Movies To Watch If You Like Monster Hunter

Summary

• The Monster Hunter series began in 2004 and burst in popularity with 2018’s Monster Hunter: World
• Movies like First Blood and Jurassic Park have vibes similar to Monster Hunter involving hunting and survival.
• Films like Avatar and Kong: Skull Island offer immersive worlds akin to Monster Hunter settings.

The first Monster Hunter originally launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2004, but it took some time for the series to become as popular as it is today. The sequels became more ambitious and refined mechanics to make the games more accessible, and the series finally broke into the mainstream with Monster Hunter: World in 2018.

There are so many things to love about Monster Hunter, from experimenting with different weapons to using every tool in your set to track and hunt deadly creatures. There are multiple ways to approach every situation, and having the freedom to explore dense environments makes the world more immersive. If you want to watch something that reminds you of Monster Hunter, these movies have similar vibes.

10

First Blood

Rumble In The Jungle

• Director: Ted Kotcheff
• Release Year: 1982
• Runtime: 93 Minutes

John Rambo is a veteran of the Vietnam War who is struggling to find his place back in American society. When he reaches a small town outside Washington, he is confronted and humiliated by the police, but he eventually escapes and leads them into the woods to enact his revenge.

While the people John Rambo hunts are presented as monsters, they are just bad people who let power get to their heads. Still, watching John Rambo sneak around the jungle to set up traps is reminiscent of what it feels like to hunt something in Monster Hunter. He is always three steps ahead, and his prey always falls for the bait.

9

Journey To The Center Of The Earth

A Family-Friendly Adventure

• Director: Eric Brevig
• Release Year: 2008
• Runtime: 93 Minutes

Journey to the Center of the Earth was written by Jules Verne in 1864, and it has been adapted into multiple movies and TV shows over the years. One of the most popular versions stars Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutcherson as explorers who stumble upon a hidden world during an expedition to find a missing family member.

Though the duo doesn’t spend much time hunting the monsters in this new world, the atmosphere and ecosystem feel like they could be one of the regions in a Monster Hunter adventure. Journey to the Center of the Earth is more about adventure than fighting, and it’s the perfect family movie for anyone with kids who like to watch them play Monster Hunter.

8

The Host

A Modern Monster

• Director: Bong Joon-ho
• Release Year: 2006
• Runtime: 119 Minutes

A couple of years after a massive amount of chemicals is dumped into the Han River in South Korea, a large monster appears and eventually kidnaps the daughter of Park Gang-Doo. With his family by his side, Park escapes a quarantine center and seeks out the monster so he can save his daughter from the amphibious beast.

Instead of humans attacking monsters in their natural habitat, The Host turns the table around and follows a group of people trying to survive as a beast takes over their city. The movie does an excellent job of highlighting how vulnerable we are when we aren’t wearing legendary armor or using a bowgun to defend ourselves.

7

Jurassic Park

Who Let The Dinosaurs Out?

• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Release Year: 1993
• Runtime: 127 Minutes

When a team of scientists discovers a way to bring dinosaurs back to life, they use this breakthrough technology to recreate prehistoric creatures for a theme park. Before it can be opened to the public, a small crew of specialists appears on the island to make sure everything is safe, but things quickly get out of hand when someone on the inside sabotages the operation.

You follow the main characters as they attempt to survive everything from the terrible weather conditions to being hunted by velociraptors. Watching Jurassic Park is like taking an expedition through a region in Monster Hunter as you watch the creatures interact with each other in a dense environment full of mystery and danger.

6

Tremors

Danger In The Desert

• Director: Ron Underwood
• Release Year: 1990
• Runtime: 96 Minutes

In a small desert town in Nevada, a group of friends and neighbors must collaborate to avoid being eaten by a monster that lives beneath them. The creature is sensitive to vibrations, so the group needs to do everything they can to avoid touching the ground and alerting it to their location.

The monster from Tremors almost feels like something you would fight in Monster Hunter. It’s blind and completely relies on sensing vibrations to detect its target, but you could easily use that to your advantage by throwing items around the arena to distract it. It’s fun to watch these outsiders outsmart something twice the size of their entire town.

5

Prey

Hunter Becomes The Hunted

• Director: Dan Trachtenberg
• Release Year: 2022
• Runtime: 99 Minutes

Prey is the fifth movie in the Predator franchise, but it’s set in 1917, long before anything else chronologically. It follows a young woman, Naru, who wants to prove to her people that she is just as valuable of a hunter as anyone else and must use her skills to defeat a deadly creature that crashes onto their land in search of a worthy opponent.

Unlike the other Predator movies where characters are armed with modern weapons like guns and grenade launchers, Naru must rely on her custom toolkit and environment to outwit and conquer her foe. Even with the odds against her, watching Naru scramble to gain the upper hand is just as satisfying as taking down a Rathalos in Monster Hunter.

4

Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind

Insect Hunter

• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Release Year: 1984
• Runtime: 117 Minutes

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was one of the first movies written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and it contains all the qualities that have defined his career. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the film follows the titular character as she finds herself stuck in the middle of a conflict between an empire and a jungle full of overgrown bugs.

One of the most prominent themes throughout the movie focuses on our relationship with nature and how we intuitively seek to destroy anything that we don’t understand. While the empire views the insects as horrendous monsters, Nausicaä sees them as living beings with families to protect. Monster Hunter is often about preserving ecosystems from massive threats, and Nausicaä handles this concept brilliantly.

3

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters

One Lizard To Rule Them All

• Director: Michael Dougherty
• Release Year: 2019
• Runtime: 132 Minutes

One of the best parts of any Monster Hunter experience is when you witness two massive beasts fighting each other in the wild. Most animals are territorial, and the same rule can be applied to all the titans that go head-to-head in the epic Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

With the planet as their battleground, this movie is all about the spectacle of watching iconic creatures like Godzilla, Ghidorah, and Rodan as they use brute force and unique abilities to destroy each other. There are some human characters in the film, but they mostly watch in awe as cities crumble beneath the feet of behemoths.

2

Avatar

A Whole New World

• Director: James Cameron
• Release Year: 2009
• Runtime: 162 Minutes

The world of Avatar feels just as rich and dense as any location in Monster Hunter and both properties emphasize how important it is to have a balance between society and nature. The Na’vi inhabit Pandora and live by a code that prioritizes the wellness of their planet, but they must fight to protect their home when humans arrive to destroy them and steal their natural resources.

An underrated quality of the Monster Hunter games is how they justify giving you a weapon twice your size to exterminate local wildlife. Instead of running into an open area to slay anything that breaths, your main goal is to ensure ecosystems remain balanced by hunting dangerous threats or capturing them for research. Hunters and the Na’vi share common goals, with the main difference being the latter is blue and ten feet tall.

1

Kong: Skull Island

An Island Full Of Monsters

• Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
• Release Year: 2017
• Runtime: 118 Minutes

When a small research team is gathered to explore a newly discovered island, they don’t realize that the place is overflowing with a variety of organisms that would make anyone’s skin crawl. From giant spiders with legs that look like bamboo to the vicious lizard-like creatures known as Skullcrawlers, the crew will have to do whatever it takes to survive and make it home in one piece.

From the impressive monster design to the way the group continues to survive in unfamiliar territory, a lot of Skull Island feels like a Monster Hunter movie except for the modern weapons our heroes use. Following a ragtag group of people as they experience a new world for the first time is incredibly immersive, and the monsters are just as terrifying as a Shara Ishvalda.