biography survival movies

10 Best Survival Movies Based on True Stories

S urvival movies take viewers from the coziness of their homes to perilous situations where characters teeter on the brink of life and death. Despite how harrowing they may be, survival movies remain popular, tapping into viewers' primal desire for adventure and their enduring fascination for disaster movies. Sure, they may be heartbreaking or hard to watch, but there’s something about them that sparks inspiration and shows off the grit humans have in tough times.

Knowing that the heart-pounding survival stories on this list have happened to real people has a way of intensifying viewers’ feelings towards them. Take, for example, The Revenant , which is drawn from a true-life story. It became so popular not just for its stunning cinematography or top-notch performances, but also for its intense survival themes. Similarly, Society of the Snow draws from a true story to tell a moving and intense survival movie. Here are other survival movies based on thrilling true stories to explore next.

Society of the Snow (2023)

Society of the snow.

Release Date 2023-12-22

Director J.A. Bayona

Cast Santiago Vaca Narvaja, Rafael Federman, Simon Hempe, Enzo Vogrincic

Main Genre Drama

Genres Drama, History, Adventure

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The Uruguayan rugby team's 1972 plane crash in the Andes has inspired several books, films, and other adaptations, and Society of the Snow is the most recent. It’s a heart-wrenching and inspiring story that focuses on doing the unthinkable to survive very harsh conditions, bringing to mind Yellowjackets and the 1993 film, Alive , which also draw from the same event. It is a must-watch for anyone interested in survival stories drawn from true stories.

What Makes It Great

Director J.A. Bayona successfully presents a touching and raw portrayal of the 1972 catastrophe from Pablo Verci’s 2009 book. Its realism sets it apart from other adaptations. Through striking cinematography, sound design, and a clever blend of CGI and practical effects, Bayona recreates the terrifying plane crash and the heartbreaking aftermath. The actors perfectly capture the psychological transformation of the characters. Stream on Netflix

Everest (2015)

Release Date 2015-09-10

Director Baltasar Kormakur

Cast Charlotte Bving, Ang Phula Sherpa, Tom Goodman-Hill, Thomas M. Wright, Martin Henderson, Jason Clarke

Rating PG-13

Genres Drama, Thriller, Documentary, Adventure

Everest vividly recounts the true story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, where several climbers lost their lives during a thunderstorm in the mountain. The film stars Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal as experienced climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, responsible for leading the two expedition groups.

Everest was praised for its attention to detail in capturing the physical and emotional struggles faced by climbers as they battle the harsh conditions of the mountain during this catastrophic event. The realistic portrayal of this harrowing situation, including the intense weather conditions and perilous terrain, contributes to the immersive and authentic experience for viewers, making them feel like they are right there with the climbers. Everest remains one of the most compelling and dramatic survival movies ever made. Stream on Peacock Premium

Alive (1993)

Release Date 1993-01-15

Director Frank Marshall

Cast Bruce Ramsay, Vincent Spano, John Newton, Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton

Genres Biography, Drama, Adventure

Directed by Frank Marshall, Alive is based on the true story of the Uruguayan rugby team’s struggle for survival after their plane crashed in the Andes Mountains in 1972. Adapted from Piers Paul Read’s book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors , this chronicles the harrowing events faced by the survivors.

As the characters try to survive the harsh realities of the mountains, making tough decisions to stay alive, the movie truly becomes bleak and sad. It doesn’t shy away from depicting the lengths survivors took to stay alive, including resorting to cannibalism. Despite its grim and dark aspects, the movie delves into human drama unfolding as characters confront their circumstances head-on, making it quite touching. Rent on Vudu

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Deepwater horizon.

Release Date 2016-09-29

Director Peter Berg

Cast Mark Wahlberg, Kate Hudson, John Malkovich, Kurt Russell, Dylan O'Brien, Gina Rodriguez

Genres Drama, Action, Documentary

Deepwater Horizon is yet another dramatization of a thrilling and harrowing true event, highlighting the enduring fascination people have for natural disaster movies , especially those rooted in real history. This movie recreates the true events of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

With its awesome special effects, coupled with the emotional depth brought by the actors, Deepwater Horizon will send shivers down the spine as it captures the disturbing disaster in gory detail. However, it doesn't only focus on the dread and dismay, but also captures several acts of heroism displayed by the rig crew in the face of extreme danger, leaving viewers in awe. The film strikes a balance between being an enlightening documentary film and an enjoyable blockbuster. Buy on AppleTV

The Revenant (2015)

The revenant.

Release Date 2015-12-25

Director Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu

Cast Will Poulter, Paul Anderson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Lukas Haas

Genres Drama, Thriller, Documentary, Adventure, Western

An amazing story about a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, and his epic survival in the wilderness after he is nearly mauled to death and left for dead by his companions, The Revenant is certainly a must-watch movie for fans of survival movies based on thrilling true stories.

Alejandro González Iñárritu's masterful direction, the meticulous attention to detail, the powerful performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, and the stunning cinematography make it clear why this outstanding movie won so many Academy Awards in 2016. The visually striking and immersive shots that capture the beauty and coldness of nature, while natural light and wide landscapes add to the overall impact of the film. It is indeed an enthralling and remarkable saga of survival and revenge. Buy on Prime Video

127 Hours (2010)

Release Date 2010-11-12

Director Danny Boyle

Cast Patrick Gibbs, Elizabeth Hales, Lizzy Caplan, James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara

Main Genre Adventure

Genres Biography, Drama, Thriller, Documentary, Adventure

127 Hours is a gripping survival movie based on a true story. It follows Aaron Roston, an adventurous hiker, trapped in a remote Utah Canyon by a boulder pinning his arm. Facing such a dire situation, Aaron must summon extraordinary courage and rely on his resourcefulness to survive the 127 hours.

A movie about a man stuck alone may sound mundane, but 127 Hours defies expectations, delivering a riveting, powerful and inspiring story. The film boldly depicts the brutality of the situation and conveys the physical and emotional discomfort Roston endures, trapping viewers in a claustrophobic atmosphere with him while time ticks away, and he runs low on water and food. The storytelling and James Franco’s adept performance help to elevate the film’s impact and intensity. Though tough to watch, it’s undeniably brilliant and riveting. Buy on Prime Video

Related: 10 Saddest Movies Based on True Stories

The Impossible (2012)

The impossible.

Release Date 2012-09-09

Director Juan Antonio Bayona

Cast Naomi Watts, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Marta Etura, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland

Genres Drama, Thriller, Documentary, History

Set in Thailand in 2004, this touching disaster movie, directed by J.A. Bayona, follows a regular family who travel to Thailand for the Christmas holidays. However, what started out as a joyous holiday becomes a nightmare when a tsunami suddenly destroys the entire place, separating the family.

The Impossible was well-received for its powerful storytelling, emotional impact, and the heart-wrenching performances, particularly by Naomi Watts and a young Tom Holland. While it takes viewers on an emotional roller coaster, and is certainly not for the faint-hearted, it also serves as an inspirational movie that emphasizes the importance of familial bonds and coming together to overcome adversity. Stream on Netflix

Apollo 13 (1995)

Release Date 1995-06-30

Director Ron Howard

Cast Kathleen Quinlan, Gary Sinise, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris, Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon

Genres Drama, Documentary, History, Adventure

Starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Austen, Apollo 13 recounts NASA’s near-disaster moon mission. These actors play three astronauts who face life-threatening challenges after an oxygen tank explodes in their spacecraft. Stranded in space, they, along with the NASA team, devise a means to bring them back safely to earth.

Apollo 13 keeps viewers on the edge with its gripping and suspenseful plot, balancing personal dramas with the astronauts’ harrowing ordeal. The film is so expertly directed that it feels like the true events are unfolding before viewers’ very eyes. NASA’s collaborative efforts to save them, while their families hope for their safety, are truly inspiring. It’s a great film with excellent performances, and its basis on a true story enhances its enjoyment. Rent on Apple TV

Rescue Dawn (2006)

Rescue dawn.

Release Date 2006-09-09

Director Werner Herzog

Cast Zach Grenier, Toby Huss, Marshall Bell, Christian Bale, Pat Healy, GQ

Genres Biography, Drama, Documentary, Adventure, War

Rescue Dawn is the terrifying true story of Dieter Dengler, a U.S. Navy pilot who was shot down and captured during the Vietnam War. The movie follows Dengler’s struggle for survival as he escapes prison, navigating the harsh jungle terrain to find freedom.

Rescue Dawn is often praised for being a compelling and intense survival movie, all thanks to Werner Herzog’s expert direction and Christian Bale’s authentic portrayal of Dieter Dengler. Despite not achieving widespread commercial success, the film is still appreciated for its compelling narrative and the authenticity it brings to Dengler’s survival story. Stream on Paramount+

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Black hawk down.

Release Date 2001-12-28

Director Ridley Scott

Cast Eric Bana, Josh Hartnett, William Fichtner, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Ewen Bremner

Genres Drama, Action, History, War

In Black Hawk Down , it isn’t humans pitted against environmental conditions, but rather a desperate fight for survival when a mission goes awry for the crew of Black Hawk Helicopter. Directed by Ridley Scott, Black Hawk Down is based on the nonfiction book of the same title by Mark Bowden that depicts the true events of the 1993 Mogadishu battle.

Though some moments and scenes have been dramatized to heighten the excitement of the movie, this exceptional war film is historically accurate to a great degree. The story is told from the perspectives of various soldiers rather than a specific character as seen in many war movies. This approach makes it feel like documentary footage of a real operation gone wrong. The visual effects, performances, and Scott's direction come together to make this one of the finest war movies ever created. Stream on Paramount+

• Drama Movies
• Movie Themes

The 15 Best Wilderness Survival Movies, Ranked

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Nothing's more tense and gritty than a fight for survival in the wilderness. In our comfy world of modern amenities and technology, it can be easy to forget just how brutal nature can be.

Away from the fineries of modern life, would you be able to survive a deadly situation in the wild? Stranded on an island? Weathered by natural disasters? How long could you endure before giving up?

