Movies like The Cruel Sea (1971)
The best movies like The Cruel Sea (1971) are The River (1984), The Pirates of Somalia (2017) and The Old Man and the Sea (1958). If The Cruel Sea hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Pirates of Somalia (2017)6.8/10 from 267 votes
- NewestI Was a Stranger (2025)Released 2025
The River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pirates of Somalia (2017)
After an inspiring chance encounter with his idol, rookie journalist Jay Bahadur uproots his life and moves to Somalia looking for the story of a lifetime. Hooking up with a local fixer, he attempts to get embedded with the local Somali pirates, only to quickly find himself in over his head.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Old Man and the Sea (1958)
Santiago is an aging, down-on-his-luck, Cuban fisherman who, after catching nothing for nearly 3 months, hooks a huge Marlin and struggles to land it far out in the Gulf Stream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJarhead (2005)
Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hummingbird Project (2019)
A pair of high-frequency traders go up against their old boss in an effort to make millions in a fiber-optic cable deal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003)
After a failed bank robbery, two heavily armed men hold the Los Angeles Police Department at bay for 44 minutes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Sold His Skin (2021)
To be able to travel to Europe and find the love of his life, Sam Ali, a Syrian refugee, accepts to have his back tattooed by one of the most sulfurous contemporary artist; becoming that way a precious work of art.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStillwater (2021)
Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison, who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngels in the Snow (2015)
The affluent, yet troubled Montgomery family hits the road for a special Christmas in the mountains.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Was a Stranger (2025)
A Syrian doctor and her daughter flee Aleppo, setting off a chain of events that binds five strangers together. A smuggler, a soldier, a poet, and a coast guard captain collide in a crisis that tests their courage, their choices, and their humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCairo Station (1958)
Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed with Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. While she jokes with him about a possible relationship, she is actually in love with Abu Siri, a strong and respected porter at the station who is struggling to unionize his fellow workers to combat their boss' exploitative and abusive treatment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSnow Falling on Cedars (1999)
In the 1950s, a Japanese-American fisherman is suspected of killing his neighbour at sea. For Ishmael, a local reporter, the trial strikes a deep emotional chord when he finds his ex-lover is linked to the case. As he investigates the killing, he uncovers some startling clues that lead him to a shocking discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fisherman's Daughter (1956)
Painter Wang Zijian is saved from drowning by Aying, the daughter of a fishing folk. Their relationship becomes an intimate one. When Wang's father presses him to marry his boss's daughter Du Jiazhen, he runs away in defiance. Du sows discord between the lovers and drives Aying insane. Wang returns hoping to remedy the harm done to Aying but is too late to save her from drowning herself in the sea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Sea (2002)
Wealthy, aging patriarch Thordur assembles his scattered heirs in his remote Icelandic fishing village to discuss the future of the family fishery. But bringing everyone together unleashes a storm of long-repressed dark family secrets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mapa de la geografía emocional (2024)
A reflection on love and identity with detours towards magical realism, which winks at the oral tradition of coastal populations and introduces us to Leo, a young 21-year-old sailor who revisits his relationship with Jimena after his great-aunt reminds him of his favorite myth from when he was a child: the story of the nereids.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Fishes' Recall (2018)
Aníbal, an old fisherman, returns to Nueva Venecia, a village of stilt houses in the heart of the Ciénaga del Magdalena, on the Colombian Caribbean coast, from which he escaped many years ago after a massacre. Sick and exhausted, he has to reconnect with his past in order to reconcile with his memory of pain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pomor True Story (1987)
Andrian and Ivan are two brother-sailors who worked in Arkhangelsk as a carved artists. And so, at the end of August they decided, like loons, to go to the island. When the men were already far away in the sea, they moored to a small patch of land and began to have a dinner. After the dinner they decided to go to sleep and go home in the morning. But they could not even imagine what disaster awaited them in the night.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Moko Jumbie (2017)
Amidst the ruins of a coconut plantation in rural Trinidad, Asha, a displaced girl seeking her roots, is drawn to a young fisherman who shares her desire to look beyond.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
White Mane (1953)
In the south of France, in a vast plain region called the Camargue, lives White Mane, a magnificent stallion and the leader of a herd of wild horses too proud to let themselves be broken by humans. Only Folco, a young fisherman, manages to tame him. A strong friendship grows between the boy and the horse, as the two go looking for the freedom that the world of men won’t allow them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSound from the Sea (2022)
Huda, a fish thief in fish auction, decided to leave his home since his mother passed away in addition to abusive behavior of his alcoholic father. Harsh life in the auction site made Huda want to achieve his dream to catch the golden fish in sea. Sri, a fish collector, is close with Huda and considers the ‘golden fish’ as a myth. However, Huda is becoming more confident that if he were to catch the golden fish, his life would be happier. In the end, Huda must choose whether to survive in the fish auction site with little hope or go to find the golden fish in desperation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Ladder (2022)
In the twilight of his life, an aging Alaskan fisherman must decide between accepting old age or restarting his life with a mysterious new scientific procedure. The original short film that the 2025 feature film is based on.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Cruel Sea and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Cruel Sea?
The closest matches to The Cruel Sea are The River (1984), The Pirates of Somalia (2017) and The Old Man and the Sea (1958). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Cruel Sea?
Start with The River (1984), the closest match to The Cruel Sea.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Cruel Sea?
The Pirates of Somalia (2017), rated 6.8/10 by 267 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Cruel Sea?
I Was a Stranger (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Cruel Sea chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Cruel Sea, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.