Best movies like The Emerald Forest
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
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. And that's when Bill's adventure truly begins. For his son is now a grown tribesman who moves skillfully through this beautiful-but-dangerous terrain, fearful only of those who would exploit it. And as Bill attempts to "rescue" him from the savagery of the untamed jungle, Tommy challenges Bill's idea of true civilization and his notions about who needs rescuing.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: retro, disturbing, anthropological, exciting, atmospheric, rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Best tv shows and movies like The Emerald Forest (1985):
Similar in 86%
Amazon (1990)
Plot Summary:
Widowed and broke Finnish businessman Kari takes his two teenage daughters with him to Brazil. A bush pilot introduces him to the idea of gold mining in the jungle, but a beautiful and educated local woman warns him about the possible consequences to the rain forest. Kari has mixed feelings about the project, until an accident puts him in the care of a local Indian tribe.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 548
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA, Finland, Brazil, France, Canada, Germany, UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: semi serious, independent film
Similar in 76%
Slave Coast (1987)
Plot Summary:
A fearsome 19th century bandit, Cobra Verde cuts a swath through Brazil until he arrives at the sugar plantation of Don Octávio Countinho. Not knowing that his new guest is the notorious bandit and impressed by his ruthless ways, Don Octávio hires Cobra Verde to oversee his slaves. But when Cobra Verde impregnates Don Octávio’s three daughters, the incensed plantation owner exiles the outlaw to Africa where he is expected to reopen the slave trade. Following his trans-Atlantic journey, Cobra Verde exploits tribal conflicts to commandeer an abandoned fortress and whips an army of naked warriors into a frenzied bloodlust as he vies for survival.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: West Germany, Ghana
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, meditative, harsh, intense, serious, captivating, suspenseful, sad, realistic
Similar in 78%
Medicine Man (1992)
Plot Summary:
An eccentric scientist working for a large drug company is working on a research project in the Amazon jungle. He sends for a research assistant and a gas chromatograph because he's close to a cure for cancer. When the assistant turns out to be a "mere woman," he rejects her help. Meanwhile the bulldozers get closer to the area in which they are conducting research, and they eventually learn to work together, and begin falling in love.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: entertaining, exciting, anamorphic, philosophical, action adventure, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, romantic, road movie
Similar in 79%
Where the River Runs Black (1986)
Plot Summary:
An orphaned boy who was raised in the Amazon jungle is brought back to civilization by a priest who knows his father.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 508
Genere: Adventure
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
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Similar in 80%
Beyond Rangoon (1995)
Plot Summary:
Patricia Arquette stars as American widow Laura Bowman, a young doctor who's unwittingly drawn into political turmoil while vacationing in Burma in the late 1980s, in this fictionalized drama based on actual events. Bowman initially left San Francisco with her sister (Frances McDormand) in an attempt to escape painful memories of her husband and son's violent deaths. But her fight to escape to Thailand could prove just as harrowing.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: suspense, inspirational, touching, emotional, intense, realistic, suspenseful, thought provoking, anamorphic, exciting
Similar in 75%
Let's Get Harry (1986)
Plot Summary:
Harry Burck has been kidnapped by South American terrorists, and when the US Government refuses to intervene, Harry's friends decide to take matters into their own hands!.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, sexy, thought provoking, feel good, humorous, entertaining, splatter, visually appealing, complex
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Similar in 79%
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)
Plot Summary:
Martin and Hazel Quarrier are small-town fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians. Their remote mission was previously run by the Catholics, before the natives murdered them all. They are sent by the pompous Leslie Huben, who runs the missionary effort in the area but who seems more concerned about competing with his Catholic 'rivals' than in the Indians themselves. Hazel is terrified of the Indians while Martin is fascinated. Soon American pilot Lewis Moon joins the Indian tribe but is attracted by Leslie's young wife, Andy. Can the interaction of these characters and cultures, and the advancing bulldozers of civilization, avoid disaster?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Brazil
Duration: 189 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, thought provoking, touching, captivating, bleak, realistic, independent film, serious, contemplative, sexy
Similar in 88%
A Breed Apart (1984)
Plot Summary:
A conservationist and a widow meet a mountain climber hired to steal bald-eagle eggs.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, psychological, retro, independent film, rough, realistic
Similar in 84%
River of Death (1989)
Plot Summary:
An adventurer (Hamilton) decides to go in search of the lost city in the Amazon jungle. A motley crew of other people with reasons of their own decide to join him for the wealth of the lost city. But to their horror they find out that they have bit off more than they can chew. What with a nazi doctor still doing his experiments on people in the same place.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, grindhouse, independent film, realistic
Similar in 76%
Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr (1981)
Plot Summary:
In a lake high in the mountains of New Zealand hunter Gibbie Gibson discovers a plane wreck from WW2. When he tells it around, a gang of crooks follows and threatens him and his daughter, because they know there are 50 million dollars in the wreck. Helicopter pilot Barney helps Gibbie against them, risking his life thereby.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Australia, New Zealand, USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: rough, suspenseful, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 85%
Breakout (1975)
Plot Summary:
A bush pilot is hired for $250,000 to go to Mexico to free an innocent prisoner.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: light, suspenseful, exciting, entertaining, rough, serious, realistic, fast, tense, romantic
Similar in 81%
The Blue Butterfly (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, The Blue Butterfly tells the story of a terminally ill 10-year-old boy whose dream is to catch the most beautiful butterfly on Earth, the mythic and elusive Blue Morpho. His mother persuades a renowned entomologist to take them on a trip to the jungle to search for the butterfly, leading to an adventure that will transform their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada, USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, realistic, spiritual
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Similar in 78%
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: touching, harsh, serious, stylized, costume drama, visual, fairy tale, gothic horror, period piece, anthropological
Similar in 90%
Missing in Action (1984)
Plot Summary:
American servicemen are still being held captive in Vietnam and it's up to one man to bring them home in this blistering, fast-paced action/adventure starring martial arts superstar Chuck Norris.Following a daring escape from a Vietnamese POW camp, Special Forces Colonel James Braddock (Norris) is on a mission to locate and save remaining MIAs.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspense, intense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic, cult classic, grindhouse, independent film
Similar in 90%
Xingu (2011)
Plot Summary:
In the '40s, three brothers decide to live a great adventure and enlisting in the Roncador-Xingu Expedition, which has a mission to tame the Central Brazil. The Villas Boas brothers: Orlando, 27, Claudius, 25, and Leonardo, 23, engage in a fantastic and incredible saga. Soon start to lead the expedition that opens new paths 1,500 km, navigates over 1,000 miles of unspoilt rivers, opens 19 airfields for airplanes Army, gives rise to the creation of 43 towns and 14 make contact with wild Indian tribes, unknown, as the Xavante, courageous and feared warriors, no casualties on both sides. This adventure allows the Villas Boas brothers the creation of the Xingu National Park, the first major Amerindian reservation in Brazil, the size of Belgium, transforming them into true contemporary heroes.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, captivating, stylized, spectacular, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Kidnapped (1995)
Plot Summary:
When Scottish young gentleman David Balfour's father dies, he leaves school to collect his inheritance from uncle Ebenezer, who in turn sells the boy as a future slave to a pirate ship. When staunch Stuart dynasty supporter Alan Breck Stewart accidentally boards the ship, he takes David along on his escape back to Edinburgh. They part and meet again repeatedly, mutually helpful against the Redcoats and respectful, although David is loyal to the English crown, but learns about its cruel oppression. Both ultimately face their adversaries.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 508
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, period drama
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Similar in 89%
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Plot Summary:
A few decades after the destruction of the Inca empire, a Spanish expedition leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon river in search of gold and wealth. Soon, they come across great difficulties and Don Aguirre, a ruthless man who cares only about riches, becomes their leader. But will his quest lead them to "the golden city", or to certain destruction?.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History
Country: West Germany, Mexico
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: bleak, atmospheric, tense, suspenseful, philosophical, surreal, art house, visual, epic, realistic
Similar in 78%
Treasure of the Amazon (1985)
Plot Summary:
A ragtag group of adventurers, including a former Nazi, is led by a half-maddened grizzled treasure hunter who wants a second chance to find the mythical treasure of the Amazon, after his first mission went terrible wrong.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 924
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, rough, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, serious, independent film, fantasy adventure
Similar in 90%
The Mosquito Coast (1986)
Plot Summary:
Allie Fox, an American inventor exhausted by the perceived danger and degradation of modern society, decides to escape with his wife and children to Belize. In the jungle, he tries with mad determination to create a utopian community with disastrous results.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: touching, harsh, emotional, intense, thought provoking, realistic, suspenseful, tense, visually appealing, suspense
