Best movies like Dersu Uzala
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 33000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Soviet Union, Japan
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, dramatic, visually appealing, cerebral, visual, breathtaking, touching, stylized, inspirational, road movie
Best tv shows and movies like Dersu Uzala (1975):
Similar in 78%
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Plot Summary:
Fitzcarraldo, a dreamer who plans to bring opera and Enrico Caruso to the South American jungles. With limited funding, he must figure out how to finance the opera house, and ultimately decides to capitalize on South America's rubber production. He discovers a hidden forest of rubber trees that is well protected by rapids, but the only way to get there is via a river on the other side of a small group of mountains. Fitzcarraldo therefore hires natives to pull his steamship over the mountain.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: West Germany, Peru
Duration: 158 min
Plot tags: cerebral, surreal, visually appealing, visual, tense, stylized, road movie, scenic, mind bending, thought provoking
Similar in 75%
The Other Side of Heaven (2001)
Plot Summary:
John H. Groberg, a middle class kid from Idaho Falls, crosses the Pacific to become a Mormon missionary in the remote and exotic Tongan island kingdom during the 1950's. He leaves behind a loving family and the true love of his life, Jean. Through letters and musings across the miles, John shares his humbling and sometimes hilarious adventures with "the girl back home", and her letters buoy up his spirits in difficult times. John must struggle to overcome language barriers, physical hardship and deep-rooted suspicion to earn the trust and love of the Tongan people he has come to serve. Throughout his adventure-filled three years on the islands, he discovers friends and wisdom in the most unlikely places. John H. Groberg's Tongan odyssey will change his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, sincere, uplifting, christian film, biblical, feel good, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Flight of the Eagle (1982)
Plot Summary:
The Swedish 19th century engineer S. A. Andrée sets out to become the first man on the north pole. His idea is to launch a polar expedition using a hydrogen balloon, together with two friends. The balloon, "The Eagle", takes off from Svalbard in 1897, but the three men are not heard of again.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark, West Germany, Norway
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: exciting, sincere, bleak, epic, serious, realistic, contemplative, period drama
Similar in 75%
In the Forests of Siberia (2016)
Plot Summary:
Fed up with the hectic, senseless world he lives in, Teddy decides to settle down alone in Siberia, in the midst of winter, in a hut by the shore of Lake Baikal. After an initial period of elation in front of the splendor and magic of unspoiled nature, Teddy soon finds himself confronted with the less glossy side of things : solitude, extreme cold, the necessity to find food, danger... One night Teddy gets lost in a blizzard and would be doomed to a certain death, were it not for Aleksei, a Russian convict living hidden away in the forest nearby, who rescues him in extremis. Friendship soon blossoms between the two men.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Antarctica (1983)
Plot Summary:
Two Japanese scientists, Ushioda and Ochi, develop a bond with their sled dogs while on an expedition in Antarctica.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: depressing, ironic, suspenseful, serious, realistic, epic, tear jerker, tearjerker
Similar in 87%
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Plot Summary:
In 1931, three aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a trek across the Outback.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, poignant, factual, heartbreaking, thought provoking, serious, independent film, realistic, sad
Similar in 90%
White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
Plot Summary:
A thinly fictionalized account of a legendary movie director, whose desire to hunt down an animal turns into a grim situation with his movie crew in Africa.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, melancholic, talky, exciting, serious, touching, realistic, meta, thought provoking, bleak
Similar in 89%
Mountains of the Moon (1990)
Plot Summary:
The story of Captain Richard Francis Burton's and Lt. John Hanning Speke's expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The film tells the story of their meeting, their friendship emerging amidst hardship, and then dissolving after their journey.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: captivating, atmospheric, serious, realistic, period piece, costume drama, brutal, independent film, epic, exciting
Similar in 75%
Embrace of the Serpent (2015)
Plot Summary:
The epic story of the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, travel through the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that can heal them. Inspired by the journals of the first explorers of the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, depressing, melancholic, meditative, black and white, surreal, cerebral, spiritual, art house, philosophical
Similar in 78%
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Plot Summary:
"The Motorcycle Diaries" is based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he, and best friend Alberto Granado, had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 104000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA, France, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Germany
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: road movie, touching, inspirational, political, breathtaking, scenic, sentimental, captivating, hispanic, cerebral
Similar in 87%
Mirror (1975)
Plot Summary:
A dying man in his forties remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments and things that tell of the recent history of all the Russian nation.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: surreal, cerebral, atmospheric, avant garde, art house, enigmatic, serious, philosophical, psychological, thought provoking
Similar in 88%
The Straight Story (1999)
Plot Summary:
A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. 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. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: road movie, feel good, touching, emotional, motivational, uplifting, visual, cult classic, sincere, independent film
Similar in 89%
Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Jon Krakauer's best selling book, "Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster". This movie attempts to re-create the disastrous events that took place during the Mount Everest climb on May 10, 1996. It also follows Jon Krakauer throughout the movie, and portrays what he was going through while climbing this mountain.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Czech Republic
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: inspirational, tense, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
