Desert movies and TV shows

The list contains the best, new and most relevant desert movies ordered by relevance. The recommendation service has sorted out serious, suspenseful, realistic, road movie, tense and atmospheric films and TV shows about / with desert, danger, survival, escapades, murder, blood, road trip, death, isolation and on the road plots mostly in Drama, Thriller and Adventure genres shot in USA, UK, Australia and other countries.
desert
 2432
desert movies
TOP 10 movies tagged as desert: Thirst (2010), Duel (1971), Flight of the Phoenix (2004), The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), The King Is Alive (2000), Twentynine Palms (2003), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Sahara (1983), The Book of Eli (2010), Sweat (2002).

List of desert movies

Type:
Year:
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Watch Trailers From This List to Choose a Movie
 4.5
 862
Thirst (2010)
Genre: Drama, Horror
Country: Canada
Duration: 91 min.
Story: After wrecking their car in the middle of the desert, two couples find themselves stranded with few supplies. When the heat intensifies and their precious water supply dwindles, the frantic friends begin betraying each other in the hopes of ...
Style: serious, tense, psychological, realistic, suspenseful ...
Audience: date night
Plot: desert, wilderness, survival, stranded in the desert, dehydration, isolation, danger, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, thirst, wilderness survival, road trip, trapped ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa
Is relevant ?
 7.6
 78K
Duel (1971)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Travelling businessman, David Mann, angers the driver of a rusty tanker whilst crossing the Californian desert. A simple trip turns deadly as Mann struggles to stay on the road while the tanker plays cat and mouse with his life.
Style: road movie, atmospheric, suspense, exciting, tension ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: desert, car chase, truck, chase, on the road, road rage, psychopath, truck driver, driving, car, stalking, mysterious villain ...
Time: 70s, year 1971, 20th century
Place: california, persia, usa, los angeles
Is relevant ?
Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min.
Story: When an Amacor oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns and copilot "A.J." are sent to shut the operation down. However, on their way to Beijing, a major dust storm forces them to ditch their C-119 ...
Style: intense, suspense, serious, realistic, suspenseful ...
Plot: survival, desert, aviation, stranded, air disaster, adaptation, chase, rescue, introspection, danger, getting home, human nature ...
Time: 20th century
Place: long beach california, beijing china, mongolia
Is relevant ?
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
Country: South Africa, Botswana
Duration: 109 min.
Story: Misery is brought to a small group of Sho in the Kalahari desert in the form of a cola bottle. In his quest to throw the evil object over the edge of the earth, Xixo encounters Western "civilization," a haphazard doctor and a tyranical ...
Style: funny, light, humorous, feel good, cult classic ...
Audience: teens, kids, family outing
Plot: desert, culture clash, tribe, wilderness, philosophy, on the road, rivalry, danger, heartwarming, african, road trip, animal ...
Time: year 1980, 80s, 20th century, 70s
Place: africa, south africa, cape town south africa
Is relevant ?
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The King Is Alive (2000)
Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, South Africa, Norway, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: Stranded in the heat of a barren African desert, eleven bus-passengers shelter in the remnants of an abandoned town. As rescue grows more remote by the day and anxiety deepens, an idea emerges: why not stage a play. However the choice of King Lear ...
Style: bleak, stylized, melancholic, atmospheric, psychological ...
Plot: desert, survival, dogme 95, stranded, shakespeare, dogma, isolation, culture clash, rescue, life is a bitch, danger, bus ...
Time: 90s
Place: africa, namibia
Is relevant ?
Twentynine Palms (2003)
Genre: Drama, Horror
Country: France, Germany, USA
Duration: 119 min.
Story: David, an independent photographer, and Katia, an unemployed woman, leave Los Angeles, en route to the southern California desert, where they search a natural set to use as a backdrop for a magazine photo shoot. They find a motel in the town of ...
Style: disturbing, road movie, psychological, sexy, harsh ...
