Movies like Soul Survivor (1995)
The best movies like Soul Survivor (1995) are Shottas (2002), The Harder They Come (1972) and Fast Girls (2012). If Soul Survivor hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedShottas (2002)7.7/10 from 390 votes
- NewestPlay Dirty (2025)Released 2025
Shottas (2002)
A raw urban drama about two friends raised on the dangerous streets of Kingston, Jamaica. Biggs and Wayne take on the "Shotta" way of life to survive. As young boys, they begin a life of crime, eventually moving to the US where they begin a ruthless climb from the bottom. They remain bound to each other by their shottas loyalty as they aggressively take control of the Jamaican underworld.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Harder They Come (1972)
Ivanhoe Martin arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, looking for work and, after some initial struggles, lands a recording contract as a reggae singer. He records his first song, "The Harder They Come," but after a bitter dispute with a manipulative producer named Hilton, soon finds himself resorting to petty crime in order to pay the bills. He deals marijuana, kills some abusive cops and earns local folk hero status. Meanwhile, his record is topping the charts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCass (2008)
The incredible true story of how an orphaned Jamaican baby, adopted by an elderly white couple and brought up in an all white area of London, became one of the most feared and respected men in Britain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGhost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
A Black hitman who models after the samurai of old finds himself targeted for death by the mob.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBabylon (1980)
Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBob Marley: One Love (2024)
Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley overcomes adversity to become the most famous reggae musician in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBandit (2022)
After escaping a Michigan prison, a charming career criminal assumes a new identity in Canada and goes on to rob a record 59 banks and jewellery stores while being hunted by a rogue task force. Based on the true story of The Flying Bandit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThings to Come (1936)
The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlay Dirty (2025)
Expert thief Parker gets a shot at a major heist, but to pull it off he and his team must outsmart a South American dictator, the New York mob, and the world's richest man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYardie (2018)
Jamaica, 1973. When a young boy witnesses his brother’s assassination, a powerful Don gives him a home. But 10 years later, when he’s sent to London, his past catches up to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisO.G. (2018)
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisShelter (2014)
Hannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Silent Partner (1978)
Toronto, Canada. A few days before Christmas, Miles Cullen, a bored teller working at a bank branch located in a shopping mall, accidentally learns that the place is about to be robbed when he finds a disconcerting note on one of the counters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdulthood (2008)
After serving six years for killing his schoolmate, a young man learns that someone is out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Dad (2025)
Little Intan was used as collateral for a debt by her mother, who was forced to become a migrant worker and leave her behind. But from that moment, her life took a turn. Dedi, the debt collector — a stranger who initially just came to collect — ended up becoming an important figure in Intan’s life. Together with Tatang, they grew into an unusual kind of “family.”
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Made in Hong Kong (1997)
After his father abandons the family, Autumn Moon drops out of high school and becomes a debt collector for the Triads. On his rounds, he meets and falls in love with Ping, a daughter of one of the Triads' clients. She is suffering from a fatal kidney disease, and to pay for her medical expenses, Autumn Moon takes an assassination contract, but as he slips deeper into the criminal underworld, he's haunted by a figure from his past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUshijima the Loan Shark (2012)
Mirai Suzuki (Yuko Oshima) becomes responsible for her mother's debt which is owed to loan shark Kaoru Ushijima (Takayuki Yamada). To begin paying off her mother's debt, Mirai begins working at a dating cafe. Meanwhile, Jun (Kento Hayashi) is the ambitious and greedy company president for an event group. To borrow money, Jun visits Kaukau Finance owned by Kaoru Ushijima.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forgive Us Our Debts (2018)
Threatened by creditors, a newly unemployed man agrees to work for a debt collector, but soon discovers his deal with the devil has unexpected costs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Christmas (2017)
On Christmas Eve, 1968, in a Scottish coastal town, a debt collector goes to work to avoid confronting his wife’s worsening psychosis at home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Brothers Karamazov (1958)
Ryevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisappeared in Winter (2015)
Daniel is a former police officer turned debt collector. Now in his late fifties, he goes about his "dirty job" without emotion or sympathy. One winter's day, he stops at a roadside parking lot and is approached by Laura, an 18-year-old young woman who asks him to drive her home. He accepts, and on the way, she offers him "her services" in exchange for money. Daniel is furious, and throws her out of his car. But his feelings of remorse and the violence of his reaction lead him to turn around and retrace his steps, only to discover that Laura has disappeared...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Girl in the Arm-Chair (1912)
Peggy Wilson has recently become an orphan and a ward of the Waston family. She’s also inherited the late Robert Wilson’s vast fortune, which puts her very much in Mr. Waston’s favor. He would like his son, Frank, to marry Peggy, but Peggy “is not his style” and “her money is no inducement”.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kaka Boss (2024)
A ruthless debt collector decides that he wants to be a singer. But can he pull off a major career change — and impress his teen daughter?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Madame Bovary (1991)
In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Soul Survivor and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Soul Survivor?
The closest matches to Soul Survivor are Shottas (2002), The Harder They Come (1972) and Fast Girls (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Soul Survivor?
Start with Shottas (2002), the closest match to Soul Survivor.
What is the highest-rated movie like Soul Survivor?
Shottas (2002), rated 7.7/10 by 390 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Soul Survivor?
Play Dirty (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Soul Survivor?
Yes: Shottas (2002), The Harder They Come (1972) and Fast Girls (2012).
How are movies similar to Soul Survivor chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Soul Survivor, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.