Movies like Pillars of the Sky (1956)
The best movies like Pillars of the Sky (1956) are The Last Wagon (1956), Flaming Star (1960) and Geronimo: An American Legend (1993). If Pillars of the Sky hooked you with its western, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDances with Wolves (1990)7.8/10 from 4,909 votes
- NewestDead Men (2018)Released 2018
The Last Wagon (1956)
When a handful of settlers survive an Apache attack on their wagon train they must put their lives into the hands of Comanche Todd, a white man who has lived with the Comanches most of his life and is wanted for the murder of three men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlaming Star (1960)
Pacer Burton, a young man of mixed Kiowa and white heritage, is caught between two worlds as conflict erupts between Native Americans and white settlers in Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeronimo: An American Legend (1993)
The Apache Indians have reluctantly agreed to settle on a US Government approved reservation. Not all the Apaches are able to adapt to the life of corn farmers. One in particular, Geronimo, is restless. Pushed over the edge by broken promises and necessary actions by the government, Geronimo and thirty or so other warriors form an attack team which humiliates the government by evading capture, while reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRio Conchos (1964)
Two Army officers, an alcoholic ex-Confederate soldier and a womanizing Mexican travel to Mexico on a secret mission to prevent a megalomaniacal ex-Confederate colonel from selling a cache of stolen rifles to a band of murderous Apaches.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRio Grande (1950)
Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke is posted on the Texas frontier to defend settlers against depredations of marauding Apaches. Col. Yorke is under considerable stress by a serious shortage of troops of his command. Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jeff Yorke, is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGarden of Evil (1954)
A trio of American adventurers marooned in rural Mexico are recruited by a beautiful woman to rescue her husband from Apaches.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApache (1954)
Following the surrender of Geronimo, Massai, the last Apache warrior is captured and scheduled for transportation to a Florida reservation. On the way he manages to escape and heads for his homeland to win back his girl and settle down to grow crops. His pursuers have other ideas though.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisComanche Station (1960)
A white man trades with the Comanche for the release of a female stranger and the pair cross paths with three outlaws who have their eyes on the handsome reward for bringing her home and Comanche on the warpath.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHombre (1967)
John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Indians, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFort Apache (1948)
Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Way West (1967)
In the mid-19th century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western US. Tadlock is a highly principled and demanding taskmaster who is as hard on himself as he is on those who have joined his wagon train. He clashes with one of the new settlers, Lije Evans, who doesn't quite appreciate Tadlock's ways. Along the way, the families must face death and heartbreak and a sampling of frontier justice when one of them accidentally kills a young Indian boy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDances with Wolves (1990)
Wounded Civil War soldier John Dunbar tries to commit suicide—and becomes a hero instead. As a reward, he's assigned to his dream post, a remote junction on the Western frontier, and soon makes unlikely friends with the local Sioux tribe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCanyon Passage (1946)
In 1850s Oregon, a businessman is torn between his love of two very different women and his loyalty to a compulsive gambler friend who goes over the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBilly Two Hats (1974)
After a bank robbery, runaway Scottish outlaw Arch Deans and his young half-breed Kiowa partner Billy Two Hats develop a father-son relationship, but Sheriff Henry Gifford is determined to capture or kill them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
SnoozefestMovies like thisBroken Arrow (1950)
Indian scout Tom Jeffords is sent out to stem the war between the American settlers and Apaches in the late 1870s Arizona. He learns that the Indians kill only to protect themselves, or out of retaliation for white atrocities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe White Buffalo (1977)
In this strange western version of Moby Dick, Wild Bill Hickok hunts a white buffalo he has seen in a dream. Hickok moves through a variety of uniquely authentic western locations - dim, filthy, makeshift taverns; freezing, slaughterhouse-like frontier towns and beautifully desolate high country - before improbably teaming up with a young Crazy Horse to pursue the creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoss Nigger (1975)
Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDecision at Sundown (1957)
A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirecreek (1968)
A peace-loving, part-time sheriff in the small town of Firecreek must take a stand when a gang of vicious outlaws takes over his town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDavy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955)
