The Best Survival Movies on Netflix

What it's about: Columbus has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other.

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: Jack is a young boy of 5 years old who has lived all his life in one room. He believes everything within it are the only real things in the world. But what will happen when his Ma suddenly tells him that there are other things outside of Room?

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: Martial law is declared when a mysterious viral outbreak pushes Korea into a state of emergency. Those on an express train to Busan, a city that has successfully fended off the viral outbreak, must fight for their own survival…

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

What it's about: A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.

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: Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Hulu, CBS All Access & 1 other), 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: When U.S. Rangers and an elite Delta Force team attempt to kidnap two underlings of a Somali warlord, their Black Hawk helicopters are shot down, and the Americans suffer heavy casualties, facing intense fighting from the militia on the ground.

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: It's 1863. America was born in the streets. Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin, Bill the Butcher, who murdered his father years earlier. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area.

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

What it's about: Six months after the events depicted in The Matrix, Neo has proved to be a good omen for the free humans, as more and more humans are being freed from the matrix and brought to Zion, the one and only stronghold of the Resistance. Neo himself has discovered his superpowers including super speed, ability to see the codes of the things inside the matrix and a certain degree of pre-cognition. But a nasty piece of news hits the human resistance: 250,000 machine sentinels are digging to Zion and would reach them in 72 hours. As Zion prepares for the ultimate war, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are advised by the Oracle to find the Keymaker who would help them reach the Source. Meanwhile Neo's recurrent dreams depicting Trinity's death have got him worried and as if it was not enough, Agent Smith has somehow escaped deletion, has become more powerful than before and has fixed Neo as his next target.

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

What it's about: Captain Adams and the crew of the Starship C57D travel to planet Altair 4 in search of the spaceship "Bellerophon" that has been missing for 20 years. To their surprise, they are expected.

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: When her husband's sex game goes wrong, Jessie -- handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house -- faces warped visions, dark secrets and a dire choice.

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

What it's about: Marcus Burnett is a hen-pecked family man. Mike Lowry is a foot-loose and fancy free ladies' man. Both are Miami policemen, and both have 72 hours to reclaim a consignment of drugs stolen from under their station's nose. To complicate matters, in order to get the assistance of the sole witness to a murder, they have to pretend to be each other.

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: Follows a young man named Albert and his horse, Joey, and how their bond is broken when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War One. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend.

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: When a mysterious force decimates the world’s population, only one thing is certain: if you see it, you take your life. Facing the unknown, Malorie finds love, hope and a new beginning only for it to unravel. Now she must flee with her two children down a treacherous river to the one place left that may offer sanctuary. But to survive, they'll have to undertake the perilous two-day journey blindfolded.

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

What it's about: A man is on his way home when the poorly constructed tunnel he is driving through collapses, leaving him trapped.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: Alone on a tiny deserted island, Hank has given up all hope of ever making it home again. But one day everything changes when a dead body washes ashore, and he soon realizes it may be his last opportunity to escape certain death. Armed with his new “friend” and an unusual bag of tricks, the duo go on an epic adventure to bring Hank back to the woman of his dreams.

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

What it's about: A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.

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

What it's about: The true story about legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his epic crossing of the Pacific on a balsa wood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 4 others).

What it's about: The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.

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

What it's about: Struggling to make ends meet, former special ops soldiers reunite for a high-stakes heist: stealing $75 million from a South American drug lord.

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

What it's about: The film chronicles Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to iconic musician and passionate activist, told in her own words.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: A group of college friends reunite for a trip to the forest, but encounter a menacing presence in the woods that's stalking them.

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

What it's about: In Norway on 22 July 2011, right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik murdered 77 young people attending a Labour Party Youth Camp on Utöya Island outside of Oslo. This three-part story will focus on the survivors of the attacks, the political leadership of Norway, and the lawyers involved.

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

What it's about: Barents Sea, August 12th, 2000. During a Russian naval exercise, and after suffering a serious accident, the K-141 Kursk submarine sinks with 118 crew members on board. While the few sailors who are still alive barely manage to survive, their families push for accurate information and a British officer struggles to obtain from the Russian government a permit to attempt a rescue before it is late. But general incompetence are against all their efforts.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A couple on a deep-wilderness hike become hopelessly lost within an aggressive black bear's territory.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A city teen travels to Montana to go hunting with his estranged father, only for the strained trip to become a battle for survival when they encounter a grizzly bear

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

What it's about: Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.

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: Terrorists hijack a 747 inbound to Washington D.C., demanding the the release of their imprisoned leader. Intelligence expert David Grant (Kurt Russell) suspects another reason and he is soon the reluctant member of a special assault team that is assigned to intercept the plane and hijackers.

