The adventures of Nathan Drake have excited countless gamers who have played the Uncharted series. But, what if you don't feel like holding a controller but still want to experience an adventure with treasure hunt vibes? There are plenty of great movies that Uncharted fans should check out—including the 2022 film adaptation of the games starring Tom Holland.
Chances are that any Uncharted fan already knows about the movie, so it's not included on this list. Instead, here are 32 other films that capture the spirit of Uncharted's style of adventure. Many of them are globetrotting treasure hunts in ancient ruins with a bit of flavor from the spy genre. Others, though are less similar in their plots but have the same feeling or themes. Considering how much Uncharted is indebted to Indiana Jones, don't be surprised to see Steven Spielberg's masterpiece on this list. It's just getting one spot, though; to prevent this list from being dominated by franchises like Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, only one film per version of a franchise is eligible.
32. Fountain of Youth
Year: 2025
Director: Guy Ritchie
You'd think the floor can only be so low for an Indiana Jones knock-off. Uncharted is essentially an Indiana Jones knock-off and it's pretty great! Regrettably, Guy Ritchie's Apple TV+ original, which stars John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as siblings trying to find the titular mythical spring, is a mess. It's worth recommending only for people who really want to watch globetrotting, semi-archeological mysteries and have run out of other movies that will scratch that specific itch.
31. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Year: 2003
Director: Stephen Norrington
Alan Moore's acclaimed graphic novel series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen took classic characters from literary history and joined them together for a Victorian-era adventure. It's a bold, intelligent reimagining of well-known texts. The movie, which the famously curmudgeonly Moore despises more than he despises most things, makes a bunch of dumb changes to Moore's comics and it's pretty much just shlock. Though, if you want to watch some mid-'00s steampunk action, it's entertaining enough and has some of the roguish enthusiasm of Uncharted. (If it were a good adaptation of the source material, it wouldn't have that and it would probably be a better film for it, but what can you do?)
30. Ready Player One
Year: 2018
Director: Steven Spielberg
Uncharted is a video game adventure series; Ready Player One is a video game adventure in a different, more literal way. An adaptation of Ernest Cline's 2011 novel of the same name, Ready Player One is a near-fatal overdose of '80s geek nostalgia; an Easter egg-laiden treasure hunt through a digital world. It's not director Steven Spielberg's best work by any means, but the man who made Indiana Jones knows how to direct a quest like this, even if it's in a virtual reality simulation rather than an ancient old temple.
29. Journey to the Center of the Earth
Year: 2008
Director: Eric Brevig
This Brendan Fraser-led film is not the first adaptation of Jules Verne's iconic 1864 sci-fi adventure novel; the 1959 movie is probably the best one but it's not as fast-paced for an Uncharted player who might be looking for a bit more of a thrill. Though not nearly on the level as Fraser's earlier genre-tinged adventure series, The Mummy, Journey to the Center of the Earth is an exciting romp that, by virtue of the plot, takes globe-trotting to new heights. Err, depths.
28. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Year: 2017
Director: Jake Kasdan
The original Jumanji from 1995 is a classic, and Robin Williams' performance can't be topped. That's why the sequel, which has the subtitle Welcome to the Jungle, tries for something different. Rather than have the titular game (which is now a video game rather than a board game) have the jungle encroach on suburbia, the 2017 film transports its player inside of the wilderness, resulting in an adventure that inherently has much more in common with classic stories of the genre, albeit with some fun video gamey twists.
27. The Da Vinci Code
Year: 2006
Director: Ron Howard
This adaptation of Dan Brown's absurdly popular 2003 novel of the same name basically asks the question "what if an Indiana Jones or Nathan Drake-type of character wasn't an action hero but was just really, really good at art history?" The result is a fun (if ridiculous) religious conspiracy thriller where all the clues and twists are hidden inside famous works of art. Hanks' protagonist, Robert Langdon, finds himself on the quest for the Holy Grail, though the adventure (and the grail itself) are very different from, say, Indy's Last Crusade.
26. Sahara
Year: 2005
Director: Breck Eisner
Though it was an infamous flop at the box office that nearly a nearly record-setting amount of money, Sahara's a fun action adventure that just happened to cost the studio way, way more than it should have. Matthew McConaughey leads this adaptation of Clive Cussler's popular 1992 novel as a treasure hunter searching the Sahara desert for a long-lost Ironclad warship from the American Civil War, sent there by Confederates who wanted to protect their gold… as one does.
