Movies like The Shadow Line (1973)
The best movies like The Shadow Line (1973) are Girl in the Box (2016), TalhotBlond (2012) and I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017). If The Shadow Line hooked you with its drama and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLong Way North (2015)7.4/10 from 203 votes
- NewestNot Without Hope (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchLong Way North (2015)Also in French
Girl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
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 thisI Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)
Despite scientist Nathan's warnings, his boss continues an experiment meant as publicity for his satellite firm: exploding an asteroid. Instead it splits, and the major piece, the size of Iceland, changes course to earth. It is deflected but so close that it shift our course closer to the sun, causing rapid extreme heating, hopefully only mid-term. Nathan warns his sister, TV journalist Carly, and she her lover, police detective Tom. He brings his unruly daughter Kim, her ex-con lover C.J. and her mother, nurse Bonnie, when Nathan offers a flight to a friend's Arctic weather station. Tom takes charge of a dangerous trip to the airport, as everywhere on earth things catch fire and people fight for water, transport and sheer looting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLong Way North (2015)
In 1892 Saint Petersburg, when her explorer grandfather's failure to return from his latest expedition brings dishonour to her aristocratic family, a resilient teenager runs away to follow in his trail in search of his famed ship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sea Wolf (1941)
Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBilly Budd (1962)
Billy is an innocent, naive seaman in the British Navy in 1797. When the ship's sadistic master-at-arms is murdered, Billy is accused and tried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrue 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuddenly (2023)
Ben and Laura are a passionate but volatile couple who embark on a round-the-world sailing adventure to give their relationship a new start. During their trip, they decide to explore a vast deserted island which they discover off the coast of Chile. Caught in a violent storm, they shelter in an abandoned whaling station for the night but wake up the next morning to find their boat has disappeared. Stranded in a hostile environment with no means of communication, dwindling supplies and winter approaching they must work together in a life and death battle for survival, that will challenge their feelings and change their relationship forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
SnoozefestMovies like thisAnne of the Indies (1951)
After buccaneer captain Anne Providence spares Pierre LaRochelle and recruits him into her pirate crew, their growing attraction is tested when Captain Blackbeard reveals LaRochelle's true identity as a former French navy officer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLord Jim (1965)
After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2000.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisI Am David (2003)
A 12-year-old boy manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own, through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark, and a compass to help get him there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLongitude (2000)
Parallel stories: 18th century Harrison builds the marine chronometer for safe navigation at sea; 20th century Gould is obsessed with restoring it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Un reietto delle isole (1980)
TV-adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Outcast of the Islands".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Glass Menagerie (1966)
An aging Southern Belle complicates life for her ambitious son and crippled daughter because of her own warped views of what life should be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The King and I (1956)
Widowed Welsh mother Anna Leonowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLord Jim (2002)
The play depicts the circumstances of the crash of an old steamer carrying Mohammedan pilgrims and Jim's attempts to rehabilitate and atone for his guilt years ago.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
In the White City (1983)
Fed up with the sea, Paul, a Swiss mechanic working in the noisy bowels of a merchant ship, lands in Lisbon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA High Wind in Jamaica (1965)
In 1870, a Jamaican colonial family sends its children to Britain for proper schooling, but their ship is taken over by pirates, who become fond of the kids.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood Alley (1955)
An American Merchant Marine captain, rescued from a Chinese Communist jail by local villagers, is "shanghaied" into transporting the entire village to Hong Kong on an ancient paddle steamer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Navy Comes Through (1942)
A U.S. Navy crew aboard a merchant marine ship battle Nazis.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Morituri (1965)
A German living in India during World War II is blackmailed by the English to impersonate an SS officer on board a cargo ship leaving Japan for Germany carrying a large supply of rubber for tyres. His mission is to disable the scuttling charges so the captain cannot sink the ship if they are stopped by English warships.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Shadow Line?
The closest matches to The Shadow Line are Girl in the Box (2016), TalhotBlond (2012) and I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Shadow Line?
Start with Girl in the Box (2016), the closest match to The Shadow Line.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Shadow Line?
Long Way North (2015), rated 7.4/10 by 203 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Shadow Line?
Not Without Hope (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Shadow Line?
Yes: Long Way North (2015), Suddenly (2023) and In the White City (1983).
How are movies similar to The Shadow Line chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Shadow Line, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.