14 Best Movies Like Stand By Me You Need To Watch

There are plenty of directors who look down on children both as cinematic subjects and audience members. It's easy to be condescending towards kids when you lack the memory (or the imagination) to consider them as complex human beings with rich inner lives, feelings, and desires. "Stand by Me," on the other hand, is a high watermark when it comes to films that treat kids with respect.

Released in 1986, "Stand by Me" is directed by Rob Reiner and adapts Stephen King's 1982 novella "The Body," in which four young friends set off down the local train tracks to locate the corpse of a missing boy. Along the way, we learn more about each of the boys' difficult family lives and why, exactly, they're so keen to spend a weekend away from home. Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton) feels like his parents resent him for being alive after the sudden death of his much-loved older brother. Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) comes from an abusive home and flirts with a self-destructive life of crime. Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) bares the literal scars of his veteran father's PTSD, and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) lives in poverty. What begins as a curiosity-satiating expedition quickly develops into something more tender as we relive the events of that fateful weekend through the eyes of adult Gordie (Richard Dreyfuss). 

"Stand by Me" remains one of the most authentic cinematic portraits of childhood to grace the big screen. That said, there are more than a handful of films that scratch a similar itch. From coming-of-age road movies to nostalgia-bathed films that highlight the warmth and terror of being a kid, here's a look at films you should watch if you're a fan of "Stand by Me."

"Stand by Me" is clear from the get-go about its interest in nostalgia — in the way we tend to look back on our childhoods with the benefit of more understanding, perspective-rich hindsight. Things may have been hard, "Stand by Me" posits, but those early friendships were something special. While it's arguably less bittersweet about the past (adult Gordie's final remark that he suspects no one ever has relationships quite like the ones they had as kids stings), "Now and Then" performs a similar reflexive movement. 

Four childhood friends — Roberta, Teeny, Chrissy, and Samantha — are now in their 30s. And during a much-needed reunion, the group reflects on how differently their lives have turned out and think back to that life-defining summer when they were 12, which includes everything from uncomfortable divorces to performing seances in the local cemetery. Calling Lesli Linka Glatter's 1995 coming-of-age flick "'Stand by Me' for girls'" doesn't do either film justice. But with the amount of movies on this list about lil' guys being 'lil dudes, we figured the scales needed to be tipped a bit.

For folks who encountered Stephen King's "The Body" first, "Stand by Me" easily hits as one of the greatest book-to-film adaptations of all time. As he detailed to Rolling Stone, King considers Rob Reiner's film to be the best movie ever made from one of his books (in the interview, King describes how he cried and hugged Reiner when the director screened the film for him).

And if we're talking about great film adaptations of books that are simultaneously dark and essential reading for the younger crowd, we have to mention "Holes." Based on Louis Sachar's YA novel of the same name, Andrew Davis' 2003 film tells of a young rapscallion named Stanley (Shia LaBeouf), who's unduly shipped off to a work camp for kids in the middle of a dried-up lake. He and his fellow prisoners — uh, we mean campers – are tasked with digging (you guessed it) holes. They're told it's to build character, but in reality, it's because the warden (Sigourney Weaver) wants to find a buried treasure that's evaded her family for generations. "Holes" benefits from having a screenplay written by the novelist himself, but the kid actors' selling the heck out of their group effort to defeat the prison industrial complex is a hoot and a half too.

If the idea of kids getting wrapped up in matters of life and death intrigues you, why not kick things up a notch or two with 1986's "River's Edge"? Directed by Tim Hunter, the film tells of a gaggle of teens who are shocked to learn that one of their number knows where to find a dead body. They're not intrigued, mind you, because it belongs to a missing kid whose discovery will bring the group fame and fortune. Oh no. It's because John (Daniel Roebuck) knows where Jamie's (Danyi Deats) corpse is because he killed her for speaking ill of his dead mother. 

Following the lead of their de facto head honcho, Layne (Crispin Glover), once they confirm that, yes, John really did kill their pal, the teens resolve not to speak a word of the atrocity. While Jamie's corpse rots by the river bank, the kids are a lot more interested in getting high than confronting what John has done. Meanwhile, Matt's (Keanu Reeves) volatile younger brother, Tim (Joshua John Miller), enters the picture, stirring the pot even further. If you feel like "Stand by Me" is a bit too straight-laced for your tastes, don't worry: "River's Edge" is for the degenerates amongst us, and it absolutely rules.

