12 Best Deserted Island Movies, Ranked

What three things would you take with you to a deserted island? Food? A knife? A good book? This is the age-old question of childhoods past and icebreaker questions on first dates. The answer is always different depending on whom you ask: the survivalist, the romantic, or the person who would simply give up on day one.

That’s why deserted island movies are so entertaining to watch. When put in the eye of danger, every human reacts differently. Some go mad, some burn the rum to make a smoke signal, and some use every piece of sheer willpower to find a way home. Being stranded on a deserted island is both terrifying and exhilarating, no matter how many ways you’ve thought about whether you’d be able to survive or not. These legendary island survival movies showcase just how terrifying, exhilarating, and transformative that experience can be, all from the comfort of viewers’ couches.

12 ‘Retreat’ (2011)

Director: Carl Tibbetts

Retreat follows a couple who seek recovery from a personal tragedy that has shattered their lives. And they do so on an isolated island, away from any sort of news or civilization. Their retreat is ruined though when a stranger washes ashore to tell them that an airborne disease has rattled Europe.

Retreat is a creative twist on the deserted island genre, moving the film into the realm of the small-scale apocalyptic subgenre. It certainly brings the anxiety of a couple experiencing shocking world news after being detached from humanity for a while. And while the execution is far from perfect, it’s worth commending the intriguing premise.

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11 ‘Six Days, Seven Nights’ (1998)

Director: Ivan Reitman

Six Days, Seven Nights combines the typical deserted island survival movie situations and puts them together into one film: pirates and a plane crash. Harrison Ford plays the grumpy and reclusive charter pilot who is hired to fly the more straight-laced Anne Heche to an emergency photo shoot in Tahiti. Soon, it turns into a movie about a couple stranded on an island, desperately trying to survive.

Their plane crashes during a storm on an uninhabited island where the two are thrown together to survive. The onscreen chemistry between Ford and Heche is what truly makes this admittedly flawed film so fun to watch – they both play their respective characters so well, leading to the perfect opposites-attract relationship in the end. The two fight off the environment, snakes, and pirates in this heartwarming, and often funny, deserted island movie.

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10 ‘Extortion’ (2017)

Director: Phil Volken

What happens when someone comes to rescue you off of a deserted island, but only if you give them one million dollars? One of the most underrated island movies, Extortion tells this tale in a high-stakes, anxiety-riddled journey of the protagonist’s instincts to survive and save his family.

Eion Bailey plays the protagonist of Kevin with the incredible ingenuity of a man with nothing left, contrasting Barkhad Abdi’s cruel Miguel perfectly. The movie shows the men as two sides of the same coin, both trying to make sure their families survive, but one willing to go one step further. Every scene towards the end becomes riddled with more dread, as you wait to see what Kevin is willing to do next to make sure his family gets home alive.

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9 ‘Lord of the Flies’ (1990)

Director: Harry Hook

Lord of the Flies explores the darker side of humanity and the pure animalistic instincts that reside in even the most modern humans. The film revolves around a group of schoolboys whose evacuating plane is shot down from the sky. They become stranded on an island and try to govern themselves to disastrous results.

Each of the boys represents a different aspect of society, morals, and politics – whether it’s the charismatic leader, Ralph, and his wishes for a better humanity, or, Jack, the violent, ego-maniac who believes everyone should be out for themselves. While the movie misses some crucial points of the book it’s based on, it’s still a riveting watch.

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8 ‘The Beach’ (2000)

Director: Danny Boyle

The Beach takes on a much darker tone than most movies set on an island. It follows Richard (one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s lesser-known characters), who wants to escape his boring life and travel the world, looking for his perfect paradise-lost. He is given a map that leads to a “tropical paradise” and joins up with a French couple to join the island commune.

This commune turns out to be a bit of an island prison instead, run by a woman who collects people to work for her. Richard causes the island’s downfall when he tells outside people about the map. He also tries to escape several times, always leading to someone else’s injury or death, and never realizes that his own narcissistic tendencies ended up causing much more harm to the island community. While The Beach has some notable flaws like DiCaprio’s questionable acting, its intriguing premise and beautiful setting make it worth seeing.

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7 ‘Swiss Army Man’ (2016)

Directors: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

An unconventional genre-buster from the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Swiss Army Man is a wonderfully weird film about a man stranded on a deserted island, Hank (Paul Dano), who is about to give up all home until he finds a corpse. It’s not just any corpse, it’s an enchanted corpse portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe who soon becomes the protagonist’s closest friend.