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: Spanish photographer Francesc Boix, imprisoned in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, works in the SS Photographic Service. Between 1943 and 1945, he hides, with the help of other prisoners, thousands of negatives, with the purpose of showing the freed world the atrocities committed by the Nazis, exhaustively documented. He will be a key witness during the Nuremberg Trials.

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

What it's about: Based on an inspiring true story, a small-town news reporter (Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer (Barrymore) enlist the help of rival superpowers to save three majestic gray whales trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle. ‘Big Miracle’ is adapted from the nonfiction book ‘Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event’ by Tom Rose.

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: Sudan, East Africa, 1980. A team of Israeli Mossad agents plans to rescue and transfer thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel. To do so, and to avoid raising suspicions from the inquisitive and ruthless authorities, they establish as a cover a fake diving resort by the Red Sea.

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

What it's about: In the not too distant future, two young women who live in a remote ancient forest discover the world around them is on the brink of an apocalypse. Informed only by rumor, they fight intruders, disease, loneliness & starvation.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Gloria Allred overcame trauma and personal setbacks to become one of the nation’s most famous women’s rights attorneys. Now the feminist firebrand takes on two of the biggest adversaries of her career, Bill Cosby and Donald Trump, as sexual violence allegations grip the nation and keep her in the spotlight.

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

What it's about: In a massive, mysterious chamber, fifty strangers awaken to find themselves trapped with no memory of how they got there. Organized in an inward-facing circle and unable to move, they quickly learn that every two minutes, one of them must die... executed by a strange device in the center of the room.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Vudu).

What it's about: Jonas is a Copenhagen homicide scene photographer, happily married, with two kids. One day, his car stalls, another car slams into him, runs head on into a third car and flips into the ditch. The other driver, Julia, is critically injured. He visits her in the hospital and is greeted by her family, who assumes he must be the Sebastian she told them about, the new fiance she met in Vietnam.

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

What it's about: A small group of town residents have to band together after a devastating ground invasion. As they struggle to survive, they realize they must stay one step ahead of their attackers, and work together for a chance to strike back.

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: Junior congressman Evan Baxter, whose wish is to "change the world" is heard by none other than God. When God appears with the perplexing request to build an ark, Evan is sure he is losing it.

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

What it's about: Benji is a stray who has nonetheless worked his way into the hearts of a number of the townspeople, who give him food and attention whenever he stops by. His particular favorites are a pair of children who feed and play with him against the wishes of their parents. When the children are kidnapped, however, the parents and the police are at a loss to find them. Only Benji can track them down, but will he be in time? If he can save the day, he may just find the permanent home he's been longing for.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Volcanologist Harry Dalton comes to the sleepy town of Dante's Peak to investigate the recent rumblings of the dormant volcano the burg is named for. Before long, his worst fears are realized when a massive eruption hits, and immediately, Harry, the mayor and the townspeople find themselves fighting for their lives amid a catastrophic nightmare.

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: After a terrible virus ravages human civilization, Ann finds herself living alone in a forest, foraging for supplies, and accompanied only by a radio that broadcasts a single transmission in French. Few animals even remain; the only survivors seem to be the roving hordes of infected creatures with a taste for human flesh. One fateful day, Ann crosses paths with two more survivors, Chris and Olivia. But after surviving on her own for so long, she struggles to relate to them and and their desire to settle down and start a new community.

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: A woman who survived the brutal killing of her family as a child is forced to confront the events of that day.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: After a failed assassination attempt, a soldier finds himself stranded in the desert. Exposed to the elements, he must survive the dangers of the desert and battle the psychological and physical toll of the treacherous conditions.

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: On vacation at a remote lake house, a mother and her two young daughters must fight for survival after falling into a terrifying and bizarre nightmare conceived by a psychopath.

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 man pursues a woman who is already engaged and eventually gets married to her. Differences between the two lead to a bitter separation that threatens to destroy their relationship forever.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Google Play).

What it's about: A police officer and a psychologist investigate the deaths of five people who were killed while trying to summon ghosts.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: A group of six tourists looking to go off the beaten path, hire an 'extreme tour guide' who, ignoring warnings, takes them into the city of Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, but now a deserted town since the disaster more than 25 years earlier. After a brief exploration of the abandoned city, the group members find themselves stranded, only to discover that they are not alone.

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: As a young scientist searches for a way to save a dying Earth, she finds a connection with a man who's racing to catch the last shuttle off the planet.

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

What it's about: An assassin forges an unlikely partnership with one of his targets: a woman seeking revenge for the murder of her family.

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

What it's about: Two professors team up to locate a lost treasure and embark on an adventure that takes them from a Tibetan ice cave to Dubai, and to a mountain temple in India.

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: The harrowing true story of the crew of the USS Indianapolis, who were stranded in the Philippine Sea for five days after delivering the atomic weapons that would eventually end WWII. As they awaited rescue, they endured extreme thirst, hunger, and relentless shark attacks.

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