The Best Survival Movies and TV Shows on The Criterion Channel
Finding a good Survival movie and TV show to watch can be hard, so we've ranked the best ones and included where to watch them. Check out our list of the best Survival movies and TV shows of all time streaming on The Criterion Channel.
1. Police Story
What it's about: A virtuous Hong Kong police officer must clear his name after he is framed for murder.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (iTunes).
2. Onibaba
What it's about: While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX & The Criterion Channel).
3. A Night to Remember
What it's about: The sinking of the Titanic is presented in a highly realistic fashion in this tense British drama. The disaster is portrayed largely from the perspective of the ocean liner's second officer, Charles Lightoller. Despite numerous warnings about ice, the ship sails on, with Capt. Edward John Smith keeping it going at a steady clip. When the doomed vessel finally hits an iceberg, the crew and passengers discover that they lack enough lifeboats, and tragedy follows.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).
4. Walkabout
What it's about: 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.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).
5. Carnival of Souls
What it's about: Mary Henry ends up the sole survivor of a fatal car accident through mysterious circumstances. Trying to put the incident behind her, she moves to Utah and takes a job as a church organist. But her fresh start is interrupted by visions of a fiendish man. As the visions begin to occur more frequently, Mary finds herself drawn to the deserted carnival on the outskirts of town. The strangely alluring carnival may hold the secret to her tragic past.
Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Plex), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, HBO MAX, Philo & 7 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix & AMC) & rent or buy from $2.00 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
6. The Most Dangerous Game
What it's about: When legendary hunter Bob Rainsford is shipwrecked on the perilous reefs surrounding a mysterious island, he finds himself the guest of the reclusive and eccentric Count Zaroff. While he is very gracious at first, Zaroff eventually forces Rainsford and two other shipwreck survivors, brother and sister Eve and Martin Towbridge, to participate in a sadistic game of cat and mouse in which they are the prey and he is the hunter.
Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, HBO MAX, Epix & 2 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 2 others).
7. Village of the Damned
What it's about: In a small English village everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake every woman of child bearing age is pregnant. The resulting children have the same strange blond hair, eyes and a strong connection to each other.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel), stream on a TV everywhere service (TCM) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).
8. Phoenix
What it's about: A disfigured concentration-camp survivor, unrecognizable after facial reconstruction surgery, searches ravaged postwar Berlin for the husband who might have betrayed her to the Nazis.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).
9. My Favorite Wife
What it's about: Seven years after a shipwreck in which she was presumed dead, Ellen Arden arrives home to find that her husband Nick has just remarried. The overjoyed Nick struggles to break the news to his new bride. But he gets a shock when he hears the whole story: Ellen spent those seven years alone on a desert island with another man.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
10. Lord of the Flies
What it's about: Amidst a nuclear war, a plane carrying a group of schoolboys crash lands on a deserted island. With no adult survivors, the boys are forced to fend for themselves. At first they cooperate, but when the they split into two separate camps -- one led by the pragmatic Ralph and the other by militaristic Jack -- their society falls into disarray, leading to a disturbing examination of human nature and a chilling conclusion.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).
11. The New World
What it's about: A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
12. The Night Porter
What it's about: A concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).
13. Robinson Crusoe
What it's about: An English slave trader is marooned on a remote tropical island, forced to fend for himself and deal with crushing loneliness.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, The Criterion Channel, Fandor & 1 other) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).
14. 20 Million Miles to Earth
What it's about: When the first manned flight to Venus returns to Earth, the rocket crash-lands in the Mediterranean near a small Italian fishing village. The locals manage to save one of the astronauts Colonel Calder, the mission commander. A young boy also recovers what turns out to be a specimen of an alien creature. Growing at a fantastic rate, it manages to escape and eventually threatens the city of Rome.
Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).
15. Knight Without Armour
What it's about: British agent working in Russia is forced to remain longer than planned once the revolution begins. After being released from prison in Siberia he posses as a Russian Commissar. Because of his position among the revolutionaries he is able to rescue a Russian countess from the Bolsheviks.
Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).