Movies without – From The Raid to Tenet, here are 10 films—especially the ones without official tie-in games—that would translate into compelling video-game experiences, with ideas ranging from retro beat-em-ups to time-bending stealth.
The shift away from blockbuster-to-game cash grabs has left a lot of movie magic sitting on the sidelines. But every now and then. a film comes along that feels less like “source material” and more like a blueprint—built for levels. mechanics. and the kind of repeatable tension you only get when you’re the one pushing forward.
This list looks at movies that don’t have official tie-in games, and instead asks a simple, fun question: what if they weren’t trapped on a screen?
At the top of the cut is Tenet (2020). It’s the hardest pitch—and somehow the coolest. You’d need a designer on the same level as Christopher Nolan to make it work at all. especially because Tenet is Nolan’s densest and probably most confounding movie. combining action. thriller. spy. and sci-fi elements with objects—and people—traveling back in time. Turning that into gameplay would be brutal: the mechanics would be difficult to pull off. and even if the game worked. it would likely get confusing at times. Still. the idea of building a mechanic that lets players mess around with time the way the film does would be undeniably thrilling. even if it feels like the least likely adaptation on the list.
If Tenet is the far-fetched miracle, Battle Royale (2000) is the genre match you can’t ignore. The movie is about high school students forced to take part in a fight to the death on an island. Battle royale games do the same basic thing—players dropped into an arena until one person is left standing—so the temptation would be huge if Battle Royale ever became an official battle royale game. It’s also a slightly funny twist that this becomes the “elephant in the room” choice now. given that battle royale games are popular and now named after Battle Royale. The movie itself didn’t start as a game either: it was originally a novel. which led to the movie. then continued as a franchise through a manga series and a 2003 film sequel called Battle Royale II: Requiem.
Castle in the Sky (1986) brings that Miyazaki energy in a way that naturally reads like exploration and action. The story leads to a legendary floating castle. and it’s the kind of setting that could sustain a game without constantly feeling like you’re replaying the same moment. The movie also offers a sense of beauty and breadth that fits an open-world action-adventure game—though it could just as easily work as a role-playing one. The game would need more area than just the floating castle. but the movie includes quite a few action sequences that would translate cleanly into gameplay.
RRR (2022) is pure spectacle, and a game adaptation wouldn’t have to be subtle about it. There are two clear ways to tackle it: a single-player structure where you control both heroes at different points in the game before they team up—similar to how the single-player portion of Grand Theft Auto V switches between three protagonists—or a co-op approach where the eventual duo anchors the experience together. Either way. you’d expect a lot of fighting. because the film is already over-the-top and the heroes are basically made of iron in the way video-game characters often feel. The challenge would be turning that on-screen charisma into something actually fun to play. And if there’s one kind of add-on that feels inevitable, it’s a dance minigame.
Snowpiercer (2013) leans into a confined world that could make pacing feel built-in. The characters travel along horizontally because there isn’t really another direction to go. They’re at the back of a long train that houses what remains of humanity after a catastrophic. essentially world-ending event. The people in the back are treated as lesser passengers, while those closer to the front live in comparative luxury. That imbalance sparks a revolution on board the train,
with the conflict driven by fighting their way toward the front. The question is whether that setup could stay entertaining for more than a few hours. But if it weren’t a full-priced game—and if it were done in a retro 2D/side-scroller style—it could work. The movie’s narrative and pacing would also be relatively easy to maintain thanks to the enclosed setting and the high amount of action already present in the film.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) is the borderline entry, the kind you include because it feels too perfect to leave out. A Mad Max game did come out in 2015. the same year as Fury Road. but it technically wasn’t a tie-in game—so Fury Road still makes the cut here. As a film. Fury Road is one of the most exciting action movies around. and it could translate well into a video game. The obstacle is simple: the movie’s excitement is tightly tied to chases. If you wanted to make it an action game rather than a racing game. you wouldn’t be able to ask a player to be in chase mode 100% of the time. Changes would be required. but if you could recreate at least some of the high-intensity. stunt-filled. explosion-heavy chase sequences—whenever it felt appropriate—then it could deliver a blast both literally and figuratively.
