Movies like Hangfire (1991)
The best movies like Hangfire (1991) are Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985), The Escapist (2008) and Protector (2026). If Hangfire hooked you with its action and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedProtector (2026)8.4/10 from 648 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)
Prequel to the first Missing In Action, set in the early 1980s it shows the capture of Colonel Braddock during the Vietnam war in the 1970s, and his captivity with other American POWs in a brutal prison camp, and his plans to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Escapist (2008)
Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to make peace with her before it's too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists - misfits with a mutual dislike for one other but united by their desire to escape their hell hole of an existence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProtector (2026)
Nikki's life is shattered when her daughter is kidnapped. Thrust into the criminal underworld while hunted by cops and military, she must fight to rescue her child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLights Out (2024)
A drifting ex-soldier turns underground fighter with the help of a just-released ex-con, pitting him against corrupt cops and hired killers now gunning for him and all those he cares about.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPoint Blank (2019)
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDangerous (2021)
A reformed sociopath heads to a remote island after the death of his brother. Soon after his arrival, the island falls under siege from a deadly gang of mercenaries, and when he discovers their role in his brother’s demise, he sets out on a relentless quest for vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Best Man (2023)
Mercenaries seize control of a remote resort hotel during a wedding and it's up to the best man, the groom and their drunken best friend to stop the terrorists and save the hostages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMissing in Action (1984)
American servicemen are still being held captive in Vietnam and it's up to one man to bring them home in this blistering, fast-paced action/adventure starring martial arts superstar Chuck Norris. Following a daring escape from a Vietnamese POW camp, Special Forces Colonel James Braddock (Norris) is on a mission to locate and save remaining MIAs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSection 8 (2022)
After avenging the murder of his family, a former soldier is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRolling Thunder (1977)
A recently-returned Vietnam POW loses his family and his right hand during a violent home invasion, and seeks retribution against those responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNowhere to Run (1993)
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounds of War (2024)
After a mission goes wrong, only one of a group of mercenaries is left alive to avenge his fallen brothers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOff the Grid (2025)
After a morally-bankrupt company tries to weaponize a brilliant scientist's revolutionary technology, he goes off the grid to safeguard humanity. When the company sends a strike force to find him, they make their biggest mistake of all – they weaponize the man they are trying to catch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExit Protocol (2025)
An assassin whose specialty is killing other assassins trying to get out of the business decides to try to get out himself and must then team up with his former mark to escape the hired killers now gunning for them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTake Cover (2024)
A burned-out professional sniper finds himself trapped in an all-glass penthouse by a lethal competitor and must find a way to survive and escape with little to no cover between him and the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSniper: The Last Stand (2025)
To stop an arms dealer from unleashing a deadly superweapon, Ace sniper Brandon Beckett and Agent Zero are deployed to Costa Verde to lead a group of elite soldiers against an unrelenting militia. Taking an untested sniper under his wing, Beckett faces his newest challenge: giving orders instead of receiving them. With both time and ammo running low in a race to save humanity, the team must overcome all odds just to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Ass 2: Bad Asses (2014)
Vietnam vet Frank Vega now runs an East L.A. community center where he trains young boxers to survive in and out of the ring. But when his prize student falls in with the wrong crowd and turns up dead, Frank teams up with his pal Bernie to take matters into their own fists and prove that justice never gets old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBat★21 (1988)
Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over enemy territory the Air Force very much wants to get him back. Hambleton knows the area he's in is going to be carpet-bombed but a temporary shortage of helicopters causes a delay. Working with an Air Force reconnaissance pilot, Capt. Bartholomew Clark, he maps out an escape route.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUncommon Valor (1983)
A group of Vietnam War veterans re-unite to rescue one of their own left behind and taken prisoner by the Vietnamese.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVanishing Point (1971)
Kowalski works for a car delivery service, and takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to drive from Colorado to San Francisco. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the car there in less than 15 hours.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMercenary for Justice (2006)
Mercenary John Seeger is one of the best in the business. John and his crew battle some soldiers on Galmoral Island in Southern Africa as they're trying to rescue the French Ambassador -- there's a coup going on. Some of John's soldiers unload their machine guns into the Ambassador and his family, blowing the mission and getting his best friend Radio Jones killed. He heads back to the US and visits Radio's wife Shondra to tells her the news, and then promises that he'll take care of her and her son Eddie. But shortly after he makes that vow, Shondra and Eddie get kidnapped.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisFirst Blood (1982)
When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he'd want to return - the jungles of Vietnam.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAir Force One (1997)
When Russian neo-nationalists hijack Air Force One, the world's most secure and extraordinary aircraft, the President is faced with a nearly impossible decision to give in to terrorist demands or sacrifice not only the country's dignity, but the lives of his wife and daughter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDrop Zone (1994)
A daring prison break from an airliner at 30,000 feet leaves U.S. Marshal Pete Nessip mourning a brother and gunning for revenge. After being ordered to turn in his badge, he seeks out Jessie Crossman, a noted skydiver, and offers to sponsor her crew for the annual Independence Day parachuting show in Washington, D.C., if she trains him. Meanwhile, the mastermind behind the mid-air jailbreak is planning a daring computer theft on Independence Day.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeath Row Girls (2004)
In a nightmarish world of secret graveyards and machine gun executions, inmates must die... or kill to survive. Escape is no option, and is punished with... death, or a fate worse than death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Instinct (1999)
In a prison for the criminally insane, deranged anthropologist Ethan Powell is set to be examined by a bright young psychiatrist, Theo Caulder. Driven by ambition and a hunger for the truth, Caulder will eventually risk everything—even put his very life on the line—in a harrowing attempt to understand the bizarre actions of this madman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Postcard Bandit (2003)
The story of notorious Australian bank robber Brendan Abbott, who according to the myth, sent postcards to authorities hot on his trail while on the run across the country.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Raw Deal (1948)
Joe Sullivan is itching to get out of prison. He's taken the rap for his accomplice Rick, a sadistic mobster who owes him $50,000 from the job they pulled. Rick sets up an escape for Joe, assuming that Joe will be killed while fleeing. But with the help of his love-struck girl Pat and his sympathetic legal caseworker Ann, Joe gets further than Rick intended...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hangfire?
The closest matches to Hangfire are Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985), The Escapist (2008) and Protector (2026). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hangfire?
Start with Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985), the closest match to Hangfire.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hangfire?
Protector (2026), rated 8.4/10 by 648 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hangfire?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Hangfire?
Yes: Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985), The Escapist (2008) and Protector (2026).
How are movies similar to Hangfire chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hangfire, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.