Movies Like Escape Waves

If you liked Escape Waves (2021), a movie directed by Samuel Lobo and Rodrigo de Janeiro, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
★ 7.6/10
Born under unusual circumstances, Benjamin Button springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a child who flits in and out of…
2
True Spirit (2023)
★ 7/10
When the tenacious young sailor Jessica Watson sets out to be the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world, many expect her to fail. With the support of her sailing coach and mentor Ben…
3
The Blue Trail (2025)
★ 6.9/10
To maximize economic productivity, the Brazilian government orders elderly people to move to remote housing colonies. A 77-year-old woman refuses and embarks on a journey through the Amazon that will change her destiny…
4
Central Station (1998)
★ 8.1/10
An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
5
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
★ 6.8/10
Pandora Reynolds is a woman who has never fallen in love – but one who men kill and die for. When she meets dashing and mysterious ship's captain Hendrik van der Zee, he pushes her to commit the ultimate act of love.
6
The Blue Lagoon (1980)
★ 6.1/10
Two small children and a ship's cook survive a shipwreck and find safety on an idyllic tropical island. Soon, however, the cook dies and the young boy and girl are left on their own. Days become years and Emmeline and…
7
Invisible Life (2019)
★ 7.7/10
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1950. In the conservative home of the Gusmão family, Eurídice and Guida are two inseparable sisters who support each other. While Guida can share with her younger sister the details of her…
8
Jungle Cruise (2021)
★ 7.3/10
Dr. Lily Houghton enlists the aid of wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff to take her down the Amazon in his dilapidated boat. Together, they search for an ancient tree that holds the power to heal – a discovery that will…
9
Vitória (2025)
★ 7.8/10
Nina is an elderly woman who lives alone and feels distressed by the increasing violence in her neighborhood. Amidst conflicts with her neighbors, she decides to film the movement of drug traffickers from her window…
10
VIPs (2011)
★ 6.4/10
Marcelo leaves his family and moves to Mato Grosso do Sul, where he learns how to fly airplanes by himself watching the pilots. One day, he responds the call of a drug dealer and uses his boss' plane to help the man to…
11
The Lost City of Z (2017)
★ 6.4/10
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.
12
Escape Plan (2013)
★ 6.7/10
Ray Breslin is the world's foremost authority on structural security. After analyzing every high security prison and learning a vast array of survival skills so he can design escape-proof prisons, his skills are put to…
13
The Secret Scripture (2017)
★ 7.2/10
The hidden memoir of an elderly woman confined to a mental hospital reveals the history of her passionate yet tortured life, and of the religious and political upheavals in Ireland during the 1920s and 30s.
14
Father’s Chair (2012)
★ 7/10
Theo is living the good life in an upscale Brazilian neighborhood. He’s a hardworking doctor, husband, and father. However, Theo has chosen his career over his family, and little by little he discovers that his world…
15
The Book of Love (2017)
★ 6.4/10
After tragedy strikes Henry and Penny, he befriends a tenacious young girl and discovers she is constructing a raft to sail across the Atlantic to find her lost father. Together, along with some unlikely friends, they…
16
Tigertail (2020)
★ 6.7/10
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
17
Romancing the Stone (1984)
★ 6.8/10
Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom…
18
Good Day, Ramon (2013)
★ 7.9/10
After five failed attempts to go to the United States, 18-year-old Ramón decides to look for a friend’s aunt in Germany, but never finds her. With no papers or money, and without knowing the language, he barely…
19
Chinese Box (1997)
★ 5.9/10
The story of Hong Kong, from New Year's Day to June 30th, 1997, when the British left their colony and turned it over to the People's Republic of China.
20
Magellan (2025)
★ 6.3/10
At the dawn of the modern era, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan leads an expedition under the Spanish crown in search of the first westward route to the Spice Islands. He embarks on a perilous journey across the…