Many movies have been made about humanity fighting for survival, but few can be considered great. Here are our picks for the best wilderness survival movies worth checking out.

15. Alive (1993)

Directed by Frank Marshall

Starring Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton

Adventure, Biography, Drama (2h 8m)

7.1 on IMDb — 61% on RT

Alive didn't get the best reviews upon release, chiefly due to how hard it was to capture such an extreme (and true) story. But it eventually blew up and became famous. Why? Because it ends in cannibalism.

Frank Marshall took a stellar cast and brought Piers Paul Read's nonfiction book to life, detailing a plane crash in the Andes Mountains back in 1972. The Uruguayan rugby team boarded Flight 571 with their families, excited for a match in Chile they'd never make.

Sometimes, staying alive means doing the most inhumane things imaginable. When this crew is on the brink of death, there's only one food source available: those who didn't stay alive.

14. Jungle (2017)

Directed by Greg McLean

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Alex Russell

Action, Adventure, Biography (1h 55m)

6.7 on IMDb — 61% on RT

A lot of the movies on this list are based on true stories, which only adds to the shock factor of their tragedies and the impressive wonders of how strong the human will can be.

Jungle is based on the real Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg, whose exploration of the Amazon rainforest took a turn for the worst.

The overly-trusting-of-strangers Yossi headed into the Amazon to meet an indigenous tribe. He eventually lost his pack and was left to fend for himself, enduring hallucinations while starving for food and trying to survive in the harsh conditions of the Amazon.

Daniel Radcliffe, never afraid to tackle different accents, carries Greg McLean's movie with his harrowing performance as Yossi.

13. The Grey (2011)

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Starring Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo

Action, Adventure, Drama (1h 57m)

6.7 on IMDb — 79% on RT

Liam Neeson loves to star in a good action flick, but in The Grey , there are no guns or gangsters. Instead, the threat is two-fold: the harsh wilderness and the wolves that stalk him.

As is often the case, the survival element in The Grey is sparked by a plane crash, this time in snowy Alaska. Even without wolves, being stranded in the tundra would be about as bad as being stranded in the desert.

Lost at the end of the world, Liam Neeson's John Ottway leads a group of oilmen—played by the likes of Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, and Dallas Roberts—who must race the clock, endure the snow, and evade the pack of hungry wolves that are hunting them.

Based on the short story by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, The Grey is unexpectedly deep for an action movie.

12. The Way Back (2010)

Directed by Peter Weir

Starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell

Adventure, Drama, History (2h 13m)

7.3 on IMDb — 74% on RT

4,000 miles of unforgiving wilderness is not the kind of walk you'd ever want to take, especially when it's to escape the Siberian Gulag.

The Way Back is a true World War survival story taken from the memoirs of Sławomir Rawicz, a Polish prisoner of war who hatched an escape plan with six others in his camp.

Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, and Colin Farrell star as escapees who, after slipping away from their Soviet captors, now face environmental dangers: snow, sandstorms, frostbite, sunstroke, and more.

The mix of sweeping visuals and character studies makes Peter Weir's war drama feel simultaneously grand and intimate, not to mention how it puts our everyday troubles into perspective!

11. Everest (2015)

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Starring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes

Action, Adventure, Biography (2h 1m)

7.1 on IMDb — 73% on RT

Survival is at least 80% of the job when you climb Mount Everest. It's an ambitious challenge that numerous people continue to attempt, and even though these expeditions have been heavily commercialized since 1996, that doesn't mean they're easy—or safe.

In Everest , Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal star as two expedition leaders who, despite taking different approaches, both land in the same sticky situation of being stuck. Altitude sickness, overexertion, and hypoxia are just some of the things that threaten these hikers.

Baltasar Kormákur retells this chilling true story with magnificent mountain shots that are enough to make us feel dizzy.

10. The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

Directed by Robert Aldrich

Starring James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch

Adventure, Drama (2h 22m)

7.5 on IMDb — 87% on RT

The Flight of the Phoenix was first made by Robert Aldrich in the 1960s, which starred Jimmy Stewart and Richard Attenborough. It was remade in 2004 by John Moore and starred Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Miranda Otto, and Hugh Laurie.

Although the sophisticated original is generally better received, Moore's re-imagining is arguably much grittier. It's hard to pick which to recommend! But if you can only watch one, we say go with the original.

The Flight of the Phoenix centers on a group of survivors who are stranded in the Sahara Desert following a plane crash. Fighting against the heat, thirst, delirium, and personality clashes, they're the only ones who can ensure their survival—by rebuilding their downed aircraft.

9. Touching the Void (2003)

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

Starring Simon Yates, Joe Simpson, Brendan Mackey

Adventure, Documentary, Drama (1h 46m)

8.0 on IMDb — 94% on RT

There are several great wilderness survival documentaries out there, but we're going with Touching the Void for our nonfiction pick. It is, after all, considered one of the greatest documentaries in British cinema!

As we saw with Everest , climbing a mountain is easier said than done. For Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, the Siula Grande is their goal—but despite their experience, it doesn't get any easier for them.

Kevin Macdonald uses interviews, re-enactments, and double shots of Simpson and Yates themselves to achieve this critically acclaimed docudrama. (If you enjoy this one, check out Meru (2015) as well!)

8. All Is Lost (2013)

Directed by J. C. Chandor

Starring Robert Redford

Action, Adventure, Drama (1h 46m)

6.9 on IMDb — 94% on RT

One man, one boat, and only 51 spoken words throughout the entire movie—and yet, All Is Lost is entirely captivating and more engrossing than most films with tons of lines and characters.

Directed by J. C. Chandor and starring Robert Redford, All Is Lost tells the story of a man who takes a solo voyage across the Indian Ocean. But when the nameless man is hit by a storm that sinks his boat, he must rely on his endurance and ingenuity to survive.

Interestingly, part of the movie was actually filmed in the ocean! Which is never an easy task when so much tech is involved, making the whole thing that much more impressive.

The title of All Is Lost is a reference to E. W. Hornung's famous quote that when pluck (or courage) is lost, then "all is lost."

7. Rescue Dawn (2006)

Directed by Werner Herzog

Starring Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies

Adventure, Biography, War (2h)

7.3 on IMDb — 90% on RT

Christian Bale's insane transformations for his movie roles put everyone to shame. In Rescue Dawn , the actor lost 55 pounds to play Dieter Dengler, a real-life US Navy pilot who was held captive during the Vietnam War.

Director Werner Herzog had already made a documentary about Dengler's survival tale called Little Dieter Needs to Fly in 1997, but nine years later he cast Bale in this dramatized version that tracks him through the Laotian jungles with no supplies.

After he escapes from his torturous captors, freedom is only momentary relief. The reality of the jungle soon sets in, made worse by his exhaustion and the fact that he's now a hunted man.

Rescue Dawn is fluid, unforgiving, sweat-drenched, and driven by compelling performances. It's an absolute must-watch.

6. Kon-Tiki (2012)

Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg

Starring Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo, Gustaf Skarsgård

Action, Adventure, Biography (1h 58m)

7.1 on IMDb — 81% on RT

The real-life Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947 involved a Norwegian writer named Thor Heyerdahl voyaging across the Pacific Ocean by raft.

Heyerdahl set out to prove that South Americans could have reached Polynesia during pre-Columbian times, and he did so by making the trek himself, using only what would've been available to them at the time.

And as it turns out, Heyerdahl was right! The journey was indeed possible. But it did mean tackling sharks, enduring storms, and suffering physical turmoil along the way, all with no land in sight.

Kon-Tiki , which was the name of Heyerdahl's raft, remains Norway's most expensive film ever made. Luckily, it was also Norway's highest-grossing film of the year and universally praised.

5. Life of Pi (2012)

Directed by Ang Lee

Starring Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain

Adventure, Drama, Fantasy (2h 7m)

7.9 on IMDb — 86% on RT

Prepare to be blown away by Ang Lee's epic drama adventure starring Suraj Sharma as 16-year-old Pi, who's devoted to loving God (in every form) and has a deep interest in animals.

When Pi is left stranded in a lifeboat, he finds out that he isn't alone—there's a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker on board as well. The tiger isn't hostile, though, and they work together to survive.

Life of Pi is unique, stunning, and deeply moving. Not only does Pi form a bond with the beast that's stronger than any bond he's had with people, there are layers to this story that speak to humanity's relationship with spirituality, stories, and hope.

4. Into the Wild (2007)

Directed by Sean Penn

Starring Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener

Adventure, Biography, Drama (2h 28m)

8.1 on IMDb — 83% on RT

On September 6, 1992, the body of Christopher McCandless was found just outside Denali National Park. On his makeshift shelter, there was a note: "I need your help. I am injured, near death, and too weak to hike out of here. I am all alone."

Christopher McCandless was a real person, and his life was retraced, chronicled, and turned into a book by Jon Krakauer. That book was eventually turned into a movie, bringing the story of McCandless to the masses and inspiring viewers with his zest and daring for life.

Emile Hirsch stars in Sean Penn's adaptation of Into the Wild . After graduating college, McCandless ditches the materialistic lifestyle to hike across the North American wilderness, living off the land with little experience—and paying the price for it.

3. The Revenant (2015)

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter

Action, Adventure, Drama (2h 36m)

8.0 on IMDb — 78% on RT

It's no surprise that when Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar, it was for his role in The Revenant . Even with all of his amazing performances prior, it was his portrayal of 19th century frontiersman Hugh Glass that blew everyone away and hooked them in.

Based on a real man's fight for survival in the Dakota wilderness in 1823, Hugh Glass not only has to hike through freezing temperatures but also cauterize his own wounds and even fight off a grizzly bear.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu's epic Revisionist Western is beautifully shot with sweeping landscapes and hallucinatory images. You can almost feel the frost coming off the screen, the nip of the snow, the chill of freezing water rapids. It's equally spellbinding and frightening.

2. 127 Hours (2010)

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara

Biography, Drama (1h 34m)

7.5 on IMDb — 93% on RT

Danny Boyle's 127 Hours is one of the most brutal examples of a true survival tale, showcasing just how powerful our desire to live can be.

James Franco plays the adrenaline-loving mountain climber Aron Ralston, who gets his arm trapped in a Utah canyon. This doesn't sound so extreme at first, but with nobody knowing his whereabouts, Ralston is eventually forced to saw his own arm off with a blunt pocket knife.

What's crazy is that the real Aron Ralston took photos and videos of himself while he was stuck. A quick Google search will show you a bunch of eerie pre-amputation pictures. And what's most impressive is that Ralston is still an avid daredevil explorer to this day!

1. Cast Away (2000)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez

Adventure, Drama, Romance (2h 23m)

7.8 on IMDb — 89% on RT

Never before have we felt more emotionally attached to an inanimate object than when we watched Cast Away . Robert Zemeckis's classic survival movie stars Tom Hanks as a FedEx executive who washes ashore on a deserted island and must survive alone.

After his plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, Chuck Noland is forced to revert to a caveman-like existence and live off the land for many years. But it's not the hunger or lack of shelter that gets to Noland the most—it's his loneliness on the uninhabited island.

His only friend is a volleyball named Wilson, which Noland draws a face on and talks to daily. Cast Away is a powerfully absorbing, instant cinema classic that's a must-watch for everyone.

The 25 Best Survival Movies to Test Your Mettle

Whether it's shipwrecks, the vast wilderness, plane crashes or other disasters that kick them off, these thriller tales (some based on true stories!) will make you happy to stay home.

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Let's say you were dropped off into the wilderness. Or set adrift on a boat. Or stranded in a plane crash — or even shot out into space. Would you have what it takes to survive? That's likely what goes through everybody's head when they watch the best survival movies : What would I do in that situation ? (I would most likely not make it out again. You are welcome to take my hiking boots and whatever other supplies I have on me that you might find useful.)

Moonfall (2022)

Part survival movie, part end-of-the-world film , Moonfall theorizes about what might happen if the moon were to somehow get knocked out of orbit. (Spoiler alert: Lots of disaster.) Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry and John Bradley star as a team of unconventional scientists who try to keep their families safe from rising tides and falling debris as they put the moon to rights.

RELATED: Best Movies of 2022 (So Far)

Crawl (2019)

Crawl has a simple premise that keeps viewers anxious the entire time. It follows a young woman who tends to her father, who can't leave his house during a storm evacuation order. The two must survive as the flood waters rise in the house — and a giant alligator manages to find its way in.

WATCH ON AMAZON WATCH ON ITUNES

RELATED: The Best End-Of-The-World Movies for When You're Feeling a Wild Ride

Adrift (2018)

Two young people in love agree to sail a 44-inch yacht across the ocean to deliver it to a rich couple — what could go wrong? Well, a hurricane, for one. After the storm hits, the boat gets lost at sea and the movie goes from a romance to a story of survival.

The Shallows (2016)

Blake Lively stars as a med student whose solo surfing trip goes wrong, stranding her on a rock with a shark circling around her. She has to face the sun, dehydration and, of course, the shark in order to make it back to land again.

RELATED: The Best Action Movies on Netflix to Kick It Up a Notch

The Martian (2015)

Based on a self-published novel by Andy Weir, The Martian follows the story of a botanist (played by Matt Damon) who gets marooned on the Red Planet. He has to figure out how he can be his own one-man crew and survive long enough for a rescue party to return — or possibly forever.

The Revenant (2015)

This movie won Leonardo DiCaprio his first Academy Award for Best Actor, and director Alejandro González Iñárritu his second Oscar after Birdman . It tells the story of a frontiersman who is left for dead, only to survive and have to make his way out of the wilderness on his own, outlasting all sorts of horrors in the process.

RELATED: The Best Scary Movies on Netflix That Will Give You the Chills

Everest (2015)

This movie tells the true story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, where people attempting to descended from the summit were met with blizzards, sickness and other fatal or near-fatal complications. It'll make you feel happy you're watching it at a normal altitude.

All Is Lost (2013)

Robert Redford earned tons of acclaim for his solo, nearly silent performance in this movie. He plays a sailor who, after his boat collides with a shipping container, is lost at sea with no communication or GPS equipment. He has to improvise his own technology (like making a sextant!) in order to find help.

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Gravity (2013)

In outer space, no one can come to your aid. Sandra Bullock plays an astronaut who's almost entirely on her own and must figure out how to return to Earth safely after her shuttle is destroyed by space debris. This movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards when it came out, including Best Actress and Best Picture, and it won seven of them, including Best Director.

Kon-Tiki (2013)

This movie has elements of a throwback adventure film: A crew led by a Norwegian explorer in 1947 tries to sail the Pacific on a light, balsa-wood raft in order to prove that ancient people from South America could have done the same. They face sharks, storms and the dangers of the open sea along the way. And while that sounds like a fantastical premise, it's based on a true story, and the raft is still on display in a museum in Oslo.

Life of Pi (2012)

Based on the novel by Yann Martell, Life of Pi follows the story of Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, who, after a shipwreck, is stuck on a raft with a few animals being transported to a zoo — including an adult Bengal tiger. In director Ang Lee's hands, it's the survival movie that looks more beautiful than gritty; the film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, and it won Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Score and Best Visual Effects.

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The Grey (2011)

It's hard enough out there surviving the Alaskan wilderness after a plane crash. But Liam Neeson's character in The Grey has something even scarier to contend with — a pack of wolves that are following him.

127 Hours (2010)

This movie, from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle, recounts the harrowing true-life story of outdoor enthusiast Aron Ralston. When hiking alone through Utah's caverns, Ralston was pinned under a boulder, and he has to figure out how to stay alive while unable to move.

I Am Legend (2007)

Will Smith plays a virologist living on his own in New York City; after a virus that was supposed to cure cancer gets out and wipes out most of mankind, he has to endure the isolation and dodge the vampire-like mutants that the disease created. But is he really the only human survivor?

Into the Wild (2007)

Most of the movies on this list are survival stories out of necessity, be it shipwreck, plane crash or other disaster. Into the Wild , based on the book by Jon Krakauer, tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a man who chose to go to the Alaskan wilderness and try to live off the land

WATCH ON AMAZON WATCH ON NETFLIX

Cast Away (2000)

Tom Hanks shucks off his nice-guy persona when he plays a Fed Ex employee whose plane crashes, leaving him deserted on an uninhabited island. He has to brave the elements — and the isolation. Hanks was nominated for an Academy Award for his ability to get audiences to empathize with his volleyball best friend.

Vertical Limit (2000)

This movie is for those who like their survival stories with a lot of adrenaline. When his sister gets trapped on the top of K2, expert climber Peter Garrett (Chris O'Donnell) runs a race-against-the-clock mission to rescue her.

The Edge (1997)

Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins star in a film about two men who survive a plane crash in the Alaskan wildnerness. They have to survive the cold, the wild animals and the suspicion that one of the men slept with the other's wife and deserves a comeuppance.

Alive (1993)

This movie tells the true story of an Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed high in the Andes mountains, and the extraordinary (and sometimes disgusting) lengths they had to endure to survive. It features a stacked cast that includes Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton, Josh Lucas and Ileana Douglas.

Rambo: First Blood (1982)

After the direction the rest of the franchise took, it's easy to forget that the first Rambo movie isn't a big, shoot-'em-up action film. Instead, it's the story of John Rambo, a highly trained and troubled veteran who has to survive an unexpected run-in with law enforcement.

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10 Best Survival Movies (Based On True Events)

• by Jonny Duncan
• February 2, 2022 February 8, 2022

These are some of the best survival movies (and docu movies) that are non-fiction and based on true stories. Some are truly shocking at the survival events shown.

There are a lot of survival movies of course but these are some favourites of Backpackingman.

Disclaimer: I own none of the rights to these images, they are used under fair-usage terms to discuss the movies.

Touching The Void (2003)

Touching The Void is the heart-stopping account of Joe Simpson’s terrifying adventure in the Peruvian Andes. He and his climbing partner, Simon, reached the summit of the remote Siula Grande in June 1995.

A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frost-bitten, with news that Joe was dead.

What happened to Joe, and how the pair dealt with the psychological traumas that resulted when Simon was forced into the appalling decision to cut the rope, makes not only an epic of survival but a compelling testament of friendship.

Watch Touching The Void here .

127 Hours (2010)

“127 Hours” is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah.

Over the next five days, Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65-foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued.

Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers, family, and the last two people he ever had the chance to meet?

A visceral thrilling story that will take an audience on a never before experienced journey and prove what we can do when we choose life.

Watch 127 Hours here .

Into The Wild (2007)

After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life. It’s the harrowing survival in the Alaskan wilderness that makes this one of the roughest survival movies in the end.

Watch Into The Wild here .

The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant is an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit.

In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.

In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald. Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption.

Watch The Revenant here .

Alive (1993)

An Uruguayan rugby team are stranded in the snow-swept Andes mountains of South America and are forced to use desperate measures to survive after a plane crash.

Each team member responds differently to their situation in this harrowing tale of survival. When all the available food items run out, they face a dilemma: eat their dead teammates or die.

This is one of the most gruelling true-life survival movies out there.

Watch Alive here .

The Way Back (2010)

The Way Back is an epic story of survival, solidarity and indomitable human will. Prisoners of a Soviet Union labour camp flee their Siberian Gulag and begin a treacherous journey across thousands of miles of hostile terrain.

This is one of the best wilderness survival movies.

Watch The Way Back here .

Kon Tiki (2012)

Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl (Pål Sverre Hagen) crossed the Pacific ocean in a balsa wood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans were already back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the sea and settled on Polynesian islands.

After gathering financing for the trip with loans and donations, they set off on an epic 101 day-long journey across 8,000 kilometres, all while the world was watching.

If you’re looking for great survival movies based on the ocean this is a great one to watch.

Watch Kon Tiki here .

North Face (Nordwand) (2008)

The North Face is a German movie about survival on the north face of the Eiger Mountain in Switzerland. It’s based on true events from the 1930s and is gripping throughout.