Kill Bill (2003–2004) is another revenge story built for segmentation, and that lends itself to game structure. The Bride—named as she’s known at first—has a revenge narrative like The Northman. but before she reaches Bill. she has a few other people she wants to kill. In a game. it could be handled as roughly five parts. with each target taking a couple of hours to fight through as the player works their way toward the
next confrontation. For Kill Bill: Vol. 2 specifically, things would need to change because the second volume is more dialogue-heavy and less explosive than the first film. An adaptation would risk cheapening the narrative if it relied too heavily on action everywhere—but the movie would still be the narrative backbone. Add more action for Vol. 2. even if it gets a bit silly. and the whole saga could work as a heightened. definitely not kid-friendly
video game.
The Northman (2022) gets folded into game potential through its straightforward quest structure. The plot centers on one man’s quest for vengeance against his uncle. who killed his father when the hero was young. It’s Hamlet in spirit—more accurately. Hamlet is basically what The Northman tells. because the legend of Amleth inspired Hamlet. with the last letter of the former shifting to the start of the latter. That simplicity could translate nicely into gameplay built around revenge. The film’s fantastical elements could also be used as flavor in a hypothetical adaptation. It could work as an open-world game. or it could be more linear—styled like one of the God of War games. which are intensely action-focused. often tied to revenge narratives. and include fantastical elements.
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) feels like a natural match for puzzle-and-action gameplay. It was the first feature film Hayao Miyazaki ever directed, and it also lands among his more underrated efforts. The film is likely his funniest. and it’s one of his most purely entertaining—qualities that would make it a breezy. decently fun game idea. In this hypothetical scenario. you’d play as the titular thief. Lupin III. with much of the experience set in and around the castle. The castle itself is ideal for game design: it’s packed with different areas and rooms that keep getting revealed. Exploring it. solving puzzles. and swinging through fight sequences in a 3D action-adventure game could be a real crowd-pleaser if it was done right.
Finally, The Raid (2011) is treated almost like it was built to become levels. Gareth Edwards’ The Raid: Redemption (2011) is described as feeling a bit like a video game already—an older kind. built around one level after another. The direction never really changes: the main character has to fight his way down each level of an apartment building. and that gives the movie a strangely two-dimensional feel. as two-dimensional as a live-action movie can manage. A game version would likely be a side-scroller or beat-em-up and probably need a retro tone to match. Or it could pivot toward a fighting-game setup like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. The list ultimately places The Raid (2011) over The Raid 2 because the sequel opens up the world and the action becomes more varied. even if the first film feels more “video-game-y.”.
The through-line across these picks is the same: each movie’s energy can be translated into something playable without losing what made it work on screen in the first place—whether that’s a revenge quest. a revolution on rails. a floating-castle wonderland. or the terrifying thrill of trying to turn time itself into a mechanic.
video games movie adaptations Tenet Battle Royale Snowpiercer RRR Castle in the Sky Mad Max: Fury Road Kill Bill The Northman Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro The Raid
Tenet as a game sounds impossible lol.
I don’t even understand half of Tenet and now people want it as a video game?? Like how do you even do the time stuff without getting confused. Also Hollywood needs to stop making everything into games but yeah this list is kinda fun.
Wait so they’re saying no tie-in games for these movies? Cuz I swear there was some Raid game on mobile or something. Maybe I’m thinking of a different one. Either way, Tenet would be a mess unless they somehow make it like the movie where you can’t tell what’s happening. That sounds like a customer support nightmare.
This is random but I’m obsessed with the idea of The Raid being a beat-em-up. Like just give me the hallway fights and call it a day. Also the “no blockbuster tie-in cash grabs” part is funny because every time someone says that, it ends up being a cash grab anyway. Still, I’d play the time-bending stealth one, idk which movie that is though.