Movies like The Old Man and the Sea (1990)
The best movies like The Old Man and the Sea (1990) are Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003), Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006) and Collision Earth (2011). If The Old Man and the Sea hooked you with its action and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThey Called Him Bulldozer (1978)6.9/10 from 360 votes
- NewestDead of Winter (2025)Released 2025
Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003)
Mitch Buchannon, believed to have died in a boating accident survived and only has amnesia, he has been recovering in a Los Angeles hospital. His new fiancée, Allison Ford, resembles his old lover, Lt. Stephanie Holden who died years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)
Despite scientist Nathan's warnings, his boss continues an experiment meant as publicity for his satellite firm: exploding an asteroid. Instead it splits, and the major piece, the size of Iceland, changes course to earth. It is deflected but so close that it shift our course closer to the sun, causing rapid extreme heating, hopefully only mid-term. Nathan warns his sister, TV journalist Carly, and she her lover, police detective Tom. He brings his unruly daughter Kim, her ex-con lover C.J. and her mother, nurse Bonnie, when Nathan offers a flight to a friend's Arctic weather station. Tom takes charge of a dangerous trip to the airport, as everywhere on earth things catch fire and people fight for water, transport and sheer looting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCollision Earth (2011)
A huge solar flare blasts Mercury out of it's orbit and provides it with an intense magnetic field and it's on collision course for Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRedemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004)
Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNormal (2003)
A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn Fire (2023)
Inspired by true and harrowing events, an ordinary man finds his world suddenly torn apart as devastating wildfires rip through the surrounding countryside. With precious moments ticking by, he must flee with his son and pregnant wife if they have any hope of surviving the rapid forces of mother nature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon (1997)
Jack London's classic story from 1903 about Buck, a dog kidnapped from his home in California and taken to the Yukon where he is mistreated until a prospector discovers him and relates to his situation. Although the two are bonded, Buck yearns to run free with the wild dogs in the wilderness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirt (2018)
In search of a lifeline for his struggling off road racing team, a man takes on a young car thief looking for a second chance, but as their worlds collide, they must struggle to forge a successful alliance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Finds You In Sugarcreek (2014)
Will a mysterious stranger's past wreak havoc on a quiet Amish community after they've opened their doors -- and hearts -- to him and his son?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSound of Christmas (2016)
Lizzie is a young piano teacher working at a music school while trying to save enough money for a Steinway piano. The school is gearing up for their major Christmas fundraiser and she has committed much of her time to plan the event. One afternoon, she meets Brad who takes an interest in her playing and asks if she will teach his uninterested teenage daughter. She begins to break through to the young girl, and sparks begin to fly with Brad, but she is shocked to find out that his interest is not solely in her playing, but in the property that houses the music school. She sets out to save the school and the event, but can she work things out with Brad?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohnny Tsunami (1999)
A Hawaiian teenage surfer shows off his skills when he takes to the snow slopes in Vermont.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJungle Run (2021)
A brother and sister's journey into the jungle to find their missing father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisJack Hunter and the Star of Heaven (2009)
Jack Hunter pursues his arch nemesis Littman across ancient Europe, intent on thwarting his attempt to salvage a deadly artefact.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Witch's Family (2011)
A young witch visits her cousin in a small town during a heated mayoral election race. Her kind-hearted cousin, the town’s beloved “good witch” and newlywed with two teenage step-kids, is running for office, but must keep her family from falling apart when their visitor uses her magic to put them—and the whole town—under her bitter spell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Wrinkle in Time (2003)
Meg and Charles Wallace are aided by Calvin and three interesting women in the search for their father who disappeared during a government experiment. Their travels take them around the universe to a place unlike any other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWWE Money in the Bank 2018 (2018)
It will take place on June 17, 2018, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. It will be the ninth event under the Money in the Bank chronology.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWWE WrestleMania X-Seven (2001)
WrestleMania X-Seven was the seventeenth annual WrestleMania PPV and was presented by Snickers Cruncher. It took place on April 1, 2001 at the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas. The event was the first WrestleMania held in the state of Texas. A record-breaking attendance for the Reliant Astrodome of 67,925 grossed US$3.5 million. The main event was a No Disqualification match between Steve Austin and The Rock for the WWF Championship. The main matches on the undercard featured Triple H versus The Undertaker, the second Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the WWF Tag Team Championship, and Vince McMahon versus Shane McMahon in a Street Fight. With WWE's acquisition of long-time competitor WCW and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin joining forces with storied rival Mr. McMahon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRoko and Cicibela (1978)
A poor fisherman and his girlfriend live in a small boat under an open sky for decades. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
In the 1950s, a Japanese-American fisherman is suspected of killing his neighbour at sea. For Ishmael, a local reporter, the trial strikes a deep emotional chord when he finds his ex-lover is linked to the case. As he investigates the killing, he uncovers some startling clues that lead him to a shocking discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fisherman's Daughter (1956)
Painter Wang Zijian is saved from drowning by Aying, the daughter of a fishing folk. Their relationship becomes an intimate one. When Wang's father presses him to marry his boss's daughter Du Jiazhen, he runs away in defiance. Du sows discord between the lovers and drives Aying insane. Wang returns hoping to remedy the harm done to Aying but is too late to save her from drowning herself in the sea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
They Called Him Bulldozer (1978)
The "Bulldozer", a former football star, is now working as a fisherman. As a group of street-people arranges a football match against the local Armybase, he is asked to be their trainer. His boat was damaged by a submarine and he currently has no work, so he agrees.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sea (2002)
Wealthy, aging patriarch Thordur assembles his scattered heirs in his remote Icelandic fishing village to discuss the future of the family fishery. But bringing everyone together unleashes a storm of long-repressed dark family secrets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mapa de la geografía emocional (2024)
A reflection on love and identity with detours towards magical realism, which winks at the oral tradition of coastal populations and introduces us to Leo, a young 21-year-old sailor who revisits his relationship with Jimena after his great-aunt reminds him of his favorite myth from when he was a child: the story of the nereids.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Fishes' Recall (2018)
Aníbal, an old fisherman, returns to Nueva Venecia, a village of stilt houses in the heart of the Ciénaga del Magdalena, on the Colombian Caribbean coast, from which he escaped many years ago after a massacre. Sick and exhausted, he has to reconnect with his past in order to reconcile with his memory of pain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pomor True Story (1987)
Andrian and Ivan are two brother-sailors who worked in Arkhangelsk as a carved artists. And so, at the end of August they decided, like loons, to go to the island. When the men were already far away in the sea, they moored to a small patch of land and began to have a dinner. After the dinner they decided to go to sleep and go home in the morning. But they could not even imagine what disaster awaited them in the night.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Moko Jumbie (2017)
Amidst the ruins of a coconut plantation in rural Trinidad, Asha, a displaced girl seeking her roots, is drawn to a young fisherman who shares her desire to look beyond.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dead of Winter (2025)
A widowed fisherwoman, travelling alone through snowbound northern Minnesota, interrupts the kidnapping of a teenage girl. Hours from the nearest town and with no phone service, she realizes that she is the young girl's only hope.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Old Man and the Sea?
The closest matches to The Old Man and the Sea are Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003), Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006) and Collision Earth (2011). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Old Man and the Sea?
Start with Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003), the closest match to The Old Man and the Sea.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Old Man and the Sea?
They Called Him Bulldozer (1978), rated 6.9/10 by 360 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Old Man and the Sea?
Dead of Winter (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Old Man and the Sea?
Yes: Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003), Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006) and Collision Earth (2011).
How are movies similar to The Old Man and the Sea chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Old Man and the Sea, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.