The Best River Movies

What it's about: At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: On his way to Vienna, American Jesse meets Céline, a student returning to Paris. After long conversations forge a surprising connection between them, Jesse convinces Celine to get off the train with him in Vienna. Since his flight to the U.S. departs the next morning and he has no money for lodging, they wander the city together, taking in the experiences of Vienna and each other.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Sundance Now) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Two boys find a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River and form a pact to help him reunite with his lover and escape.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Hulu), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A few decades after the destruction of the Inca empire, a Spanish expedition leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon river in search of gold and wealth. Soon, they come across great difficulties and Don Aguirre, a ruthless man who cares only about riches, becomes their leader. But will his quest lead them to "the golden city", or to certain destruction?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Shout Factory TV & Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Fandor, Shout Factory TV & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: At the start of the first World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A lone prospector ventures into Alaska looking for gold. He gets mixed up with some burly characters and falls in love with the beautiful Georgia. He tries to win her heart with his singular charm.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Gang-du is a dim-witted man working at his father's tiny snack bar near the Han River. Following the dumping of gallons of toxic waste in the river, a giant mutated squid-like appears and begins attacking the populace. Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo is snatched up by the creature and he and his family are taken into custody by the military, who fear a virus spread by the creature.. In detention, Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo, who is not dead, merely trapped in a sewer. With his family to assist him, he sets off to find Hyun-seo.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Monsters Nightmares, Shudder & Warriors Gangsters) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Match Point is Woody Allen’s satire of the British High Society and the ambition of a young tennis instructor to enter into it. Yet when he must decide between two women - one assuring him his place in high society, and the other that would bring him far from it - palms start to sweat and a dark psychological match in his head begins.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilazation in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: The just out of college effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was little.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, SnagFilms & Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson , the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a TV everywhere service (TCM) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Sayra, a Honduran teen, hungers for a better life. Her chance for one comes when she is reunited with her long-estranged father, who intends to emigrate to Mexico and then enter the United States. Sayra's life collides with a pair of Mexican gangmembers who have boarded the same American-bound train.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: When governments fail to act on behalf of captive missionaries, ex-Green Beret John James Rambo sets aside his peaceful existence along the Salween River in a war-torn region of Thailand to take action. Although he's still haunted by violent memories of his time as a U.S. soldier during the Vietnam War, Rambo can hardly turn his back on the aid workers who so desperately need his help.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: In 1981, an enthusiastic young adventurer follows his dreams into the Bolivian Amazon jungle with two friends and a guide with a mysterious past. Their journey quickly turns into a terrifying ordeal as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wilderness lead to an all-out fight for survival.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Vudu & 2 others).

What it's about: Jim Craig has lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father's farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the low lands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet. Kirk Douglas plays two roles as twin brothers who haven't spoken for years, one of whom was Jim's father's best friend and the other of whom is the father of the girl he wants to marry.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A deadly airborne virus finds its way into the USA and starts killing off people at an epidemic rate. Col Sam Daniels' job is to stop the virus spreading from a small town, which must be quarantined, and to prevent an over reaction by the White House.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Sundance) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: As bareknuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert Jim Corbett uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the top of the boxing world.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie, an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out to find Ruth and their daughter, born during his incarceration.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the Bengal river around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its people, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: While on a family vacation, rafting expert Gail takes on a pair of armed killers while navigating a spectacularly violent river.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Chinese narco-cops take their mission to the Golden Triangle following the Mekong River massacre of innocent fishermen by the region's drug lord.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: A young field administrator for the TVA comes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam on the Tennessee River. He encounters opposition from the local people, in particular a farmer who objects to his employment (with pay) of local black laborers. Much of the plot revolves around the eviction of an elderly woman from her home on an island in the River, and the young man's love affair with that woman's widowed granddaughter.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Kirk Douglas stars as the determined leader of a band of Tennessee fur trappers who set out to explore the uncharted Missouri river in 1830 and find them selves battling American Indians.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Fitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubber, a very profitable product, in a remote and unexplored region of the rainforest.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Fandor & Shout Factory TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: A terrifying tale of survival in the mangrove swamps of Northern Australia.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Vudu).

What it's about: X arrives in Azul, witnesses a violent act and commits a crime; Z takes the job of a manager, who has recently died, and discovers that he had a notebook written in code and a map: he has left clues to follow; H is hired to go down a river and investigate a series of mysterious monoliths built on the shore.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: A dashing Mississippi river gambler wins the affections of the daughter of the owner of the Show Boat.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Present days. A man and his companion go on a journey to cremate the dead body of the former beloved wife, on a riverbank in the area where they spent their honeymoon.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Fandor & Kanopy).