25. The Goonies
Year: 1985
Director: Richard Donner
While a strong current of '80s nostalgia has perhaps elevated The Goonies to a more revered status than the actual film is deserving of, it's still very much a charming and exciting adventure that puts kids in the action without ever feeling too childish. A young Sean Astin and Josh Brolin star as kids attempting to follow a treasure map in the hopes that the pirate One-Eyed Willy's long-lost riches will prevent their homes from being foreclosed.
24. Congo
Year: 1995
Director: Frank Marshall
This mid-'90s adaptation of Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton's primate adventure is, frankly, very silly. A philanthropist (Tim Curry) searching for diamonds in a lost city enlists the help of a primatologist (Dylan Walsh) and Amy, a gorilla who knows sign language believed to have originally come from the lost city. They travel to the heart of Africa, braving mercenaries, volcanoes, and evil gorillas. At one point, Amy the gorilla drinks a martini in an airplane. Fantastic stuff.
23. Jungle Cruise
Year: 2021
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
This feature-length adaptation of the beloved Disneyland and Disneyworld ride of the same name stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt as they attempt to navigate a dangerous river in search of the tree of life before some WWI-era Germans get there first. It's not nearly as successful as Pirates of the Caribbean, another film that originated as a theme park ride, but it does a solid enough job of capturing the feel of classic exploration and adventure romps—even if there is an overreliance on CGI.
22. Dora and the Lost City of Gold
Year: 2019
Director: James Bobin
The Dora the Explorer cartoon series is for toddlers while this live-action adaptation—which is far, far better than it has any right to be—is a bit more grown-up of an adventure while still being quite family friendly. Isabela Merced stars as the title character as she searches for the title city, an Incan ruin hidden deep in the jungles of Peru. Clever with plenty of fun nods to its source material, Dora and the Lost City of Gold works because it doesn't phone-in being an exciting treasure hunt.
21. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Year: 2001
Director: Simon West
Angelina Jolie stars as the iconic video game character who was braving uncharted lands and raiding tombs well before Nathan Drake ever got in the action. The casting of Jolie as Lara Croft is one of the most obvious bits of casting that any video game film adaptation has ever done, and Jolie is quite good in the role, even if the sequel, 2003's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life, is agreed to be a bit better of a film as a whole. Regardless of which one you pick, an Uncharted fan will find plenty familiar in a Lara Croft movie—she kind of forged the path, after all.
20. The Road to El Dorado
Year: 2000
Directors: Eric "Bibo" Bergeron and Don Paul
One of the last traditionally animated movies DreamWorks Animation made before switching entirely to computer-generated films, á la Shrek, The Road to El Dorado is a cult classic adventure. Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh voice con artists in 16th century Spain who board a galleon for the New World where they hope a map they won in a dice game will direct them to the legendary city of gold. They find it and are revered by the locals as living gods, forcing them to keep up the act all while conquistadors are hot on their trail.
19. Cliffhanger
Year: 1993
Director: Renny Harlin
Sylvester Stallone stars as Gabe Walker, a ranger and mountain climber who ends up putting his skills to use in a whole new way when he finds himself in the midst of a heist gone wrong. A deranged ex-British military intelligence officer (John Lithgow) wanted to steal money from a U.S. treasury plane, but it crashed in the mountains… Gabe's home turf. Though there's a lot to Cliffhanger that other '90s action movies do as good or better, the rock-climbing sequences are thrilling stand-outs.
18. Treasure Planet
Year: 2002
Directors: John Musker and Ron Clements
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island gets a sci-fi makeover in this Disney flick, which transposes some of the original's swashbuckling spirit of adventure to a flashier setting. Other adaptations of Treasure Island might scratch and Uncharted player's itch, though this one feels the most game-like. The ships may be powered by solar solar sails rather than wind as they traverse outer space instead of the waves, but otherwise it's faithfully imaginative re-telling. Unfortunately, Treasure Planet was an infamous bomb; it basically turned Disney off of traditional animation for a long time. (Not Treasure Planet's fault!)
17. Fool’s Gold
Year: 2008
Director: Andy Tennant
Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson lead this adventure rom-com as Finn and Tess, a divorced couple who end up working together—and, spoiler alert, falling back in love—when Finn's treasure-hunting ways have him searching for a sunken Spanish galleon that was part of the famous 1715 Treasure Fleet. If you wanted Uncharted to have more romance options, this is probably the film for you, as it balances its attractive leads' good chemistry with a solidly executed race for a fabled lost treasure.
16. DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
Year: 1990
Director: Bob Hathcock
Scrooge McDuck really should be up there in the treasure-hunting hall of fame along with Nathan Drake and Indiana Jones. The iconic Disney character, who in comic books and cartoons amassed enough wealth he could dive into, gets a big-screen adventure in this spin-off of the popular DuckTales TV series. Along with Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge goes in search of the long-lost loot of the thief Collie Baba. Hijinks—and a great Indiana Jones-styled quest—ensue.
15. Tomb Raider
Year: 2018
Director: Roar Uthaug
A decade and a half after the last big screen Tomb Raider movie, which starred Angelina Jolie, the video game franchise got a cinematic reboot starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. Heavily based on the 2013 video game—which itself was a reboot of the game series—the Vikander-led Tomb Raider is a bit more of a grounded character study compared to the earlier films, though there's still plenty of exciting tomb-raiding action. It's an origin story, following Lara as attempts to solve her father's mysterious disappearance.
14. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Year: 2001
Directors: Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
A cult classic Disney effort from the early '00s that was intended to be the start of a franchise before it underperformed at the box office, Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a steampunk action-adventure with a distinctive look. Michael J. Fox voices Milo Thatch, a nerdy linguist who believes he's discovered a way to find the mythical lost underwater city. An eccentric millionaire decides to fund an expedition, and soon Milo, an expert team, and an extremely cool-looking submarine are headed for the depths. What they find there, though, is much more than they were expecting.
13. King Solomon's Mines
Year: 1950
Directors: Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton
Uncharted's Nathan Drake owes a debt to Indiana Jones, but Indy owes a lot to Allan Quatermain, the big game hunter and adventurer from H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines. Quatermain's come to the big screen a few times (infamously in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie), but the best one is surely the 1950 adaptation of the book, which follows him as he agrees to help a woman find her husband, who went missing in British East Africa looking for the legendary mines. It's a classic old Hollywood-style adventure epic, with some romance, too.
12. Sherlock Holmes
Year: 2009
Director: Guy Ritchie
Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law star in Guy Ritchie's somewhat revisionist take on Sherlock Holmes as the detective and his friend Dr. John Watson, respectively. There's a slick, exciting, almost video game-y style to the mystery-solving (Holmes can use his observant, analytic mind to be a master at close-combat), and it's exciting to watch the pair of them try to solve a spooky-tinged mystery. Aristocratic occultist Lord Henry Blackwood (Mark Strong) has seemingly risen from the dead and is using dark magic to pull off horrible crimes. Holmes and Watson must sleuth their way around London to crack the case.
11. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Year: 1948
Director: John Huston
Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt play a pair of Americans who have traveled to Mexico in search of gold, enlisting an old prospector (Walter Huston) to guide them. This get-rich-quick scheme does not go so easily, and the trio soon find themselves dealing with the elements and bandits—not to mention their own greed, which threatens to undermine the mining operation at every turn. From the great director John Huston (father of Walter; both were Oscar-nominated for the movie), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is an iconic work of adventure cinema.
10. The Mask of Zorro
Year: 1998
Director: Martin Campbell
This swashbuckler is one of the best action-adventure romps of the '90s. Styled as a sort of legacy sequel well before that term became popularized, the Mask of Zorro stars Anthony Hopkins as the pulp hero swordsman, though he's long since retired. It's Antonio Banderas who takes up the rapier and mask in the Spanish province of California in the 1940s to stop a corrupt governor and protect the previous Zorro's daughter Catherine Zeta-Jones. Though there's gold involved, The Mask of Zorro isn't exactly a treasure hunt in the style of Uncharted, though the vibe and the way many action scenes play out should feel familiar.
9. The Adventures of Tintin
Year: 2011
Director: Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg joined forces with Peter Jackson, who produced 2011's Tintin, to bring the beloved Belgian comic book series by the cartoonist Hergé to the big screen. Animated using motion capture that looks a little uncanny at times but allows for some extremely clever and exciting action at others, Tintin follows the titular journalist with a nose for adventure (voiced by Jamie Bell), his dog Snowy, and Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) as they search for the Unicorn, a lost French navy ship said to be full of riches. It's a truly delightful and unique film—shame it underperformed, and Spielberg and Jackson didn't make a sequel like they'd originally planned.
