Movies like The Missing Bus (2011)
The best movies like The Missing Bus (2011) are The Imposter (2012), The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2014) and My Mom Jayne (2025). If The Missing Bus hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
The Missing Bus
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFor Sama (2019)8.2/10 from 323 votes
- NewestShipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026)Released 2026
The Imposter (2012)
In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2014)
Darwin meets Hitchcock in this documentary. Directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have created a parable about the search for paradise, set in the brutal yet alluring landscape of the Galapagos Islands, which interweaves an unsolved 1930s murder mystery with stories of present day Galapagos pioneers. A gripping tale of idealistic dreams gone awry, featuring voice-over performances by Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger, and Gustaf Skarsgard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Mom Jayne (2025)
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (2026)
A father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity, and explores the most powerful technology humanity has ever created... and what's at stake if we get it wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisS4: The Bob Lazar Story (2026)
Over 35 years after Bob Lazar's revelations, this documentary exposes secrets of a facility the government still denies. Featuring Lazar's testimony, recreations, and new evidence, it reopens a case that continues to spark global curiosity
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAtlantis Rising (2017)
James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici go on an adventure to find the lost city of Atlantis by using Greek philosopher Plato as a virtual treasure map.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026)
Never-before-seen footage and survivor accounts trace the 2012 shipwreck of a luxury cruise and the disaster that ensued, in this immersive documentary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFor Sama (2019)
A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSecrets of the Saqqara Tomb (2020)
This documentary follows a team of local archaeologists excavating never before explored passageways, shafts, and tombs, piecing together the secrets of Egypt’s most significant find in almost 50 years in Saqqara.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVoyeur (2017)
Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
SnoozefestMovies like thisGilbert (2017)
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCover-Up (2025)
He's devoted his career to uncovering stories the powerful want buried. From My Lai to Abu Ghraib, dig into the life's work of journalist Seymour Hersh.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoys State (2020)
This raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas coming together to build a representative government from the ground up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)
Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing. His passion for open access ensnared him in a legal nightmare that ended with the taking of his own life at the age of 26.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisElstree 1976 (2015)
A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Curious Birth of Benjamin Button (2009)
A documentary about the making of David Fincher's 2008 film THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Virtually every element in the evolution of the Fincher's film is documented here, from the project's attachment to numerous other directors during the 1990s, to its shoot in 2006 and 2007 in New Orleans, to its complex, CGI-intensive postproduction process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStolen: Heist of the Century (2025)
Antwerp, 2003. A gang of thieves rob the impenetrable Diamond Center. Who was behind one of the world's biggest heists - and how did they pull it off?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Captains (2011)
The Captains is a feature-length documentary film written and directed by William Shatner. The film follows Shatner as he interviews the other actors who have portrayed starship captains in the Star Trek franchise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove Majestic (2018)
A look at the origins, history and conspiracies behind the "Majestic 12", a clandestine group of military and corporate figureheads charged with reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTales of the Grim Sleeper (2014)
When Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested in South Central Los Angeles in 2010 as the suspected murderer of a string of young black women, police hailed it as the culmination of 20 years of investigations. Four years later documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield took his camera to the alleged killer’s neighborhood for another view.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Never Said Goodbye To You Varosha (2013)
Varosha, the only city on the world without people, the loneliest city... Varosha is a province in Cyprus that is closed with fences and unpopulated since 1974.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
True Legends - Episode 3: Holocaust of Giants (2017)
In this explosive episode, Steve Quayle, Timothy Alberino, and Tom Horn pick up the trail of the Anasazi Indians in the Desert Southwest of the United States. Their groundbreaking investigation reveals a dark and gruesome secret concerning the sudden annihilation of this mysterious tribe, and a cover-up of gigantic proportions. What they discover will demand the re-writing of American history! Join Timothy Alberino as he explores the enigmatic island of Sardinia in the Western Mediterranean Sea where the skeletal remains of giants are still being extracted from the tens of thousands of megalithic towers and tombs all over the island, and hear the jaw-dropping testimony of those who were hired by the government to dig them out. Discover why Sardinia was ground-zero for the man-eating Canaanite giants that ravished the Promised Land before their expulsion by “Joshua the Robber”.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Mediterranean Stories (2000)
Pictures of the Mediterranean made with bread, oil and wine. In one meal the history, geography, economy, climate, culture and people of the Mediterranean. Close up of threshing floors, threshing floors, mills. Dietary habits, production methods, daily routines together with the natural and built environment make up the cultural body of the most interesting, perhaps, man-made environment in history. A culture that runs as a commonplace even in seemingly different worlds. The Mediterranean emerges in a sea of convergence and meeting without, however, ignoring the dynamics of the different.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
From Atatürk to Erdoğan: Building a Nation (2019)
Turkey's history has been shaped by two major political figures: Mustafa Kemal (1881-1934), known as Atatürk, the Father of the Turks, founder of the modern state, and the current president Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan, who apparently wants Turkey to regain the political and military pre-eminence it had as an empire under the Ottoman dynasty.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Akten des Missbrauchs (2026)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Playing Hide and Seek (2020)
The documentary follows the story of two brothers who were sexually abused by the same priest of Polish Catholic Church.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Rumi: The Dance of Love (2008)
A dramatised documentary about the life of Rumi, a Persian mystical poet whose images of universal love and divine mystery continue to be celebrated more than 700 years after his death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Turkish Sultan Mehmed V Resad Visiting Bitola (1911)
Newsreel of the visit of sultan Mehmed V Resad to Bitola.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Cropsey (2010)
Realizing the urban legend of their youth has actually come true, two filmmakers delve into the mystery surrounding five missing children and the real-life boogeyman linked to their disappearances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQuiet Killing (2018)
An examination of the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, the film explores the reasons why Indigenous women are uniquely vulnerable to violence by juxtaposing the stories of some missing or murdered women with the personal testimonies of women who are doing activism on the issue and women who have personally survived incidents of violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Missing Bus?
The closest matches to The Missing Bus are The Imposter (2012), The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2014) and My Mom Jayne (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Missing Bus?
Start with The Imposter (2012), the closest match to The Missing Bus.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Missing Bus?
For Sama (2019), rated 8.2/10 by 323 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Missing Bus?
Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Missing Bus chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Missing Bus, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.