Movies like Unlocking the Cage (2016)
The best movies like Unlocking the Cage (2016) are The Cove (2009), Grizzly Man (2005) and Project Nim (2011). If Unlocking the Cage hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Salt of the Earth (2014)8.1/10 from 700 votes
- NewestThe Python Hunt (2026)Released 2026
The Cove (2009)
The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGrizzly Man (2005)
Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisProject Nim (2011)
From the team behind Man on Wire comes the story of Nim, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human. What we learn about his true nature - and indeed our own - is comic, revealing and profoundly unsettling.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Octopus Teacher (2020)
After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean at the tip of Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity. Visiting her den and tracking her movements for months on end he eventually wins the animal’s trust and they develop a never-before-seen bond between human and wild animal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Animal People (2019)
An unprecedented journey inside a radical animal rights campaign that shook multinational corporations to their core and led to the first-ever indictment of six young American activists for terrorism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Work (2017)
Set entirely inside Folsom Prison, The Work follows three men during four days of intensive group therapy with convicts, revealing an intimate and powerful portrait of authentic human transformation that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlackfish (2013)
Notorious killer whale Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of three individuals, including a top killer whale trainer. Blackfish shows the sometimes devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2003)
A homeless musician finds meaning in his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Salt of the Earth (2014)
During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history: international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes: a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisJane (2017)
Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWon't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
For more than thirty years, and through his television program, Fred Rogers (1928-2003), host, producer, writer and pianist, accompanied by his puppets and his many friends, spoke directly to young children about some of life's most important issues.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDolores (2017)
Dolores Huerta bucks 1950s gender conventions by starting the country's first farm worker's union with fellow organizer Cesar Chavez. What starts out as a struggle for racial and labor justice, soon becomes a fight for gender equality within the same union she is eventually forced to leave. As she wrestles with raising 11 children, three marriages, and is nearly beaten to death by a San Francisco tactical police squad, Dolores emerges with a vision that connects her new found feminism with racial and class justice.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
13th (2016)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKoko: The Gorilla Who Talks to People (2016)
Documentary telling the extraordinary story of Koko, the only 'talking' gorilla in the world, and her lifelong relationship with Penny Patterson. Project Koko started as a PhD project to teach sign language to a baby gorilla, but as Koko began to communicate with Penny, an intense bond formed between them. Penny has now been with Koko for over 40 years and claims Koko can reveal fresh insights into the workings of an animal's mind. Koko's unique life with Penny has been filmed every step of the way. Over 2,000 hours of footage chart the most dramatic moments - Penny's battle to keep Koko from being taken back to the zoo in which she was born, Penny's clash with academic critics who doubted her claims and the image of Koko mourning the death of her kitten.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Case Against 8 (2014)
A behind-the-scenes look inside the case to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage. Shot over five years, the film follows the unlikely team that took the first federal marriage equality lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Dinosaur 13 (2014)
Two years after the discovery of "Sue," the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, government officials seize the remains and claim that "Sue" was stolen from federal land.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Mercury (2025)
A passionate conservationist makes a cruel pact to save endangered seabirds from extinction on an inhospitable island, alone. In the end, it's a victory for the birds, but at what price?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Primate (1974)
Realist documentarian Frederick Wiseman hones his lens on the inmates of the Yerkes Primate Research Center in Atlanta, GA. A representative scientist explains the aims and outcomes of the organization, describing the mating habits and relationships of the animals.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Tyke Elephant Outlaw (2015)
This is the gripping and emotionally charged story of Tyke, a circus elephant that went on a rampage in Honolulu in 1994, killed her trainer in front of thousands of spectators and died in a hail of gunfire. Her break for freedom - filmed from start to tragic end - traumatised a city and ignited a global battle over the use of animals in the entertainment industry. Looking at what made Tyke snap, the film goes back to meet the people who knew her and were affected by her death - former trainers and handlers, circus industry insiders, witnesses to her rampage, and animal rights activists for whom Tyke became a global rallying cry. Like the classic animal rebellion film King Kong, Tyke is the central protagonist in a tragic but redemptive drama that combines trauma, outrage, insight and compassion. Ultimately, this moving documentary raises fundamental questions about our deep and mysterious connection to other species.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Lucy the Human Chimp (2021)
The profound story of Lucy Temerlin, a female chimpanzee raised as human from birth in a domestic environment, and Janis Carter, the woman who took on the seemingly impossible task of giving her a new life in the wild.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Heart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall (2025)
Dr. Jane Goodall connected humanity and nature in unprecedented ways. In this deeply personal interview, she shares her final message with the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Becoming Cousteau (2021)
Adventurer, filmmaker, inventor, author, unlikely celebrity and conservationist: For over four decades, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his explorations under the ocean became synonymous with a love of science and the natural world. As he learned to protect the environment, he brought the whole world with him, sounding alarms more than 50 years ago about the warming seas and our planet’s vulnerability. In BECOMING COUSTEAU, from National Geographic Documentary Films, two-time Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus takes an inside look at Cousteau and his life, his iconic films and inventions, and the experiences that made him the 20th century’s most unique and renowned environmental voice — and the man who inspired generations to protect the Earth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Ivory Game (2016)
Wildlife activists and investigators put their lives on the line to battle the illegal African ivory trade, in this suspenseful on-the-ground documentary.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMan on Wire (2008)
On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rigged between New York's World Trade Center twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. After nearly an hour of performing on the wire, 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan, he was arrested. This fun and spellbinding documentary chronicles Philippe Petit's "highest" achievement.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Farm: Angola, USA (1998)
Documentary depicting day to day life in Angola Prison mostly from an inmate's perspective. Interviews are with several inmates including one with a life sentence who is about to die.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016)
More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. This is a film about the prison in which we never see an actual penitentiary. The film unfolds a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from an anti-sex-offender pocket park in Los Angeles, to a congregation of ex-incarcerated chess players shut out of the formal labor market, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Come See Me in the Good Light (2025)
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Python Hunt (2026)
Every year, the Florida government invites the general public to compete in an invasive python removal contest in the Everglades. For ten nights, an eclectic group of hunters confront the dangerous terrain, nocturnal creatures and their own desires.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Deliver Us from Evil (2006)
Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Unlocking the Cage?
The closest matches to Unlocking the Cage are The Cove (2009), Grizzly Man (2005) and Project Nim (2011). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Unlocking the Cage?
People who watched Unlocking the Cage most often go on to The Cove (2009), Grizzly Man (2005) and Project Nim (2011).
What is the highest-rated movie like Unlocking the Cage?
The Salt of the Earth (2014), rated 8.1/10 by 700 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Unlocking the Cage?
The Python Hunt (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Unlocking the Cage?
Yes: The Cove (2009), Grizzly Man (2005) and Project Nim (2011).
How are movies similar to Unlocking the Cage chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Unlocking the Cage, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.