Outdoor Movie Magic: Discover the Top Picks for the Best Outdoor Films!

The best outdoor movies are Into the Wild (2007), 127 Hours, Wild, Touching the Void, Tracks, Free Solo, The Dawn Wall and Meru, films that put real mountains, deserts, trails and oceans on screen. Many of them follow real people who walked, climbed or sailed further than seemed sensible. This guide picks 17 outdoor films that travellers rate highly, from the Alaskan bus in Into the Wild to the camel trek across Australia in Tracks and the ropeless climb of El Capitan in Free Solo.

Each pick shows where the film was shot or set, who made it, who it suits and which real trip it can inspire. If you are more interested in the places themselves than the films, our guide to beautiful movie locations around the world covers famous filming spots in more than 40 destinations.

How we chose these films: every title had to put a real outdoor landscape at the centre of the story and point to a place a traveller can visit or learn from. We mixed true-story dramas, documentaries and a few lighter picks so there is something for a solo night, a group and a family. Directors, filming locations and awards were checked against film databases, festival records and location reports in October 2026. Streaming availability changes by country, so check your local services.

• Films: 17
• Documentaries: 3
• Based on real events: 13
• Continents on screen: 5

Best outdoor movies compared at a glance

The 17 films split into true stories such as Into the Wild, 127 Hours, Wild and Tracks; documentaries such as Free Solo, The Dawn Wall and Meru; and dramas such as Everest. Free Solo suits everyone over about 12, while 127 Hours has one graphic scene. Use the table to pick by type and audience, then jump to the full entry.

17 best outdoor films that inspire real trips

Our editor’s pick is Into the Wild (2007), Sean Penn’s true-story road trip that ends in Alaska. Climbers should start with Free Solo and The Dawn Wall, both filmed on El Capitan in Yosemite; hikers with Wild and A Walk in the Woods; and walkers drawn to the Camino de Santiago with The Way. All 17 films follow.

Into the Wild (2007)

Our editor's pick is a true-story road trip that ends in Alaska. Sean Penn wrote and directed this adaptation of Jon Krakauer's book about Christopher McCandless, the young college graduate who gave his savings to charity, drifted across the American West and walked into the Alaskan bush in 1992. Emile Hirsch plays McCandless, and the film moves between his months in an abandoned bus near Healy and the people he met on the road in South Dakota, Arizona, California and Mexico.

Penn shot the Alaska sequences in the state itself, using a replica bus because the real one on the Stampede Trail was too remote for a film crew. Eddie Vedder's song "Guaranteed" won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Watch it for the scenery and the soundtrack, and watch it a second time for the lesson every hiker draws from it: the Teklanika River that trapped McCandless was a small crossing when he arrived and a torrent when he tried to leave. At about 148 minutes, it suits a long evening better than a late start at camp.

Pairs with a trip to the United States. The original bus was airlifted out of the bush in 2020, so there is nothing to hike to.

127 Hours (2010)

No film on this list is more intense than Danny Boyle's true story of a Utah canyon accident. It retells the 2003 ordeal of climber Aron Ralston, whose arm was pinned by a falling boulder in Bluejohn Canyon, a slot canyon near Canyonlands National Park in south-eastern Utah. He spent five days alone before freeing himself. James Franco carries almost every scene, and Boyle uses split screens, flashbacks and hallucinations to keep a story set in one narrow crack moving.

The crew filmed in the real canyon for close to a week and recreated the tightest section on a set in Salt Lake City. The film earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, without a win. One scene is graphic, which makes it a film for adults and a poor choice for a mixed group. For canyoneers it remains the most watched safety lesson in outdoor cinema: Ralston told nobody where he was going.

Leave a written route plan with someone before any canyon or desert hike. It is the single habit this film teaches.

Wild (2014)

The best hiking drama here is another true story, set on a long-distance trail. Reese Witherspoon plays Cheryl Strayed, who set off alone on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995 after her mother's death and the collapse of her marriage. Jean-Marc Vallée directs from Nick Hornby's script, based on Strayed's memoir. The film follows her more than 1,000 miles, from the Mojave Desert to the Bridge of the Gods on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington.

