Movies like Donner
The best movies like Donner are Life of Pi (2012), Paperhouse (1988) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). If Donner hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRemarkably Bright Creatures (2026)8.3/10 from 1,018 votes
- NewestRemarkably Bright Creatures (2026)Released 2026
Life of Pi (2012)
The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPaperhouse (1988)
A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poseidon Adventure (1972)
When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRemarkably Bright Creatures (2026)
Through unlikely bonds formed during night shifts at a local aquarium, Tova, an elderly widow, learns of a life-changing discovery that may bring her joy and wonder once again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGreystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)
When architect-turned-recluse Bernadette Fox goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica, her 15-year-old daughter, Bee, goes on a quest with Bernadette's husband to find her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Road Dance (2022)
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe End We Start From (2023)
As London is submerged below floodwaters, a woman gives birth to her first child. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous country seeking refuge from place to place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Land Before Time (1988)
An orphaned brontosaurus named Littlefoot sets off in search of the legendary Great Valley. A land of lush vegetation where the dinosaurs can thrive and live in peace. Along the way he meets four other young dinosaurs, each one a different species, and they encounter several obstacles as they learn to work together in order to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDinosaur (2000)
An orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs joins an arduous trek to a sancturary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Railway Children (1970)
At the dawn of the 20th century, following their father's arrest on suspicion of betraying state secrets, the three Waterbury children—Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter—move with their mother to Yorkshire, where they find themselves involved in unexpected dramas along the railway by their new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in 'the Bathtub', a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe—for a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack—temperatures rise and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Wild Things Are (2009)
Max imagines running away from his mom and sailing to a far-off land where large talking beasts—Ira, Carol, Douglas, the Bull, Judith and Alexander—crown him as their king, play rumpus, build forts and discover secret hideaways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrdinary People (1980)
Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hours (2002)
The story of three women searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Emerald Forest (1985)
For ten years, engineer Bill Markham has searched tirelessly for his son Tommy who disappeared from the edge of the Brazilian rainforest. Miraculously, he finds the boy living among the reclusive Amazon tribe who adopted him. This is when Bill's adventure truly begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoby Dick (1956)
In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBig Fish (2003)
Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLeave No Trace (2018)
A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeavenly Creatures (1994)
Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVolver (2006)
Three generations of women deal with family secrets while surviving the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition, lies and even death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCargo (2019)
Aboard a spaceship where souls of the deceased are readied for reincarnation, a lone crew member's rigid existence is disrupted by a spry new assistant.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Donnie Darko (2001)
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHotel Rwanda (2004)
Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUndercurrent (TBA)
A young man recently released from prison attempts to rebuild his life after the death of his mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Between Us (TBA)
Two friends meet and the news is given that the grandmother of one of them has died. What was supposed to be a moment of consolation ends up becoming a change of perspective on death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
And the Pain Remains (2016)
100 years since the beginning of First World War. Locality - French cemetery in Bitola. State protocol. There are deputies, ministers, ambassadors, military attaches, consuls, honorary consuls, media present - Priests - Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim. - Military band. Jean Batiste Valerie, an old man of about 77 years of age, arrives in Bitola for the first time. Tiny, petite, with thin and gray hair, arrives late at the sad ceremony held in honor of the fallen French soldiers in the First World War. According to correspondence and information from the French army, his predecessor with the same name and surname must be located somewhere nearby. The ceremony had already begun.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Mountain (2024)
Sam, a fearless young girl raised outside of her Māori culture, is determined to fulfill her mission of connecting with her mountain. She hopes it can heal her from the cancer she is battling. Along the way, she meets some misfits and new kids in town, and together they journey through a difficult route, discovering the true spirit of adventure and the magic of friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The 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 Donner?
The closest matches to Donner are Life of Pi (2012), Paperhouse (1988) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Donner?
Start with Life of Pi (2012), the closest match to Donner.
What is the highest-rated movie like Donner?
Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026), rated 8.3/10 by 1,018 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Donner?
Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Donner?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to Donner chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Donner, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.