Survival Movies
by PeterJordan | created - 22 Jun 2021 | updated - 22 Jun 2021 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Sands of the Kalahari (1965)
Approved | 119 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
After a small aircraft crashes in the Kalahari Desert, one of the seven passengers decides that his survival chances would increase if he eliminates the other men in the group.
Director: Cy Endfield | Stars: Stanley Baker, Stuart Whitman, Susannah York, Harry Andrews
Votes: 1,494
2. Soylent Green (1973)
PG | 97 min | Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A nightmarish futuristic fantasy about the controlling power of big corporations and an innocent cop who stumbles on the truth.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors
Votes: 70,550 | Gross: $7.92M
3. Adrift (I) (2018)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
A true story of survival, as a young couple's chance encounter leads them first to love, and then on the adventure of a lifetime as they face one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin, Jeffrey Thomas, Elizabeth Hawthorne
Votes: 61,757 | Gross: $31.45M
4. Open Water 2: Adrift (2006)
R | 94 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror
When a group of friends fail to lower the ladder of their boat, they find themselves stranded in the surrounding waters and struggle to survive.
Director: Hans Horn | Stars: Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight Jr., Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis
Votes: 19,931
5. Against the Sun (2014)
PG | 100 min | Biography, Drama, War
A WWII pilot, bombardier, and radioman find themselves adrift on a lifeboat without food or water after being forced to ditch their plane during a scouting mission.
Director: Brian Peter Falk | Stars: Garret Dillahunt, Tom Felton, Jake Abel, Nadia Parra
Votes: 6,472
6. All Is Lost (2013)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.
Director: J.C. Chandor | Star: Robert Redford
Votes: 83,812 | Gross: $6.26M
7. Arctic (2018)
PG-13 | 98 min | Adventure, Drama
A man stranded in the Arctic after a plane crash must decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his makeshift camp or to embark on a deadly trek through the unknown.
Director: Joe Penna | Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Maria Thelma Smáradóttir, Tintrinai Thikhasuk
Votes: 58,325 | Gross: $2.41M
8. Back from Eternity (1956)
Approved | 97 min | Adventure, Drama
After a commercial plane crash lands in a South American jungle, the passengers and pilots must patch up the engines and escape the cannibal-infested area.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger, Phyllis Kirk
Votes: 1,635
9. Five Came Back (1939)
Passed | 75 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A plane has engine trouble while flying over a jungle inhabited by cannibals.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine
Votes: 2,358
10. Buried (2010)
R | 95 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Paul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.
Director: Rodrigo Cortés | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, José Luis García-Pérez, Robert Paterson, Stephen Tobolowsky
Votes: 168,493 | Gross: $1.03M
11. Crawl (I) (2019)
R | 87 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A young woman, while attempting to save her father during a category 5 hurricane, finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators.
Director: Alexandre Aja | Stars: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark, Ross Anderson
Votes: 93,993 | Gross: $39.01M
12. A Cry in the Wild (1990)
PG | 82 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Adapted from Gary Paulsen's novel "Hatchet", a boy crash-lands in Canada's bear country and survives with a hatchet his divorced mother gave him.
Director: Mark Griffiths | Stars: Jared Rushton, Ned Beatty, Pamela Sue Martin, Stephen Meadows
Votes: 1,164 | Gross: $1.49M
13. The Deep (2012)
Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Drama
Based on actual events, a fisherman tries to survive in the freezing ocean after his boat capsizes off the south coast of Iceland.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Stefán Hallur Stefánsson, Joi Johannsson, Thora Bjorg Helga
Votes: 5,723
14. The Descent (2005)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
Director: Neil Marshall | Stars: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder
Votes: 246,849 | Gross: $26.02M
15. The Edge (1997)
R | 117 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An intellectual billionaire and two other men struggle to band together and survive after getting stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with a blood-thirsty Kodiak Bear hunting them down.
Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Elle Macpherson, Harold Perrineau
Votes: 79,010 | Gross: $27.78M
16. Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Survivors of a plane crash in the Mongolian desert work together to build a new plane.