In the canon of films that really feel like they captured something essential about being young, wistful, and prone to poor decision-making, right alongside "Stand by Me" you're liable to find "The Breakfast Club." Sure, age-wise, the kiddos in John Hughes' 1985 classic would fit in a lot better with the gang run by bully Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland), but don't let that throw you off. Though their age gap may be significant (at least, from a kid's perspective), both groups of troubled youngsters have a ton in common. Namely — complex inner lives that defy the expectations of the adults around them. 

Gordie's pals aren't juvie-bound losers, far from it. They ground him and make him see his own potential. Likewise, none of the members of the titular Breakfast Club can be encapsulated by their high school cliques. Confined to an early morning detention session, five high schoolers from opposing ends of the cafeteria (a jock, a prep, a nerd, a weirdo, and a rebel) find out that they have a lot more in common than they expected. Romances bloom, tearful disclosures of home life spill out, and each of the teens begin to view each other as human beings rather than stock characters. Both Hughes and Rob Reiner really had a talent for making young people feel real and complicated without misrepresenting them as tiny adults.

While some of Stephen King's work definitely treads into fantastical territory (looking at you, "The Stand"), the tale of Gordie and his pals' pilgrimage to see another kid's dead corpse isn't one of them. That said, if you are in the market for a coming-of-age tale that crosses the streams with 1980s high fantasy, Wolfgang Petersen's "The NeverEnding Story" is a must-watch. 

Based on Michael Ende's book of the same name, the 1984 film follows the improbably named Bastian Bux (Barret Oliver), a reclusive nerd whose grieving process after the death of his mother isn't helped by the incessant bullying at school. Then, on one fortuitous day fleeing from bullies, Bastian finds an oasis — a bookstore where he comes across an especially transportive tome. Soon, Bastian is sucked into the plight of the kingdom of Fantasia, its hopeful savior Atreyu (Noah Hathaway), and the encroaching Nothing that threatens to swallow the fantastical world whole.

If you're scrolling through your streaming service of choice and you're trying to find something like "Stand by Me" with more of an "Indiana Jones" vibe, look no further than "The Goonies" (which, incidentally, enjoys a story credit from "Indy" director Steven Spielberg). 

In light of the boring, fun-hating contractors who plan to transform their neighborhood into a golf course, a local group of misfit kids (the titular Goonies) put their tiny noggins together in an effort to save their homes. Then, the answer — or rather, a pirate map to buried treasure — falls into their laps. Embarking on a perilous adventure to save their stomping grounds from being turned into a putting green, the Goonies soon find that they're not the only ones searching for the buried riches. With a money-hungry crime family hot on their heels, it's up to the Goonies to find the treasure before the actual goons do. 

Featuring a wealth of young talent (including Ke Huy Quan, Sean Astin, and Corey Feldman), "The Goonies" is right up there with "Stand by Me" as an essential embodiment of childhood nostalgia, albeit with less intense themes and more secret passages and booby traps.

An ensemble film about a bunch of tough but sensitive boys in the 1950s? Why yes, we're talking about "The Outsiders," Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel of the same name! Like "Stand by Me," Coppola's coming-of-age drama rides and thrives on the talents of its young cast, who do an excellent job of endowing their characters with unexpected softness and vulnerability. If you ever wanted to make a double bill out of "tough boys with bad home lives in the 1950s crying a lot," you could do a lot worse than this film and "Stand by Me." 

As with its source material, "The Outsiders" follows two greasers, Johnny (Ralph Macchio) and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), who ignite a long-brewing gang war with the preppy Socs after Johnny is forced to kill one of their number in self-defense. With class warfare on the horizon, the film primarily focuses on Johnny and Ponyboy, whose lives seem to be in a downward spiral despite their aspirations for something stable, loving, and free from violence. With only their friendship and belief in each other holding their noses above water, the pair make an apt duo alongside "Stand by Me's" Gordie and Chris.