Best movies like Leave No Trace

Similar in 84%

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

Plot Summary:

Ricky is a defiant young city kid who finds himself on the run with his cantankerous foster uncle in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work together to survive.

Similar in 82%

The Short History of the Long Road (2019)

Plot Summary:

Nola grew up living on a van with her father, Clint; two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone, learning to own her grief, her past and her new destination.

Similar in 86%

Mud (2012)

Plot Summary:

Two teenage boys encounter a fugitive and make a pact to help him escape from an island in the Mississippi.

Similar in 78%

Wildlike (2014)

Plot Summary:

Fourteen-year-old Mackenzie is sent to live with her uncle in Juneau when her mother can’t care for her anymore. The living situation quickly takes a turn for the worse, and she runs away to rejoin her mother in Seattle. While on her dangerous journey of sleeping in cars and breaking into hotel rooms, she’s drawn to Rene, a lonesome backpacker looking for tranquility in the wilderness.

Similar in 86%

Land (2021)

Plot Summary:

Edee, in the aftermath of an unfathomable event, finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face of that uncertainty, retreats to the magnificent, but unforgiving, wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again.

Similar in 77%

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.

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.

Similar in 79%

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.

Similar in 88%

Everybody's Fine (2009)

Plot Summary:

Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his offspring. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.

Similar in 80%

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Plot Summary:

A father living in the forests of the Pacific Northwest with his six young kids tries to assimilate back into society.

Similar in 84%

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

Plot Summary:

Wendy, a near-penniless drifter, is traveling to Alaska in search of work, and her only companion is her dog, Lucy. Already perilously close to losing everything, Wendy hits a bigger bump in the road when her old car breaks down and she is arrested for shoplifting dog food. When she posts bail and returns to retrieve Lucy, she finds that the dog is gone, prompting a frantic search for her pet.

Similar in 90%

White Water Summer (1987)

Plot Summary:

When the experienced guide Vic accompanies the city boy Alan and his three friends on their first wilderness experience, he not only hope to teach the four boys lessons about the wilderness, but about themselves. Vic pushes them to the limit. Soon after alienating the boys, Vic finds himself in desperate need of help and must rely on his students in order to survive.

Similar in 80%

I Am David (2003)

Plot Summary:

Based on Anne Holm's acclaimed young adult novel North to Freedom, I Am David chronicles the struggles of a 12-year-old boy (Ben Tibber) who manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own -- through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark and a compass to help get him there.

Similar in 81%

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.

Similar in 90%

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.

Similar in 88%

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.

Similar in 86%

Arctic (2018)

Plot Summary:

A man stranded in the Arctic is finally about to receive his long awaited rescue. However, after a tragic accident, his opportunity is lost and he must then decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his camp or embark on a deadly trek through the unknown for potential salvation.

Similar in 90%

Lean on Pete (2017)

Plot Summary:

Charley, a teen living with his single father, finds work caring for an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete. When he learns Pete is bound for slaughter, the two embark on an odyssey across the new American frontier in search of a place to call home.

Similar in 82%

The Kings of Summer (2013)

Plot Summary:

Joe Toy, on the verge of adolescence, finds himself increasingly frustrated by his single father, Frank's attempts to manage his life. Declaring his freedom once and for all, he escapes to a clearing in the woods with his best friend, Patrick, and a strange kid named Biaggio. He announces that they are going to build a house there, free from responsibility and parents. Once their makeshift abode is finished, the three young men find themselves masters of their own destiny, alone in the woods.

Similar in 87%

Stand by Me (1986)

Plot Summary:

After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy.

Similar in 89%

Life of Pi (2012)

Plot Summary:

The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.

Similar in 78%

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.

Similar in 75%

The Road (2009)

Plot Summary:

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind and water. It is cold enough to crack stones, and, when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the warmer south, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there.

Similar in 89%

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.