If you have any interest in mountain climbing especially then you must watch this one. What they go through when trying to survive on the mountain is extraordinary.

Watch North Face here .

The Deep (Djúpið) (2012)

The Deep is an Icelandic film and a little well known one outside of the Nordic countries but is one of the best survival movies set in the ocean.

It is about an Icelandic fisherman who managed to survive in freezing waters after a shipwreck while out fishing. He became a national hero of Iceland due to his extraordinary survival.

Everest (2015)

Everest tells the story of real-life events that happened from the disaster on Everest in 1996. It shows the gripping survival attempts of two of the expeditions in extreme conditions.

Back in 1996 this was the greatest disaster in terms of death on Everest that had ever happened.

Watch Everest here .

One Extra: The Real Heroes of Telemark (2003)

One of my favourite outdoorsmen is Ray Mears (check out his website there) and he has great extreme survival documentaries and bushcraft courses for surviving in the outdoors. One of the most daring sabotage missions in World War 2 happened in Norway and this docu movie tells the true story of those events.

As this article is about survival movies I’ve included this one as it also shows the extreme survival conditions the saboteurs went through in the harsh Norwegian winter when trying not to be captured by the nazis.

Great not just a history story but also survival in a freezing winter environment.

Amazon has a 30 day free trial for its Amazon Prime video channel  (sign up with that link) where you can watch a lot of these videos for free!

The Best Survival Movies

And those are 10 of the best true-life survival movies to watch.

For some of my own (not survival though) adventures take a look at my adventure guides .

For some more movies to watch and outdoor adventure take a look at 10 of the best backpacking movies to watch .

If you liked this article about the best survival movies a share would be cool!

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The Best Survival Movies, from ‘Cast Away’ and ‘The Revenant’ to ‘The Martian’ and ‘Alive’

Alison foreman.

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From “Gravity ” and “Wild” to “The Way Back” and “Jaws,” the most compelling survival movies fearlessly examine characters’ will to live, imbuing their perilous struggles with the intensely personal motivations and desires that make every person unique. These stories allow audiences to consider what specific obstacles along one person’s quest for survival and happiness say about humanity writ large. What’s more, they challenge viewers to look inward and consider what truly matters when the chips are down.

Many of these films are adapted from books, which in turn recount harrowing real-world nightmares. Accuracy is not required for a docudrama, such as “Alive” or “The Impossible” to succeed at the box office or with critics. But factually-based films undoubtedly offer more value to movie lovers learning about the world through a cinematic lens, and this ranking of survival films generally reflects that.

Pack water, a weapon, and some freakin’ sunscreen: Here are the 20 best survival movies ever made, including “Captain Phillips,” “127 Hours,” “A Quiet Place,” “The Martian,” “ Titanic ,” and more.

20. “The Impossible” (2012)

Fourteen-year-old Tom Holland makes his feature film debut in “The Impossible,” an epic dramatization of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster that claimed nearly 230,000 lives. Directed by J. A. Bayona (“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”), the film is based on Spanish physician María Belón’s harrowing experience. She survived the event with her husband and three sons, later returning as an on-set consultant in many of the same locations where her family was vacationing when the 9.3-magnitude earthquake hit.

“I remember [Naomi Watts and I] were hugging this tree, but because of the current, it would blow our legs underneath,” Holland said in a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, describing a hazardous and unpredictable filming experience. “So if you look at some of the outtakes, we would be doing the scene and suddenly one of us would disappear and we would shoot across the way.” Watts received a Best Actress nomination at that year’s Academy Awards.

19. “Captain Phillips” (2013)

Directed by Paul Greengrass, “Captain Phillips” is controversial not for its content, but because the film’s real-life inspirations disagree about what happened during the 2009 Maersk Alabama hijacking. Tom Hanks stars as the titular Richard Phillips, the captain of an American cargo ship seized by Somali pirates. Over four days, Phillips and his crew navigated an increasingly fraught hostage situation, involving numerous escape attempts and multiple onboard fatalities. The film is based on Phillips’ account of events, as told in his 2010 book “A Captain’s Duty.” Following its release, other survivors argued the movie was inaccurate and portrayed Philips as a hero he was not. Phillips and the shipping company he worked for were subsequently accused of knowingly putting their employees at risk by sailing into dangerous waters. Maersk settled a lawsuit regarding the incident in 2017, with the plaintiff’s firm describing the case as having “effectively ended Somali piracy.”

18. “Panic Room” (2002)

Jodie Foster appears with a 10-year-old Kristen Stewart in “Panic Room”: David Fincher’s edge-of-your-seat survival thriller from 2002 about a violent home invasion. Set in a brownstone on New York City’s Upper West Side, the film features Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam as burglars intent on retrieving a hefty sum they believe is hidden in the house. They’re really only after the money. But when mom and daughter successfully make it to the panic room — a steel-reinforced box Whitaker’s character installed — the intruders decide to force the pair out of their metaphoric fox hole.

A claustrophobic crowd-pleaser, “Panic Room” was widely liked upon release and did well at the box office. But in a 2021 interview with Variety , Fincher said he was unhappy with the final product. Speaking about “Gone Girl,” Ben Affleck complimented Fincher’s extensive prep on “Panic Room.”

“It did not work, it did not work,” the director refuted. “And it didn’t work for one of the most interesting reasons, which is that it obviates a sense of authorship by the thespians. And you need that. I believe that every voice is there to be nurtured so that people when they go, ‘I think you’re missing something here,’ I want people to feel like they can stop the train to say that. You don’t get to do it three times and be wrong all three times. That’s a problem.”

He continued, “A movie set it’s an organism, there has to be a certain amount of resistance to just motion, you have to keep the amoeba contained. What I found on ‘Panic Room’ was the last person in the world that I ever wanted to kind of repel from the process was Forest Whitaker, because he has so much to give in the moment, he’s so great at that. And four or five weeks into the second time we started that movie, because we had to reshoot, he just kind of he just felt beat.”

17. “127 Hours” (2010)

“127 Hours” is significantly smaller in scope than other films on this list, but offers a never-wracking intensity amplified by its would-be limitations. Similar to Alfred Hitchock’s “A Lifeboat” or the Ryan Reynolds-starring “Buried,” it’s largely set in one location and forces Boyle to flex his characteristic creativity to make that gripping. Scenes of Ralston speaking to a handheld camcorder stick out as particularly inventive, even if Franco’s performance sometimes fails to connect.

16. “Swiss Family Robinson” (1960)

By far the cheeriest title on this list, director Ken Annakin’s “Swiss Family Robinson” is the second adaption of author Johann David Wyss’ novel about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the West Indies. (Edward Ludwig delivered his good-but-not-as-good version, released by RKO Radio Pictures, in 1940. It’s worth seeing, if only because Walt Disney purchased the rights to it exclusively so he could pull the film from the market and produce his own studio’s take.)

John Mills and Dorothy McGuire star as Father and Mother Robinson, with James MacArthur, Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran appearing as Robinson sons Fritz, Ernst, and Francis. Janet Munro also appears as Roberta, a young woman held captive by pirates.

With treehouses to build and safari animals to ride, the heroes of the 1960 live-action Disney classic meander through their survival story with markedly happier demeanors than other protagonists on this list. But what “Swiss Family Robinson” lacks in suspense it makes up for with effervescent charm, timeless wit, and a scene-stealing tiger. The film’s message — that wherever you end up is exactly where you’re meant to be — is supported by clever twists on classic survival tropes that still amuse decades later.

15. “A Quiet Place” (2018)

There’s an inherent charm to the life Evelyn and Lee re-build for their family. When the aliens make their inevitable return, “A Quiet Place” uses emotion to set the audience on edge. Then, the Academy Award-nominated sound editing strikes. This 2018 outing is notable for its laundry list of successful thriller elements; Blunt and Krasinski’s undeniable onscreen chemistry; and the casting of a deaf actor in a deaf role. (Simmonds, who is deaf, consulted on her character Regan and to great effect.) The film received its first sequel in 2021 and has another in the works for 2023.

“The conceit that drives this burgeoning franchise — aliens, but they hear really well — makes for effective enough horror and tension…” IndieWire’s Kate Erbland writes in her review of “A Quiet Place Part II.” “…But Krasinski’s very real, very deep affection for the family he has placed in the middle of all this is what seems destined to keep truly growing.”

14. “Wild” (2014)

One could argue “Wild” should be disqualified from ranking on a best survival movies list because it features only a handful of life-and-death scenarios. Based on author Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of the same name, the 2014 film chronicles the then-novice hiker’s 1995 solo expedition on the Pacific Coast Trail, confronting its protagonist with a variety of obstacles. The Reese Witherspoon-starring backpacking story merits inclusion here because it intricately weaves Strayed’s internal fight for survival — she’s ravaged by grief, addiction, and heartbreak at the film’s start — with the physical challenges she faces throughout her thousand-mile journey. It’s an effective and, unfortunately, a rare outing for a female protagonist in the realistic adventure genre.

13. “Gerald’s Game” (2017)

A truly spectacular Carla Gugino fights for her life in “Gerald’s Game,” horror master Mike Flanagan’s first stab at a Stephen King adaptation and the harrowing story of a stranded woman handcuffed to a bed inside a remote cabin. When Jessie and Gerald Burlingame (an appropriately understated Bruce Greenwood) plan a sexy couple’s getaway — complete with a wildly problematic role-play scenario — their reconnection is derailed by a heart attack that leaves our heroine trapped beneath her dead husband’s corpse.

The straight-to-streaming thriller is part survival horror, part ghost story and decidedly divisive in its use of King’s more fantastical imagery and disorienting flashbacks. But even at her most restrained, Gugino is a freight train of emotion who carries the movie. As Jessie quietly indexes through a life’s worth of trauma at the hands of men like her husband, she must weigh the physical sacrifice required to escape her situation against the value of whatever comes next as a widow. It’s a real tear-jerker that I would call a nail-biter… if Jessie’s hands could get anywhere near her face.

