The Chronicles of Riddick is a distinct franchise, and its most recent installment Riddick takes inspiration from a lot of other sci-fi movies, many of which are perfect candidates for viewing afterward. In the third movie in the trilogy, Vin Diesel's antihero Riddick has abdicated the throne of the Necromonger Empire and gone on a search for his home world of Furya, only to get stranded on a remote planet filled with danger everywhere. Not only is he being hunted by Mud Demons and all manner of wild creatures, but his distress beacon has also brought mercenaries and bounty hunters to his location.
In order to safely get off the world, everyone has to put their differences aside and work together to survive scorching heat, bloodthirsty aliens, and backstabbing betrayals. Fortunately, Riddick's full powers and abilities are more desirable than the bounty on his head, and he helps keep everyone alive in the hope of commandeering one of their ships. Fans of survival horror, plots involving a ragtag group of strangers battling alien threats, and a gritty aesthetic will appreciate the rest of these genre highlights.
10 Alien (1979)
When the crew of the Nostromo touches down on planet LV-426, they have no idea that they're about to bring a hostile parasite onboard living in the chest of one of their own. Once it matures, it begins to pick off the crew one by one. Its similar gritty lived-in aesthetic and carefully crafted alien sequences - complete with beloved sci-fi protagonist Lieutenant Ellen Ripley - have led to the movie being a genre classic, not to mention generating a Riddick shared universe theory that postulates Alien and Riddick exist in the same world.
9 Alien 3 (1990)
The third film in the Alien franchise often gets maligned for following a slightly different approach than its predecessors, but fans of Riddick will like its aesthetic and unique approach. Alien 3 begins with Ripley's ship crashing on Fiorina 161, a wasteland inhabited by the former inmates of the planet's triple-max prison. She has no idea that she's been carrying a secret xenomorph on board, and once it begins making its way through guards and prisoners, Ripley is finally taken seriously. Without a lot of resources, weapons, or trust, Ripley has to once again face down her deadliest foe with nothing but her commitment to its destruction.
8 Lockout (2012)
When the president's daughter embarks on a humanitarian mission to the world's only outer-space prison, she thinks she'll be perfectly safe from 500 of the most dangerous criminal on Earth thanks to artificial sleep. When they suddenly wake up and take over the station, she has to rely on an unlikely prisoner, a wrongfully convicted agent, who agrees to save her if his freedom can be restored. There might not be an alien threat in this movie, but it does feature a lot of pulse-pounding action and double-crosses to keep the tension ratcheted up.
7 Dune (2020)
Dune matches some of the world-building of The Chronicles of Riddick franchise and shares Riddick's desert adventure as it follows young Paul Atreides and his journey to Arrakis. Part of a great galactic noble house responsible for overseeing the planet's production of spice, rival houses decide to claim the resource for themselves, and Paul finds himself tragically separated from his family and forced to rely on desert tribes to survive. With gifts not unlike Riddick's Furyan abilities, Paul begins to mount his plan for revenge, all while trying to understand the planet's deadliest creatures - the sandworms.
6 Predators (2010)
In Predators, a group of mercenaries and killers get taken to a remote planet with no idea that they're going to be turned into the prey. Initially committed to trying to eradicate each other, they become concerned when bodies start piling up from an unknown source - the powerful Yautja, who hunt for sport and claim the skulls and spines of their victims as trophies. What's left of the ragtag group learn to rely on each other in the densest part of the jungle, evading the Predators while trying to find a way to get off the planet in one piece.
5 Pandorum (2009)
After entering hypersleep, two astronauts wake up to find they have no memory of their mission parameters or even their identity. As they explore their ship, they come to realize that it's actually almost completely abandoned, save for a flesh-eating alien that has found its way on board and started to change the crew. The missing passengers, which include the astronaut's wives, hold the key to understanding the horror that starts erupting all around them, and they have to rely on each other and what little resources they have to preserve humankind.
4 The Thing (1982)
Stuck in a remote arctic research station, its inhabitants accept a stray dog that harbors something sinister in its cells, causing it to mutate into something alien. After killing its victim, the alien can mimic its host to the extent that no one can accurately tell the alien from one of their own, and one by one they turn on each other in an attempt to weed out the creature. The Thing captures the same levels of in-fighting and paranoia as Riddick right on planet Earth, with practical visual effects that still hold up today.
3 Monster Hunter (2021)
In a world adjacent to the real one, wastelands inhabited by deadly creatures are a normal occurrence, and when a lieutenant and her soldiers are transported into this new frontier, they must figure out how to stay alive against the odds. Unable to discern the weaknesses in all of their foes, they're forced to team up with a monster hunter who has figured out a way to fight back against even their deadliest attacks. Given some of the environments in Monster Hunter, it's not hard to imagine some of the Riddick franchise characters at home grappling giant fire-breathing atrocities.
2 Pitch Black (2000)
It was important for Riddick to go back to its roots, which begins with Pitch Black and Riddick's ship crash-landing on a remote planet with three suns. He and a few survivors have to find resources and survive the planet's inhospitable terrain and each other, all the while being hunted by the bioraptors that emerge during a full solar eclipse. Riddick can be enjoyed on its own, but to properly understand its appeal, fans should also watch Pitch Black if they want to learn about Riddick's backstory, particularly if they want to know all about why Riddick's eyes shine.
1 The Chronicles Of Riddick (2004)
Compared to Pitch Black and Riddick, The Chronicles of Riddick seems like an odd installment, particularly because of its scale. Where the other two movies have smaller budgets and casts, the second movie in the Riddick franchise is much more of a blockbuster with the introduction of the Necromonger Empire fleet and its fanatical devotion to the Underverse, characters like the Lord Marshal and The Purifier, and a greater emphasis on Riddick's unique Furyan gifts. Outmaneuvering Crematoria prison guards, Necromonger soldiers, and their hounds present some of the greatest threats that Riddick has ever faced.