Movies like Nights on the Road (1952)
The best movies like Nights on the Road (1952) are Easy Rider (1969), Until the End of the World (1991) and The Rain People (1969). If Nights on the Road hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCentral Station (1998)8.1/10 from 1,093 votes
- NewestOmaha (2025)Released 2025
- In GermanUntil the End of the World (1991)Also in German
Easy Rider (1969)
Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUntil the End of the World (1991)
In 1999, a woman's life is forever changed after she survives a car crash with two bank robbers, who enlist her help to take the money to a drop in Paris. On the way, she runs into another fugitive from the law — an American doctor on the run from the CIA. They want to confiscate his father's invention – a device which allows anyone to record their dreams and visions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rain People (1969)
When a housewife finds out she is pregnant, she runs out of town looking for freedom to reevaluate her life decisions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJolene (2010)
A teenage orphan spends ten years traveling to experience life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mule (2018)
Earl Stone, a man in his eighties, is broke, alone, and facing foreclosure of his business when he is offered a job that simply requires him to drive. Easy enough, but, unbeknownst to Earl, he's just signed on as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. He does so well that his cargo increases exponentially, and Earl hit the radar of hard-charging DEA agent Colin Bates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKings of the Road (1976)
Itinerant projection-equipment repairman Bruno Winter and depressed hitchhiker Robert Lander - a doctor who has just been through a break-up with his wife and a half-hearted suicide attempt - travel along the Western side of the East-German border in a repair truck, visiting worn-out movie theaters, learning to communicate across their differences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParadise Highway (2022)
A truck driver has been forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother from a deadly prison gang. With FBI operatives hot on her trail, Sally's conscience is challenged when the final package turns out to be a teenage girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThey Drive by Night (1940)
Joe and Paul Fabrini are Wildcat, or independent, truck drivers who have their own small one-truck business. The Fabrini boys constantly battle distributors, rivals and loan collectors, while trying to make a success of their transport company.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParked (2010)
Fred Daly returns to Ireland with nowhere to live but his car. Then dope-smoking 21-year-old Cathal parks beside him, and brightens up his lonely world. Encouraged by Cathal, Fred meets attractive music teacher Jules. Growing closer, these three outsiders are set on a course that will change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBraven (2018)
A logger defends his family from a group of dangerous drug runners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Honey (2016)
A restless teenager escapes her troubled home and joins a traveling crew of young drifters selling magazines across the American Midwest. Immersed in a world of reckless partying, risky hustles, and fleeting romances, she searches for freedom and belonging on the open road.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWaist Deep (2006)
An ex-convict gets tangled up with a gang after his car is hijacked with his son inside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoad to Paloma (2014)
While Native American Wolf is being pursued by the FBI for having taken the law into his own hands, when his mother was raped and killed on their reservation he crosses paths with Cash, a down and out musician who is coping with the end of his marriage. An unlikely friendship develops, as they ride together towards the Teton mountain range, where Wolf will spread his mothers ashes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCoffy (1973)
After her younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin, a nurse sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlow (2001)
The story of how George Jung, together with the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar, established the billion-dollar cocaine empire in the United States in the 1970s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Baker (2023)
A quiet, stoic man, lives a monk-like existence in self-imposed exile. When his estranged son is killed in a drug deal gone bad, he is left to look after a granddaughter he never knew existed, and he is forced back into a life he tried to put behind him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRiver of Grass (1995)
Cozy, a dissatisfied housewife, meets Lee at a bar. A drink turns into a home break-in, and a gunshot sends them on the run together, thinking they've committed murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Doors (1991)
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wizard (1989)
A boy and his brother run away from home and hitch cross-country, with help from a girl they meet, to compete in the ultimate video game championship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnockin' on Heaven's Door (1997)
Two young men, Martin and Rudi, both suffering from terminal cancer, get to know each other in a hospital room. They drown their desperation in tequila and decide to take one last trip to the sea. Drunk and still in pajamas they steal the first fancy car they find, a 60's Mercedes convertible. The car happens to belong to a bunch of gangsters, which immediately start to chase it, since it contains more than the pistol Martin finds in the glove box.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wages of Fear (1953)
In a run-down South American town, four men are paid to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin into the jungle through to the oil field. Friendships are tested and rivalries develop as they embark upon the perilous journey.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEnd of the World (1995)
A fugitive man and woman (Kawase, Kawana) come to an island to retrieve their son (Iwasaki), who the woman has given to a foster family, but the son's foster parents are policemen (Ito)... The suspense surrounding the retrieval of the son is made unusual by the location shooting on the vast and desolate Miyakejima Island and leads to an allegorical drama about the essential desires of human beings. This was Kawase Yota's first appearance in a Zeze film, and he has since become a regular actor. The title of the film at the time of its first release was Sukebe Tenkomori.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lost Highway (1997)
A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Restless Ones (1967)
One night, after a disastrous traffic accident, witnesses reported seeing a woman behind the wheel who fled the scene. In reality, it was four teenagers who stole a Peugeot 404 for a spin. Later, one of them got out and began hitchhiking, while the others were involved in a fatal accident after being chased by the police shortly afterward. The police continue their intensive search for the fourth teenager.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Transamerica (2005)
A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCentral Station (1998)
An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStranger Than Paradise (1984)
New York layabout Willie forms an unexpected bond with his young Hungarian cousin Eva when she pays him a surprise visit. Later, Eva moves in with their aunt in Cleveland, and Willie takes his best friend Eddie to see her—a visit that culminates in a strange, eventful trip to Florida.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Straight Story (1999)
Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a severe stroke. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Nights on the Road?
The closest matches to Nights on the Road are Easy Rider (1969), Until the End of the World (1991) and The Rain People (1969). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Nights on the Road?
Start with Easy Rider (1969), the closest match to Nights on the Road.
What is the highest-rated movie like Nights on the Road?
Central Station (1998), rated 8.1/10 by 1,093 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Nights on the Road?
Omaha (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Nights on the Road?
Yes: Until the End of the World (1991), Kings of the Road (1976) and Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997).
How are movies similar to Nights on the Road chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Nights on the Road, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.