More like Hatchet
Cross-media recommendations across film, TV, games, books & music — picked by taste.
Hatchet drops a teenage boy into the Canadian wilderness after his plane goes down — alone, with nothing but the tool in his belt and his parents' divorce weighing on him back home. Surviving forces a kind of self-discovery that couldn't happen in ordinary life. If this resonates, you're drawn to stories where isolation becomes the crucible: characters stripped of every comfort who must find out what they're actually made of.
About Hatchet
Hatchet is a 1987 young-adult wilderness survival novel written by American writer Gary Paulsen. It is the first novel of five in the Hatchet series. Other novels in the series include The River (1991), Brian's Winter (1996), Brian's Return (1999) and Brian's Hunt (2003). It was first published in September 1987 by Bradbury Press, and the recipient of the Newbery Honor Award in 1988.
From the Wikipedia article Hatchet_(novel), available under CC BY-SA.
Films like Hatchet
Film
Fly Away Home
A girl uprooted to Canada rebuilds a bond with her barely-known father through the shared demands of caring for wild creatures.
Film
A Cry in the Wild
The film of Hatchet: Brian, sole survivor of a Yukon crash, must live by his wits alone in the wilderness.
Film
Lost Wilderness
Four would-be siblings venture out of bounds on ATVs and must rely on each other when the woods swallow them whole.
Film
The Snow Walker
A downed bush plane in northern Canada forces two strangers to survive together, stripping away the arrogance of self-sufficiency.
Film
Goosebumps
A teenager in an unfamiliar town accidentally unleashes real monsters he must then confront without adult guidance.
Film
Edge of Winter
Two brothers stranded in a winter storm discover the adult meant to protect them may be the greater danger.
Series like Hatchet
Series
Northward
Young people separated by life reconvene to rediscover hope after years of pressure and drift.
Series
Broken Pieces
Parents torn between competing loyalties face the cost of choices made under pressure, with children caught in between.
Series
Helgoland 513
A small island community clings to survival after an apocalypse has overrun the rest of the world.
Series
Splitting Up Together
A divorcing couple navigate an impossible domestic arrangement, finding unexpected clarity in the wreckage of a shared life.
Series
That Winter, the Wind Blows
Two people condemned by circumstance to loveless lives find each other across a gulf of loss and self-imposed isolation.
Series
Dear Edward
A twelve-year-old sole survivor of a plane crash must rebuild meaning alongside strangers equally undone by grief.
Games like Hatchet
Game
A Highland Song
A young woman crosses the wild Scottish Highlands alone, answering an urgent call before time runs out.
Game
Torin's Passage
A boy hidden in a world of isolation must navigate strange terrain with no map and no guide.
Game
Umineko When They Cry (Question Arc)
A family gathering on a remote island turns menacing as hidden tensions surface and survival instincts take over.
Game
Shattered Haven
A couple grappling with family and grit must navigate a landscape overrun by transformed animals in a fractured world.
Game
KARAKARA
Survivors eke out existence in a sun-scorched, dwindling world where the sounds of aridity define daily life.
Game
Allumette
A young orphan above the clouds endures tragedy and reaches toward hope with nothing but her own resolve.
More books like Hatchet
Book
The River
Brian, profoundly changed by his time in the wild, returns to help scientists study the psychology of survival.
Book
Freewill
A teenager carrying unbearable guilt after family deaths tries to recover while a crisis spirals around him.
Book
Searching for Sky
A girl raised apart from society is torn from her island home and forced to adapt to a world she never knew.
Book
The road to winter
A teenager survives alone on a rugged coast for two winters after catastrophic loss, hunting and fishing to stay alive.
Book
The Enchanted Woods
A woman raised in an orphanage searches for home and belonging, driven by a lifelong hunger for family.
Book
Winter birds
A young boy is caught in the middle of a violent parental conflict on a rural highway, exposed and without shelter.
Frequently asked
What should I read after Hatchet?
The direct sequel The River picks up with Brian heading back into the wilderness on a new mission, making it the obvious next step. The broader Hatchet series continues his story across four more books.
Are there any movies like Hatchet?
A Cry in the Wild is essentially a film adaptation of the same story — a 13-year-old named Brian surviving alone in the Yukon after a plane crash. The Snow Walker offers a similarly gripping Canadian wilderness survival premise for adults.
What games capture the survival and isolation feeling of Hatchet?
A Highland Song comes closest in spirit, following a young person navigating wild, remote terrain alone on a personal journey. Shattered Haven leans into survival against a hostile environment with a strong emphasis on grit and resourcefulness.