Best movies like Follow the River
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Follow the River? Leverage your familiarity to steer others toward films and tv shows you've watched before that they might like too. Help broaden the circle of people recommending videos to each other. We value your engagement!
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
Best tv shows and movies like Follow the River (1995):
Similar in 77%
Into Thin Air (1985)
Plot Summary:
Ellen Burstyn stars as Joan Walker, a mother whose college student son vanishes while traveling from Canada to Colorado. When police fail to investigate, Walker takes matters into her own hands. She and her ex-husband begin a search, but when their son's van is found in Maine brandishing stolen plates, they fear the worst. Now, it's up to a private detective to uncover the chilling truth in this absorbing drama based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 461
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: mind bending, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, detective
Similar in 90%
Amongst Vultures (1964)
Plot Summary:
Frontier Hellcat was the fourth in a series of 1960s European westerns based on Karl May's "Winnetou" character. Stewart Granger takes over from Lex Barker in the leading "Anglo"-role of the mysterious maverick who wanders from town to town doing the "Lone Ranger" bit. The hellcat of the title is Elke Sommer, a tempestuous frontierswoman who reluctantly accepts Granger's help in attaining safe passage through the Rocky Mountains ("played" in this film by the Alps).
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: West Germany, France, Italy, Yugoslavia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: spaghetti western, euro western, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
The Cry of the Black Wolves (1972)
Plot Summary:
Halfwit Indian Akaena promises a fictitious treasure to anyone who takes her down south where the sun always shines. Trapper Bill Robinson, an honest fur trader in Alaska, refuses to sell his dog sled to dishonest miner Mike Williams, who steals it at gunpoint. While Akaena proves unable to keep her promise, Mike is shot before he can kill her. His corps is found on Bill's sled, making him the suspect as conniving outlaw gangs arrive in town.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 178
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: West Germany
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, spoof, parody
Similar in 78%
Squanto: A Warrior's Tale (1994)
Plot Summary:
Squanto is a high-born Indian warrior from a tribe on the Atlantic coast of North America which devotes its life to hunting and rivalry with a neighboring tribe. Everything changes forever after a ship arrives from England, prospecting the region's commercial potential for the rich Sir George, who uses all his wealth and influence only for ever greater profit. When it returns, several Indians find themselves captives on board, including Squanto. The arrogant Christians consider themselves utterly superior to the 'heathen savages' and treat them as brutally as they do beasts. Squanto fights a bear in a circus, not understanding how men can be so cruel to that creature either, and manages a spectacular escape, but where must he go? He finds shelter and help in a rural monastery, where it takes his protector some effort to prevent the others considering the unknown as diabolical. In time sir George's men come looking for him most brutally.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, Family
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, enigmatic, feel good, unusual plot structure, humorous, entertaining, melancholic, harsh
Similar in 85%
Crusoe (2008)
Plot Summary:
Crusoe is a television adventure drama based loosely on the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The series' 13 episodes aired on NBC during the first half of the 2008–2009 television season. It follows the adventures of Robinson Crusoe: a man who has been shipwrecked on an island for six years and is desperate to return home to his wife and children. His lone companion is Friday, a native whom Crusoe rescued and taught English.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA, UK, Canada, South Africa
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, baroque
Similar in 76%
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
Similar in 76%
Marco Polo (2007)
Plot Summary:
Assigned to accompany two priests on a mission to convert the court of Kublai Khan to Christianity, Marco Polo is abandoned in the mountains when the priests, doubting the very existence of China, turn back. Polo eventually pushes bravely forth alone toward the fabled country where he is accepted as an envoy into Khan's court. Marooned on the far side of the world, Polo, accompanied by his servant, Pedro, advances as a Mongol grandee for twenty extraordinary years. What he eventually brings back with him to the West is a chronicle that changed history forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, epic, captivating, serious, realistic, stylized
Similar in 90%
St. Helens (1981)
Plot Summary:
The movie begins with the volcano's awakening on March 20 and ends with its eruption on May 18, 1980.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 663
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, serious, realistic, disaster movie
Similar in 87%
Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story (1994)
Plot Summary:
Two thousand miles from home, Jim and Jennifer Stolpa (with baby Clayton) lose their way and are stranded in an endless wilderness of deep snow, battling for survival against the elements. Using only meager supplies and resourcefulness, the young couple struggles to keep themselves and their infant son alive in a frozen shelter while awaiting rescue. Realizing they won't be found, Jim ultimately strikes out on a courageous 50-mile mission, determined to reach help and return to save his loved ones in this exciting and moving true story. Written by Anonymous.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 717
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Anything to Survive (1990)
Plot Summary:
