Movies like Back to the Primitive (1911)
The best movies like Back to the Primitive (1911) are True Spirit (2023), Anne of the Indies (1951) and Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor (2013). If Back to the Primitive hooked you with its adventure, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)7.4/10 from 17,832 votes
- NewestTrue Spirit (2023)Released 2023
True 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 adventure
Worth the HypeMovies 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 adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Night of the Doctor (2013)
The Doctor struggles to help the only remaining crewmember of a crashing gunship. The people of the planet below offer to save his life, but at a dear cost to the life he's lived for hundreds of years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGold (2022)
In the not-too-distant future, two drifters traveling through the desert stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever found and the dream of immense wealth and greed takes hold. They hatch a plan to excavate their bounty, with one man leaving to secure the necessary tools while the other remains with the gold. The man who remains must endure harsh desert elements, ravenous wild dogs, and mysterious intruders, while battling the sinking suspicion that he has been abandoned to his fate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPirates of the Caribbean: Tales of the Code: Wedlocked (2011)
Wenches Scarlett and Giselle fix each other up for their wedding, in which they would each marry their groom. Upon realizing that both their grooms were the same man, Jack Sparrow, the two wenches found themselves in an auction led by the Auctioneer. This short film serves as a prequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl, and explains just why Jack Sparrow's boat the Jolly Mon was seen sinking at the beginning of the whole story; why the wenches were so upset with him; and how Cotton lost his tongue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Away (2020)
Before Alice went to Wonderland, and before Peter became Pan, they were brother and sister. When their eldest brother dies in a tragic accident, they each seek to save their parents from their downward spirals of despair until finally they are forced to choose between home and imagination, setting the stage for their iconic journeys into Wonderland and Neverland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisTales of the Black Freighter (2009)
A mariner survives an attack from the dreaded pirates of the Black Freighter, but his struggle to return home to warn it has a horrific cost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Gold (2011)
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJack Hunter and the Quest for Akhenaten's Tomb (2008)
Adventurer Jack Hunter sets off in pursuit of a legendary tomb, meeting dangerous old adversaries, and even more dangerous old flames, along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Captain Jack Sparrow’s got a blood debt to pay: he owes his soul to the legendary Davy Jones, ghastly Ruler of the Ocean Depths. To escape eternal servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman, ever-crafty Jack must track down the still-beating heart of Jones. But he won’t do it alone: Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann are drawn back into another one of his perilous quests—assuming they can evade execution for aiding a pirate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBabylon 5: The Lost Tales - Voices in the Dark (2007)
This instalment of Babylon 5 is in two parts: the first is about an entity that has possessed a worker. Colonel Lochley prevents a priest from performing an exorcism. The host is returned to Earth. The second has Galen trying to dupe President Sheridan into assassinating the future Centauri emperor to stop him from attacking Earth in around 30 years time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark of the Sun (1968)
A band of mercenaries led by Captain Curry travel through war-torn Congo across deadly terrain, battling rival armies, to steal $50 million in uncut diamonds. But infighting, sadistic rebels and a time lock jeopardize everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPirates (1986)
The adventures of pirate Captain Red and his first mate Frog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRobin Hood (1922)
The dashing Earl of Huntingdon excels in courtly life and jousting before King Richard departs for the Crusades. While away, Richard's treacherous brother, Prince John, seizes power and inflicts brutal tyranny on the civilians. Huntingdon transforms into the heroic outlaw Robin Hood, gathers his 'merry men', and battles to restore the true king and protect lovely Lady Marian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChina Seas (1935)
Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret cargo: a fortune in British gold. That's not the only risky cargo he carries; both his fiery mistress and his refined fiancee are aboard!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTarzan and His Mate (1934)
Harry Holt returns to Africa with his friend Martin Arlington to head up a large ivory expedition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTimescape (1992)
Before they can complete renovations on their new country inn, a widowed father and his young daughter are visited by a strange group of tourists. He soon makes a chilling discovery: they are disaster junkies from the future who visit the past to witness history's greatest catastrophes—and his small town is their next stop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
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 adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Black Pirate (1926)
