Best survival movies : merciless nature
This list is in no particular order.
It focuses on movies where wilderness is unforgiving and where nature reveals itself as a true enemy.
I excluded sci-fi survival movies (such as zombie apocalypse, survival in space, and so on).
Also, I've added a few documentaries that are really worth watching.
It focuses on movies where wilderness is unforgiving and where nature reveals itself as a true enemy.
I excluded sci-fi survival movies (such as zombie apocalypse, survival in space, and so on).
Also, I've added a few documentaries that are really worth watching.
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- DirectorWalter HillStarsKeith CarradinePowers BootheFred WardDuring a routine exercise, a team of National Guardsmen are threatened by angry and violent locals.
- DirectorHardy MartinsStarsBernhard BettermannIris BöhmAnatoliy KotenyovA German Army officer is captured by the Soviets in World War II and sent to a labor camp in Eastern Siberia. After five years of enormous hardship he escapes, commencing an incredible, arduous, danger-filled journey.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsJim SturgessEd HarrisColin FarrellSiberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India.
- DirectorDick ProennekeStarsDick ProennekeBob Swerer Jr.Wendy IshiiIn 1968, one man films his attempt to build a cabin and live in the Alaskan wilderness. He goes weeks or months at a time without human contact.
- DirectorJørn Nyseth RanumInge WeggeStarsJørn Nyseth RanumInge WeggeTwo young men decide to spend an archive circle Norwegian winter in the isolated and uninhabited bay of Norway. Their home is built from salvaged material washed up onshore. They surf every day with much time for self reflection.
- CreatorCraig LangmanStarsEd StaffordChris RyanEd Stafford attempts to survive alone on a Desert island for 60 days. With no clothes, no knife or anything except his camera, an emergency satellite phone and an emergency medical kit.
- StarsLuke CollyerEd StaffordGadiel 'Cho' Sanchez RiveraThe story of Ed Stafford's 2 1/2 year journey to become the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River.
- CreatorLes StroudStarsLes StroudLogan StroudTodd StandingNo food, no shelter, no fresh water - one man alone in the wild for seven days with only his wits and stamina to sustain him.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiRuy GuerraHelena RojoIn the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.
- DirectorMel GibsonStarsGerardo TaracenaRaoul Max TrujilloDalia HernándezAs the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, a young man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression.
- DirectorNeil MarshallStarsMichael FassbenderDominic WestOlga KurylenkoA splinter group of Roman soldiers fight for their lives behind enemy lines after their legion is devastated in a guerrilla attack.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsJon VoightBurt ReynoldsNed BeattyIntent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's dammed and turned into a lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a canoeing trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.
- DirectorJerzy SkolimowskiStarsVincent GalloEmmanuelle SeignerZach CohenAn Afghan POW attempts his escape.
- DirectorBaltasar KormákurStarsJason ClarkeAng Phula SherpaThomas M. WrightOn May 10, 1996, mountain guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer combine their expedition teams for a final ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. With little warning, a storm strikes the mountain and the climbers must now battle to survive.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsRobert RedfordWill GeerDelle BoltonA mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by the Crow tribe and proves to be a match for their warriors in single combat on the early frontier.
- DirectorJimmy ChinElizabeth Chai VasarhelyiStarsConrad AnkerGrace ChinJimmy ChinThree elite climbers struggle to find their way through obsession and loss as they attempt to climb Mount Meru, one of the most coveted prizes in the high stakes game of Himalayan big wall climbing.
- DirectorFranc RoddamStarsMichael BiehnMatt CravenAnnie GrindlayA U.S. climbing team, funded by millionaire Clairborne is determined to conquer K2.
- DirectorJoachim RønningEspen SandbergStarsPål Sverre HagenAnders BaasmoGustaf SkarsgårdLegendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl's epic 4,300-mile crossing of the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove that it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
- DirectorPhilipp StölzlStarsBenno FürmannFlorian LukasJohanna WokalekA secretary at a Berlin newspaper in 1936 gets to write about two Alpinists, as she knows them well. She later gets to report on and photograph her friends' and other Alpinists' climbs of the dangerous Swiss Eiger north face.
- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsSteve McQueenDustin HoffmanVictor JoryA French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsRoy ScheiderBruno CremerFrancisco RabalFour unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous Latin American jungle.
- DirectorLee TamahoriStarsAnthony HopkinsAlec BaldwinElle MacphersonAn intellectual billionaire and two other men struggle to band together and survive after getting stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with a blood-thirsty Kodiak Bear hunting them down.
- DirectorJoe CarnahanStarsLiam NeesonDermot MulroneyFrank GrilloAfter their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsGeorge ClooneyMark WahlbergJohn C. ReillyAn unusually intense storm pattern catches some commercial fishermen unaware and puts them in mortal danger.
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsDavid GulpililGary SweetDamon GameauFanatic is a government trooper who is heading an expedition to find an Aboriginal man accused of murdering a white woman. Others in the expedition are the Follower, a greenhorn trooper, the Veteran, and the Tracker.
- DirectorHans Petter MolandStarsStellan SkarsgårdGard B. EidsvoldBjørn SundquistA young writer whose proposal was recently rejected goes to Greenland to spend a year at an outpost for hunting and trapping animals for furs. At the outpost he meets two men who are none too keen to spend the winter with the newcomer.
- DirectorSean PennStarsEmile HirschVince VaughnCatherine KeenerAfter graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
- DirectorFrank MarshallStarsEthan HawkeVincent SpanoJosh HamiltonAfter crash-landing in the snowswept Andes, a Uruguayan rugby team has no choice but to turn to desperate measures in order to survive.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsLeonardo DiCaprioTom HardyWill PoulterA frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsTom HanksHelen HuntPaul SanchezA FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.
- DirectorTed KotcheffStarsSylvester StalloneBrian DennehyRichard CrennaA veteran Green Beret is forced by a cruel Sheriff and his deputies to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.
- DirectorKevin MacdonaldStarsSimon YatesJoe SimpsonBrendan MackeyThe true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
- DirectorRichard C. SarafianStarsRichard HarrisJohn HustonHenry WilcoxonLeft for dead after a bear attack, a fur-trapper recuperates and pursues his former companions through dangerous Indian territory.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsPowers BootheMeg FosterYara VaneauAfter the son of engineer Bill Markham is abducted by an aboriginal tribe on the edge of the rain forest, the engineer spends the next 10 years searching for him.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsLee MarvinToshirô MifuneDuring World War II, an American pilot and a marooned Japanese navy captain are deserted on a small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. There, they must cease their hostility and cooperate if they want to survive, but will they?
- DirectorCharles Martin SmithStarsBarry PepperAnnabella PiugattukJames CromwellA pilot and his passenger struggle for survival after crashing in the Arctic tundra.
- DirectorNils GaupStarsMikkel GaupIngvald GuttormNils UtsiA young Sámi man witnesses a band of vicious raiders slay his family and flees to a nearby village, where he learns he must become a Pathfinder.
- DirectorAlexei PopogrebskyStarsGrigoriy DobryginSergey PuskepalisIgor ChernevichOne place. One day. Two men. The place is a polar research station on an island in the Arctic Ocean, inhabited now only by Sergei and Pavel. One day when Sergei is out angling, Pavel picks up a radio message that he daren't communicate.
- DirectorJ.C. ChandorStarsRobert RedfordAfter a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.
- DirectorCornel WildeStarsCornel WildeGert van den BerghKen GampuDuring the 1800s, a safari guide, two elephant hunters and their crew run into trouble with the natives in the South African veld when they refuse to offer gifts to the tribesmen.
- DirectorRaphaël BlancStarsMike HornArktos is the amazing story of Mike Horn who has gone along the Arctic Circle alone for 27 months, 20,000 km, without using any motorized transportation. He has faced ice storms, temperatures from -70°C to 15°C, polar bears, a fire that destroyed most of his equipment and nearly burned him alive and he was the first man to cross entire Siberia on foot. But first of all, Arktos is a human tale. He met Simon the Inuit who taught him to build an igloo in 20 minutes, Vassia, an elderly Russian fisher and so many others. After all, Mike met himself. The film shows with the poetry of the images the motivations of one of the greatest adventurer of the century.