Similar in 86%
The Mission (1986)
Plot Summary:
When a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter is converted and joins his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portugese aggressors.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 65000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History
Country: UK, France
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: epic, thought provoking, christian film, harsh, spiritual, realistic, breathtaking, dramatic, visually stunning, touching
Similar in 85%
Follow the River (1995)
Plot Summary:
Mary Ingles is pregnant when she and her two sons are captured from their homestead in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains by Shawnee Indians. Her husband, Will, narrowly escapes death during the attack. Impressed by her grace under the pressure of captivity, Wildcat, the Shawnee chief, confers special privileges on Mary and her children, eventually proposing that Mary become his mate. Surprised by her attraction to the handsome brave, Mary nonetheless opts to remain faithful to Will and engineers a plan for her escape. Separated from her children, Mary joins another female settler, and together they embark on a harrowing homeward trek. Her odyssey comes full circle more than a decade later when she is finally reunited with her long-lost children.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, epic
Similar in 76%
Walkabout (1971)
Plot Summary:
Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aborigine boy who shows them how to survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK, Australia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: road movie, atmospheric, visual, surreal, scenic, visually stunning, meditative, thought provoking, touching, philosophical
Similar in 90%
Pathfinder (1987)
Plot Summary:
Around the year 1000 AD warlike people, the so-called "tjuder", roam in northern Scandinavia. As they brutally kill a family in a remote area, including the parents and their little daughter, the families teenage son, Aigin, observes the slaughter. He manages to flee from these killers and reaches a camp with other Lapps whose inhabitants are worried if he has been able to hide his track. Afraid of the murderous people, they decide to flee to the coast. The boy stays alone to avenge his families murder. Unfortunately, they get him before he can do anything and force him to lead them to the other Lapps. He guides them but has a plan to destroy the barbarous people before reaching the camp.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, period piece, cult classic, cult horror, exciting, rough, serious, surprise ending, folk tale, crying
Similar in 89%
Kon-Tiki (2012)
Plot Summary:
The true story about legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his epic crossing of the Pacific on a balsa wood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: harsh, realistic, exciting, inspirational, epic, suspense, intense, factual, serious, tense
Similar in 82%
The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
Plot Summary:
Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 185000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: UK, Canada, USA, Australia
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: scenic, exciting, absurd, visually stunning, fairy tale, tense, romantic, action adventure, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 88%
Jungle (2017)
Plot Summary:
A mysterious guide escorts an enthusiastic adventurer and his friend into the Amazon jungle, but their journey turns into a terrifying ordeal as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wild force them to fight for survival.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 62000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, Thriller
Country: Australia, UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: suspense, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, realistic, tense, motivational, uplifting, touching, slasher
Similar in 86%
Pathfinder (2007)
Plot Summary:
A Viking boy is left behind after his clan battles a Native American tribe. Raised within the tribe, he ultimately becomes their savior in a fight against the Norsemen.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: harsh, stylized, rough, suspenseful, epic, action packed, historical drama, retro, dark, saga
Similar in 76%
Alpha (2018)
Plot Summary:
After a hunting expedition goes awry, a young caveman struggles against the elements to find his way home.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 66000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA, Canada, China
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, exciting, captivating, thought provoking, social, suspenseful, realistic, action adventure, epic, inspirational
Similar in 89%
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
Plot Summary:
Sir Robert Beaumont is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great until the crew discovers the mutilated corpse of the project's foreman, seemingly killed by a lion. After several more attacks, Patterson calls in famed hunter Charles Remington, who has finally met his match in the bloodthirsty lions.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 65000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspense, suspenseful, tense, scenic, dramatic, natural horror, atmospheric, anamorphic, serious
Similar in 86%
Apocalypto (2006)
Plot Summary:
Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 326000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, suspense, brutal, visually stunning, suspenseful, disturbing, bloody, intense, motivational