Movies like Boomerang (1997)
The best movies like Boomerang (1997) are The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), The World Will Tremble (2025) and Against the Wall (1994). If Boomerang hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Shawshank Redemption (1994)8.7/10 from 31,818 votes
- NewestThe Legend of Van Dorn (2026)Released 2026
The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe World Will Tremble (2025)
The incredible, untold true story of how a group of prisoners attempt a seemingly impossible escape from the first Nazi death camp in order to provide the first eyewitness account of the Holocaust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAgainst the Wall (1994)
In 1971, a warden at Attica Penitentiary is caught up in a hostage crisis when inmates take over the prison to demand better living conditions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBirdman of Alcatraz (1962)
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Mustang (2019)
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBronson (2009)
A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCool Hand Luke (1967)
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrubaker (1980)
The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Green Mile (1999)
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEscape from Sobibor (1987)
The true story of WWII's notorious Sobibor Nazi death camp, where a courageous inmate orchestrates and leads the escape of over 300 prisoners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPapillon (1973)
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMcVicar (1980)
John McVicar was a London Bad Boy. he graduated to armed bank robbery and was Britain's "Public Enemy No. 1". He was captured and put into a high security prison. Will even the highest security prison be able to hold him? This is the true story of his life, his criminal exploits and his eventual rehabilitation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEscape from Alcatraz (1979)
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPapillon (2017)
Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSouth Central (1992)
During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoxfire (1996)
The story of five teenage girls who form an unlikely bond after beating up a teacher who has sexually harassed them. They build a solid friendship but their wild ways begin to get out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSon of the South (2021)
In civil rights era Montgomery, Alabama, Klansman's grandson Bob Zellner must choose which side of history to be on during the Movement. Defying his family and white Southern norms, he fought against social injustice, repression and violence to change the world around him
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNapoleon (1927)
A biopic of former Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant 1797 invasion of Italy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHitler at the Opera (2014)
Aaron is an Israeli singer who comes to Poland for a guest performance in a provincial theater. The artist is warmly welcomed by the management and the theater team. During one of the rehearsals, Aaron spots backstage what he thinks looks like Adolf Hitler. Attempts are stopped and the hosts are accused of anti-Semitism. A chain of absurd situations follows, and the revealed prejudices lead to an escalation of the conflict.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
The Founder (2016)
The true story of how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Legend of Van Dorn (2026)
A brilliant but disgraced Civil War general gets a second chance in a quiet Tennessee town, but as his bold tactics win battles, a dangerous affair with a married woman, and her jealous husband’s vengeance, threatens to destroy him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Utøya: July 22 (2018)
A teenage girl fights for survival and to locate her young sister during the 2011 terrorist attack at a political summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utøya.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Newton Boys (1998)
The story of the Newton gang, the most successful bank robbers in history, owing to their good planning and minimal violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrownsville Bred (2025)
Set against the vibrant yet challenging backdrop of her urban neighborhood, the complexities of adolescence are explored as Elaine faces an unexpected upheaval in her life due to her father, Manny, an aspiring salsa musician whose struggles lead him away from his family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Prison Breaker (1936)
A British secret service agent falls in love with the daughter of a leading London criminal, and soon after becoming involved with her father finds himself in prison facing a charge of manslaughter..
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
45 Years (2015)
There is just one week until Kate Mercer's 45th wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband. The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Boomerang and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Boomerang?
The closest matches to Boomerang are The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), The World Will Tremble (2025) and Against the Wall (1994). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Boomerang?
Start with The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), the closest match to Boomerang.
What is the highest-rated movie like Boomerang?
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), rated 8.7/10 by 31,818 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Boomerang?
The Legend of Van Dorn (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Boomerang chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Boomerang, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.