Much of the production shot in Oregon, around Bend, Ashland and the high desert, with the Bend area standing in for the Californian desert sections. Hikers praise the details: the overstuffed pack nicknamed "Monster", boots a size too small, lost toenails and the loneliness of camp after dark. Solo hikers should watch it a few weeks before a first multi-day trek, because it shows mistakes that cost Strayed days and comfort.

Weigh your pack at home before any multi-day hike. Strayed's "Monster" is the reason the trail community talks about base weight.

Touching the Void (2003)

For a survival story, this Peruvian Andes docudrama is the strongest on the list. In 1985 Joe Simpson and Simon Yates climbed the west face of Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru. On the descent Simpson broke his leg. Yates lowered him down the mountain on a rope until Simpson slid over an ice cliff, and with no way to communicate, Yates cut the rope. Simpson fell into a crevasse and spent the following days crawling back to base camp.

Kevin Macdonald tells the story with interviews of the two climbers and reconstructed climbing scenes, and the mix works better than either would alone. The film won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film. Climbers and trekkers come for the climb and remember the ethical question: Yates was criticised for cutting the rope, and Simpson has always defended him.

Inspires trips to Peru. The Huayhuash circuit is a serious high-altitude trek, so plan acclimatisation days in Huaraz first.

Tracks (2013)

Camels, a dog and the Australian desert make this the best desert film here, and it is a true story. Robyn Davidson walked about 2,700 kilometres across the Australian deserts in 1977, from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, with four camels and her dog Diggity. National Geographic sponsored the trip, and photographer Rick Smolan joined her at intervals, which she resented at the time. Mia Wasikowska plays Davidson in John Curran's film.

The production shot in South Australia and the Northern Territory, and the red-earth landscapes do most of the storytelling. Reviewers split on the pace, which reflects the walk itself: long days of the same horizon. Slow travellers and anyone planning an outback road trip will get the most from it; read Davidson's book afterwards for the months of camel training in Alice Springs that the film compresses.

Pairs with a trip to Australia. Outback distances are huge, so plan fuel and water stops before you leave Alice Springs.

Free Solo (2018)

Alex Honnold's ropeless ascent of El Capitan's Freerider route in Yosemite National Park in June 2017 is the centre of this Oscar-winning climbing documentary by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Much of the film is about the preparation: months of rehearsing moves on a rope, an injury, an aborted first attempt and the crew's fear of filming a friend who could fall.

The Academy Award it won was for Best Documentary Feature. The final climb is filmed with long lenses and remote cameras so close to the wall that many viewers cannot watch it straight, though it works for anyone over about 12. For travellers, it is also a strong advert for Yosemite Valley, where you can stand in El Capitan Meadow and watch climbers on the wall through binoculars.

Bring binoculars to El Capitan Meadow in Yosemite to spot climbers on the wall.

The Dawn Wall (2017)

In January 2015 Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the first free ascent of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan after 19 days on the face, and this big-wall documentary is the best climbing story on the list. Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer cover the climb and the years before it, including Caldwell's kidnapping by militants in Kyrgyzstan in 2000 and the loss of part of his index finger.

Watched back to back with Free Solo, it shows the other way to climb the same mountain in Yosemite: with ropes, a partner and weeks of living on a portaledge. The pitch 15 sequence, where Jorgeson fails again and again while Caldwell waits, carries the emotional weight. The film won the Grand Prix at the Graz mountain film festival, and families with teens tend to like it.

Watch it as the second half of a Yosemite double bill after Free Solo.

Meru (2015)

Mountain fans should rank this Himalayan documentary as the best mountaineering film here. Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk attempt the Shark's Fin, a route on Meru Peak in the Garhwal Himalaya of India that had turned back strong teams for years. Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi directed it, and Chin filmed much of it himself while climbing.

The film is honest about failure: the first attempt ends close to the top, and in 2011 Ozturk survives a near-fatal skiing accident. It won the US Documentary Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. For trekkers heading to the Indian Himalaya, it gives a clear sense of how storms and supply decisions shape a climb.

