From time to time, it’s good to be reminded just how resilient and resourceful humans can be. While we all cross our fingers that we’ll never have to find out exactly how strong our will to live actually is, there’s something very reassuring in watching stories of survival against the odds. Maybe it’s the cave person deep down in all of us, but seeing others live off the land, roughing it without electricity, running water, or DoorDash, both exercises our instincts and entertains us.

It’s also the safest way to “experience” an adrenaline-fueled catastrophe. In fact, some say the best way to prepare for a disaster is to imagine yourself going through it. So, really, watching survival movies and shows is just one way of doing our homework. Prepare to take notes and grow your appreciation for indoor plumbing as you (plane) dive into the wild with these exhilarating watches.

Against The Ice

Based on a true story, this film emphasizes that the only reason we know as much about our world as we do is that we willingly head into the wild unknown. It’s 1909, and Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has taken a crew to East Greenland to try to find the records made by a previous and ill-fated expedition. The members of the original mission were out to gather proof that Greenland is an island, thus preventing America from making a claim on it. Mikkelsen and a lone volunteer from his crew, Iver Iversen (Joe Cole), set out on sleds and are very quickly overwhelmed by the extreme conditions of northern Greenland. Polar bears, dying sled dogs, diminishing supplies, and uncharted terrain make things difficult, but they press on, ultimately making history for their accomplishments. 

Against The Ice

1h 43m   TV-MA   2022

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Apex

Humans often pose a threat scarier than nature in survival films. In this intense thriller, Charlize Theron (The Old Guard 2) stars as Sasha, a grieving climber on a solo trip to the mountains of Australia. She crosses paths with a few unsavory men, but Ben (Taron Egerton) seems friendly and gives her advice on where to camp. When she wakes up one morning to find her pack missing, she runs into Ben, who is initially helpful — until he reveals he stole her pack to lure her to him, forcing her into a ruthless, ritualistic game of cat and mouse. Sasha faces raging river waters and steep rock faces, and she lives off what little she has with her. But none of that is as horrifying as the depraved killer hunting her down. 

Apex

1h 37m   R   2026

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Eden

This film by Ron Howard is based on a wild but true story. In 1929, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his lover, Dore (Vanessa Kirby), leave fascist Germany to establish a homestead on the Galápagos island of Floreana. In 1932, inspired by Ritter’s published philosophies and accounts of his utopia, the German Wittmer family also moves to the island. Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), his wife, Margret (Sydney Sweeney), and their son, Harry (Jonathan Tittel), struggle to set up a home, especially as Friedrich and Dore are less than neighborly. They have only just gotten their footing when Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas) arrives with two lovers in tow, espousing grand plans to build an exclusive hotel. Tension between the island’s three camps builds, worsening as food and water grow scarce — and leading to a shocking chain of events.

Eden

2h 9m   R   2025

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The I-Land

Washing ashore on a deserted island would be disorienting enough, but in this series, the 10 people who find themselves on an island beach also have no memory of who they are or how they got there. Instead, they find their names written on their shirt tags and come across various items buried in random places. Chase (Natalie Martinez) focuses on finding food and water, but suspects there’s a bigger conspiracy behind their circumstances. Meanwhile, KC (Kate Bosworth) is combative and suspicious of Chase and her questions. As arguments escalate between the islanders, and they slowly start to get their memories back, they realize a far more sinister game is afoot.

The I-Land

Limited Series   TV-MA   2019

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Keep Breathing

Stuck in an airport and desperate to escape her own life, attorney Liv (Melissa Barrera) begs pilot George (Mike Dopud) and his passenger, Sam (Austin Stowell), to allow her to tag along on their private charter to Inuvik in northern Canada. Mid-flight, the engine fails, and the plane crashes into a lake in the Canadian wilderness. Liv has to use what little she retrieves from the plane to stay alive. But no one who has personal demons is ever truly alone, and Liv has no choice but to confront the harsh truths about her past that she’s been running from. To find the strength to survive, she’ll need to dig deep. 

Keep Breathing

Limited Series   TV-MA   2022

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Lord of the Flies

Based on the classic 1954 novel of the same name by William Golding, this limited series is the perfect example of the chaos that can ensue when men — or in this case, children — are left to their own devices. A plane full of schoolboys crash-lands on an island in the Pacific. When the survivors unite, they realize there are no adults who made it out alive. Ralph (Winston Sawyers) and Jack (Lox Pratt) emerge as the two leaders, and Ralph is elected as chief. But it isn’t long before the two are butting heads, and the longer the boys live on the island, the more feral they become.

Lord of the Flies

Limited Series   TV-MA   2026

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Nowhere

Set in a dystopian future, this Spanish film is all the more harrowing with the double threat of both a nature crisis and a tyrannical government. Expectant mother Mia (Anna Castillo) and partner Nico (Tamar Novas) are trying to escape Spain, where dwindling resources have left people desperate and the government has turned to genocide to control the population. They sneak into a shipping container but are soon separated, leaving Mia alone as her container is loaded onto a boat. When a storm knocks the container into the ocean and it slowly begins to fill with water, she must use the goods inside to sustain herself. Even more pressing is the looming possibility that, at any moment, Mia could go into labor. 

Nowhere

1h 49m   TV-MA   2023

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Penelope

This survival series from co-creators Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn explores how, when the real world grows wearisome, the wild can seem quite attractive. Or that’s how it is, at least, for 16-year-old Penelope (Megan Stott), who doesn’t feel quite at home among her peers. Camping with her family one weekend, Penelope wanders away. She buys herself supplies and jumps into an open train car, off to try her hand at living in the wild of the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, she hugs trees, befriends a bear cub, and even makes a connection with a fellow camper. But Mother Nature eventually bares her teeth, and Penelope will need to fight to survive.

Penelope

8 Episodes   TV-MA   2024

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True Spirit

Another real-life adventure brought to the screen, this movie is about Jessica Watson (Teagan Croft), a 16-year-old Australian girl who, in 2009, set out in her sailboat, determined to be the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe. Her mother, Julie (Anna Paquin), her father, Roger (Josh Lawson), her mentor, Ben (Cliff Curtis), and her three siblings are rightfully nervous about letting her take a 6-month trip on open waters all alone. Jessica holds on to her dream and sets out on a 210-day trip full of ups and downs — one of which is a truly terrifying run-in with not one but three storm cells that unite into a superstorm that would daunt even the oldest and most experienced of sailors.

True Spirit

1h 49m   TV-PG   2023

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Yellowjackets

It’s bad enough to be stranded in the wilderness, but add a strange supernatural entity to the mix, and things grow even darker. In this twisty mystery survival series, a plane carrying a high school girls’ soccer team crash-lands in a Canadian forest. The dynamics of the group emerge as each girl is pushed to her limit to survive in the harsh conditions. Switching timelines between the girls’ experience in the forest in 1996 and their adult counterparts navigating the present day, the puzzle pieces around who made it out of the wild start to fit together. But a bigger question emerges: What did these women do in those woods that they are now trying so hard to keep secret? Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Sophie Thatcher, Ella Purnell, and Sophie Nélisse make up just some of the epic cast. 

Yellowjackets

2 Seasons   TV-MA   2021

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