Movies like Race the Sun (1996)
The best movies like Race the Sun (1996) are Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995), Dutch (1991) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016). If Race the Sun hooked you with its adventure and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)7.7/10 from 263 votes
- NewestSlumberland (2022)Released 2022
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995)
Jesse becomes reunited with Willy three years after the whale's jump to freedom as the teenager tries to rescue the killer whale and other orcas from an oil spill.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDutch (1991)
To get to know his girlfriend's son, a man volunteers to pick him up from a prep school... only to learn that her son's not the nicest kid.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
Ricky is a defiant young city kid who finds himself on the run with his cantankerous foster uncle in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work together to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHomeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996)
When the pets accidentally get separated from their vacationing owners, Chance, Shadow, and Sassy navigate the mean streets of San Francisco, trying to find their home across the Golden Gate Bridge. But the road is blocked by a series of hazards, both man and beast.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFinding ʻOhana (2021)
Two Brooklyn siblings' summer in a rural Oahu town takes an exciting turn when a journal pointing to long-lost treasure sets them on an adventure, leading them to reconnect with their Hawaiian heritage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo by Two: Overboard! (2020)
Two misfit castaways struggle to reunite an unorthodox family, out-run a volcano, and negotiate a peace deal on a creaking Ark.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: Last Christmas (2014)
The Doctor and Clara face their Last Christmas. Trapped on an Arctic base, under attack from terrifying creatures, who are you going to call? Santa Claus!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSlumberland (2022)
A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSwimming with Men (2018)
A man who is suffering a mid-life crisis finds new meaning in his life as part of an all-male, middle-aged, amateur synchronised swimming team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecret Society of Second-Born Royals (2020)
A rebellious teenage princess discovers she has superhuman abilities and joins a secret society of extraordinary second-born royals tasked with protecting the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Own Love Song (2010)
A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAloha Scooby-Doo! (2005)
The Mystery Gang goes to Hawaii for the Big Kahuna of Hanahuna Surfing Contest. However, the gang and the locals find the island invaded by the vengeful Wiki Tiki spirit and his demons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020)
When his best friend Gary is suddenly snatched away, SpongeBob takes Patrick on a madcap mission far beyond Bikini Bottom to save their pink-shelled pal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Willoughbys (2020)
When the four Willoughby children are abandoned by their selfish parents, they must learn how to adapt their Old-Fashioned values to the contemporary world in order to create something new: The Modern Family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJohnny Kapahala: Back on Board (2007)
Johnny Kapahala, a teen snowboarding champion from Vermont, returns to Oahu, Hawaii, for the wedding of his hero -- his grandfather, local surf legend Johnny Tsunami -- and to catch a few famous Kauai waves. When Johnny arrives, he meets his new family including "Uncle Chris" (the 12-year-old son of his new step-grandmother) who resents the upcoming marriage. Chris's only interest is to join a mountain boarding crew led by a teenage bully. When Johnny's grandfather and his new wife open a surf shop that also caters to mountain boarders, they are soon embroiled in a turf war with a rival shop owner who wants to shut their business down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Grandmother's House We Go (1992)
When precocious twins Sarah and Julie feel like Mom is tired of them, they take off on an exciting adventure to their grandmother's house and encounter a pair of villains along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002)
Eliza and Debbie are two sisters who don't always get along. But their relationship is put to the test when Debbie's life is in danger, and Eliza might have to give up her power to talk to animals....
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRim of the World (2019)
Stranded at a summer camp when aliens attack the planet, four teens with nothing in common embark on a perilous mission to save the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)
After supervillain Shredder escapes custody, he joins forces with mad scientist Baxter Stockman and two dimwitted henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady, to unleash a diabolical plan to take over the world. As the Turtles prepare to take on Shredder and his new crew, they find themselves facing an even greater evil with similar intentions: the notorious Krang.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness (2022)
A brave young animal explorer teams up with two trusty friends to find a powerful artifact before his greedy uncle can get his paws on it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpoiled Children (1977)
Successful writer/director Bernard Rougerie is at a creative dead end and decides to isolate himself from his wife in order to complete the script for his next film. Bernard moves into an apartment building whose tenants are in the midst of a revolt against their abusive landlord. Reluctant at first, he joins their cause and then becomes involved in an affair with young, unemployed resident Anne.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Small Change (1976)
The lives of a motherless young man, who's just starting to find interest in women, and his physically abused, poverty stricken friend, are mixed with more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges most their age experience.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Thank You (2014)
Heli Valkonen is desperately in love with her husband. But Matti is just not in the mood. He is only interested in playing computer games, dressed in worn out fleece pants. For him, a shoulder massage is the highest form of intimacy. When subtle hints, nice words and fetching clothes won't help, Heli resorts in direct, and increasingly direct action - in vain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
7 Virgins (2005)
It is summertime in a blue-collar, marginal district of a city in the South of Spain. Tano, a teenager currently serving a sentence in a juvenile reform center, is given a 48-hour leave to attend his brother’s wedding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhetto-Kids (2002)
Two trouble-causing brothers, who in the second generation after World War II Germany live, are in the center of this German made for TV movie. The movie makes a subject out of their everyday lives and the helpless attempt for them to build a normal life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Maria Full of Grace (2004)
A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOnce Were Warriors (1994)
In a violent relationship, it takes a mother’s strength to save herself and her children from the man she loved. Once Were Warriors is a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInherit the Wind (1960)
Schoolteacher Bertram Cates is arrested for teaching his students Darwin's theory of evolution. The case receives national attention and one of the newspaper reporters, E.K. Hornbeck, arranges to bring in renowned defense attorney and atheist Henry Drummond to defend Cates. The prosecutor, Matthew Brady is a former presidential candidate, famous evangelist, and old adversary of Drummond.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOr (My Treasure) (2004)
Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Addicted to Love (1997)
Good-natured astronomer Sam is devastated when the love of his life leaves him for a suave Frenchman. He therefore does what every other normal dumpee would do — go to New York and set up home in the abandoned building opposite his ex-girlfriend's apartment, wait until she decides to leave her current lover, and then win her back.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Race the Sun?
The closest matches to Race the Sun are Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995), Dutch (1991) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Race the Sun?
Start with Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995), the closest match to Race the Sun.
What is the highest-rated movie like Race the Sun?
Doctor Who: Last Christmas (2014), rated 7.7/10 by 263 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Race the Sun?
Slumberland (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Race the Sun?
Yes: Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995), Dutch (1991) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016).
How are movies similar to Race the Sun chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Race the Sun, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.