger reveal.

Set pieces move through a factory floor, transit hubs, and apartment corridors, with prop details paid off later. Dialogue with a technician character and glimpses of security protocols provide the key to the story’s twist.

‘See You Yesterday’ (2019)

Stefon Bristol’s film follows two teen inventors from Brooklyn who build backpacks that let them travel short distances in time. Eden Duncan Smith and Dante Crichlow play the creators, with a mentor who warns them about consequences.

Science fair notes, prototype logs, and time stamps on smartphone videos document each jump. Visual continuity marks such as scorch patterns and bag wear accumulate to track the cost of repeated trips.

‘Rebirth’ (2016)

Karl Mueller directs Fran Kranz as a man sent by a friend to a self help weekend that strips away his routine. Pat Healy appears as a guide whose rules are enforced through a maze of workshops.

The film uses contracts, mantras, and staged confrontations to show how the program operates. Repeated symbols and controlled diet plans mark progress, while the schedule becomes a tool for manipulation.

‘Time Share’ (2018)

Sebastián Hofmann sets a story inside a tropical resort where corporate training collides with a family vacation. Luis Gerardo Méndez and RJ Mitte anchor parallel threads that meet through shared spaces and staff protocols.

The resort’s branded colors, motivational sessions, and hospitality scripts create a controlled environment that shapes behavior. Small changes in signage and access badges signal how authority moves from one character to another.

Tell us which Netflix puzzle movie you would add to this list in the comments.