The MCU's first theatrical release in 2022 is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and it will be the direct follow-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home. While the first Doctor Strange movie took Marvel into a more fantastical horror slant, the sequel looks like it will take what the first movie hinted at and go all in.
There should still be plenty of horror thanks to director Sam Raimi. However, the movie also promises a lot of mind-bending fantasy action thanks to the introduction of the multiverse into the world of movies. Whether it is looking at what Sam Raimi can do in these situations or wanting to find other mind-bending movies as preparation, there are plenty of great options to choose from.
Doctor Strange (2016)
- Streaming now on Disney+
While the first Doctor Strange movie was set up more like a superhero horror movie, directed by Scott Derrickson, it was still a mind-bending supernatural story. Stephen Strange had to learn to be a better man while also becoming the Master of the Mystic Arts.
The movie showed him going through some very bizarre situations, and it all came to a head in the final battle with one of Doctor Strange's most dangerous villains, Dormammu. While things in the multiverse look like they will get a bit weirder, a good place to start preparing is the first Doctor Strange.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
- Available to rent now on Apple TV, Prime Video and Google Play
The last appearance of Doctor Strange came in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it was here that the multiverse came to fruition. This all happened when Peter Parker came to Doctor Strange for help. He wanted the world to forget that he was Spider-Man and that had serious side effects.
For fans who want to get ready for the mind-bending multiverse in the new Doctor Strange movie, this Spider-Man movie is the perfect place to start.
Darkman (1990)
- Available to rent now on Apple TV, Prime Video and Google Play
Sam Raimi has made a lot of bizarre, off-the-wall movies, from a hapless demon hunter named Ash traveling through time to an update on the Wizard of Oz. However, there might not be a more original fantasy story by Raimi than Darkman.
When Raimi couldn't get the rights to make a Marvel or DC movie, he created his own superhero. Liam Neeson starred as a man whose face was destroyed after an attack by mobsters on a science lab and went into hiding until he could achieve vengeance.
The Matrix (1999)
- Streaming now on HBO Max.
The multiverse is almost an abstract concept, and as the trailers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness show, it also looks like Raimi will really lean into the bizarre of the multiverse. For fans who want to see something that takes similar abstract ideas about what is real and what isn't, there isn't a better movie than The Matrix.
The movie about people living in a fantasy world inside their minds while computers have taken over the real world offers many visuals and special effects that revolutionized filmmaking. There are two sequels that continued the story and then a new movie from 2021 that turned everything on its head.
Inception (2010)
- Streaming now on Netflix and HBO Max.
Christopher Nolan has mastered making movies that make people wonder if what they are seeing is real or not. In Inception, he created a mind-bending movie that took on the idea of breaking into a person's mind and showed what that might look like visually.
Between his ideas of space travel in Interstellar and time travel in Tenet, it was Inception that is more likely a contemporary to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and a movie that could possibly prepare a person for what they can expect.
The Fountain (2006)
- Streaming now on Tubi.
For fans who want to catch a beautifully made mind-bending movie that left most people confused and bewildered when it ended, there isn't a better definition of that than The Fountain. Directed by art-house filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the movie featured three different storylines based on immortality.
Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz star in the movie as characters bonded by love across time and space. With visual cuts connecting the different timelines and interconnected themes and motifs, Aronofsky attempts to create the connection with Jackman and Weisz playing characters in all three timelines.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Streaming now on HBO Max.
The classic version of the mind-bending science fiction movie arrived in 1968 with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The movie was a science fiction tale like no other, with a man setting out on a trip to Jupiter, placed in suspended animation.
However, when he is the only one who wakes up early, he faces an AI system named HAL that has plans of its own. He also ends up on a journey to what might be the meaning of life by the end of the movie in what remains a landmark piece of filmmaking.
12 Monkeys (1995)
- Streaming now on Peacock.
Terry Gilliam made some of the most beloved cult classic movies after leaving his post with Monty Python. However, his masterpiece might be the mind-bending movie 12 Monkeys. Loosely based on the arthouse movie La Jetee, the film is a time-travel movie with a convict trying to save the world.
The memorable 12 Monkeys starred Bruce Willis as a man sent back in time to find out how a toxin was released into the atmosphere that killed most humans. While there he ends up institutionalized and meets an anarchist played by Brad Pitt in a career redefining role. It is then time to dig into the mysteries of the past.
Donnie Darko (2001)
- Streaming now on Tubi, Pluto TV, and Prime Video
The entire plot of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness seems to be about the Marvel heroes stopping the breaking of the multiverse. In Marvel Comics, the multiverse breaks off into different worlds when someone makes a decision different than the one they normally would make.
For a mind-bending movie along the same lines, Donnie Darko is about a young man who sees a world that has changed thanks to his sleepwalking keeping him out of his home when a piece of a space shuttle crashed into his bedroom. With vortexes, dream manipulations, and time travel, Donnie Darko soon learns that his fate is no longer in his own hands.
Dark City (1998)
- Streaming now on Kanopy.
1998's Dark City opens with a man waking up in a bathtub and then finding a city is a giant nightmare. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there, and the entire city is strange to him. However, when he searches for the truth, he finds shadowy figures with superhuman powers.
Directed by Alex Proyas, this movie is a mind-bending movie that sets itself like a puzzle to be solved and then makes it hard to figure out, even with multiple viewings. That is what makes it such a great cult classic, with the visual designs alone worth the watch.