Movies like The Promise of the Third Line (1988)
The best movies like The Promise of the Third Line (1988) are I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), A Million Little Pieces (2019) and Fire with Fire (1986). If The Promise of the Third Line hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedFive Feet Apart (2019)8.2/10 from 6,026 votes
- NewestCreed III (2023)Released 2023
- In JapaneseJosee, the Tiger and the Fish (2003)Also in Japanese
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Million Little Pieces (2019)
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFire with Fire (1986)
A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Silent Twins (2022)
June and Jennifer Gibbons are twins from the only Black family in a small town in Wales in the 1970s and '80s. Feeling isolated from the community, the pair turn inward and reject communication with everyone but each other, retreating into their own fantasy world of inspiration and adolescent desires. After a spree of vandalism, the girls are sentenced to Broadmoor, an infamous psychiatric hospital, where they face the choice to separate and survive or die together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGracie (2007)
A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAround the Fire (1998)
Simon is an intelligent and privileged young man whose family expects him to become a Princeton graduate. Crying out for attention from his reserved and cool hearted family, Simon commits numerous petty crimes and is soon sent away to boarding school where he befriends a "Deadhead," adopts the "hippie" lifestyle and dabbles in many drugs in his search for acceptance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCreed III (2023)
After dominating the boxing world, Adonis Creed has thrived in his career and family life. When a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, Damian Anderson, resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he is eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. The face-off between former friends is more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian — a fighter with nothing to lose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaurice (1987)
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJosee, the Tiger and the Fish (2003)
A part-time employee in a mahjong parlour runs across a young woman, who is unable to walk, in baby carriage. He becomes friends with the woman and begins to feel enamoured with her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Forest of Love (2019)
A con man and a would-be filmmaking crew force themselves into the lives of two grief-scarred young women. But nothing is as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKidulthood (2006)
A day in the life of a group of troubled 15-year-olds growing up in west London.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFive Feet Apart (2019)
Seventeen-year-old Stella spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control — all of which get put to the test when she meets Will, an impossibly charming teen who has the same illness. There's an instant flirtation, though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace that attraction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRiding in Cars with Boys (2001)
In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Waterdance (1992)
Author Joel Garcia breaks his neck while hiking, and finds himself in a rehab center with Raymond, an exaggerating ladies man, and Bloss, a racist biker. Considerable tension builds as each character tries to deal with his new found handicap and the problems that go with it, especially Joel, whose lover Anna is having as difficult a time as he is.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThirteen (2003)
When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins to take a heavy toll on her and her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeautiful Boy (2018)
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeing Charlie (2016)
Charlie is a troublesome 18-year-old who breaks out of a youth drug treatment clinic, but when he returns home to Los Angeles, he's given an intervention by his parents and forced to go to an adult rehab. There, he meets a beautiful but troubled girl, Eva, and is forced to battle with drugs, elusive love and divided parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Souvenir (2019)
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReal Women Have Curves (2002)
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOffender (2012)
Justice needs to be served at Britain's most notorious young offenders institute.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Promise of the Third Line?
The closest matches to The Promise of the Third Line are I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), A Million Little Pieces (2019) and Fire with Fire (1986). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Promise of the Third Line?
Start with I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), the closest match to The Promise of the Third Line.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Promise of the Third Line?
Five Feet Apart (2019), rated 8.2/10 by 6,026 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Promise of the Third Line?
Creed III (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Promise of the Third Line?
Yes: Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2003) and The Forest of Love (2019).
How are movies similar to The Promise of the Third Line chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Promise of the Third Line, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



