Pairs with trekking in India. Garhwal treks start from Uttarakhand, and permits apply in some protected areas.

Everest (2015)

Baltasar Kormákur's true-story drama, the best mountain drama on the list, recreates the May 1996 disaster on Mount Everest in Nepal, when a storm caught several commercial expeditions near the summit. Jason Clarke plays guide Rob Hall and Jake Gyllenhaal plays Scott Fischer. The film is based on several accounts, and Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air remains the best known.

The production filmed in Nepal, including the Khumbu region and Kathmandu, then moved to the Senales glacier in northern Italy for high-mountain scenes and finished on stages. Trekkers and history fans should watch it before a trek to Everest Base Camp: the early scenes at Lukla airstrip and in Namche Bazaar show the route trekkers still follow.

Inspires trips to Nepal. Base Camp treks run best in spring and autumn.

The Way (2010)

Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American eye doctor whose son dies in the Pyrenees on the first day of the Camino de Santiago, in what we rate the best walking film on the list. Tom flies to France to collect the body and decides to walk the pilgrimage himself, from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago, carrying his son's ashes. His son Emilio Estevez wrote and directed the film.

It was shot along the real Camino Francés in France and Spain, including stops in Navarre such as Roncesvalles and Pamplona, and ends at Santiago de Compostela. The supporting characters, a Dutchman, a Canadian and an Irish writer, match the mix of people walkers meet in albergues. Many pilgrims and slow travellers say this film started their own Camino.

Inspires trips to Spain. Book the first night in Roncesvalles ahead in peak months.

A Walk in the Woods (2015)

The easiest watch here is a comedy about the Appalachian Trail. Robert Redford plays travel writer Bill Bryson and Nick Nolte plays his out-of-shape friend Stephen Katz as they set out on the trail. Ken Kwapis directed this light adaptation of Bryson's book, with Emma Thompson as Bryson's wife.

Exterior scenes were filmed largely around Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia, near the southern end of the trail. The film is gentle, funny and short on suffering, which makes it a good choice for a family screening, beginners or a group that wants a laugh before a weekend hike. Read the book for the trail history the film leaves out.

Amicalola Falls has an approach trail to the start of the Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

Our choice for best road movie starts in 1952, when a young medical student, Ernesto Guevara, and his friend Alberto Granado left Buenos Aires on an old Norton motorcycle to cross South America. Walter Salles's film follows them through Argentina, Chile and Peru, with Gael García Bernal as Guevara.

The journey takes in Patagonian lakes, the Atacama, Machu Picchu in the Andes and a leper colony on the Amazon, and the film works as a portrait of a continent as much as of two men. Jorge Drexler's "Al otro lado del río" won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Overlanders and backpackers planning a trip in the Andes will find it a natural first watch.

Inspires trips to Argentina and Peru. Long-distance buses link most points on the route.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Of all 17 films, this feel-good comedy-drama has sent the most viewers to look up flights to Iceland, and we rate it the best for travel inspiration. Ben Stiller directs and stars as a photo editor at Life magazine who chases a missing negative across Greenland, Iceland and the Himalaya. The film was made mostly in Iceland, which doubles for Greenland in several scenes.

The best-known sequence, Mitty longboarding down Road 93, was filmed on the road over Fjarðarheiði heath down to Seyðisfjörður in east Iceland in autumn 2012. Travellers still drive it for the view. It is an easy pick for groups and families, and the message about leaving the desk suits a pre-trip night.

Inspires trips to Iceland. Road 93 over the heath can close in winter storms.

The Revenant (2015)

The toughest film on the list to sit through is this frontier survival story shot mostly in Canada. Leonardo DiCaprio plays fur trapper Hugh Glass, mauled by a bear and left for dead in the 1820s American frontier. Alejandro G. Iñárritu directed it with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who shot it mainly in natural light.

Most of the film was shot in Alberta, with scenes in British Columbia and Montana; when the snow melted, the final scenes moved to Ushuaia in Argentina. It won three Oscars: Best Actor for DiCaprio, Best Director for Iñárritu and Best Cinematography for Lubezki. Long and brutal, it is for adults only, and suits viewers who want winter landscapes at their most raw.

