Best movies like Castles in the Sky
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like Castles in the Sky? Contribute your insights to direct others toward tv series and films you've already seen that might similarly enthrall them. Aid in enlarging the circle of people referring videos amongst each other. We encourage your engagement!
Plot Summary:
It is the mid-1930s and the storm clouds of WWII were forming in Germany. This films charts the work of Robert Watson Watt - the pioneer of Radar - and his hand-picked team of eccentric yet brilliant meteorologists as they struggle to turn the concept of Radar into a workable reality. Hamstrung by a tiny budget, seemingly insurmountable technical problems and even a spy in the camp, Watson Watt also has to deal with marital problems as he chases his dream. By 1939, Watson Watt and his team have developed the world's first Radar system along the south east coast of England. A system that, in 1940, proved pivotal in winning the Battle of Britain.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, stylized
Best tv shows and movies like Castles in the Sky (2014):
Similar in 86%
Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This (2014)
Plot Summary:
The life and times of Tommy Cooper.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 490
Genere: Biography
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 77%
The Best of Men (2012)
Plot Summary:
Ludwig Guttmann, a renowned German neurosurgeon who fled Nazi Germany in the early days of WWII, takes a position at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, England in 1944 and begins to transform the lives of his patients, paralyzed soldiers that have been written-off and who are facing death from neglect. A breakthrough comes when Dr. Guttmann introduces sport into their rehabilitation, a breakthrough that leads to the founding of the Paralympic Games.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, realistic, emotional, period piece, costume drama, therapeutic, serious, period drama
Similar in 87%
Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy (2014)
Plot Summary:
It is the Spring of 1943 and the Battle for the Atlantic rages as an Axis victory seems inevitable. The women of Vic Mu – Gladys, Lorna, Kate, Betty and Vera – band together in a tight bond of support and friendship.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 612
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 80%
1939 (1989)
Plot Summary:
When the war breaks out, Annika lives with her parents in Värmland, close to the border to Norway. Her cousin Harald is a dealer in the black market but has to escape from the police to Norway. Annika moves to Stockholm and gets a job as a waitress. She meets the happy-go-lucky Berit and together they have a wonderful time. She also meets a young man, Bengt, whom she marries. But almost immediately she discovers that her husband is different from the man who was courting her. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 929
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Sweden
Duration: 193 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Lucie Aubrac (1997)
Plot Summary:
A love story or a tale of the resistance, this poignant movie tells both the haunting story of a French resistance cell in Lyon but also the love of Lucie Aubrac for her husband.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, romantic, sexy, enigmatic, entertaining, melancholic, dramatic, witty
Similar in 88%
Endless Night (2015)
Plot Summary:
Greenland, 1908. Josephine, self-confident and bold wife of famous Arctic explorer Robert Peary, embarks on a dangerous journey in pursuit of her husband who is seeking a route to the North Pole. But Josephine is also naïve and ignores warnings from experienced polar travellers about the onset of winter. At great sacrifice the expedition reaches Peary's base camp. Josephine refuses to go home and wants to spend winter in the hut. Only the young Inuit woman Allaka, who lives in an igloo and knows about the cold, stays with her. As the long nights draw nearer, Josephine realises she has more in common with this woman from a different world than she thought.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, France, Bulgaria
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, psychological, tense, realistic, stylized
Similar in 80%
An Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Plot Summary:
This special one-off drama travels back in time to 1963 to see how Doctor Who was first brought to the screen. Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles. Wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, sincere, captivating, sentimental, atmospheric, stylized, serious, realistic, historical drama, tense
Similar in 84%
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973)
Plot Summary:
Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: independent film, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 75%
Enid (2009)
Plot Summary:
Edwardian child Enid Blyton begins to tell stories to her brothers as an escape from their parents' rows before the father deserts the family.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, costume drama, cult classic, period drama, weird
Similar in 88%
Risen (2010)
Plot Summary:
As one of the rising talents of amateur boxing, Howard Winstone, a young Welsh boy from Merthyr Tydfil, was fast making a name for himself with his knock out right hand. A long professional fighting career surely beckoned? Then disaster strikes. An industrial accident results in Winstone losing three fingers on his right hand. Through sheer determination, and despite only being able to make a fist with one hand, Winstone develops a dynamic new style and begins boxing his way back up the amateur ranks eventually turning pro. Supported by his family and guided by new trainer, Eddie Thomas, Winstone becomes the Champion of Britain and then Europe. Now, with the hopes of an entire nation on his shoulders, he is stood poised to challenge for the crown of Featherweight Champion of the World.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 221
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 89%
Louis Cyr : The Strongest Man in the World (2013)
Plot Summary:
Biopic of Louis Cyr, strongest man in the world at the end of the 19th Century.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Canada
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 81%
Eleanor, First Lady of the World (1982)
Plot Summary:
Biography of former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who forged a new role for herself in the years after her husband's death.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 136
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 87%
April 9th (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the early morning of April 9th 1940 the Danish army is alerted. The Germans have crossed the border; Denmark is at war against Europe's strongest army. In Southern Jutland Danish bicycle- and motorcycle companies are ordered out, to against all odds, hold back the forces until the Danish reinforcements can be mobilized. In the fatal hours, we follow second lieutenant Sand and his bicycle company - they will as the first Danish soldiers meet the enemy in combat on April 9th 1940.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Denmark
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, tense, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
Forever Enthralled (2008)
Plot Summary:
