Movies like Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
The best movies like Heartbreak Ridge (1986) are Taking Chance (2009), Streamers (1983) and Full Metal Jacket (1987). If Heartbreak Ridge hooked you with its war and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSaving Private Ryan (1998)8.2/10 from 18,066 votes
- NewestTaking Chance (2009)Released 2009
Taking Chance (2009)
Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, a volunteer military escort accompanies the body of Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps to his hometown in Wyoming.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStreamers (1983)
Four young recruits about to be sent to Vietnam confront their prejudicial feelings toward one another when it's learned one of them is gay.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHamburger Hill (1987)
The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill… up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of earth so named because it chews up soldiers like chopped meat. They are fighting for their country, their fellow soldiers and their lives. War is hell, but this is worse. Hamburger Hill tells it the way it was, the way it really was. It's a raw, gritty and totally unrelenting dramatic depiction of one of the fiercest battles of America's bloodiest war. This happened. Hamburger Hill - war at its worst, men at their best.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCourage Under Fire (1996)
A US Army officer, who made a "friendly fire" mistake that was covered up, has been reassigned to a desk job. He is tasked to investigate a female chopper commander's worthiness to be awarded the Medal of Honor. At first all seems in order. But then he begins to notice inconsistencies between the testimonies of the witnesses...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlatoon Leader (1988)
West Point graduate lieutenant Jeff Knight meets cynicism when taking command of sergeant Michael McNamara's tour veterans platoon in a Vietnamese trench camp. Unlike his predecessor, who hid till the end of his tour, Jeff takes charge, experiences the manual doesn't allow coping with all realities and gets wounded. He returns, now fully respect by men and superiors. Besides the Vietcong, the platoon wrestles with the inscrutable villagers, which the G.I.'s officially protect, but also fear as some collaborate with them, other covertly with the Cong, either way subject to bloody reprisals.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisFlight of the Intruder (1991)
U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Jake Grafton and his bombardier buddy, Lt. Cmdr. Virgil Cole, are two soldiers embedded in the Vietnam War growing frustrated by the military's constraints on their missions. Despite the best efforts of their commanding officer, Cmdr. Frank Camparelli, to re-engage them, this disillusioned pair decide to take the war effort into their own hands with an explosive battle plan that could well get them court-martialed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisG.I. Jane (1997)
In response to political pressure from Senator Lillian DeHaven, the U.S. Navy begins a program that would allow for the eventual integration of women into its combat services. The program begins with a single trial candidate, Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil, who is chosen specifically for her femininity. O'Neil enters the grueling Navy SEAL training program under the command of Master Chief John James Urgayle, who unfairly pushes O'Neil until her determination wins his respect.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigerland (2000)
A group of recruits go through Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana's infamous Tigerland, last stop before Vietnam for tens of thousands of young men in 1971.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlatoon (1986)
As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Green Berets (1968)
Col. Mike Kirby picks two teams of crack Green Berets for two missions in South Vietnam. The first is to strengthen a camp that is trying to be taken by the enemy. The second is to kidnap a North Vietnamese General.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPurple Hearts (1984)
A Navy surgeon and a nurse fall in love while serving in Vietnam during the war. Their affection for one another provides a striking contrast to the violence of warfare.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
While flying a routine reconnaissance mission over Bosnia, fighter pilot Lt. Chris Burnett photographs something he wasn't supposed to see and gets shot down behind enemy lines, where he must outrun an army led by a ruthless Serbian general. With time running out and a deadly tracker on his trail, Burnett's commanding officer, Admiral Reigart, decides to risk his career and launch a renegade rescue mission to save his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Eagle II (1988)
Chappy Sinclair is called to gather together a mixed Soviet/U.S. strike force that will perform a surgical strike on a massively defended nuclear missile site in the Middle East. Chappy finds that getting the Soviet and U.S. Pilots to cooperate is only the most minor of his problems as he discovers someone in the Pentagon is actively sabotaging his mission.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisSaving Private Ryan (1998)
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBorn on the Fourth of July (1989)
Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, Ron Kovic becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Walking Dead (1995)
Five young marines on a suicide mission in Vietnam, struggle for survival in a jungle minefield. The mean streets of home did not prepare them for this.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
The Hasty Heart (1949)
In the final days of World War II, in a MASH unit in Burma, a severely wounded corporal watches in dismay as fellow soldiers pack-up to return home but a caring nurse and five remaining soldiers bring him solace.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Take the High Ground! (1953)
Sgt. Thorne Ryan, who once fought bravely in Korea, now serves as a hard-nosed drill instructor to new Army recruits at Fort Bliss, Texas. But is he really the man he is often described as? His fellow instructor, and friend helps him to face the ghosts of his past experiences in Korea. One night in a bar across the border in Juarez, Mexico, Sgt. Ryan meets a lady who begins to turn his life around. Will this be enough to help him deal with the past? Or will he continue to be so hard on his troops?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Casualties of War (1989)
During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJarhead (2005)
Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJacknife (1989)
A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Big Red One (1980)
A veteran sergeant of World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson, in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, and ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWar Hunt (1962)
Dispatched to the front lines during the Korean War, an idealistic American soldier discovers the horrors of combat and comes at odds with a psychopathic member of his platoon.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Rules of Engagement (2000)
A Marine Colonel is brought to court-martial after ordering his men to fire on demonstrators surrounding the American embassy in Yemen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTank (1984)
After relocating his family - and his prized restored Sherman tank - to a small Georgia town, Sargeant Major Zack Carey butts heads with the local sheriff. Zack doesn't agree with the ways of the local police, and when the sheriff goes after Zack's son, it's time for Zack to roll out the Sherman tank and wage a little war of his own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
SnoozefestMovies like thisTaps (1981)
Military cadets take extreme measures to ensure the future of their academy when its existence is threatened by local condo developers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaptain Newman, M.D. (1963)
In 1944, Capt. Josiah J. Newman is the doctor in charge of Ward 7, the neuropsychiatric ward, at an Army Air Corps hospital in Arizona. The hospital is under-resourced and Newman scrounges what he needs with the help of his inventive staff, especially Cpl. Jake Leibowitz. The military in general is only just coming to accept psychiatric disorders as legitimate and Newman generally has 6 weeks to cure them or send them on to another facility. There are many patients in the ward and his latest include Colonel Norville Bliss who has dissociated from his past; Capt. Paul Winston who is nearly catatonic after spending 13 months hiding in a cellar behind enemy lines; and 20 year-old Cpl. Jim Tompkins who is severely traumatized after his aircraft was shot down. Others come and go, including Italian prisoners of war, but Newman and team all realize that their success means the men will return to their units.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Best Defense (1984)
An engineer fails to get the bugs out of a tank before an Army officer has to use it in Kuwait.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisCombat Shock (1986)
A dangerously disturbed Vietnam veteran struggles with life 15 years after his return home, and slowly falls into insanity from his gritty urban lifestyle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Heartbreak Ridge?
The closest matches to Heartbreak Ridge are Taking Chance (2009), Streamers (1983) and Full Metal Jacket (1987). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Heartbreak Ridge?
People who watched Heartbreak Ridge most often go on to Taking Chance (2009), Streamers (1983) and Full Metal Jacket (1987).
What is the highest-rated movie like Heartbreak Ridge?
Saving Private Ryan (1998), rated 8.2/10 by 18,066 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Heartbreak Ridge?
Taking Chance (2009) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Heartbreak Ridge?
Yes: Taking Chance (2009), Streamers (1983) and Full Metal Jacket (1987).
How are movies similar to Heartbreak Ridge chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Heartbreak Ridge, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.