Inspires a winter trip to Canada. The Alberta Rockies are reachable from Calgary.

Kon-Tiki (2012)

A raft on the Pacific gives this true story the title of best ocean adventure here. In 1947 Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and five crew sailed a balsa raft from Peru across the Pacific to Polynesia, to show that ancient South Americans could have made the trip. Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg directed this Norwegian dramatisation.

Most of the ocean scenes were shot off Malta, with other locations used as well. The film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Globe in the same category, a first for Norway. Families and sailors who want an adventure without heavy violence will enjoy it, and it pairs well with a visit to the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo.

Inspires a trip to Norway. The original raft is displayed in Oslo.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

Taika Waititi's comedy, our best family pick, follows Ricky, a city foster kid, and his gruff foster uncle Hec (Sam Neill), who end up on the run in the New Zealand bush with a national manhunt behind them. It is based on Barry Crump's novel Wild Pork and Watercress.

The film was shot in the Waitākere Ranges west of Auckland and on the Central Plateau of the North Island, and the first shooting day began in a blizzard near the Desert Road. It is a comedy with heart, short enough for a family night, with plenty of native forest on screen.

Inspires a trip to New Zealand. The Waitākere Ranges are about 40 minutes from Auckland.

Society of the Snow (2023)

The best recent film on the list is J.A. Bayona's Spanish-language survival story, which retells the October 1972 crash of a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a rugby team in the Andes, and the 72 days survivors spent on the glacier. It is told from the survivors' side, using the names of the real people.

Netflix produced it, and filming took place in the Sierra Nevada in Spain, in Montevideo, and in the Andes in Chile and Argentina, including the real Valle de las Lágrimas. It replaces the 1993 film Alive for most viewers, and is the more respectful account of a story that still matters in Uruguay. Keep it for an adult audience.

Available on Netflix, so it is easy to stream for a screening at home.

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How to choose an outdoor film for your group

Think about the audience first. A family camping night needs short running times, no graphic scenes and some humour, which points to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Kon-Tiki or Walter Mitty. A group of hikers about to start a long trail will get more from Wild, The Way or A Walk in the Woods, because those films deal with the daily routine of walking: feet, food, weather and the people you meet.

Climbers and mountain fans should start with the documentaries. Free Solo, The Dawn Wall and Meru show real climbs filmed by people who were on the rock themselves, and they make a natural weekend series. Survival dramas such as Touching the Void, 127 Hours, The Revenant and Society of the Snow are strong but heavy, so plan them for adults and leave time to talk afterwards.

If the film is meant to spark a holiday, choose by destination. Iceland, Nepal, Peru, Spain, New Zealand and the American West all appear in films on this list, and our tour listings and hotel search can help turn a film night into a booked trip.

Tips for hosting an outdoor movie night

An outdoor screening needs darkness, a flat bright surface, sound everyone can hear and a plan for insects and cold. Use a projector of around 2,000 ANSI lumens or more, a taut white sheet or pale wall, a separate speaker near the screen, and start 30 to 45 minutes after sunset with repellent and blankets ready.

• Projector brightness. Aim for around 2,000 ANSI lumens or more for a garden or rooftop. Lower ratings work only in full darkness with no nearby lights.
• Screen surface. A taut white sheet works if it has no creases. Pull it tight between two poles or fix it flat to a pale wall; wind ripples ruin the picture.
• Separate sound. Use a Bluetooth or wired speaker placed near the screen. Projector speakers are too weak outdoors, and keep the volume within local noise rules.
• Start after full dark. Begin about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. Check the sunset time for your date and allow time to set up while it is still light.
• Insects and cold. Bring repellent, blankets and cushions. Even warm days cool quickly once the sun goes down, especially in the mountains or near water.
• Power and backup. Test the projector, cables and download the film before guests arrive. Streaming over weak outdoor Wi-Fi is the most common reason screenings stop.

Planning a trip to Iceland? Read our Iceland travel guide or search flights.