A biographical account of Mei Lanfang, China's greatest opera star.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, epic
Similar in 88%
Margot (2009)
Plot Summary:
At the age of forty Dame Margot Fonteyn is considered to be past her best as a prima ballerina and Ninette de Valois is reducing her roles at the Royal Ballet. Then the exciting young Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, a recent defector to the West, comes into her life and her bed and revitalizes her career. Frederick Aashton creates a new ballet for them and they become the golden couple of the ballet world. However, Margot is married to Roberto 'Tito' Arias, a Panamanian politician of dubious repute who is not sympathetic to her calling and is probably faithless. When he is shot and paralyzed for life Margot must carry on dancing well into her sixties in order to pay for his costly treatment though she still collaborates with Rudolf in the occasional ballet.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 291
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 81%
Olga (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp. After World War II began, Vargas decided to uphold the Allies.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Brazil
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, bleak, contemplative, period piece
Similar in 85%
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
Plot Summary:
Biography of the last Russian Monarch, Tsar Nicholas II and his Tsarina, Alexandra.Czar Nicholas II, the inept monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 183 min
Plot tags: epic, tense, serious, captivating, realistic, factual, period piece, historical drama, independent film, emotional
Similar in 83%
Churchill (2017)
Plot Summary:
A ticking-clock thriller following Winston Churchill in the 24 hours before D-Day.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: educational, factual, disturbing, political, independent film, extraordinary
Similar in 90%
Too Young the Hero (1988)
Plot Summary:
WWII drama.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 75%
The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988)
Plot Summary:
During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Otto Frank decides to hide his family, who are Jewish, after his daughter Margot is called to appear for transport to a Nazi labour camp. Miep Gies, Otto Frank's office assistant hides them in the attic above the office. The film tells the true story of Gies' struggle to keep the family hidden and safe, as the Nazis turn Amsterdam upside-down. Based upon Gies' memoirs and Anne Frank's famous diary.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 79%
Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
Plot Summary:
This film reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime project in New Mexico where the first atomic bombs were designed and built.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: factual, suspense, intense, serious, realistic, anamorphic, independent film, sincere, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 81%
Breaking the Code (1996)
Plot Summary:
A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the digital computer and one of the key figures in the breaking of the Enigma code, used by the Germans to send secret orders to their U-boats in World War II. Turing was also a homosexual in Britain at a time when this was illegal, besides being a security risk.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 668
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Manhattan (2014)
Plot Summary:
Set against the backdrop of the greatest clandestine race against time in the history of science with the mission to build the world's first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Flawed scientists and their families attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, captivating, realistic, melancholic, historical drama, independent film, period drama
Similar in 87%
Into the Storm (2009)
Plot Summary:
This powerful follow-up to “The Gathering Storm” follows Churchill from 1940 to 1945 as he guided his beleaguered nation through the crucible of the war years--even as his marriage was encountering its own struggles.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, political, historical drama, historically accurate, gloomy, period drama, political drama
Similar in 85%
Copenhagen (2002)
Plot Summary:
No one knows for sure what transpired when German physicist Werner Heisenberg met with his Jewish Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen -- the event became the stuff of modern scientific mythology. Director Howard Davies puts his spin on the momentous meeting that occurred one night in September 1941, during which the longtime friends entered into a dangerous discussion about physics and politics.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, thought provoking, serious, disturbing, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 83%
The Gathering Storm (2002)
Plot Summary:
A love story offering an intimate look inside the marriage of Winston and Clementine Churchill during a particularly troubled, though little-known, moment in their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, talky, political, historical drama, historically accurate, contemplative, gloomy, pre war
Similar in 88%
Experimenter (2015)
Plot Summary:
Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram designs a psychology experiment that still resonates to this day, in which people think they’re delivering painful electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Despite his pleads for mercy, the majority of subjects don’t stop the experiment, administering what they think is a near-fatal electric shock, simply because they’ve been told to do so. With Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram strikes a nerve in popular culture and the scientific community with his exploration into people’s tendency to comply with authority. Celebrated in some circles, he is also accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster, but his wife Sasha stands by him through it all.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, philosophical, enigmatic, political, disturbing, factual, emotional, suspense, melancholic, talky
Similar in 86%
The Dig (2021)
Plot Summary:
As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain's past resonate in the face of its uncertain future.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 81000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: costume drama, period piece, thought provoking, captivating, inspirational, philosophical, atmospheric, depressing, art film, powerful
Similar in 77%
Oppenheimer (1980)
Plot Summary:
Biography of the American physicist who led the U.S. effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II, only to find himself suspected as a security risk in the 1950s because of his increasing ambivalence about the effect of his life's work.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 653
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 420 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Einstein and Eddington (2008)
Plot Summary:
A look at the evolution of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, and Einstein's relationship with British scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, the first physicist to understand his ideas.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, realistic, christian film, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, disturbing, inspirational