A nobleman vows to avenge the death of his father by the hands of pirates. To this end, he infiltrates the pirate band; Acting in character, he single-handedly captures a merchant vessel, but things are complicated when he finds that there is a beautiful young woman of royal blood aboard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Race for Life (1928)
Rinty becomes the best pal of juvenile "human" hero Danny O'Shea. Their devotion to one another is proven beyond doubt when Danny is threatened by kidnappers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
The Witch of the Everglades (1911)
White Cloud, the war chief of the Seminoles of the Everglades, in the beginning of the last century, starts a war on the "whites," for the brutal and unprovoked murder of his brother. The first victim, Seth Thomas, a young settler, is killed, and Dora, his wife, becomes insane as she discovers the death of her husband and the loss of her two-year-old baby, carried away by the squaw of White Cloud. Dora has been left for dead by the Indians. Fifteen years elapse and Dora has been haunted by one idea, to kill every Seminole she could. She is called the "Witch of the Everglades," and is an object of superstitious terror to the Indians.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Who Will Marry Mary? (1913)
Six part adventure serial starring Mary Fuller as the sought after heroine. Episodes: 1) A Proposal From The Duke; 2) A Proposal From The Spanish Don; 3) A Proposal From The Sculptor; 4) A Proposal From Nobody; 5) A Proposal Deferred; 6) A Proposal From Mary
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
The Texan (1920)
Tex Benton, riding across the country, sees a turtle, catches a jack rabbit and tests out the old fable of the tortoise and the hare; when the rabbit wins, Tex vows to model his behavior on that style. In a border town, he rescues an Indian, "Bat," and the two become friends. In Wolfville, Tex enters a rodeo. Meanwhile, a stalled Eastern train carries Alice Marcum, the girl Tex decides he wants. Tex competes with an Easterner for the girl's attentions, but Tex, the "hare," loses to the Eastern tenderfoot, the "tortoise." Tex then concludes that he is not the marrying kind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
A Man of Action (1923)
Wealthy Bruce MacAllister, goaded by his fiancée, Helen, into proving that he is a man of action rather than a pampered youth tells his estate administrator, Eugene Preston, that he is going east for a meeting. Instead, Bruce dons a disguise and infiltrates the San Francisco underworld. Mistaken for master criminal "The Chicago Kid", he finds himself leading the gang in a robbery of his own fortune in diamonds. Discovering Eugene's intention to steal the jewels for himself he engineers it so the loot changes hands many times. Getting wise, Helen summons the police, the criminals are apprehended, and she sees Bruce in a new light.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Fourflusher (1928)
Young and ambitious but so far unsuccessful shoe clerk Andy Whittaker meets June Allen and tries to impress her by pretending to be an important businessman, she discovers his deception but before too long because of complications and luck good fortune finds its way to the pair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Bill's Opportunity (1918)
Bill Zuursnik works as a shop assistant in a department store. His wife wants him to go into the oil business. He convinces his wife that he is doing just that, while in fact he is working in the lingerie department while his boss is away. He does so well in this department that he is promoted. When his wife finds out, she is furious at first, but after the initial shock she is quite happy with his promotion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Lodge in the Wilderness (1926)
Jim Wallace, a young engineer, is engaged by Hammond, manager of an estate in the Northwest, to build flumes for a logging camp, but Donovan, the superintendent, dislikes him and places numerous obstacles in his way. Virginia Coulson, owner of the estate, and her maid Dot arrive, and when Hammond proposes to Virginia, she refuses his declaration in favor of Jim. Later, when Donovan is found murdered, suspicion points to Jim, who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hammond gets evidence on the murderer, Goofus, a half wit, and plans to use it to force Virginia to marry him; Goofus wounds Hammond and, seeing he has not killed him, starts a forest fire. Jim, who has escaped from prison with the aid of his friend, Buddy, rescues Virginia from the burning lodge; Goofus confesses to the murder, and Jim is freed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Under the Black Eagle (1928)
A German Shepherd Dog and the people he loves are entangled in World War One.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Mills of the Gods (1909)
A woman in love with an unsuccessful author tries to convince a publisher to accept his work.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Back to the Primitive and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Back to the Primitive?
The closest matches to Back to the Primitive are True Spirit (2023), Anne of the Indies (1951) and Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Back to the Primitive?
Start with True Spirit (2023), the closest match to Back to the Primitive.
What is the highest-rated movie like Back to the Primitive?
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), rated 7.4/10 by 17,832 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Back to the Primitive?
True Spirit (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Back to the Primitive?
Yes: True Spirit (2023), Anne of the Indies (1951) and Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor (2013).
How are movies similar to Back to the Primitive chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Back to the Primitive, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.