12. “Titanic” (1997)

James Cameron’s “Titanic” is remembered primarily as a swelling romance — starring a stunning Kate Winslet and a dashing Leo DiCaprio — that won big at the box office with a $1.84 billion worldwide gross at the time of its initial release. But the 1997 historical epic is also a brutal dramatization of the mass-casualty disaster with which its synonymous. The tragically predictable sinking of the Titanic passenger ship would kill nearly 1,500 people, redefine the Western world’s approach to maritime safety, and expose brutal classism as experienced at the heart of the ocean.

11. “Alive” (1993)

Survivor’s guilt takes center stage in this tragic dramatization of a real plane crash along the Andes Mountains. On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, bound for Chile with a winning rugby team on board, veered into a mountain when an inexperienced pilot mistakenly began the flight’s descent. Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton, John Haymes Newton, Bruce Ramsay, David Kriegel, Jack Noseworthy, and more make up the talented cast portraying the victims of the crash, forced to go to extreme lengths to ensure their survival.

Although it wasn’t widely celebrated upon release, Frank Marshall’s 1993 adaption of Piers Paul Read’s nonfiction book has a plodding intensity and quiet reverence that helps its staggering story work. An uncredited performance by John Malkovich as a survivor reflecting on the ordeal in the future is notable for giving the project a strong opening that sufficiently justifies its more sensational beats.

“You have no idea how you’ll behave,” Malkovich’s character says, in a stirringly well-written monologue. “To be affronted by solitude without decadence, or a single material thing to prostitute, it elevates you to a spiritual plane, where I felt the presence of God. Now, there’s the God they taught me about in school — and there is the God that’s hidden by what surrounds us in this civilization. That’s the God I met on the mountain.”

Continue Reading: The Best Survival Movies, from ‘Cast Away’ and ‘The Revenant’ to ‘The Martian’ and ‘Alive’ Next »

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20 Great Survival Movies to Watch Right Now

From persevering in the wilderness to apocalyptic thrillers—the adrenaline rush is guaranteed.

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Touching The Void

This is one of the most stressful, blood pressure-raising entires on the list, not least because it’s a true story told by the real survivors. In 1985, veteran mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to scale the Peruvian mountain Siula Grande–a climb no-one had ever completed before. Though they successful reached the summit, a storm turns their descent into a harrowing and near-fatal ordeal which is told here through a combination of reenactments and first-person interviews with both Simpson and Yates.

Adapted from Yann Martel's award-winning 2001 novel of the same name, this ocean survival tale follows the 16-year-old Pi who survives a shipwreck, and finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker–among other zoo animals. It's a seamless blend of philosophical drama and gripping adventure.

James Franco's Oscar-nominated performance is the centerpiece of this gripping fictionalized take on a very real survival story. In 2003, climber Aron Ralston suffered a fall during a solo climb in Utah's Canyonlands National Park, and ended up pinned in place by a boulder which crushed his arm. As the hours stretched on, he realized his only hope of survival was to amputate his own arm. Needless to say, prepare yourself for a stressful–but ultimately inspiring–viewing experience.

You may think twice about your next scuba diving getaway after watching this deeply upsetting horror movie. Loosely based on a real case from 1998, Open Water follows a couple who are stranded during a scuba expedition after their group accidentally leaves them behind. After resurfacing to find themselves alone, their surprise quickly turns to panic when they realize they're in shark-infested waters.

The original space survival story. Ron Howard's classic docudrama brings to life the failed 1970 Apollo lunar mission, during which an oxygen tank exploded, damaging the spaceship and critically depleting the crew's oxygen supply. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton star as the trio of astronauts who are forced to keep their cool and work with NASA on a series of jury-rigged solutions to patch up their craft, and get home safely against the odds.

And if you thought being stranded in space inside a ship sounded stressful enough, imagine tumbling through space with no ship to return to. Alfonso Cuarón's Oscar-winning epic stars Sandra Bullock as a medical engineer whose very first space mission takes a horrifying turn after space debris destroys her shuttle, killing the rest of the crew. Following every gripping second of Stone's fight for survival, Gravity is both a groundbreaking technical accomplishment and a hell of a blockbuster.

No list of survival stories would be complete without this iconic Tom Hanks-starring entry, which is both a compelling drama about human endurance, and a touching romance between a man and a volleyball. After his plane crashes in the Pacific, Hanks's everyman washes up on an uninhabited island and is forced to fend for himself for months, all alone–except for Wilson .

While " post-apocalyptic " may be the very last genre you're interested in watching right now, this haunting adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel is worth the agony. Viggo Mortensen starred as the unnamed Man who's struggling to take care of his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) in the bleak wasteland that was once America. Though hardly uplifting, The Road is a gripping exploration of endurance and paternal love.

The Way Back

Not to be confused with either the Ben Affleck drama of the same name from last year, nor the excellent summer movie The Way Way Back. Jim Sturgess stars in this true story as Sławomir Rawicz, a former Polish prisoner of war who is imprisoned at a Siberian labor camp after being betrayed by his wife during World War II. Though he escapes the camp alongside some fellow prisoners, Rawicz's ordeal is just beginning as he must trek 4,000 miles through the Himalayas to safety.

Rescue Dawn

Christian Bale is now well-known for his dramatic body transformations , and one of his most memorable was for the role of Dieter Dengler, a pilot whose plane was shot out of the sky during the Vietnam War. Dengler was taken captive by the by the Pathet Lao, a communist organization who tried to force Dengler to denounce America. The film follows his captivity alongside a number of fellow Americans, and the prisoners' escape attempts.

Rabbit Proof Fence

This absolutely harrowing Australian drama is an adaptation of Doris Pilkington Garimara's novel, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence , which is in turn loosely based on a real story. The film follows three Aboriginal girls who are torn away from their family in West Australia and placed in a labor camp–part of the government's historical policy of stealing Aboriginal children from their communities and forcibly "training" them to integrate into white society. After a daring escape, the three girls set out to return home to their families with the authorities in pursuit.

The Shallows

Blake Lively is on screen for almost every second of this taut little thriller, playing a surfer who's stranded just 200 yards from the shore, badly injured by a shark attack. Lively's major co-star is a gull named Steven Seagull, in case you weren't already sold.

Captain Phillips

Tom Hanks is clearly the MVP of the survival movie genre. In this nerve-shredding drama he plays the eponymous Captain Richard Phillips, a merchant mariner who was taken hostage by Somali pirates while sailing a cargo ship through the Guardafui Channel. Though there's plenty of action, perhaps the most gripping part of the film is seeing Phillips's calm, tactical efforts to outwit his captors.

The Revenant

Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his Oscar for this grueling drama, in which he plays a 19th century frontiersman who's left for dead after a vicious bear attack. The film is equal parts revenge thriller and survival story, following DiCaprio's Hugh Glass as he fights for his life, and sets out to hunt down the man (Tom Hardy) who betrayed him.

The Martian

Less stressful than many of the movies on this list, The Martian is a wildly entertaining blockbuster about a man's solo struggle to survive on Mars. Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is wrongly presumed dead by his crew mates, and left behind to fend for himself on the red planet, while NASA engineers back on earth work hard to rescue him.

All Is Lost

This is about as minimalist as movies get—Robert Redford is the sole cast member, and he barely speaks a word throughout the 106 minute running time. Redford plays a sailor who gets lost in the Indian Ocean after a shipwreck, and must survive out on the open sea after being forced to abandon ship.

Arguably the most nerve-wracking movie of all in a list full of contenders, Buried is absolutely not a good choice for the claustrophobic. Ryan Reynolds stars as an American truck driver who's kidnapped and buried alive inside a wooden coffin. With scant supplies, including a flashlight and a cellphone, he must try to avoid being consumed by panic as he awaits an uncertain rescue.

The pinnacle of Liam Neeson as an action star, The Grey stars the actor as a sharpshooter working at an oil refinery in Alaska. When their plane crashes in the wilderness, he and seven colleagues battle the elements in a desperate attempt to make it home before the cold—or the wolves—get to them.

A singularly strange cinematic ride, Old is the latest film from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, who's become known for divisive, high-concept supernatural thrillers with twist endings. This is no exception, centering on a group of strangers at a luxurious beach resort, who suddenly find themselves aging at an incredibly accelerated pace. It's a survival movie unlike any other.

Based on a tragic true story from 1996, this star-studded adventure drama follows eight climbers whose attempt to summit Mount Everest turns deadly during a blizzard. Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Clarke star as the leaders of two rival expedition groups, all of whom end up fighting for their lives against increasingly bleak odds.

Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.

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21 Survival Movies to Get Your Heart Racing

Take a break from the survival experience that is life and dive into these classics.

Our product picks are editor-tested, expert-approved. We may earn a commission through links on our site. Why Trust Us?

Before we rank the “best” survival movies, we should get definitional.

“Survival” can be as broad or as narrow a genre as one makes it. The natural disaster, the wake of human conflict, war, the day-to-day struggle for sustenance, the stranded/trapped/marooned traveler or explorer—all these can be “survival.” Technically, every movie about war is also a movie about survival. Every movie about abuse, loss, grief, poverty—those can also be survival movies, though “survival” less existentially defined.

It’s obviously a wide genre, and we likely missed one or two or twenty-seven movies that could be on this list; we chose instead what we thought were some of the best of the sub-genres. Those genres: adventure survival, disaster survival, survival horror, post-apocalyptic survival, and real-life survival.

They come in the form of documentaries, animated features, summer blockbusters, and art house cinema. (Short films would probably fill up a whole other list.)

We tried to pick movies where “survival” is more narrowly defined. These are movies where the protagonist’s very life—and not just their means or mental stability—is under threat. The motivating tensions is basic, elemental: will they live? We’ve chosen films where this tension comes as a surprise, where the protagonist meets the existential threat unknowingly, and either alone or with a small group of companions. Storming a beach with an army under gunfire, while a threat to one’s life, is not “survival” in the way we are defining it. Receiving a mission that sends only two soldiers into the unknown, however—this drama can become “survival.”

