Movies like The Summer I Found Myself (2025)
The best movies like The Summer I Found Myself (2025) are Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Camp Nowhere (1994) and Taps (1981). If The Summer I Found Myself hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)7.5/10 from 2,269 votes
- NewestWe Can Be Heroes (2024)Released 2024
Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
It's the last day of Camp Firewood's season, but there's still time for the big talent show, a little romance… and for everyone to be wiped out by the piece of NASA's Skylab that's hurtling toward Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCamp Nowhere (1994)
Morris "Mud" Himmel has a problem. His parents desperately want to send him away to summer camp. He hates going to summer camp, and would do anything to get out of it. Talking to his friends, he realizes that they are all facing the same sentence: a boring summer camp. Together with his friends, he hatches a plan to trick all the parents into sending them to a camp of their own design.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaps (1981)
Military cadets take extreme measures to ensure the future of their academy when its existence is threatened by local condo developers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEating Out: Drama Camp (2011)
Zack and Casey's relationship is in a slump, but things are about to change at Dick Dickey's Drama Camp. Zack meets gorgeous Benji, and when they get cast as lovers in a sexed-up version of The Taming of the Shrew, their self-restraint is put to the test. Will Zack and Casey's relationship last with Benji in the picture?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisLittle Darlings (1980)
Two 15-year-old girls from different sides of the tracks compete to see who will be first to lose their virginity while at camp.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBunks (2013)
When two trouble-making brothers scam their way into an idyllic summer camp, they find themselves leading a rag tag cabin of boys into breaking every rule in the book.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeatballs (1979)
Tripper is the head counselor at a budget summer camp called Camp Northstar. In truth, he's young at heart and only marginally more mature than the campers themselves. Tripper befriends Rudy, a loner camper who has trouble fitting in. As Tripper inspires his young charges to defeat rival Camp Mohawk in the annual Olympiad competition, Rudy plays matchmaker between Tripper and Roxanne, a female counselor at Northstar.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisKiss at Pine Lake (2012)
A boy and a girl fall in love during summer camp and promise to stay in touch, but they don't. Fifteen years later they meet again in the same camp under very different circumstances. What will happen to the camp and will they try again?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisHeavyweights (1995)
Camp Hope is a summer retreat for overweight boys run by a kindly couple who make the campers feel comfortable with their extra pounds. But when tyrannical fitness guru Tony buys the camp, he puts the kids on a cruel regimen that goes too far. Sick of the endless weeks of "all work and no play," the kids stage a coup and reclaim their summer of fun.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCamp Rock (2008)
When Mitchie gets a chance to attend Camp Rock, her life takes an unpredictable twist, and she learns just how important it is to be true to yourself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Summer (2019)
Standing on the precipice of adulthood, a group of friends navigate new relationships, while reexamining others, during their final summer before college.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTheater Camp (2023)
After the indomitable and beloved founder of a scrappy theater camp in upstate New York falls into a coma, the eccentric staff must band together with her clueless "crypto-bro" son to keep the thespian paradise afloat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSplendor (1999)
Veronica is a white-bread beauty searching for a good man in Los Angeles. While slam dancing at a Halloween rave, she meets Abel, a sensitive poet. Then she meets Zed, a supersexy tattooed drummer with incredible biceps. Who will she choose? Does she go for true love or cheap sex? She can't decide so she chooses both. But after managing to nurture a picture-perfect threesome, along comes Ernest, a rich movie director with deep baby blues that sweep Veronica off her feet. What's a girl to do now?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
Zack Mayo is an aloof, taciturn man who aspires to be a navy pilot. Once he arrives at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill Sergeant Emil Foley. Mayo is an excellent cadet, but a little cold around the heart, so Foley rides him mercilessly, sensing that the young man would be prime officer material if he weren't so self-involved. Zack's affair with a working girl is likewise compromised by his unwillingness to give of himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Parent Trap (1961)
Two identical twin sisters, separated at birth by their parents' divorce, are reunited years later at a summer camp, where they scheme to bring their parents back together. The girls, one of whom has been living with their mother and the other with their father, switch places after camp and go to work on their plan, the first objective being to scare off a gold-digger pursuing their father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStripes (1981)
Hard-luck cabbie John Winger, directionless after being fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, enlists in the U.S. Army with his close pal, Russell Ziskey. After his barely satisfactory performance in basic training, the irreverent Winger emerges as the figurehead for a ragtag band of misfits. However, his hijinks threaten to cause an international scandal when he inadvertently commandeers a military assault vehicle behind enemy lines.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHot Shots! (1991)