Shackleton (2002)
Plot Summary:
The true story of Shackleton's 1914 Endurance expedition to the the South Pole and his epic struggle to lead his 28 man crew to safety after his ship was crushed in the pack ice.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, Australia
Duration: 206 min
Plot tags: epic, serious, suspenseful, exciting, realistic, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 81%
The Red Tent (1969)
Plot Summary:
Torn by personal guilt Italian General Umberto Nobile reminisces about his 1928 failed Arctic expedition aboard the airship Italia.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Italy, Soviet Union
Duration: 158 min
Plot tags: historical drama, exciting, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, epic
Similar in 90%
Wolf Totem (2015)
Plot Summary:
In 1969, a young Beijing student, Chen Zhen, is sent to live among the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia. Caught between the advance of civilization from the south and the nomads' traditional enemies - the marauding wolves - to the north; humans and animals, residents and invaders alike, struggle to find their true place in the world.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: China, France
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: exciting, touching, captivating, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, thought provoking, dramatic, historical drama
Similar in 89%
White Fang (1991)
Plot Summary:
Jack London's classic adventure story about the friendship developed between a Yukon gold hunter and the mixed dog-wolf he rescues from the hands of a man who mistreats him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, captivating, retro, epic, serious, realistic, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 80%
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 80%
Alive (1993)
Plot Summary:
The amazing, true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's plane that crashed in the middle of the Andes mountains, and their immense will to survive and pull through alive, forced to do anything and everything they could to stay alive on meager rations and through the freezing cold.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 60000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: realistic, inspirational, emotional, disturbing, suspense, sad, suspenseful, intense, breathtaking, exciting
Similar in 85%
The Hunter (2011)
Plot Summary:
Martin, a mercenary, is sent from Europe by an anonymous biotech company to the Tasmanian wilderness on a hunt for the last Tasmanian tiger.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspenseful, tense, melancholic, atmospheric, thought provoking, psychological thriller, scenic, cerebral, visually stunning
Similar in 84%
Wild (2014)
Plot Summary:
A woman with a tragic past decides to start her new life by hiking for one thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 136000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: road movie, meditative, captivating, uplifting, inspirational, touching, psychological, poignant, emotional, depressing
Similar in 87%
Tracks (2013)
Plot Summary:
Accompanied only by her faithful dog and four camels, an Australian satisfies her craving for solitude by embarking on a solo trip across the desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, scenic, atmospheric, sexy, feel good, social, artsy, independent film, cerebral
Similar in 80%
Never Cry Wolf (1983)
Plot Summary:
This film dramatizes the true story of Farley Mowat, when he was sent to the Canadian tundra area to collect evidence of the grievous harm the wolf population was allegedly doing to the caribou herds. In his struggle to survive in that difficult environment he studies the wolves, and realizes that the old beliefs about wolves and their supposed threat are almost totally false. Furthermore, he learns that humans represent a far greater threat to the land, and also to the wolves, a species which plays an important role in the ecosystem of the north.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: scenic, semi autobiographical, philosophical, offbeat, sensitive, anthropological, uplifting, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
A Walk in the Woods (2015)
Plot Summary:
After spending two decades in England, Bill Bryson returns to the U.S., where he decides the best way to connect with his homeland is to hike the Appalachian Trail with one of his oldest friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: scenic, light, road movie, humorous, melancholic, romantic, touching, social, cute, sentimental
Similar in 76%
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
Plot Summary:
Austrian mountaineer, Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Llaso, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 153000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: inspirational, captivating, epic, breathtaking, dramatic, scenic, uplifting, serious, philosophical, realistic
Similar in 87%
Into the Wild (2007)
Plot Summary:
The true story of top student and athlete, Christopher McCandless, who after graduating from Emory University in 1992, abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 648000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: road movie, philosophical, melancholic, inspirational, motivational, reflective, touching, independent film, sad, atmospheric
Similar in 77%
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 76%
Everest (2015)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, "Everest" documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 228000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Biography, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA, Iceland
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: realistic, scenic, dramatic, breathtaking, tense, suspenseful, serious, suspense, emotional, inspirational
Similar in 90%
The Way Back (2010)
Plot Summary:
Peter Weir's follow-up to Master & Commander (2003) is the stark & brilliant The Way Back, which takes on the theme of man's struggle for freedom. At the dawn of WWII, several men escape from a Russian gulag. The film details their perilous & uncertain journey to freedom, as they cross deserts, mountains, & several nations.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 121000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History
Country: USA, United Arab Emirates, Poland, India
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: realistic, epic, inspirational, rough, serious, bleak, visually appealing, intense, road movie, dramatic
Similar in 81%
The Snow Walker (2003)
Plot Summary:
A bush pilot in nothern Canada who with the aid of modernity thinks he can handle it all & knows it all. After reluctantly agreeing to transport a local indian girl to a medical facility his light plane crashes & they have to survive whilst finding their way back to civilization. Along the journey the man finds a new respect for the native ways as they battle to survive the elements.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, sentimental, breathtaking, realistic, compassionate, touching, heartbreaking, sad, scenic