Director: John Moore | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Miranda Otto, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson
Votes: 56,744 | Gross: $21.01M
17. The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Approved | 142 min | Adventure, Drama
After an oil company plane crashes in the Sahara, the survivors are buoyed with hope by one of the passengers, an airplane designer who plans for them to build a flyable plane from the wreckage.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 22,408
18. The Lord of the Flies
Drama | Pre-production
A group of boys are deserted on an island and descend into savagery, losing their humanity along the way.
Director: Luca Guadagnino
19. Inferno (I) (2016)
PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
When Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Dr. Sienna Brooks and they race across Europe together against the clock to foil a deadly global plot.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, Ben Foster
Votes: 189,675 | Gross: $34.34M
20. Inferno (1953)
Approved | 83 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A tough, hard-driving business tycoon suffers a broken leg and is left to die in the desert by his scheming wife and her greedy lover.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: Robert Ryan, Rhonda Fleming, William Lundigan, Larry Keating
Votes: 1,799
21. Iron Will (1994)
PG | 108 min | Adventure, Family
A brave young man is thrust into adulthood as he and his courageous team of sled dogs embark on a grueling and treacherous cross-country marathon.
Director: Charles Haid | Stars: Mackenzie Astin, Kevin Spacey, David Ogden Stiers, August Schellenberg
Votes: 9,400 | Gross: $21.01M
22. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
GP | 108 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by the Crow tribe and proves to be a match for their warriors in single combat on the early frontier.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Will Geer, Delle Bolton, Josh Albee
Votes: 34,977 | Gross: $47.74M
23. Lifeboat (1944)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, War
Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix
Votes: 31,167
24. Man in the Wilderness (1971)
GP | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Left for dead after a bear attack, a fur-trapper recuperates and pursues his former companions through dangerous Indian territory.
Director: Richard C. Sarafian | Stars: Richard Harris, John Huston, Henry Wilcoxon, Percy Herbert
Votes: 3,477
25. Moon (2009)
R | 97 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
Director: Duncan Jones | Stars: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott, Rosie Shaw
Votes: 376,641 | Gross: $5.01M
26. My Side of the Mountain (1969)
G | 100 min | Adventure, Family
As young Sam Gribley runs away he learns about nature.
Director: James B. Clark | Stars: Ted Eccles, Theodore Bikel, Tudi Wiggins, Paul Hébert
Votes: 1,173
27. The Naked Prey (1965)
Approved | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
During the 1800s, a safari guide, two elephant hunters and their crew run into trouble with the natives in the South African veld when they refuse to offer gifts to the tribesmen.
Director: Cornel Wilde | Stars: Cornel Wilde, Gert van den Bergh, Ken Gampu, Patrick Mynhardt
Votes: 5,876
28. No Blade of Grass (1970)
R | 96 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
An environmental catastrophe destroys civilization. Led by father John and mother Ann, the Custance clan sets out on a quest for safety in a savage world that may just end up turning them into the very thing they are fleeing.
Director: Cornel Wilde | Stars: Nigel Davenport, Jean Wallace, John Hamill, Lynne Frederick
Votes: 2,058 | Gross: $0.35M
29. Endless Night (2015)
104 min | Drama
Nobody Wants the Night is about the relentless icy landscape that separates and draws these two women together during the long, tense wait for the man they both love in such different ways.
Director: Isabel Coixet | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Rinko Kikuchi, Gabriel Byrne, Orto Ignatiussen
Votes: 1,636
30. The Omega Man (1971)
PG | 98 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Dr Robert Neville has developed an experimental vaccine which makes him the only immune survivor of a biological catastrophe. A gang of homicidal mutants blame science for their condition and attempt to kill him.
Director: Boris Sagal | Stars: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Paul Koslo
Votes: 34,061 | Gross: $8.72M
31. On the Beach (1959)
Approved | 134 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
After a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins
Votes: 14,408 | Gross: $11.00M
32. Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
Passed | 93 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A family leaves Los Angeles for a camping trip just before hydrogen bombs destroy the city. In the midst of the chaos, the father must fight to keep his family alive along the highway.