The gang that created Airplane! and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this spoof. Topper Harley is a talented but unstable fighter pilot with an axe to grind: clearing the family name. His mission is to avenge his father and save a mission sabotaged by greedy weapons manufacturers. He also gets involved in a relationship with Ramada Thompson, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. Hot Shots! makes fun of a variety of other films, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPolice Academy (1984)
New rules enforced by the Lady Mayoress mean that sex, weight, height and intelligence need no longer be a factor for joining the Police Force. This opens the floodgates for all and sundry to enter the Police Academy, much to the chagrin of the instructors. Not everyone is there through choice, though. Social misfit Mahoney has been forced to sign up as the only alternative to a jail sentence and it doesn't take long before he falls foul of the boorish Lieutenant Harris. But before long, Mahoney realises that he is enjoying being a police cadet and decides he wants to stay... while Harris decides he wants Mahoney out!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRace for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)
The Peanuts gang, including Snoopy and Woodstock, have gone off to summer camp. After a few days of the usual activities, they all participate in a river-rafting race. Battling treacherous rapids, wild animals and cheating bullies from a rival tent, the teams make their way downriver to the finish line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCadet Kelly (2002)
Hyperactive teenager Kelly is enrolled into a military school when her new stepfather becomes the Commandant. At first she has problems fitting in and taking orders until she tries out for the drill team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
The starship Enterprise and its crew is pulled back into action when old nemesis, Khan, steals a top secret device called Project Genesis.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirty Dancing (1987)
Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer—and unexpectedly falling in love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Can Be Heroes (2024)
Sometimes, finding your tribe requires a bit of magic. For attendees of a live action role-playing (LARP) camp in upstate New York, the deeply accepting environment has given neurodivergent, queer, and self-proclaimed "nerdy" teenagers the space and community for self-discovery that they have never found anywhere else. As the campers immerse themselves in this imaginative world, they discover inner strength, heal from past traumas, and emerge as the heroes they are meant to be, both in the fantasy realm and in real life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Opération Commando (2016)
Two young brothers are separated at camp and forced to compete in rival tribes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Summer Storm (2004)
Tobi and Achim, the pride of the local crew club, have been the best of friends for years and are convinced that nothing will ever stand in the way of their friendship. They look forward to the upcoming summer camp and the crew competition. Then the gay team from Berlin arrives and Tobi is totally confused. The evening before the races begin, the storm that breaks out is more than meteorological.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAddams Family Values (1993)
Siblings Wednesday and Pugsley Addams will stop at nothing to get rid of Pubert, the new baby boy adored by parents Gomez and Morticia. Things go from bad to worse when the new "black widow" nanny, Debbie Jellinsky, launches her plan to add Fester to her collection of dead husbands.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn American Girl Story: Summer Camp, Friends For Life (2017)
Aspiring filmmaker, Z and Paz, a budding engineer, arrive at S.T.E.A.M. camp excited for tech heaven. When the administrator makes them explore nature and confiscates all tech, they think their summer’s doomed. Things take a mysterious turn when they meet Jordan, an enchanting “counselor” who sends them on an adventure, opening them up to a world of possibilities — like befriending Drew.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Piranha (1978)
When flesh-eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisSleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988)
Angela Baker escapes from a mental hospital and surfaces at a summer camp as a counselor who lectures her teenage charges on proper moral behavior. Those teens who break her strict rules -- from the camp chatterbox or a sex-obsessed girl to the boys who are peeping Toms -- are murdered by the impostor in various gruesome ways. As more campers go missing, intrepid counselor Molly begins to piece together the truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisSleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
Psychotic Angela is itching to do what she does best: slaughter dozens of teenage campers. As luck would have it, the previous site of her murders has been renamed and converted into an experimental summer camp meant to bring together privileged and lower-class teens. On the day the youths are boarding the buses to camp, Angela runs over a potential camper with a garbage truck and assumes her identity. Once she has infiltrated the camp, the real terror begins.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Summer I Found Myself?
The closest matches to The Summer I Found Myself are Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Camp Nowhere (1994) and Taps (1981). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Summer I Found Myself?
Start with Wet Hot American Summer (2001), the closest match to The Summer I Found Myself.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Summer I Found Myself?
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), rated 7.5/10 by 2,269 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Summer I Found Myself?
We Can Be Heroes (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Summer I Found Myself?
Yes: Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Camp Nowhere (1994) and Taps (1981).
How are movies similar to The Summer I Found Myself chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Summer I Found Myself, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.