The film depicts a heartfelt and often surreal adventure that may not be for everyone, but those who love quirky humor and a dose of bizarre aspects should consider it essential viewing. It’s a fantastic movie that defies norms, and a hint at what the Daniels were capable of before their Oscar-winning masterpiece, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

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6 ‘The Red Turtle’ (2016)

Director: Michaël Dudok de Wit

A Studio Ghibli film unlike any other, director Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle revolves around the poignant story of a castaway who finds himself stranded on a deserted island. Every time he tries to escape, he’s stopped by a mysterious (and huge) red turtle. Soon, magical moments help him realize his deeper connection to the turtle and the island.

Aside from the animated movie’s stunning visuals, what makes The Red Turtle stand out is the deliberate lack of dialogue throughout the film. Instead, visual cues, music, and a simple story are used to create a wholly unique viewing experience that can easily leave audiences with tears in their eyes.

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5 ‘Battle Royale’ (2000)

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

The original death game movie before blockbusters like The Hunger Games and hit shows like Squid Game, Battle Royale is a classic Japanese film directed by Kinji Fukasaku. The film follows the twisted fates of a class of high school students who are thrust into a deadly game of survival on a deserted island.

As one of the best island survival movies, the movie does a fantastic job of portraying truly horrific situations that make audiences question their own views on morality. The fact that such young characters are at the forefront makes each action sequence a high-stakes and nail-biting scene, and they just keep escalating until the movie’s dark conclusion.

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4 ‘Isle of Dogs’ (2018)

Director: Wes Anderson

Director Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs is a whimsical stop-motion animated movie that transports viewers to a dystopian version of Japan in the future, where all dogs are sent to a trash island because of an outbreak. Eventually, a young boy named Atari decides to go to the island to find his missing dog. There, he encounters a pack of helpful dogs with Chief at the helm. On their journey, the odd group soon discovers a massive conspiracy that could change the dogs’ fates.

Considering that the island is full of garbage and the dogs only recently moved in (or were thrown in), this counts as a deserted island movie. Fans of Wes Anderson’s movies have likely already seen this, but even those who are unfamiliar with his work will likely enjoy the quirky characters, energetic soundtrack, and heartfelt story in Isle of Dogs.

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3 ‘Castaway on the Moon’ (2009)

Director: Lee Hae-jun

In the magical Korean rom-com, Castaway on the Moon, a hopeless man riddled with debt decides to end his life by jumping into the Han River. His world is shaken when he awakens washed up on a deserted island in the middle of the Seoul River. He searches the island to find nothing but flora and vegetation and begins to enjoy his time alone there, choosing to stay. Even though it is difficult, he finds anything to be better than the worries of city life.

The film takes a turn when Kim begins sending for help and exchanging messages with a woman who spots him while photographing the moon. Jung Jae-young plays the dejected Kim in such a heart-warming way that it’s hard not to root for the happy ending he so longs for.

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2 ‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Every Jurassic Park movie takes place on an island far, far away from human civilization to keep them away from the monsters that have been created. The 1993 film is still the best Jurassic Park movie, though, as Steven Spielberg showed some of his most prolific work. He created real dinosaur robotics and filmed some of the most iconic scenes in cinematic history, like the water rumbling scene.

The most interesting thing about this film as a deserted island movie is that, realistically, they aren’t even on a deserted island. They accidentally create one themselves, as workers die and get eaten, and the only thing that is left is the dinosaurs and nature.

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1 ‘Cast Away’ (2000)

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Cast Away is the quintessential deserted island movie – it is the pioneer among movies about being stranded on an island. Tom Hanks brilliantly carries the movie by himself in one of his most legendary roles. The film was critically acclaimed and nominated for numerous awards.

Cast Away follows the character of Chuck and his loneliness after a plane crash in the South Pacific. Not only does Chuck go a little wild on his four-year journey on the deserted island, he even builds himself a new friend. The most beloved character in the movie is Wilson, the volleyball that Chuck turns into a companion, complete with the iconic bloody red handprint. In fact, the most heartbreaking part of the film isn’t watching Chuck’s endless struggle, it’s when he loses poor Wilson to the waves during his final getaway.

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