Movies like Red Headed Stranger (1986)
The best movies like Red Headed Stranger (1986) are Decision at Sundown (1957), El Dorado (1966) and Firecreek (1968). If Red Headed Stranger hooked you with its western, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRio Bravo (1959)7.8/10 from 1,317 votes
- NewestThe Unholy Trinity (2025)Released 2025
Decision at Sundown (1957)
A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Dorado (1966)
Cole Thornton, a gunfighter for hire, joins forces with an old friend, Sheriff J.P. Harrah. Together with a fighter and a gambler, they help a rancher and his family fight a rival rancher that is trying to steal their water.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFirecreek (1968)
A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRio Bravo (1959)
A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTall in the Saddle (1944)
When Rocklin arrives in a western town he finds that the rancher who hired him as a foreman has been murdered. He is out to solve the murder and thwart the scheming to take the ranch from its rightful owner.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLawman (1971)
While passing through the town of Bannock, a bunch of drunken cattlemen go overboard with their celebrating and accidentally kill an old man with a stray shot. They return home to Sabbath unaware of his death. Bannock lawman Jered Maddox later arrives there to arrest everyone involved on a charge of murder. Sabbath is run by land baron Vince Bronson, a benevolent despot, who, upon hearing of the death, offers restitution for the incident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bravados (1958)
Jim Douglass arrives in the small town of Rio Arriba in order to witness the hanging of the four men he believes murdered his wife. When the convicts escape, Jim tracks them into Mexico, determined to see that justice is done. But the farther Jim goes in his quest for vengeance, the more merciless he becomes, losing himself in an unrelenting spiral of hatred and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like this7 Men from Now (1956)
Former sheriff Ben Stride, haunted by the loss of his wife in a Wells Fargo robbery, hunts for the seven men responsible for her death – along the way, encountering a couple heading west for California, and an outlaw he once arrested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForsaken (2015)
John Henry returns to his hometown in hopes of repairing his relationship with his estranged father, but a local gang is terrorizing the town. John Henry is the only one who can stop them, however he has abandoned both his gun and reputation as a fearless quick-draw killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath of a Gunfighter (1969)
In the turn-of-the century Texas town of Cottonwood Springs, marshal Frank Patch is an old-style lawman in a town determined to become modern. When he kills drunken Luke Mills in self-defense, the town leaders decide it's time for a change. That ask for Patch's resignation, but he refuses on the basis that the town, on hiring him, had promised him the job for as long as he wanted it. Afraid for the town's future and even more afraid of the fact that Marshal Patch knows all the town's dark secrets, the city fathers decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the unwanted lawman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quick and the Dead (1995)
A mysterious woman comes to compete in a quick-draw elimination tournament, in a town taken over by a notorious gunman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead for a Dollar (2022)
In 1897, veteran bounty hunter Max Borlund is deep into Mexico where he encounters professional gambler and outlaw Joe Cribbens — a sworn enemy he sent to prison years before. Max is on a mission to find and return Rachel Kidd, the wife of a wealthy businessman, who as the story is told to Max, has been abducted by Buffalo Soldier Elijah Jones. Max is ultimately faced with a showdown to save honor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
SnoozefestMovies like thisRio Lobo (1970)
After the Civil War, a former Union colonel searches for the two traitors whose perfidy led to the loss of a close friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRun for Cover (1955)
An ex-convict drifter and his flawed young partner are made sheriff and deputy of a Western town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance. As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gunfighter (1950)
The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWarlock (1959)
A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Left Handed Gun (1958)
When a crooked sheriff murders his employer, William "Billy the Kid" Bonney decides to avenge the death by killing the man responsible, throwing the lives of everyone around him into turmoil, and endangering the General Amnesty set up by Governor Wallace to bring peace to the New Mexico Territory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDodge City (1939)
In this epic Western, Wade Hatton, a wagon master turned sheriff, tames a cow town at the end of a railroad line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unholy Trinity (2025)
Set against the turbulent backdrop of 1870s Montana, in the moments before the execution of Isaac Broadway, he gives his estranged son, Henry, an impossible task: murder the man who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Intent on fulfilling his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, where an unexpected turn of events traps him in town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove, the town’s upstanding new sheriff, and a mysterious figure named St. Christopher.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrontier Gun (1958)
Small-town sheriff discovers that gun-fighting is the only way to clean up the town.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Ravenous (1999)
After arriving at his new, remote Army outpost, Capt. John Boyd and his regiment aid a wounded frontiersman who recounts a horrifying tale of a wagon train murdered by its supposed guide – a vicious U.S. Army colonel gone rogue. Fearing the worst, the regiment heads out into the wilderness to verify the gruesome claims.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCemetery without Crosses (1969)
A melancholic gunfighter is drawn into a vengeful and tragic kidnapping plot by his widowed ex-lover.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder the Tonto Rim (1928)
Gold miner Edd Denmeade loves Lucy Watson, the sister of the official mining claim recorder. Denmeade suspects Watson of killing his father, who after a poker game was shot by a gambler "who shuffles with one hand." The real murderer, Sam Spralls, has convinced Watson that he killed Denmeade and threatens to expose him unless Watson assigns him all the gold claims. Spralls assembles a band of killers to jump the claims when Watson complies. Eventually, Denmeade learns the identity of the killer when he sees Spralls shuffle a deck of cards. He forms a vigilante party and rids the community of Spralls and his gang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Raiders of Red Gap (1943)
One man wants to control all the land in the state to graze all his cattle. His band of outlaws are raiding ranchers and homesteaders, trying to drive them out. Rocky and Fuzzy are brought in to help stop the raiders and keep the land for the small ranchers and homesteaders.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Silver Spurs (1943)
Jerry Johnson inherits a 50,000 acre ranch. Lucky Miller wants to take over the ranch. Roy is trying to get a railroad spur right of way. Lucky has a woman come west to marry Jerry to get control of the ranch. After the wedding, Lucky has the owner killed. Roy’s gun is substituted for the murder weapon, so Roy is put in jail.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
The Last Ride to Santa Cruz (1964)
A former sheriff begins to persecute the gang led by Pedro Ortiz, after his wife is taken away.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
The four sons of Katie Elder reunite in their hometown of Clearwater, Texas for her funeral and discover that the family ranch is now in the hands of Morgan Hastings, a corrupt businessman who wants to exploit the area around the town.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lone Rider Rides On (1941)
Tom Cameron is searching for the outlaws who ambushed a wagon train, murdered his parents and stole the deed to their land. Though he was only a child at the time, he vividly remembers the scar on the ringleader's face -- and Tom will stop at nothing until he brings him to justice … and exacts vengeance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
American Outlaws (2001)
When a Midwest town learns that a corrupt railroad baron has captured the deeds to their homesteads without their knowledge, a group of young ranchers join forces to take back what is rightfully theirs. They will become the object of the biggest manhunt in the history of the Old West and, as their fame grows, so will the legend of their leader, a young outlaw by the name of Jesse James.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Red Headed Stranger?
The closest matches to Red Headed Stranger are Decision at Sundown (1957), El Dorado (1966) and Firecreek (1968). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Red Headed Stranger?
Start with Decision at Sundown (1957), the closest match to Red Headed Stranger.
What is the highest-rated movie like Red Headed Stranger?
Rio Bravo (1959), rated 7.8/10 by 1,317 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Red Headed Stranger?
The Unholy Trinity (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Red Headed Stranger?
Yes: Decision at Sundown (1957), El Dorado (1966) and Firecreek (1968).
How are movies similar to Red Headed Stranger chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Red Headed Stranger, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.