Movies like Blackfish (2013)
The best movies like Blackfish (2013) are Grizzly Man (2005), The Cove (2009) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006). If Blackfish hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Cove (2009)8.0/10 from 705 votes
- NewestShipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026)Released 2026
Grizzly Man (2005)
Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cove (2009)
The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAn Inconvenient Truth (2006)
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane (2017)
Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKiller Shark Vs. Killer Whale (2021)
Scientists dive deep on the mysterious and unusual predatory behavior of orcas attacking great white sharks, and the disappearance of the other sharks after these attacks.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Wilding (2024)
A young couple battle entrenched tradition and hostile forces to bet on nature for the future of their failing, four-hundred-year-old estate. Ripping down the fences, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a motley mix of animals both tame and wild, beginning a grand experiment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
My Mercury (2025)
A passionate conservationist makes a cruel pact to save endangered seabirds from extinction on an inhospitable island, alone. In the end, it's a victory for the birds, but at what price?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
More Than Honey (2012)
With dazzling nature photography, Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) takes a global examination of endangered honeybees — spanning California, Switzerland, China and Australia — more ambitious than any previous work on the topic.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonkey Kingdom (2015)
A newborn monkey and its mother struggle to survive within the competitive social hierarchy of the Temple Troop, a dynamic group of monkeys who live in ancient ruins found deep in the storied jungles of South Asia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAquarela (2018)
From massive waves to melting ice, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky travels around the world to capture stunning images of the beauty and raw power of water.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Project Nim (2011)
From the team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about his true nature - and indeed our own - is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanishing of the Bees (2009)
This documentary takes a piercing investigative look at the economic, political and ecological implications of the worldwide disappearance of the honeybee. The film examines our current agricultural landscape and celebrates the ancient and sacred connection between man and the honeybee. The story highlights the positive changes that have resulted due to the tragic phenomenon known as "Colony Collapse Disorder." To empower the audience, the documentary provides viewers with tangible solutions they can apply to their everyday lives. Vanishing of the Bees unfolds as a dramatic tale of science and mystery, illuminating this extraordinary crisis and its greater meaning about the relationship between humankind and Mother Earth. The bees have a message - but will we listen?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Chasing Coral (2017)
Coral reefs are the nursery for all life in the oceans, a remarkable ecosystem that sustains us. Yet with carbon emissions warming the seas, a phenomenon called "coral bleaching" -- a sign of mass coral death -- has been accelerating around the world, and the public has no idea of the scale or implication of the catastrophe silently raging underwater.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Octopus Teacher (2020)
After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean at the tip of Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity. Visiting her den and tracking her movements for months on end he eventually wins the animal’s trust and they develop a never-before-seen bond between human and wild animal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSurviving Paradise: A Family Tale (2022)
In this wildlife drama, a worsening dry season in the Kalahari Desert leaves prides, packs and herds to rely on the power of family to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBecoming Cousteau (2021)
Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Gunda (2021)
A glimpse into the raw and simple power of nature through encounters with farm animals: the eponymous Gunda, a mother pig; two cows, and a one-legged chicken.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBears (2014)
Filmmakers Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey chronicle a year in the lives of an Alaskan brown bear named Sky and her cubs, Scout and Amber. Their saga begins as the bears emerge from hibernation at the end of winter. As time passes, the bear family must work together to find food and stay safe from other predators, especially other bears. Although their world is exciting, it is also risky, and the cubs' survival hinges on family togetherness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCitizenfour (2014)
In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChasing Ice (2012)
When National Geographic photographer James Balog asked, “How can one take a picture of climate change?” his attention was immediately drawn to ice. Soon he was asked to do a cover story on glaciers that became the most popular and well-read piece in the magazine during the last five years. But for Balog, that story marked the beginning of a much larger and longer-term project that would reach epic proportions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEarth (2007)
An epic story of adventure, starring some of the most magnificent and courageous creatures alive, awaits you in EARTH. Disneynature brings you a remarkable story of three animal families on a journey across our planet – polar bears, elephants and humpback whales.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPangolin: Kulu's Journey (2025)
Rescued from poachers, an endangered baby pangolin embarks on a journey back to the wild with help from a devoted human guardian in this documentary.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Mission Blue (2014)
This documentary follows oceanographer Sylvia Earle's campaign to save the world's oceans from threats such as overfishing and toxic waste.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLife in the Doghouse (2018)
Life in the Doghouse tells the inspiring story behind Danny & Ron’s Rescue, a dog rescue centre. Started by life partners Ron Danta and Danny Robertshaw, the two men were moved to act after Hurricane Katrina left thousands of dogs stranded and abandoned. The two men set up a makeshift dog sanctuary in their home and ten years later they have housed and rescued over 10,000 of these furry babies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Katrina Babies (2022)
A first-person account of the short-term and long-term devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, as told by young people who were between the ages of 3 and 19 when the levees broke.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026)
Never-before-seen footage and survivor accounts trace the 2012 shipwreck of a luxury cruise and the disaster that ensued, in this immersive documentary.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKeiko: The Untold Story (2010)
The millions of Keiko fans around the world finally learn the truth about what really happened when the Free Willy star became the first and only captive orca to be released back into the wild. The most unlikely candidate for release because of his long years in captivity, actually thrived for over 5 years in his home waters, gaining over 3000 lbs during his rehabilitation, mixing it up with wild orcas, swimming across the North Atlantic, and finally passing as a middle aged orca as the only captive orca to ever be successfully rehabilitated and released back to to the 'wild' - come join Keiko's Pod and help Rescue Rehab and Release all of the other whales and dolphins currently in captivity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Unlocking the Cage (2016)
Renowned filmmakers D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus follow determined animal rights activist Steven Wise into the courtroom for an unprecedented battle that seeks to utilize the writ of habeas corpus to expand legal “personhood” to include certain animals. Wise’s unusual plaintiffs—chimpanzees Tommy and Kiko, once famed showbiz stars—are now living in filth, struggling to survive. Wise and his impassioned legal team take us into the field, revealing gripping evidence of such abuse and plunging us into the intricacies of their case as they probe preconceived notions of what it means to be a non-human animal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Playing with Sharks (2021)
Valerie Taylor is a shark fanatic and an Australian icon – a marine maverick who forged her way as a fearless diver, cinematographer and conservationist. She filmed the real sharks for Jaws and famously wore a chainmail suit, using herself as shark bait, changing our scientific understanding of sharks forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 (2021)
THE LONELIEST WHALE is a cinematic quest to find the “52 Hertz Whale,” which scientists believe has spent its entire life in solitude calling out at a frequency that is different from any other whale. As the film embarks on this engrossing journey, audiences will explore what this whale’s lonely plight can teach us — not just about our changing relationship to the oceans, but to each other. Executive Produced with Leonardo DiCaprio and Adrian Grenier.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Blackfish?
The closest matches to Blackfish are Grizzly Man (2005), The Cove (2009) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Blackfish?
People who watched Blackfish most often go on to Grizzly Man (2005), The Cove (2009) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
What is the highest-rated movie like Blackfish?
The Cove (2009), rated 8.0/10 by 705 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Blackfish?
Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Blackfish?
Yes: Grizzly Man (2005), The Cove (2009) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006).
How are movies similar to Blackfish chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Blackfish, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.