Audience: adult
Plot: desert, road trip, on the road, public nudity, violence, murder, explicit sex, male nudity, nude, female pubic hair, woman urinating, sex scene ...
Time: year 2003, 2000s
Place: usa, california
Is relevant ?
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 218 min.
Story: The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological ...
Style: epic, captivating, breathtaking, visually appealing, visually stunning ...
Audience: date night, teens, family outing, kids
Plot: desert, world war one, military, british empire, camel, imperialism, historical character, battles, islam, politics, great war, train ...
Time: 1910s, 20th century, 1920s, year 1962, victorian era ...
Place: middle east, saudi arabia, ottoman empire, arabia, africa ...
Is relevant ?
 4.9
 2K
Sahara (1983)
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 111 min.
Story: After her father dies, young Dale takes his place in a trans-African auto race, but ends up being abducted by a desert sheik.
Style: grindhouse, independent film, exciting, suspenseful, semi serious ...
Audience: teens
Plot: desert, sheik, treasure hunt, woman dressed as man, auto racing, cannon, cross dressing, age difference, racing, treasure hunter, danger, rivalry ...
Time: year 1983, 1920s
Place: ottoman empire, north africa, detroit, sahara
Is relevant ?
 6.8
 338K
The Book of Eli (2010)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min.
Story: 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.
Style: futuristic, serious, apocalyptic, twist ending, rough ...
Audience: manly, boys' night, adult
Plot: survival, apocalypse, post apocalypse, post apocalyptic, dystopian future, end of the world, desert, faith, religion, danger, dystopia, lone hero ...
Time: future, year 2010, near future, 2010s, distant future ...
Place: indiana, usa, san francisco
Is relevant ?
 5.5
 757
Sweat (2002)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 103 min.
Story: Four partners heist a fortune in gold ore from a North African airport & escape across the desert in a truck.
Style: exciting, tense, suspenseful, rough, serious ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: desert, heist, car chase, partner, danger, rivalry, dishonesty, gold, chase, chases and races, bickering, escape ...
Time: 21st century
Place: africa
Is relevant ?
 7.2
 11K
Theeb (2014)
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: Jordan, UK, Qatar, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 100 min.
Story: In the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, a young Bedouin boy experiences a greatly hastened coming of age as he embarks on a perilous desert journey to guide a British officer to his secret destination.
Style: realistic, captivating, serious, tense, exciting ...
Plot: desert, world war one, coming of age, survival, bedouin, boy, arab, journey, sheik, escapades, danger, teaching the ways of the world ...
Time: 1910s, 20th century, 2010s, 1920s, year 1916
Place: middle east, jordan, saudi arabia, africa, maghreb ...
Is relevant ?
 6.4
 11K
Scenic Route (2013)
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min.
Story: Stranded on an isolated desert road, two life-long friends fight for survival as their already strained relationship spirals into knife-wielding madness.
Style: tense, realistic, serious, psychological thriller, twisted ...
Plot: desert, isolation, friends, on the road, survival, breaking point, murder, stupidity, fight, nature, road trip, redneck ...
Time: 21st century
Is relevant ?
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Disappearance (2002)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Country: USA, Australia
Duration: 92 min.
Story: A family driving through Nevada decides to take some snapshots at an out-of-the-way ghost town named Weaver, and horrible things start happening.
Style: psychological, suspenseful, serious, captivating, mind bending ...
Plot: ghost town, desert, escapades, ghost, danger, confined, stalking, survival, isolation, folk horror, supernatural, motel ...
Place: nevada, usa, new mexico
Is relevant ?
 5.9
 21K
Southbound (2015)
Genre: Horror
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story: The film contains five stories set on desolate stretches of a desert highway. Two men on the run from their past, a band on its way to a gig, a man struggling to get home, a brother in search of his long-lost sister and a family on vacation are ...
Style: anthology, suspense, dark, disturbing, spooky ...
Plot: desert, occult, macabre, survival, highway, masked killer, road trip, trapped, murder, monster, multiple storylines, chase ...
