Movies like The Whale (2013)
The best movies like The Whale (2013) are True Spirit (2023), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and The Finest Hours (2016). If The Whale 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 ratedTogo (2019)8.1/10 from 2,393 votes
- NewestThe Last Rifleman (2023)Released 2023
True Spirit (2023)
When the tenacious young sailor Jessica Watson sets out to be the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world, many expect her to fail. With the support of her sailing coach and mentor Ben Bryant and her parents, Jessica is determined to accomplish what was thought to be impossible, navigating some of the world’s most challenging stretches of ocean over the course of 210 days.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Finest Hours (2016)
The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Night to Remember (1958)
The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWake of the Red Witch (1948)
Captain Ralls fights Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneye for the woman he loves, Angelique Desaix, and for a fortune in gold aboard the Red Witch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisMansfield Park (2007)
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Passage to India (1984)
Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQueen of the Desert (2015)
A chronicle of Gertrude Bell's life, a traveler, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire in the Near and Middle East at the dawn of the twentieth century. Her knowledge of the tribal leaders is used by the British to establish the Kingdoms of Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisAnne of Green Gables (2016)
Anne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and to the local villagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTogo (2019)
The untold true story set in the winter of 1925 that takes you across the treacherous terrain of the Alaskan tundra for an exhilarating and uplifting adventure that will test the strength, courage and determination of one man, Leonhard Seppala, and his lead sled dog, Togo.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Last of the Mohicans (1920)
As Alice and Cora Munro attempt to find their father, a British officer in the French and Indian War, they are set upon by French soldiers and their cohorts, Huron tribesmen led by the evil Magua. Fighting to rescue the women are Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last of the Mohican tribe, and their white ally, the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, known as Hawkeye.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBen-Hur (1959)
In ancient Judea, a Jewish aristocrat opposing Roman occupation of his homeland reunites with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander — setting in motion a saga of betrayal, adventure, tragedy, revenge, and faith.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Wrinkle in Time (2003)
Meg and Charles Wallace are aided by Calvin and three interesting women in the search for their father who disappeared during a government experiment. Their travels take them around the universe to a place unlike any other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOctober Sky (1999)
The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeabiscuit (2003)
True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGenius (2016)
New York in the 1920s. Max Perkins, a literary editor is the first to sign such subsequent literary greats as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When a sprawling, chaotic 1,000-page manuscript by an unknown writer falls into his hands, Perkins is convinced he has discovered a literary genius.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLes Misérables (1978)
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMain Line to Terror (1975)
Akiyama is an intern, disgusted with the noise pollution caused by the bullet trains and the heart attacks that noise has been causing in older hospital patients, plots to disrupt and, in ten days, destroy a unit of the operation. He warns the Japan National Railway, that, if nothing is done to reduce the noise, he will derail a bullet train. Takigawa is the police detective sent to stop him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Legends of the Fall (1994)
In early 20th-century Montana, Col. William Ludlow lives on a ranch in the wilderness with his sons, Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel. Eventually, the unconventional but close-knit family are bound by loyalty, tested by war, and torn apart by love, as told over the course of several decades in this epic saga.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJean de Florette (1986)
In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisManon of the Spring (1986)
In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisViridiana (1962)
Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTiny Times 3 (2014)
Lin Xiao, Gu Li, Nan Xiang, Tang Wanru - these four best friends, after waving goodbye to their school campus and entering the workforce, they are faced with various challenges in their life: friendship, love, and career. Together, they become lost in life, having long forgotten their past courage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisKill Your Darlings (TBA)
Tom and Wendy Graves, married for 25 years, have a life-changing secret. The story follows them through key moments, including their fiftieth birthday party, home purchase, Jason's birth, and colleague's death. The secret, a terrible act, has held them together throughout their marriage, but its power is fraying.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Frankenstein (1986)
An obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Whale?
The closest matches to The Whale are True Spirit (2023), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and The Finest Hours (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Whale?
Start with True Spirit (2023), the closest match to The Whale.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Whale?
Togo (2019), rated 8.1/10 by 2,393 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Whale?
The Last Rifleman (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Whale?
Yes: True Spirit (2023), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and The Finest Hours (2016).
How are movies similar to The Whale chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Whale, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.