We’re also favoring more modern films, if only for easier access to streaming, and also because we know we’re going to piss off some film purists anyway—so why not make our own rules?

These are the 21 best survival movies—or, at least, 21 survival movies we really like and think you should check out.

Touching the Void (2003)

Let's kick it off with a documentary—a documentary about survival in its purest form. Touching the Void reenacts the near-deadly Peruvian climb made by Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. The film combines interviews from both climbers with real footage of other climbers attempting a similar feat. It is an ode to the human spirit and one of the craziest true stories of survival ever told on camera.

The Impossible (2013)

Another true story, but this time in entirely dramatized form. The Impossible follows Spanish tourists María Belón and Enrique Álvarez who were vacationing with their two children in Thailand during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Sometimes real life appears more unreal than the best fiction.

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The Revenant (2015)

Only loosely inspired by true events, The Revenant is our first example of what you could call "survival adventure"—where the stakes are higher and where character conflicts become especially contrived. The Revenant pits its protagonist against every possible existential threat in the frontier. Animals. Snow storms. Other men. Also, terrible hygiene.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Then there's "survival horror." While there's lots to chose from in a genre where torture porn and masked serial killing are now classics, we think A Quiet Place is one of the best modern examples of the genre. It's a simple concept executed to perfection and one of the best movie theater experiences of the last several years.

Utøya: July 22 (2018)

While we hesitate to put something like Utøya on this list, since “best” movies tends to imply movies that are enjoyable, we still feel it's the strongest of its very tragic genre. Filmed in a continuous shot and from the fictional perspective of the victims of the Utøya summer camp massacre, Utøya is the kind of art that simply widens your humanity. It is the most terrifying and unsettling movie on this list.

127 Hours (2010)

The film is a biographical drama retelling Aron Ralston's 2003 climbing accident, in which he found himself trapped under a boulder. 127 Hours also makes real the price of survival, a consequence not every movie in the genre depicts.

Buried (2010)

A man awakes to find himself buried in a coffin with only a lighter and some random pocket items. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Rope , the film is probably not recommended for the claustrophobic.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Our first war movie on this list focuses not on soldiers but civilians. Based on the short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, Grave of the Fireflies follows a brother and sister escaping the fire bombing of their home, which left their mother dead. It's just about one of the saddest movies you will ever see. But it's worth one watch. One watch is probably all one can handle.

Swiss Army Man (2016)

We haven’t had a lot of comedies on this list, and while Swiss Army Man isn’t full comedy—in fact, it tears at you even harder than many “survival movies”—the film is still a knee-slapper. No genre is beyond fart jokes.

Cast Away (2000)

Cast Away is maybe the most prototypical survival movie in the history of survival movies. One man. One island. One mission. It also features one of the most jarring return-to-reality moments in film. We will never look at a buffet the same way again.

Gravity (2013)

Like A Quiet Place , Gravity represents a simple concept perfectly executed. When making repairs to their space shuttle, two astronauts are sent hurtling into space by an asteroid. Every beat of this film is expertly directed—all for maximum survival suspense.

Life of Pi (2012)

In a similar fictional space as Gravity is Life of Pi , about a boy and a tiger stranded on a lifeboat. Part fantasy, part adventure epic, it's one of the most unique films on this list and also one that won't leave you terrified and sobbing. Well, maybe a little sobbing.

The Martian (2015)

Into the Wild (2007)

Based on the tragic true story of Christopher McCandless who dropped everything, often literally, to travel to Alaska and survive on his own, Into the Wild has become a genre of its own, sometimes a pejorative analogy for unpreparedness, sometimes a cautionary tale. But the movie isn't just straight heartbreak; beyond the ultimate tragedy, it remains equally awe-inspiring.

The Rescue (2021)

Back to the documentaries. Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (both behind Free Solo , a film we would call "survival" if only climber Alex Honnold hadn't knowingly and willingly put himself in danger) chronicle the rescue of the Thai soccer team who found themselves trapped in a cave network following floods. The film is gripping and inspiring in equal measure.

1917 (2019)

1917 is a war movie in setting only. The cinematography, however, is pure suspense: two soldiers journeying across No Man’s Land to deliver a message on time before lives are lost. While their task is to deliver the note, the real mission is to survive.

The Road (2009)

The Road will feel much like Grave of the Fireflies . Meaning: it's gray and dark and infinitely depressing. Based on the book by Cormac McCarthy , The Road finds a father and son trying to survive during an extinction event. It doesn't get much more cheery after that.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Like The Road , Mad Max: Fury Road finds humanity on the brink, a world reduced to a wasteland. Unlike The Road , that world is bright and vibrant and full of guys playing fire-shooting guitars on the front of speeding vehicles. The Road could have used that.

28 Days Later (2002)

Getting back into the survival horror genre, there's 28 Days Later , the film that inspired scenes in The Walking Dead and helped resurrect the zombie genre in contemporary horror. Survival here is more than simply one's life; it's one's sanity, one's humanity.

The Endless Trench

The outbreak of war leads one man into hiding, fearing for his life as the opposition gains political power. He hides in a hole under his house, as his wife keeps his existence a secret above. One of the more uniquely structured movies on this list and worth a watch for anyone with a Netflix account.

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The 10 Best Survival Movies

In 2003, mountain climber Aron Ralston headed to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park to hike, bike, and do a bit of canyoneering. While descending down a rock wall, a large boulder became dislodged and dropped on Ralston, trapping his right arm under its weight. His escape story received quite a bit of publicity, so it shouldn’t be a spoiler to tell you Aron emerged from the canyon minus that trapped arm, which he was forced to self-amputate with a pocket knife. In 2010, Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle enlisted the help of James Franco to bring Ralston’s story to the big screen, and the result was, by most accounts, a rousing success, earning six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also further cemented Franco, who spent a good portion of the film delivering monologues to a camcorder, as a serious talent.

It’s man vs…sand? That’s precisely the setup in Buried, a 2010 thriller starring Ryan Reynolds as a contract truck driver in Iraq named Paul Conroy. Conroy wakes up in a coffin, slowly recollecting an insurgent attack on his convoy. With only a lighter and phone, Conroy begins a frantic game of finding out who his captors are, contacting his loved ones, and getting in touch with the government to uncover his location, all from the snuggy confines of a wooden box buried somewhere in the desert. Director Rodrigo Cortes uses all sorts of camera tricks to keep this one-man show going, creating a uniquely claustrophobic descent into survival horror.

The Way Back

Set during World War II, The Way Back tells the story of Slawomir Rawciz (Jim Sturgess), a captured Polish soldier sent to a Russian camp where he is to meet an indefinite lifetime of torture and malnourishment. Rawciz devises a plan and convinces an eclectic group of prisoners to join in, Americans, Russians, Yugoslavians included. Thus begins their incredible 4,000 walk to India, covering every conceivable type of land with nature throwing everything in their path — bone-chilling snowstorms, blistering deserts, and rocky mountain terrains, all of them captured with striking pictorial qualities by director Peter Weir.

Into the Wild

I’s not uncommon for someone to express the need to “find oneself” and embark on a personal journey of introspection and discovery; it is uncommon, however, to do it to the extent that Christopher McCandless did after he graduated from college in 1990. Eschewing the comforts of a conventional life, McCandless donated all of his savings to charity, packed up his Datsun, and left to explore America without so much as a word to his loved ones. He ultimately settled himself in an abandoned bus in the middle of the Alaskan wild, where he would attempt to live off the land, but with little outdoor experience, McCandless discovered the harsher side of nature; trapped within an unfamiliar territory, he slowly withered away. Emile Hirsch stars as McCandless in Sean Penn’s dramatization of his life, which was based on the popular Jon Krakauer biography of the same name, and while public opinion is split on whether Christopher McCandless was brave or simply naïve, most agree the film is a poignant yet accessible character study of a particularly fascinating individual.

Rescue Dawn

Shot down over Laos over a particularly cloudy day in 1966, U.S. Navy pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is captured and taken to a P.O.W. camp. Torture at the hands of his captors and bonding with the five other prisoners ensues, and Dieter ultimately devises a plan to hightail it out and into the deep jungle. This true story was previously captured on film by director Werner Herzog in the 1997 documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, where he and the real-life Dengler returned to Thailand to re-create and reminisce about his experience. Herzog applied this field knowledge again for Rescue Dawn, a down-and-dirty tale of survival that includes, among other things, the lovely sight of Bale eating live worms.

Touching the Void

Back in 1985, two mountain climbers set out to be the first to scale the West Face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes; though they succeeded in reaching the summit, disaster struck on the way down when one of the climbers, Joe Simpson, slipped off the side of the mountain and shattered his right leg. After attempting valiantly to lower Simpson to safety, his partner, Simon Yates, was ultimately left with no choice but to continue down on his own or risk dying on the mountain himself; Simpson somehow managed to crawl his way back to camp on his own. His miraculous story of survival was chronicled in an autobiographical account, Touching the Void , and the story was so compelling that it was eventually depicted in the 2003 docudrama of the same name. Blending first-hand interviews with dramatized reenactments, Touching the Void a gripping tale of the power of sheer will, and yet another reminder that amazing feats often come with hefty price tags.

There are few things on Earth as beautiful, awe-inspiring, and simultaneously terrifying as the ocean, and 2003’s horror film Open Water is acutely aware of the latter. Loosely based on the true story of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, the film depicts the harrowing trials of a married couple, Daniel (Daniel Travis) and Susan (Blanchard Ryan), who are stranded in the middle of the ocean when their scuba diving group accidentally leaves them behind. What ensues is pretty much every oceanic nightmare you might imagine, short of a kraken attack: It begins early (and innocently enough) with petty bickering between the couple, but quickly escalates to panic, dehydration, swarming jellyfish, and circling sharks, and you know when sharks are involved, it’s all downhill. Made for just $500,000, Open Water offers a lot of bang for its buck, immersing the viewer in a palpable sense of dread and reminding all of us why our planet’s most abundant resource is also one of its most frightening habitats.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

The story begins in 1930s Australia: Chief Protector of Aborigines of Western Australia, A.O. Neville, has ordered three half-caste girls (born of one Aboriginal parent and one white parent) to a re-education camp where they can learn to be servants and end their “tainted” lineage. The three girls flee the camp and begin a 1,500-mile walk back home. Their guide through the harsh outback: the rabbit-proof fence that keeps animals from the east out of the west. Along the way, the girls must evade the persistence advances of Neville and his Aboriginal tracker and the grueling sun itself.