8. Romancing the Stone
Year: 1984
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Kathleen Turner leads Romancing the Stone, the breakout film for Robert Zemeckis, as Joan, a romance novelist who lives a quiet, lonely life in New York City. When she receives word that her sister has been kidnapped, and that she must head to South America to deliver the ransom, it sets her on a course for adventure in the jungle of Colombia. Michael Douglas plays Jack, an American exotic bird smuggler who agrees to help her. Their attitudes, temperaments couldn't be more different, but their chemistry is undeniable.
7. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro
Year: 1979
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
The legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki's debut film was a big screen installment in the popular Lupin III series, which follows the exploits of a gentleman thief. Even in his first movie, you can tell that Miyazaki is a special talent; it is a visually dazzling and delightful adventure that follows Lupin and his allies as they attempt to stop a corrupt count from harnessing the wealth of a lost treasure. (And Lupin might just save a princess from marrying against her will in the process.) There is a sense of joy and movement in The Castle of Cagliostro—which bears Miyazaki's hallmarks while also being a bit more cartoony in a really fun way—that's impossible not to get caught up in.
6. The African Queen
Year: 1951
Director: John Huston
One of the all-time great adventure movies, The African Queen stars Katharine Hepburn as a missionary in German East Africa right at the outbreak of World War II and Humphrey Bogart as a gruff steamboat operator. When the war breaks out, Hepburn's Rose Sayer convinces Bogart's Charlie Allnut to use his little steamboat—the titular African Queen—to attempt to take out a German gunship that's preventing the British from making headway in this region of the African front. Many things about The African Queen, from the spirit of the jungle river escapade to Bogart and Hepburn's chemistry, have been endlessly copied. Rarely have they been done better.
5. The Lost City of Z
Year: 2016
Director: James Gray
A key part of the appeal of Uncharted or Indiana Jones or any popular adventure series is that they make it look fun; the reality of searching for lost civilizations and treasures was often miserable and dangerous, as The Lost City of Z shows. Based on the book of the same name by David Grann, it follows the exploits of British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) and his many attempts to find the ruins of a supposedly lost civilization deep in the jungles of Brazil in the early 1900s. It's a harrowing, unflinching look at the actual struggle of exploration, one that strips a lot of the romance away—but, importantly, not all of it.
4. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Year: 2023
Directors: Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley
The magic and swords high fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons might not immediately seem like a great comparison to Uncharted, but think about it; this is an iconic game series where a lot of the action is premised on going into a dungeon seeking treasure. Honor Among Thieves, the 2023 movie from Game Night directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, is a very fun and very funny action comedy, starring Chris Pine as a bard who must lead an unlikely team in an effort to stop a smarmy former ally (Hugh Grant). It's full of clever jokes and innovative action setpieces, many of which are loaded with gags themselves in a non-winking way. The greatest thing about this Dungeons & Dragons movie is its earnestness.
3. The Mummy
Year: 1999
Director: Stephen Sommers
The first Mummy movie, released in 1932, is an excellent but somewhat staid entry in the Universal Classic Monsters canon. For the '99 reboot, Stephen Sommers turned it into an swashbuckling action-adventure-comedy-horror, somehow managing to do justice to all of those genres at once. Set in the 1920s, The Mummy stars Brendan Fraser as an American treasurer hunter who goes along with a British archeologist (Rachel Weisz) and her hapless brother (Jonathan Carnahan) in an effort to find long lost Egyptian relics. In the process, they accidentally bring the mummified corpse of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a high priest who was cursed hundreds and hundred of years earlier, back to life.
2. National Treasure
Year: 2004
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Nicolas Cage leads what's probably the best of the Indiana Jones knock-off movies as treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates. Where Indy's adventures had him trekking all over the globe and dealing with ancient relics from antiquity, National Treasure concerns itself with the comparatively more recent history of America. The first film has Ben searching for a long lost hoard of riches; the path to acquiring them begins with a map secretly written on, that's right, the Declaration of Independence.
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Year: 1981
Director: Steven Spielberg
Putting Raiders of the Lost Ark on a list of movies that Uncharted fans might enjoy is so obvious it might seem silly, but how can you not include Indiana Jones? It's impossible to play Uncharted or watch the movie without seeing the clear influence of Steven Spielberg's pulp-inspired archaeological adventure series, starring Harrison Ford in what's probably his most iconic role (give or take a Han Solo). The first movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is a masterpiece, but all of the others (yes, including Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) have plenty of fun moments. It just might be the perfect adventure franchise.
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