Legends (and myths) from the life of famed American frontiersman Davy Crockett are depicted in this feature film edited from television episodes. Crockett and his friend George Russel fight in the Creek Indian War. Then Crockett is elected to Congress and brings his rough-hewn ways to the House of Representatives. Finally, Crockett and Russell journey to Texas and the last stand at the Alamo.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOld Shatterhand (1964)
Renegades trying to get the army to abandon their fort get the Indians addicted to whiskey, then convince them to attack and drive out the soldiers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisManitou's Shoe (2001)
Abahachi, Chief of the Apache Indians, and his blood brother Ranger maintain peace and justice in the Wild West. One day, Abahachi needs to take up a credit from the Shoshone Indians to finance his tribe's new saloon. Unfortunately Santa Maria, who sold the saloon, betrays Abahachi, takes the money and leaves. Soon, the Shoshones are on the warpath to get their money back, and Abahachi is forced to organize it quickly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDay of the Evil Gun (1968)
Returning home after disappearing three years ago, former gunslinger Lorn Warfield finds that an Apache raiding party has kidnapped his wife and children. Though he has renounced violence, he now takes up his gun and joins forces with his neighbor, Owen Forbes. Complicating matters, Forbes is engaged to Warfield's wife, who believed her husband was dead. As they pursue the Apaches, the two men are joined by an Indian trader, Jimmy Noble.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Major Dundee (1965)
During the last winter of the Civil War, cavalry officer Amos Dundee leads a contentious troop of Army regulars, Confederate prisoners and scouts on an expedition into Mexico to destroy a band of Apaches who have been raiding U.S. bases in Texas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTreasure of Silver Lake (1962)
Fred Engel's father is murdered by Colonel Brinkley in order to acquire a treasure map, however the Colonel only acquires half of it, the other half as held by Mrs. Butler. Discovering the scene of the crime, Old Shatterhand and Winnetou help Fred bring his father's murderer to justice and locate the treasure of Silver Lake.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRampage at Apache Wells (1965)
'The Oilprince' is an unscrupulous businessman. He looks forward to a lucrative deal with the "Western Arizona Bank'. He sells the bank oil wells at Shelly Lake that do actually not exist. The Oilprince learns that the colonists would like to settle at Shelly Lake. So The Oilprince exchanges the scout of the settlers by one of his minions to give them another route. But soon The Oilprince has to recognize that he has not counted on Winnetou, the righteous leader of the Apaches, and his blood brother Old Surehand.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPor mis pistolas (1968)
Fidencio Borer, an apothecary in a village on the northern border of Mexico, discovers some old title of a mine in Arizona and decides to claim them. Trying to cross the border is a border guard intercepted by exaggerating in the line of duty. On the way is captured by a tribe of Apaches and is about to be burned alive, but thanks to the Great Head Horse Lying having toothache and learns that the prisoner it can heal, ordered his release on the condition that the cure. Fidencio would take the wheel and gets the eternal friendship of the Chief apache.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDead Men (2018)
Jesse Struthers and his brother Jake find themselves on the run after a band of men begin murdering their family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967)
The Apaches are on the warpath and the Army must defend them. Murphy's mission is to get a shipment of rifles, but it's stolen by greedy white traders with the help of mutinous soldiers
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
The Battle at Apache Pass (1952)
Major Jim Colton is a sympathetic leader who has a working relationship with Apache leader Cochise. Colton is undermined by corrupt and politically ambitious Indian agent Neil Baylor who sets up a false attack, and the abduction of a local farmer's son. While Colton is away investigating the matter, Baylor convinces Lieutenant Bascom that Cochise's band is to blame, and incites him to lead an expedition against the Apache band to return the boy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both western
Like Pillars of the Sky and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Pillars of the Sky?
The closest matches to Pillars of the Sky are The Last Wagon (1956), Flaming Star (1960) and Geronimo: An American Legend (1993). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Pillars of the Sky?
Start with The Last Wagon (1956), the closest match to Pillars of the Sky.
What is the highest-rated movie like Pillars of the Sky?
Dances with Wolves (1990), rated 7.8/10 by 4,909 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Pillars of the Sky?
Dead Men (2018) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Pillars of the Sky?
Yes: The Last Wagon (1956), Flaming Star (1960) and Geronimo: An American Legend (1993).
How are movies similar to Pillars of the Sky chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Pillars of the Sky, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.