Tom Hanks famously gained fifty pounds before filming Robert Zemeckis’s deserted island tale, all of it weight that he would lose again over the course of the story, and for his complete dedication to the role, he was rewarded with a Best Actor nod. One of the few entries on this list not based on real events, the film follows the struggles of a FedEx employee named Chuck Noland (Hanks) who is stranded alone on a remote island for four years when his plane crashes en route to the US. With no company and only the contents of washed-up delivery boxes to aid him, Chuck fails an escape attempt on a self-made raft before settling in for the long haul. He holds conversations with a volleyball, teaches himself spear fishing, and eventually builds a sturdier second raft to take him away from the island. Cast Away features one of Hanks’s most iconic performances, but it’s also one of Robert Zemeckis’s most mature films, a fascinating take on what we’re capable of in dire circumstances. Eat your heart out, Robinson Crusoe.

Quest for Fire

Set 80,000 years in the past, this unusual film distills the survival movie to its simplest, most human element: the quest for fire. When a tribe of homosapiens lost their natural source of fire, the most able men set out in search of a new source to keep warm and cook their meat. The actors communicate only through a specially-developed language of grunts and hand gestures, keeping the viewer immersed as they traverse and hopefully survive a harsh prehistoric landscape.

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50 Best Survival Movies

I love a good movie and when that movie makes me think it’s even better. One of my favorite movie genres is survival movies. I really enjoy seeing how others envision and then react to survival situations. Yes, there is an element of disbelief you have to suspend in some cases, but if you are looking for it, the best survival movies can teach you things.

Even if the situation the actors are placed in is somewhat dubious, like a zombie invasion in the Walking Dead, when done right you see how the actors deal with topics we discuss all the time on the Prepper Journal . They have to find and sometimes fight for food and resources to survive. Some prepper movies go into the prepping plans that one or more group has made and the problems they run into when those plans fall apart.

The 50 best survival movies (actually over 60 now) allow you to see some of the very situations you have been preparing for in a visual, emotional way. For me, it gets my brain into a mode of imagining what I would do if I were in the same predicament the survival movie is presenting. How would I act, feel, behave, and does that differ from the person on the screen?

Most of the movies about survivalists are pure escapism, some movies are even a little campy but the list below of the 50 best survival movies gives you a wide variety to choose from. There is a survival movie here for anyone and we are always looking to add to the list.

There are links to more information about each movie below and I hope you enjoy. Presented in no order whatsoever…

“Why We Prepare” Survival Movies

• The Martian – A story about Grit and working the problem…An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. IMDB
• Trigger Effect – A blackout leaves those affected to consider what is necessary, what is legal, and what is questionable, in order to survive in a predatory environment. IMDB
• Deep Impact – A comet is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. As doomsday nears, the human race prepares for the worst. IMDB
• Panic in the Year Zero – A family leaves L.A. for a camping trip – just before a nuclear bomb destroys the city. As the city descends into chaos, the father must fight to keep his family alive.
• Contagion – You will not find a more eerily similar movie to the real-life fear, situations (real and imaginary) that we went through with Coronavirus. Healthcare professionals, government officials, and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a pandemic as the CDC works to find a cure. IMDB
• A Quiet Place – In a post-apocalyptic world, a family is forced to live in silence while hiding from monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing. IMDB
• Phase 7 – Inside a quarantined apartment building a man must protect his pregnant wife from his new neighbors. IMDB
• Defiance – Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village, in order to protect themselves and about one thousand Jewish non-combatants. IMDB
• Children of Men – In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have become somehow infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea. IMDB
• American Blackout – What if the Doomsday Preppers were right all along? Hacking into urban infrastructures isn’t science fiction anymore – it’s in the news every day. A 90-minute docu-drama, “American Blackout” reveals in gritty detail the impact of what happens when a cyber attack on the United States takes down the power grid. The question is: when the lights go out, what do we do next. IMDB
• The Happening – A science teacher, his wife, and a young girl struggle to survive a plague that causes those infected to commit suicide. IMDB
• Red Dawn 1984 – I’m kind of partial to this one because I was in high school when it came out. Pretty much at the height of the cold war with the USSR. This movie was probably pretty instrumental in planting the seeds of prepping in my mind. Synopsis – It is the dawn of World War III. In mid-western America, a group of teenagers bands together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces. IMDB
• Red Dawn 2012 – A group of teenagers looks to save their town from an invasion of North Korean soldiers. IMDB
• Invasion USA – A one-man army comes to the rescue of the United States when a spy attempts an invasion. IMDB
• The Day After – The effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of eastern Kansas. IMDB
• It Comes At Night – Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son. Then a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge. IMDB
• Threads – The effects of a nuclear holocaust on the working-class city of Sheffield, England, and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization. IMDB
• Take Shelter – Good prepper movie that leaves you guessing until the end. Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father question whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself. IMDB
• Dawn of the Dead  1978 – Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall. IMDB
• Dawn of the Dead 2004 – A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall. IMDB
• 28 Days Later – Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary. IMDB
• Signs – A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come. IMDB
• T oxic Skies – Anne Heche stars as a World Health Organization doctor who uncovers the real cause of an epidemic is the government’s secret chem-trail program. IMDB
• Outbreak – Army doctors struggle to find a cure for a deadly virus spreading throughout a California town that was brought to America by an African monkey. IMDB
• The Stand – After a deadly plague kills most of the world’s population, the remaining survivors split into two groups – one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a malevolent being – to face each other in a final battle between good and evil. IMDB
• The Sum of All Fears – CIA analyst Jack Ryan must stop the plans of a Neo-Nazi faction that threatens to induce a catastrophic conflict between the United States and Russia’s President by detonating a nuclear weapon at a football game in Baltimore, Maryland. IMDB
• 10 Cloverfield Lane – After getting in a car accident, a woman is held in a shelter with two men, who claim the outside world is affected by a widespread chemical attack. IMDB
• The Patriot – Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son. IMDB
• Dante’s Peak – A vulcanologist arrives at a countryside town recently named the second most desirable place to live in America, and discovers that the long-dormant volcano, Dante’s Peak, may wake up at any moment. IMDB
• Enemy of the State – A lawyer becomes targeted by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a politically motivated crime. IMDB
• Pandemic – A New York doctor travels with her team to Los Angeles to find survivors of a worldwide pandemic. IMDB
• Soylent Gree n – In the world ravaged by the greenhouse effect and overpopulation, an NYPD detective investigates the murder of a big company CEO. IMDB

Best Survival Movies About The End of the World

• Knowing – M.I.T. professor John Koestler links a mysterious list of numbers from a time capsule to past and future disasters and sets out to prevent the ultimate catastrophe. IMDB
• 2 012 – A frustrated writer struggles to keep his family alive when a series of global catastrophes threatens to annihilate mankind. IMDB
• The Day After Tomorrow – Jack Hall, paleoclimatologist, must make a daring trek from Washington, D.C. to New York City to reach his son, trapped in the cross-hairs of a sudden international storm which plunges the planet into a new Ice Age. IMDB
• The Day the Earth Stood Still – A remake of the 1951 classic science fiction film about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth. IMDB
• War of the Worlds – As Earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines, one family fights for survival in this sci-fi action film. IMDB
• When Worlds Collid e -As a new star and planet hurtle toward a doomed Earth, a small group of survivalists frantically work to complete the rocket which will take them to their new home. IMDB

Surviving ‘TEOTWAWKI’ Movies

Good rationale for why we stock more than three days of food storage for our families. This is when it’s really bad and some of my favorite survival movies are in this list below.

• The Postman – A nameless drifter dons a postman’s uniform and a bag of mail as he begins a quest to inspire hope to the survivors living in post-apocalyptic America. IMDB
• I AM Legend – Get the alternate ending. You will thank me…Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure in this post-apocalyptic action thriller. IMDB
• The Road – In a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, an ailing father defends his son as they slowly travel to the sea. IMDB
• The Book of Eli – A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind. IMDB
• Hunger Games – Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place in the Hunger Games: a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to fight to the death. IMDB
• Mad Max – In a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang. IMDB
• 20 Years After – Everything that could go wrong did go wrong: War, Terrorism, Natural Disasters. Evacuees were ushered from the cities to refugee camps in the surrounding counties. In-fighting, famine, and disease took their toll on the survivors. IMDB
• Waterworld -In a future where the polar ice-caps have melted and Earth is almost entirely submerged, a mutated mariner fights starvation and outlaw “smokers,” and reluctantly helps a woman and a young girl try to find dry land. IMDB
• District 9 – Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology. IMDB
• Babylon AD -Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah. IMDB
• Reign of Fire -A brood of fire-breathing dragons emerges from the earth and begins setting everything ablaze, establishing dominance over the planet. IMDB
• Stake Land – In a world of vampires, an expert vampire hunter and his young protégé travel toward the sanctuary. IMDB