A father and his children are caught by a storm whilst sailing in Alaska. When they get shipwrecked, things go from bad to worse.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
Call of the Wild (1992)
Plot Summary:
A young boy heads off to the Yukon after hearing tales about the Gold Rush, and he forms an unwavering friendship with a heroic Alsatian dog called Buck.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 422
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Stranded (2002)
Plot Summary:
A retelling of the classic Swiss Family Robinson story.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 833
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, serious, captivating, period drama
Similar in 78%
Shadow of the Wolf (1992)
Plot Summary:
In the 1930's, Agaguk lives his traditional Inuit life. But one day, there is a murder in the tribe and Agaguk becomes a suspect. Soon he becomes persecuted by Henderson, a mean mountie, and he must flee through the cold winter of Northen Quebec.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, tense, captivating, independent film
Similar in 83%
The Aviator (1985)
Plot Summary:
A 1920s mail pilot and a rich man's daughter crash-land on a mountain full of hungry wolves.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: melancholic, inspirational, serious, realistic, clever, feel good, unusual plot structure, humorous, visually appealing, weird
Similar in 90%
Deadliest Sea (2009)
Plot Summary:
Based on the book Working on the Edge by Spike Walker, Deadliest Sea tells the story of a young man who joins the crew of a King Crab trawler in Alaska seeking to make some real money. The captain of the vessel plays a hunch about where to set traps in the Bering Sea, but the boat and crew are soon victims of a powerful and relentless storm.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, realistic, suspenseful, serious
Similar in 81%
Stolen Women, Captured Hearts (1997)
Plot Summary:
Kansas, 1868. A wagon train is attacked by a band of Lakota Sioux led by the young and athletic warrior Tokalah. The attractive, red haired Anna Brewster-Morgan and her friend Sarah White are on this wagon train too. When Tokalah noticed a terrified Anna with a Bible, he thinks this is an omen. Despite killing the other passengers of the wagon train, only Anna and Sarah may continue their voyage. The next day Anna and Sarah are kidnapped by Tokalah. At first terrified of her captors, the unhappily married Anna eventually falls in love with the noble, honorable Tokalah. After a year's captivity, Sarah is returned to her own people. Anna now must choose between her new life with T.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, touching, captivating, serious, period drama
Similar in 87%
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
Similar in 85%
To Brave Alaska (1996)
Plot Summary:
A young couple and their dog struggle to survive in Alaska.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 588
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
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 79%
Against a Crooked Sky (1975)
Plot Summary:
The eldest daughter of a pioneer family is kidnapped by a mysterious Indian tribe and the eldest son pursues. In order to win back his sister's freedom, he must sacrifice his own life by passing the test of "Crooked Sky" and shield his sister from an executioner's arrow. Along the way, he recruits a broken down, drunk prospector to help him track down the unknown tribe and rescue his sister.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 720
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: action adventure, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Robinson Crusoe (1997)
Plot Summary:
Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychotronic, independent film, freeze frame, baroque
Similar in 77%
A Man Called Horse (1970)
Plot Summary:
In 1825 an English aristocrat is captured by Indians. He lives with them and begins to understand/accept their lifestyles. Eventually he is accepted as part of the tribe and becomes their leader.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: suspense, scenic, intense, exciting, serious, captivating, epic, realistic, historical drama, independent film
Similar in 85%
Windwalker (1980)
Plot Summary:
An ancient Indian warrior who has reached the end of his life is brought back from his 'death' to save his family from a raiding party of enemy Indians in this unique story of 'Indians without a single cowboy.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
Into the West (2005)
Plot Summary:
Steven Spielberg executive produced this TNT miniseries about American Westward expansion during the 19th century. Told from both the perspective of the white Wheeler family and the Native American Lakota tribe, the 12-hour epic follows the clans as they struggle to find their place in a country confounded by turmoil and change.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 552 min
Plot tags: epic, sincere, realistic, atmospheric, serious, educational, historical drama, contemplative, period drama, wild
Similar in 79%
The Emerald Forest (1985)
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
Similar in 82%
The Naked Prey (1965)
Plot Summary:
A group of men are on safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways. The last surviving member is given "The Lion's Chance" by the tribal leader to be hunted down by a party of tribal warriors.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: South Africa, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, exciting, rough, serious, retro, fast paced, independent film, realistic, psychotronic
Similar in 90%
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 86%
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 84%
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 88%
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Plot Summary:
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by Indians when he proves to be the match of their warriors in one-to-one combat on the early frontier.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, epic, realistic, scenic, meditative, factual, serious, bleak, existential, spaghetti western