Movies like It Happened One Night (1958)
The best movies like It Happened One Night (1958) are The World Will Tremble (2025), The Grey Zone (2001) and Emancipation (2022). If It Happened One Night hooked you with its drama and war, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
It Happened One Night
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSchindler's List (1993)8.6/10 from 18,174 votes
- NewestThe World Will Tremble (2025)Released 2025
The World Will Tremble (2025)
The incredible, untold true story of how a group of prisoners attempt a seemingly impossible escape from the first Nazi death camp in order to provide the first eyewitness account of the Holocaust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Grey Zone (2001)
The story of Auschwitz's twelfth Sonderkommando — one of the thirteen consecutive "Special Squads" of Jewish prisoners placed by the Nazis in the excruciating moral dilemma of assisting in the extermination of fellow Jews in exchange for a few more months of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmancipation (2022)
Inspired by the gripping true story of a man who would do anything for his family—and for freedom. When Peter, an enslaved man, risks his life to escape and return to his family, he embarks on a perilous journey of love and endurance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInto the White (2012)
During World War II, enemy fighter pilots find themselves face to face after shooting down one another's planes over a desolate landscape. In order to survive, they must set aside the rules of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Midnight Clear (1992)
In 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this1917 (2019)
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNarvik (2022)
April, 1940. The eyes of the world are on Narvik, a small town in northern Norway, a source of the iron ore needed for Hitler's war machine. Through two months of fierce winter warfare, the German leader is dealt with his first defeat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSchindler's List (1993)
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisIrena's Vow (2024)
19 year old Irena Gut is promoted to housekeeper in the home of a highly respected Nazi officer in Poland when she finds out that the Jewish ghetto is about to be liquidated. Determined to help twelve Jewish workers, she decides to shelter them in the safest place she can think of – the basement of the German Major's house. Over the next eight months, Irena uses her wit, humour and immense courage to hide her friends as long as possible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisField of Lost Shoes (2015)
A group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBetrayed (2020)
During World War II, millions of Jews from all over Europe are deported and killed in German concentration camps. When the German troops invade Norway, the Norwegian Jews feel safe and protected. But anti-Semitism knows no borders and as the war escalates in Europe, the situation changes drastically. Suddenly, their radios are taken away; their passports are stamped with a big J and one day, all the men men over the age of 15 are arrested and taken to prisons camps. Many of the women left behind are too frightened to escape and are desperately waiting for their husbands and sons to come back home. On November 26, 1942, hundreds of Jews are picked up by the police in the middle of the night and are transported to the dock in Oslo. Unknowing and frightened men, women, children, sick and old are forced on board the awaiting German cargo ship "SS DONAU". The ship leaves with 532 Norwegian Jews onboard; 302 men, 188 women and 42 children. The end station is Auschwitz.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kill Team (2019)
When Andrew Briggman — a young soldier in the US Army during the invasion of Afghanistan — witnesses the murderous behavior of fellow soldiers, under the direction of a malevolent Sergeant, he faces a moral dilemma. His increasingly-violent platoon becomes suspicious that someone in their ranks has turned on them, and Andrew begins to fear for his safety. A fictionalized dramatization based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009)
Irena Sendler is a Catholic social worker who has sympathized with the Jews since her childhood, when her physician father died of typhus contracted while treating poor Jewish patients. When she initially proposes saving Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, her idea is met with skepticism by fellow workers, her parish priest, and even her own mother Janina.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMen in War (1957)
In Korea, on 6 September 1950, Lieutenant Benson's platoon finds itself isolated in enemy-held territory after a retreat. Soon they are joined by Sergeant Montana, whose overriding concern is caring for his catatonic colonel. Benson and Montana can't stand each other, but together they must get the survivors to Hill 465, where they hope the division is waiting. It's a long, harrowing march, fraught with all the dangers the elusive enemy can summon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBehold a Pale Horse (1964)
Manuel Artiguez, a famous bandit during the Spanish civil war, has lived in French exile for 20 years. When his mother is dying he considers visiting her secretly in his Spanish home town. But his biggest enemy, the Spanish police officer Vinolas, prepared a trap at the hospital as a chance to finally catch Artiguez.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMax (2002)
In 1918, a young, disillusioned Adolf Hitler strikes up a friendship with a Jewish art dealer while weighing a life of passion for art vs. talent at politics
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStop-Loss (2008)
A veteran soldier returns from his completed tour of duty in Iraq, only to find his life turned upside down when he is arbitrarily ordered to return to field duty by the Army.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like It Happened One Night?
The closest matches to It Happened One Night are The World Will Tremble (2025), The Grey Zone (2001) and Emancipation (2022). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after It Happened One Night?
Start with The World Will Tremble (2025), the closest match to It Happened One Night.
What is the highest-rated movie like It Happened One Night?
Schindler's List (1993), rated 8.6/10 by 18,174 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like It Happened One Night?
The World Will Tremble (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to It Happened One Night chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside It Happened One Night, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.