Place: arizona
Is relevant ?
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min.
Story: Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon dead bodies, $2 million and a hoard of heroin in a Texas desert, but methodical killer Anton Chigurh comes looking for it, with local sheriff Ed Tom Bell hot on his trail. The roles of prey and predator blur as the ...
Style: neo noir, suspense, serious, tense, atmospheric ...
Audience: date night, adult
Plot: hitman, psychopath, shooting, desert, serial killer, peril, greed, brutality, human nature, sheriff, death, murder ...
Time: year 2007, 2000s, 20th century, year 1980, 80s
Place: texas, el paso texas, mexico, austin texas, america ...
Is relevant ?
 5.3
 5K
Dark Country (2009)
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story: A couple en route from Las Vegas are forced to deal with a body out in the desert making their honeymoon one hellish ride.
Style: suspenseful, suspense, serious, realistic, neo noir ...
Plot: desert, time loop, road trip, on the road, disorder, murder, sheriff, honeymoon, destiny, danger, unlikely criminals, investigation ...
Time: 21st century
Place: nevada, usa, las vegas
Is relevant ?
The Sheltering Sky (1990)
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 138 min.
Story: An American couple (John Malkovich, Debra Winger) drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.
Style: road movie, scenic, visually appealing, surreal, erotic ...
Plot: desert, sahara desert, travel, infidelity, on the road, traveler, husband wife relationship, existentialism, beautiful scenery, sex scene, heat wave, art history ...
Time: 1940s, 80s
Place: africa, morocco, north africa, new york
Is relevant ?
 8.0
 785K
Dune (2021)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 155 min.
Story: A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure ...
Style: epic, suspense, captivating, tense, action adventure ...
Audience: chick flick, adult
Plot: desert, space opera, alien planet, messiah, prophecy, destiny, outer space, premonition, water shortage, politics, adaptation, survival ...
Time: future, distant future, 2020s
Place: space western
Is relevant ?
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Beyond the Reach (2014)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: A high-rolling corporate shark and his impoverished young guide play the most dangerous game during a hunting trip in the Mojave Desert.
Style: suspenseful, atmospheric, exciting, realistic, serious ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: survival, desert, wilderness, hunting, chase, hunter, isolation, witnessing a crime, travel, thirst, danger, chases and races ...
Time: 21st century
Place: california, usa, mojave desert, new mexico
Is relevant ?
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 120 min.
Story: An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be ...
Style: road movie, exciting, visually stunning, surreal, apocalyptic ...
Audience: boys' night, teens, girls' night, family friendly, adult
Plot: post apocalypse, survival, apocalypse, post apocalyptic, desert, dystopian future, chase, car chase, distopia, car, dystopia, on the run ...
Time: future, year 2015, 2010s, year 2016, distant future ...
Place: australia, los angeles
Is relevant ?
The Wind and the Lion (1975)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min.
Story: At the beginning of the 20th century an American woman is abducted in Morocco by Berbers. The attempts to free her range from diplomatic pressure to military intervention.
Style: scenic, serious, suspenseful, captivating, realistic ...
Plot: desert, kidnapping, politics, rescue, hostage, little girl, confined, boy, battle of the sexes, german soldier, sword fight, cavalry ...
Time: 1900s, 20th century, year 1975
Place: morocco, north africa, africa, washington d.c., ottoman empire ...
Is relevant ?
The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Country: USA, Morocco
Duration: 89 min.
Story: A group of National Guard trainees find themselves battling against a vicious group of mutants on their last day of training in the desert.
Style: scary, bloody, disturbing, sadistic, suspense ...
Audience: boys' night, teens
Plot: cannibal, desert, cannibalism, gory, psychopath, supernatural, torture, serial killer, monster, military, blood, rescue ...
Time: year 2007, year 2000, 21st century
Place: new mexico, usa
Is relevant ?
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 96 min.
Story: Max Rockatansky returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre ...
Style: apocalyptic, road movie, futuristic, grindhouse, cult classic ...
