Movies like King Kong (2005)
The best movies like King Kong (2005) are Planet of the Apes (1968), The Edge (1997) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). If King Kong hooked you with its adventure and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRaging Bull (1980)7.9/10 from 4,979 votes
- NewestKingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)Released 2024
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Edge (1997)
The plane carrying wealthy Charles Morse crashes down in the Alaskan wilderness. Together with the two other passengers, photographer Robert and assistant Stephen, Charles devises a plan to help them reach civilization. However, his biggest obstacle might not be the elements, or even the Kodiak bear stalking them -- it could be Robert, whom Charles suspects is having an affair with his wife and would not mind seeing him dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGreystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGodzilla (2014)
Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe. Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGodzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Following their explosive showdown, Godzilla and Kong must reunite against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKong: Skull Island (2017)
Explore the mysterious and dangerous home of the king of the apes as a team of explorers ventures deep inside the treacherous, primordial island.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGodzilla vs. Kong (2021)
In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Several generations following Caesar's reign, apes – now the dominant species – live harmoniously while humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all he's known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & action
Worth the HypeMovies 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 · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOkja (2017)
A young girl named Mija risks everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend - a massive animal named Okja.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Time Machine (2002)
Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th-century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds mankind divided into two warring races.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJack the Giant Slayer (2013)
The story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend–and gets the chance to become a legend himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Legend of Tarzan (2016)
Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisMowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)
A human child raised by wolves, must face off against a menacing tiger named Shere Khan, as well as his own origins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRampage (2018)
Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry mutates this gentle ape into a raging creature of enormous size. To make matters worse, it’s soon discovered there are other similarly altered animals. As these newly created alpha predators tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
After losing Captain Jack Sparrow to the locker of Davy Jones, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, and Captain Barbossa journey to the ends of the earth to rescue him. And as the East India Trading Company tightens its grip on the seas under Lord Cutler Beckett—now in control of Davy Jones—the fate of piracy hangs by a thread. Now, they must unite the pirate lords for one final stand. But as loyalties are tested and alliances shift, each must ultimately choose where they stand in the battle for freedom on the high seas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
A group of scientists in San Francisco struggle to stay alive in the aftermath of a plague that is wiping out humanity, while Caesar tries to maintain dominance over his community of intelligent apes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEO (2022)
The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost City of Z (2017)
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNational Treasure (2004)
Modern treasure hunters, led by archaeologist Ben Gates, search for a chest of riches rumored to have been stashed away by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War. The chest's whereabouts may lie in secret clues embedded in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and Gates is in a race to find the gold before his enemies do.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUltraman Zoffy: Ultra Warriors vs. the Giant Monster Army (1984)
Ultraman Zoffy explains to the audience about the history of the Ultra series alongside Pigmon, while having to fight off with various seijin foes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & adventure
Ultraman Story (1984)
The film centers around Ultraman Taro growing up, and wanting to join the Ultra Brothers in battle. His family, however, thinks he is too young. Taro eventually proves himself after saving the 5 Ultra Brothers from the evil Grand King, created by Juda.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & adventure
Secrets of a Soul (2012)
Secrets of a Soul: Margarethe, Creator of bizarre sculptures! Night club dancer? Mad woman? Victim of an occult conspiracy?! Dark menaces steal her soul and organs. Though dead they keep her alive...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
TMNT (2007)
After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei, Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGloomy Sunday (1999)
Budapest in the 1930s. Restaurant owner Laszlo hires pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody sets off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans falls in love with Ilona as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmerican Psycho (2000)
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShortbus (2006)
In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDie Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)
New York detective John McClane is back and kicking bad-guy butt in the third installment of this action-packed series, which finds him teaming with civilian Zeus Carver to prevent the loss of innocent lives. McClane thought he'd seen it all, until a genius named Simon engages McClane, his new "partner" -- and his beloved city -- in a deadly game that demands their concentration.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRaging Bull (1980)
The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like King Kong?
The closest matches to King Kong are Planet of the Apes (1968), The Edge (1997) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after King Kong?
Start with Planet of the Apes (1968), the closest match to King Kong.
What is the highest-rated movie like King Kong?
Raging Bull (1980), rated 7.9/10 by 4,979 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like King Kong?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like King Kong?
Yes: Planet of the Apes (1968), The Edge (1997) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984).
How are movies similar to King Kong chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside King Kong, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.