Director: Ray Milland | Stars: Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel
Votes: 4,819
33. Rescue Dawn (2006)
PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Biography, War
A U.S. fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, Zach Grenier
Votes: 110,790 | Gross: $5.49M
34. Sanctum (2011)
R | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An underwater cave diving team experiences a life-threatening crisis during an expedition to the unexplored and least accessible cave system in the world.
Director: Alister Grierson | Stars: Rhys Wakefield, Allison Cratchley, Christopher James Baker, Richard Roxburgh
Votes: 57,204 | Gross: $23.07M
35. The Savage Is Loose (1974)
R | 114 min | Adventure, Drama
A husband, wife and their son are stranded on a remote island with no way off; as the son grows older, sexual tensions emerge.
Director: George C. Scott | Stars: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, John David Carson, Lee Montgomery
Votes: 440 | Gross: $0.84M
36. The Secret Land (1948)
Passed | 71 min | Documentary
The 1946-1947 U.S. military expedition to explore and map Antarctica, led by Admiral Richard E. Byrd, is presented from its planning stages through its successful completion.
Stars: Robert Montgomery, Robert Taylor, Van Heflin, James Forrestal
Votes: 429
37. Seven Days from Now (1957)
100 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
A ship's officer finds himself in command of a lifeboat full of survivors of a sunken luxury liner.
Director: Richard Sale | Stars: Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd
Votes: 1,928
38. The Shallows (2016)
PG-13 | 86 min | Action, Drama, Horror
A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Blake Lively, Óscar Jaenada, Angelo Josue Lozano Corzo, Joseph Salas
Votes: 143,389 | Gross: $55.12M
39. The Snow Walker (2003)
PG | 103 min | Adventure, Drama
A pilot and his passenger struggle for survival after crashing in the Arctic tundra.
Director: Charles Martin Smith | Stars: Barry Pepper, Annabella Piugattuk, James Cromwell, Kiersten Warren
Votes: 11,366
40. Soylent Green (1973)
PG | 97 min | Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A nightmarish futuristic fantasy about the controlling power of big corporations and an innocent cop who stumbles on the truth.
Director: Richard Fleischer | Stars: Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors
Votes: 70,550 | Gross: $7.92M
41. Stranded (2007)
Unrated | 130 min | Documentary
For the first time ever, survivors of the famous 1972 Andes plane crash tell in their own words their harrowing story of survival.
Director: Gonzalo Arijon | Stars: Jose Algorta, Roberto Canessa, Alfredo Delgado, Daniel Fernandez
Votes: 1,477 | Gross: $0.09M
42. Survival Quest (1988)
R | 96 min | Adventure, Thriller
A group on an Outward Bound-type adventure runs across a paramilitary team with a sadistic leader who has harmful intentions towards anyone who may find themselves in their path.
Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: Lance Henriksen, Mark Rolston, Steve Antin, Michael Allen Ryder
Votes: 1,221
43. Teenage Cave Man (1958)
Approved | 65 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
A young man defies tribal laws and searches for answers. The result of his quest yields knowledge of past generations.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Robert Vaughn, Darah Marshall, Leslie Bradley, Frank DeKova
Votes: 1,723
44. Tremors (1990)
PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Horror
Natives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.
Director: Ron Underwood | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross
Votes: 150,463 | Gross: $16.67M
45. Walkabout (1971)
GP | 100 min | Adventure, Drama
Two city-bred siblings are stranded in the Australian Outback, where they learn to survive with the aid of an Aboriginal boy on his "walkabout": a ritual separation from his tribe.
Director: Nicolas Roeg | Stars: Jenny Agutter, David Gulpilil, Luc Roeg, John Meillon
Votes: 27,340 | Gross: $0.02M
46. The Way Back (I) (2010)
PG-13 | 133 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Siberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Dragos Bucur
Votes: 121,992 | Gross: $2.70M
47. The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
A miner trapped in a cave-in resurfaces, and upon discovering mankind has been wiped out in a nuclear holocaust, sets out to find other survivors.
Director: Ranald MacDougall | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer
Votes: 3,539
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