Audience: boys' night, date night
Plot: post apocalypse, apocalypse, desert, truck, car chase, dystopia, loner, lone hero, chase, post apocalyptic, oil, survival ...
Time: future, year 1982, distant future, 20th century, near future ...
Place: australia, oceania, middle east
Is relevant ?
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 7.1
 32K
Tracks (2013)
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 112 min.
Story: Accompanied only by her faithful dog and four camels, an Australian satisfies her craving for solitude by embarking on a solo trip across the desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean.
Style: uplifting, touching, scenic, atmospheric, feel good ...
Audience: girls' night, chick flick
Plot: wilderness, desert, solitude, camel, survival, travel, human spirit, photographer, explorer, beautiful scenery, obsessive quest, dog ...
Time: year 1977, 20th century, 2010s, 70s, year 1976 ...
Place: australia
Is relevant ?
 6.3
 172K
Dune (1984)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 137 min.
Story: In the year 10,191, the world is at war for control of the desert planet Dune – the only place where the time-travel substance 'Spice' can be found. But when one leader gives up control, it's only so he can stage a coup with some ...
Style: atmospheric, futuristic, epic, visual, psychedelic ...
Audience: boys' night, teens
Plot: desert, space travel, messiah, prophecy, space opera, space, dystopia, chosen one, future war, desert planet, dune, space wars ...
Time: future, distant future, 20th century, year 1984
Place: south pole, space western
Is relevant ?
It Stains the Sands Red (2016)
Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 92 min.
Story: In the throes of a zombie apocalypse, A troubled woman from Las Vegas with a dark past, finds herself stranded in the desert with a lone and ravenous zombie on her tail.
Style: suspense, tense, captivating, suspenseful, bleak ...
Plot: zombie, desert, female protagonist, stripper, zombie apocalypse, rape, survival, murder, survival horror, pursuit, wilderness, cocaine ...
Place: usa, las vegas, mojave desert
Is relevant ?
 6.6
 8K
Mystery Road (2013)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Australia
Duration: 121 min.
Story: An indigenous detective returns to the Outback to investigate the murder of a young girl.
Style: detective, serious, captivating, atmospheric, realistic ...
Plot: desert, investigation, murder investigation, small town, murder, who done it, police, estrangement, outback, heroes, law enforcement, australian aboriginal ...
Time: 21st century
Place: australia, oceania
Is relevant ?
Bab'Aziz: The Prince That Contemplated His Soul (2005)
Genre: Drama
Country: Tunisia, Hungary, France, Germany, Iran, Switzerland, UK
Duration: 96 min.
Story: The story of a blind dervish named Bab'Aziz and his spirited granddaughter, Ishtar. Together they wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes place just once every thirty years. With faith as their only guide, the two ...
Style: serious, touching, atmospheric, road movie, sentimental ...
Plot: spirituality, human spirit, desert, religions or cults, self discovery, mysterious place, on the road, storytelling, grandfather, granddaughter, poetry, destiny ...
Time: 21st century
Place: middle east, tunisia
Is relevant ?
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: On the way to California, a family has the misfortune to have their car break down in an area closed to the public, and inhabited by violent savages ready to attack.
Style: scary, slasher, suspenseful, disturbing, dark ...
Plot: cannibalism, desert, gory, blood, cannibal, rape, serial killer, dog, murder, violence, disturbed individual, rape and revenge ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: california, usa, southern california
Is relevant ?
 3.8
 210
Devil Girl (2007)
Genre: Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min.
Story: Fay is a small town girl on a cross country road trip, trying to escape her own reality after the death of her father. When her muscle car breaks down during a drag race she finds herself stranded along route 66 in an isolated desert town. Short on ...
Style: bleak, surreal, tense, suspenseful, independent film ...
Plot: female protagonist, desert, small town, woman in danger, stripper, psychopath, road trip, escapades, survival, dealing with death, danger, killer clown ...
Time: 21st century
Place: usa, arizona
Is relevant ?
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