Movies like Return to the Wave (1912)
The best movies like Return to the Wave (1912) are Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) and Endless Love (2014). If Return to the Wave hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCinema Paradiso (1988)8.4/10 from 5,048 votes
- NewestA Biltmore Christmas (2023)Released 2023
- In ItalianCinema Paradiso (1988)Also in Italian
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019)
Dora, a girl who has spent most of her life exploring the jungle with her parents, now must navigate her most dangerous adventure yet: high school. Always the explorer, Dora quickly finds herself leading Boots (her best friend, a monkey), Diego, and a rag tag group of teens on an adventure to save her parents and solve the impossible mystery behind a lost Inca civilization.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)
The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau” —originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the big screen in 1996. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project just to find an abrupt end to his work while leading actor Marlon Brando pulled the strings in the shadows. Now for the first time, the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEndless Love (2014)
A privileged girl and a charismatic boy's instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure (2022)
After a big storm, food is scarce — and hungry dinos are everywhere. It's up to you to help the Camp Fam survive in this thrilling interactive special.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Hunter, Black Heart (1990)
Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCleveland Abduction (2015)
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost World (2001)
This Lost World is a splendid BBC TV dramatisation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous adventure story. Bob Hoskins makes an unusually genial Professor Challenger, far less of a bully than Doyle's character, but his slightly stereotyped companions are nicely filled out by a solid cast. James Fox is Challenger's more timid but still covertly adventurous rival, Tom Ward is the moustachioed big game hunter who faces an Allosaurus with an elephant gun, and Matthew Rhys plays the tagalong reporter hoping to impress his faithless fiancée.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSofia the First: Once Upon a Princess (2012)
Set in the storybook world of Enchancia, the music-filled movie follows Sofia, an average girl whose life suddenly changes when her mother marries the king and she is whisked off to live in a castle with her mom, new step-father, King Roland II, and step-siblings, Amber and James. Along the way this ordinary girl learns to navigate the extraordinary life of royalty, and in the process makes everyone around her feel special.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Butterfly (2017)
Paul is a down-on-his-luck screenwriter who picks up a drifter and offers him a place to stay. However, when the deranged stranger takes Paul hostage and forces him to write, their unhinged relationship brings buried secrets to light.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Scooby-Doo Project (1999)
In the Fall of 1999, four teenage sleuths and their Great Dane got lost in the woods while in search of a mystery. This is their story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPete's Dragon (2016)
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace, who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales... until she meets Pete, a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete's descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham's stories. With the help of Natalie, an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove You to Death (2019)
Inspired by a true story, this film tells the shocking tale of a mother and daughter who are nothing like they seem, their tumultuous relationship ending in a brutal murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorthanger Abbey (2007)
A young woman's penchant for sensational Gothic novels leads to misunderstandings in the matters of the heart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Biltmore Christmas (2023)
Contemporary screenwriter Lucy Hardgrove is hired to pen the remake of the holiday classic His Merry Wife!, which was shot at the renowned Biltmore Estate. Taking a tour of the grounds, she accidentally knocks over an hourglass, transporting her back in time to 1946, right when His Merry Wife! is being filmed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Scene Alive: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (2018)
There is excitement in the air when a Hollywood crew comes to Lawrenceton to film a movie about the town’s sleuthy librarian, Aurora Teagarden. However, when the film’s leading lady is found murdered in her dressing room, Aurora enlists her Real Murders Club members to help gather clues. At the same time, she experiences mounting concern that Aida is becoming attracted to the film’s director who, like everyone else working on the set that day, is considered a suspect. And this time around Martin is especially worried about Aurora’s safety after learning that the film’s screenwriter, who has a romantic history with her, emerges as the prime suspect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Count of Monte-Cristo (1975)
Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCinema Paradiso (1988)
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFedora (1978)
Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement, only to discover the horrifying truth behind her success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Return to the Wave?
The closest matches to Return to the Wave are Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) and Endless Love (2014). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Return to the Wave?
Start with Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), the closest match to Return to the Wave.
What is the highest-rated movie like Return to the Wave?
Cinema Paradiso (1988), rated 8.4/10 by 5,048 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Return to the Wave?
A Biltmore Christmas (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like Return to the Wave?
Yes: Cinema Paradiso (1988).
How are movies similar to Return to the Wave chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Return to the Wave, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.