Best Survival Movies – Living off the land

• Cast Away – A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island. IMDB
• Into the Wild – After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life. IMDB
• 127 Hours – A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive. IMDB
• Alive – A Uruguayan rugby team stranded in the snow-swept Andes are forced to use desperate measures to survive after a plane crash. IMDB
• Lord of the Flies – Stranded on an island, a group of schoolboys degenerates into savagery. IMDB
• The Edge – An intellectual billionaire and two other men struggle to band together and survive after getting stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with a blood-thirsty Kodiak Bear hunting them down. IMDB
• The Village – A series of events tests the beliefs of a small isolated countryside village. IMDB
• Jeremiah Johnson – A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by the Crow tribe and proves to be a match for their warriors in single combat on the early frontier. IMDB
• Sniper – A US Marine sniper is partnered with a SWAT member to take out rebel leaders in the jungles of Panama. IMDB
• The Way Back – Siberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India. IMDB
• Rabbit-Proof Fence – In 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback. IMDB
• Rescue Dawn – A U.S. fighter pilot’s epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War. IMDB
• The Endurance – A retelling of Sir  Ernest Shackleton ‘s ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1914-1916, featuring new footage of the actual locations and interviews with surviving relatives of key expedition members – IMDB
• Snow Walker – A pilot and his passenger struggle for survival after crashing in the Arctic tundra. IMDB
• Behind Enemy Lines – A Navy navigator is shot down over enemy territory and is ruthlessly pursued by a secret police enforcer and the opposing troops. Meanwhile, his commanding officer goes against orders in an attempt to rescue him. IMDB
• The Grey – After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step. IMDB
• Into the White – Norway, WWII: A group of British and German soldiers finds themselves stranded in the wilderness after an aircraft battle. Finding shelter in the same cabin, they realize the only way to survive the winter is to place the rules of war aside. IMDB
• The River Wild – Rafting expert Gail takes on a pair of armed killers while navigating a spectacularly violent river. IMDB
• Rambo First Bloo d – A veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers. IMDB

Bonus List of Prepper Minded Documentaries / Docudramas

• After Armageddon :  Highly acclaimed docudrama about a runaway flu pandemic has swept the nation and killed a large part of the population, one family must learn to survive to make it to a safe haven. A couple of ‘doomsday preppers’ are featured in this special.
• Yukon Passage:   Older documentary of four young men retracing the footsteps of gold stampedes through the Yukon Territory surviving off of minimal supplies and the natural world around them.
• Collapse (Michael Ruppert): Documentary about a former Los Angeles police officer, author, investigative reporter, and radical thinker. He is interviewed about his beliefs that unsustainable energy and financial policies have led to an ongoing collapse of modern industrial civilization.
• Collapse (Nat GEO):   Docudrama on how societies succeed or fail and how our own society may fail.
• Earth 2100:   Docudrama, a future look at our planet and society through the life of Lucy, and the input of experts. Good quality and chilling reality.
• There is No Tomorrow:   A fantastic 34 minute animated youtube documentary on how our “growth-based” society is unsustainable even with ‘green energy’ and the future we will face. Full of facts; author unknown.
• Aftermath: World Without Oil : A docudrama that poses the question “what if the world ran out of oil?” and theorizes about what would happen. There is a youtube link here as I have not found an available DVD.
• Aftermath: Population Zero:   A docudrama that poses the question “what if all humans disappeared” and follows what would happen to the planet, our homes, structures, and pets…
• Evacuate Earth:   A fascinating docudrama that theorizes how we would evacuate the earth in the face of impending doom, and how society would react. There is a youtube link here as I have not found an available DVD.
• Super-Volcano: A highly acclaimed docudrama on what would happen if the Yellowstone super-volcano erupted.
• Perfect Disaster: Anatomy of a Solar Storm: Docudrama that theorizes what might happen to our civilization and technology if we are hit by a massive solar storm. This is part 1 of 5 all parts featured on youtube as I could not find an available DVD.
• Apocalypse Man:   History Channel special hosted by former U.S. Marine and martial-artist Rudy Reyes on how to survive the aftermath of “TEOTWAWKI” in an urban setting. This is a youtube link, as there was no available DVD.
• American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl:   Highly acclaimed documentary about the American Dust Bowl and how they survived it.
• American Experience: Influenza 1918:   Documentary about how America was ravaged by the flu epidemic of 1918 that killed 675,000 people–more than died in all the wars of this century combined–before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.
• American Experience: The Crash of 1929:   A documentary about the start of the Great Depression and what it meant to America.
• The Day After Disaster:   A docudrama about what would happen if a nuclear bomb exploded in the heart of Washington, D.C.
• Training for the Apocalypse:   A History Channel special about the personal stories of two men and what prompted them to prepare.
• Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure : A highly acclaimed documentary about America’s beginnings and how that relates to where we are headed now.

Prepper TV Shows

• The Best Defense:   An excellent current Outdoor Channel educational series teaching self-defense through knowledge, skill, practice, and emergency preparedness.
• Dual Survival:  Current Discovery Channel TV series featuring survivalist instructor Cody Lundin and his partner as place themselves in various locations to demonstrate how to get home alive.
• Doomsday Preppers:  Part of Nat GEO’s current ‘American Outliers’ group of shows featuring preppers from around the country.
• Doomsday Bunkers:  Discovery Channel Series focusing on a company that builds bunkers for those who prepare.
• Meet the Preppers :  APN’s own Phil Burns goes into depth on prepping with his family in this Animal Planet special.
• Jericho :  A CBS fictional series about a small town’s efforts to survive following a national terrorist attack and the collapse of the United States.
• Survivorman:  Discovery Channel series, survival expert Les Stroud strands himself in the wilderness for days on end in order to demonstrate how to survive and get home.
• Man, Woman, Wild:  Current Discover Channel series featuring special forces survival expert, Mykle Hawke, and his wife Ruth as they strand themselves in random locations to demonstrate how to get along, survive, and get home alive.
• Alaska The Last Frontier :  A fantastic Discovery Channel series about the Kilcher family and their homesteading off-grid way of life in Alaska.
• Revolution:   NBC’s current post-apocalyptic science fiction drama series that follows a group of people who are trying to figure out how to turn the power back on, after losing planet-wide electricity 15 years earlier.
• The Walking Dead:   A current AMC original fiction horror series about a zombie virus has infected most of the human population, those left fighting to survive battle the zombies and themselves.
• Life After People :  A History Channel series spin-off from their ‘Aftermath: Population Zero’ docudrama. See what happens to the cities and the structures we built after humans are not around to maintain them any longer. As a side note, this series does cover some interesting information on the fate of un-maintained nuclear facilities and dams.
• The Colony :  A Discovery Channel series that is a reality hybrid show that challenges 24 very different people, to rebuild their own civilization in a post-apocalyptic world created for them.
• The Alaska Experiment:  Discovery Channel reality series, four teams of urbanites attempt to survive the wilds of Alaska for 3 months.
• Alone in the Wild :  A three-part series featuring extreme photographer, Ed Wardle, as he is dropped off in the middle of the wilderness and attempts to survive three solo months. Link to youtube provided as I could find no available DVD.
• Survivors :  A British sci-fi drama about a plague of global proportions. Anarchy in the streets. The collapse of government and the rule of law–perhaps even the end of civilization itself, followed by the rise of tyranny and vigilantism.
• Out of the Wild:  Nine ordinary people are given a three-day crash course in survival, then are dropped off in the depths of the rugged Alaska wilderness with minimal equipment and map to make it back to civilization.
• 2012: Countdown to Armageddon :  A five-part History Channel series that covers many different views of how the world will end. It features several different preppers in the series including APN’s own CEO, Hugh Vail.
• I Shouldn’t Be Alive :  An extremely well made and highly acclaimed series by the Animal Planet of harrowing reenacted survival stories from around the world. This is linked to one season, but there are 5 others available.
• Little House on the Prairie:  An American pioneer drama series about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, MI. Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s  Little House Books.  The family appropriate show ran for nine seasons from 1974-1982, all seasons have been released to DVD.

The original list of the best prepper movies originated on The Home Front. It has been significantly revised and amended.

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The 140+ Best Biography Movies

Biographical films explore the fascinating lives of historical figures and cultural icons. The best biography movies offer viewers a captivating look into the lives of these people, skillfully recreating stories that have shaped history and left a lasting impact on the world. With unforgettable narratives to explore, you will find these films showcase exceptional storytelling, nuanced performances, and unparalleled cinematic vision. 

The best biography movies offer not just boring history, but gripping, groundbreaking, and original narratives. For instance, films like Catch Me If You Can follow the high-stakes exploits of a charming con artist, blending thrilling action with compelling character development. Schindler's List, on the other hand, tackles the harrowing subject of the Holocaust, masterfully capturing the heroic efforts of one man to save lives during a dark time in history. Then there's A Beautiful Mind, which delves into the complex life of renowned mathematician John Nash, showcasing the challenges and triumphs associated with his brilliance. These films are but a few examples of the best biographical movies that excellently capture the essence of their subjects and the genre. 

The lasting impact of these movies demonstrate how well they resonate with audiences, transcending time and cultural boundaries. Biographical movies not only accurately depict the lives of their subjects, but they also elevate the art of storytelling by blending truth with cinematic dramar. Through these exceptional films, viewers gain fresh perspectives on the world, history, and the individuals who have shaped it, marking these biographical movies as the very best in their field. 

Catch Me If You Can

Schindler's List

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A Beautiful Mind

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• # 10 of 113 on The Best Movies Of 2001

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Lawrence of Arabia

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Raging Bull

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The Social Network

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Cinderella Man

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The People vs. Larry Flynt

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The Fighter

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12 Years a Slave

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The Pride of the Yankees

• # 65 of 206 on The Best Sports Movies Ever Made
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Andrei Rublev

• # 79 of 80 on 80 Good Long Movies To Watch, Ranked
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La Vie en rose

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Remember the Titans

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The Blind Side

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Man on Wire

Donnie Brasco

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Walk the Line

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• Entertainment
• Watchworthy

Looking closer at movies, TV shows, and even characters based on and "inspired by" reality.

• Cast & crew

After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family's survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly tr... Read all After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family's survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh-eating monster. After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet-and fight for her family's survival-when the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh-eating monster.

• Kiah Roache-Turner
• Jermaine Fowler
• Alyla Browne
• 3 Critic reviews

• Officer Miller
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Charlotte names the spider Sting after seeing a copy of J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit. Sting is not the name of a spider in the Hobbit, rather the sword Bilbo uses to fight the spiders.
• How long will Sting be? Powered by Alexa
• April 12, 2024 (United States)
• Official Site
• Pictures in Paradise
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• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 31 minutes

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