What it's about: When rogue stealth-fighter pilot Vic Deakins deliberately drops off the radar while on maneuvers, the Air Force ends up with two stolen nuclear warheads -- and Deakins's co-pilot, Riley Hale, is the military's only hope for getting them back. Traversing the deserted canyons of Utah, Hale teams with park ranger Terry Carmichael to put Deakins back in his box.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: The story of Captain Richard Francis Burton's and Lt. John Hanning Speke's expedition to find the source of the Nile river in the name of Queen Victoria's British Empire. The film tells the story of their meeting, their friendship emerging amidst hardship, and then dissolving after their journey.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The itinerant farmer and his young son help a heart-of-gold saloon singer search for her estranged husband

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: This documentary follows five friends on an immersive adventure through the unknown wilds of the Texas borderlands as they travel 1200 miles from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes. They set out to document the borderlands and explore the potential impacts of a border wall on the natural environment, but as the wilderness gives way to the more populated and heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they come face-to-face with the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $0.99 on 6 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 4 others).

What it's about: When flesh-eating piranhas are accidently released into a summer resort's rivers, the guests become their next meal.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Cinemax), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Cinemax) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A "National Geographic" film crew is taken hostage by an insane hunter, who takes them along on his quest to capture the world's largest - and deadliest - snake.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Louis Hayward stars as a wealthy man who tries to seduce the family maid. She resists, and he kills her. Long jealous of his brother Lee Bowman, Hayward does his best to pin the blame for the murder on his sibling. Also affected by Hayward's arrogant dementia is his long-suffering wife Jane Wyatt. Originally, director Lang had proposed that the unfortunate maid be a black woman, but was over ruled

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).

What it's about: A group of armed robbers fleeing the police head for the New Jersey Tunnel and run right into trucks transporting toxic waste. The spectacular explosion that follows results in both ends of the tunnel collapsing and the handful of people who survived the explosion are now in peril. Kit Latura is the only man with the skill and knowledge to lead the band of survivors out of the tunnel before the structure collapses.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Cinemax), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Cinemax) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: A young drifter working on a river barge disrupts his employers' lives while hiding the fact that he knows more about a dead woman found in the river than he admits.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (HBO & Cinemax).

What it's about: Students on a camping trip discover something sinister is lurking beyond the trees.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: In the south of Laos, an American volunteer doctor becomes a fugitive after he intervenes in the sexual assault of a young woman. When the assailant's body is pulled from the Mekong River, things quickly spiral out of control.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A naive California teen plans to remain above the fray at his Nebraskan family reunion, but a strange encounter places him at the center of a long-buried family secret.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Starz, Shout Factory TV & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Set right before the fall of Thailand's old capital, Ayuttaya, Bang Rajan draws on the legend of a village of fighters who bravely fended off the Burmese armies. With no support from the Royal army, the villagers drives the invading Burmese away many times until their names have become legendary during the time. As each subsequent battles becomes fiercer, the villagers tries to forge a canon to battle the enemy in a final battle where everyone, women and children included, die in combat.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (PlayStation Store).

What it's about: Katherine Morrissey, a former Christian missionary, lost her faith after the tragic deaths of her family. Now she applies her expertise to debunking religious phenomena. When a series of biblical plagues overrun a small town, Katherine arrives to prove that a supernatural force is not behind the occurrences, but soon finds that science cannot explain what is happening. Instead, she must regain her faith to combat the evil that waits in a Louisiana swamp.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: After Siegfried's death, Kriemhild marries Etzel, the King of the Huns. She gives birth to a child, and invites her brothers for a party. She tries to persuade Etzel and the other Huns to kill Hagen, the murderer of Siegfried, but he is protected by her brothers. A fierce battle begins to force her brothers to give Hagen to her.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy).

What it's about: Bob McGraw is in his 12th year of college, goofing his way through life. Bob, Irwing, Gonzer and Max are the four losers forced and bribed to represent their university in an intercollegiate raft race. Forced and bribed into this role, they make some friends, the lovely Heather Merriweather, but mostly enemies, among others a whole team of marines, and preppy IVY-leaguers determined to win.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix).

What it's about: A man and two women lost at sea in a rowboat; their pasts are conveyed in flashbacks throughout the film.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel).