Movies like Badlands (1973)
The best movies like Badlands (1973) are Thieves Like Us (1974), Running on Empty (1988) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967). If Badlands hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTaxi Driver (1976)8.1/10 from 13,993 votes
- NewestCarolina Caroline (2026)Released 2026
Thieves Like Us (1974)
Three criminals escape from prison and embark on a robbery spree across USA. Along the way, one of them falls in love while they plan a final heist before going their separate ways.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRunning on Empty (1988)
The Popes are a family who haven't been able to use their real identity for years. In the late sixties, the parents set a weapons lab afire in an effort to hinder the government's Vietnam war campaign. Ever since then, the Popes have been on the run with the authorities never far behind. Their survival is threatened when their eldest son falls in love with a girl, and announces his wish to live his life on his own terms.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBonnie and Clyde (1967)
In the 1930s, bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow, and together they start a violent crime spree throughout the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sugarland Express (1974)
Married small-time crooks Lou-Jean and Clovis Poplin lose their baby to the state of Texas and resolve to do whatever it takes to get him back. Lou-Jean gets Clovis out of jail, and the two steal their son from his foster home, in addition to taking a highway patrolman hostage. As a massive dragnet starts to pursue them across Texas, the couple become unlikely folk heroes and even start to bond with the captive policeman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974)
Down-on-their-luck racers Larry and Deke steal from a supermarket manager to buy a car that will help them advance their racing chances. Their escape does not go as planned when Larry's one-night stand, Mary, tags along for the ride.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBreathless (1983)
Jesse, a small-time criminal, high-tails it to Los Angeles to rendezvous with a French exchange student. Stealing a car and accidentally killing a highway patrolman, he becomes the most wanted fugitive in L.A.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrue Romance (1993)
Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNatural Born Killers (1994)
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWild at Heart (1990)
Young lovers Sailor and Lula hit the road to start a new life together away from the wrath of Lula’s deranged, disapproving mother, who has hired a team of hitmen to cut the lovers’ surreal honeymoon short.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wild One (1953)
The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club ride into the small California town of Wrightsville, eager to raise hell. Brooding gang leader Johnny Strabler takes a liking to Kathie, the daughter of the local lawman, as another club rolls into town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGuncrazy (1992)
California teen Anita Minteer struggles in the face of an absentee mother, her mom's abusive boyfriend, Rooney, and a lack of respect from her classmates. This all changes when a pen-pal school project connects her with convict Howard. Anita secures Howard's parole and violently squares off against Rooney after he rapes her. Soon enough, the gun-crazy teen is on the run with Howard, with his parole officer in pursuit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisTaxi Driver (1976)
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisIn Cold Blood (1967)
After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRumble Fish (1983)
Absent-minded street thug Rusty James struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days of gang warfare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Honeymoon Killers (1970)
Martha Beck, an obese nurse who is desperately lonely, joins a "correspondence club" and finds a romantic pen pal in Ray Fernandez. Martha falls hard for Ray, and is intent on sticking with him even when she discovers he's a con man who seduces lonely single women, kills them and then takes their money. She poses as Ray's sister and joins Ray on a wild killing spree, fueled by her lingering concern that Ray will leave her for one of his marks.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGun Crazy (1950)
Bart Tare, an ex-Army man who has a lifelong fixation with guns, meets a kindred spirit in sharpshooter Annie Starr and goes to work at a carnival alongside her. After upsetting the carnival owner who lusts after Starr, they both get fired. Soon, at Starr's behest, the couple embarks on a crime spree for cash.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Picture Show (1971)
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKalifornia (1993)
A journalist duo go on a tour of serial killer murder sites with two companions, unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaper Moon (1973)
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBuster and Billie (1974)
Dimwitted but sweet high school girl of easy virtue and the most popular boy in the school share an improbable romance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Robert Dupea spends his days doing various odd jobs, drinking and womanizing until an encounter with his sister makes him revisit his past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCarolina Caroline (2026)
A young woman, desperate to leave her small town, runs away with a charming con man, embarking on a crime and passion-filled journey through the Southeast to find her estranged mother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDown in the Valley (2005)
On a trip to the beach, a teenage girl named Tobe meets a charismatic stranger named Harlan, who dresses like a cowboy and claims to be a former ranch hand. The pair feel an instant attraction and begin a relationship, but her father, a lawman, is suspicious of her lover.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisShangri-La Suite (2016)
Karen and Jack met in a mental hospital and fell in love. They set out to follow what Jack thinks is his destiny: killing Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisNormal Life (1996)
Chris Anderson and his wife Pam live a fairly normal life until Chris loses his job on the police force and secretly turns to robbing banks to make his wife's dreams come true. Upon discovering his secret, she joins his deadly crime wave and together they terrorize an unsuspecting suburban town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoxcar Bertha (1972)
"Boxcar" Bertha Thompson, a transient woman in Arkansas during the violence-filled Depression of the early '30s, meets up with rabble-rousing union man "Big" Bill Shelly and the two team up to fight the corrupt railroad establishment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Grissom Gang (1971)
Violent crime caper set in 1930s Kansas in which a gang kidnap an heiress and attempt to recover a ransom. However, the scheme is jeopardised when the leader falls in love with their beautiful captive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThelma & Louise (1991)
Taking a break from their dreary lives, close friends Thelma and Louise embark on a short weekend trip that ends in unforeseen incriminating circumstances. As fugitives, both women rediscover the strength of their bond and their newfound resilience.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDays of Heaven (1978)
In 1916, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Panic in Needle Park (1971)
A stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who finds in her relationship with Bobby the stability she craves.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Badlands?
The closest matches to Badlands are Thieves Like Us (1974), Running on Empty (1988) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Badlands?
People who watched Badlands most often go on to Thieves Like Us (1974), Running on Empty (1988) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
What is the highest-rated movie like Badlands?
Taxi Driver (1976), rated 8.1/10 by 13,993 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Badlands?
Carolina Caroline (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Badlands?
Yes: Thieves Like Us (1974), Running on Empty (1988) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
How are movies similar to Badlands chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Badlands, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.