Movies like The Police War (1979)
The best movies like The Police War (1979) are Body Cam (2020), Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost (2011) and Home Sweet Home: Rebirth (2025). If The Police War hooked you with its thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Stronghold (2021)7.3/10 from 1,463 votes
- NewestHard Justice (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchThe Stronghold (2021)Also in French
Body Cam (2020)
As a police officer investigates the gruesome murder of her colleague, she discovers that a mysterious supernatural force is behind it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJesse Stone: Innocents Lost (2011)
Jesse investigates the suspicious death of a young friend while the police force deals with the arrogant new police chief who is the son-in-law of a town councilman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Sweet Home: Rebirth (2025)
When a city is overrun with a demonically-possessed crowd, a cop must find the source of evil to save his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Stronghold (2021)
Tired of the small-time grind, three Marseille cops get a chance to bust a major drug network. But lines blur when a key informant makes a big ask.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKandahar (2023)
After his mission is exposed, an undercover CIA operative stuck deep in hostile territory in Afghanistan must fight his way out, alongside his Afghan translator, to an extraction point in Kandahar, all whilst avoiding elite enemy forces and foreign spies tasked with hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSquad 36 (2025)
Forced out of his elite unit, a troubled cop launches his own rogue investigation when mysterious killings claim the lives of his former colleagues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMea Culpa (2014)
Franck and Simon are both good cops. They work as partners. But their lives take a tailspin when Simon, driving drunk, causes a tragic car wreck. A few years later, out of the police, he is forced to take matters into his own hands when his family is in danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrouble Man (1972)
It seems that masked men are knocking over the floating crap games of Chalky and Pete. Chalky and Pete hire the cool, loose, elegant Mr. T to fix things. Then, the masked manipulators set up the death of a collector for a rival gang lord. It looks like it's up to T to hold a gang war from breaking out, keep the police off his back, and earn his fee from Chalky and Pete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChief of Station (2024)
After learning that the death of his wife was not an accident, a former CIA Station Chief is forced back into the espionage underworld, teaming up with an adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer (2024)
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSantosh (2024)
A government scheme sees newly widowed Santosh inherit her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a low-caste girl is found raped and murdered, she is pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this12 Rounds (2009)
When New Orleans Police Detective Danny Fisher stops a brilliant thief from getting away with a multimillion-dollar heist, the thief's girlfriend is accidentally killed. After escaping from prison, the criminal mastermind enacts his revenge, taunting Danny with 12 rounds of near-impossible puzzles and tasks that he must somehow complete to save the life of the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Virtuoso (2021)
Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when a professional assassin accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisRogue City (2020)
Caught in the crosshairs of police corruption and Marseille’s warring gangs, a loyal cop must protect his squad by taking matters into his own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisRestless (2022)
After going to extremes to cover up an accident, a corrupt cop's life spirals out of control when he starts receiving threats from a mysterious witness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJesse Stone: Sea Change (2007)
Police Chief Jesse Stone's relationship with his ex-wife worsens, and he fears he's relapsing into alcoholism. To get his mind off his problems, Jesse begins working on the unsolved murder of a bank teller shot during a robbery. Also, his investigation of an alleged rape draws him into conflict with the town council — which hopes to preserve Paradise's reputation as an ideal seaside resort.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStone Cold (2005)
Jesse Stone is a former L.A. homicide detective who left behind the big city and an ex-wife to become the police chief of the quiet New England fishing town of Paradise. Stone's old habits die hard as he continues to indulge his two favorite things: Scotch whiskey and women. After a series of murders, the first ever in Paradise, and a high school girl is raped he's forced to face his own demons in order to solve the crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fourth Protocol (1987)
Led by Kim Philby, Plan Aurora is a plan that breaches the top-secret Fourth Protocol and turns the fears that shaped it into a living nightmare. A crack Soviet agent, placed under cover in a quiet English country town, begins to assemble a nuclear bomb, whilst an MI5 agent attempts to prevent its detonation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaldoror (2024)
When two girls go missing, Paul Chartier, an impulsive young police recruit, is assigned to “Maldoror”. This secret unit has been set up to monitor a dangerous sex offender. When the operation fails, fed up with the limits of the legal system, Chartier embarks on a solitary hunt to bring down the culprits.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this36th Precinct (2004)
In Paris, two cops are competing for the vacant job of chief of police, in the middle of the search for a gang of violent thieves. The movie is directed by Olivier Marchal, a former police officer who spent 12 years with the French police before creating this story, taken in part from real events of the 1980s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Sleep (2002)
While treating a policewoman for smoking, hypnotherapist Michael Strother has a telepathic vision of a young girl floating beneath the surface of a stream. The escaped victim of a ritualistic serial killer, the girl has become mute, and Michael is called upon by Scotland Yard to unlock the secrets she holds in order to catch a man who believes he has discovered the key to immortality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisPrivate Call (2002)
In order to avenge the murder of an old friend, a recently suspended female police officer goes undercover at an illegal gambling den where the winning prize is a night with one of the female staff.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Impulse (1990)
A Los Angeles vice cop, caught between her undercover role as a sex worker and her personal relationships, is thrown into a web of murder and deceit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisHard Justice (2025)
Marine Grace Thompson joins the LAPD following the footsteps of her brother Michael. But when Michael is murdered, Grace must piece together the puzzle by following leads of corruption and cover-ups that run deeper than she ever imagined.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Kate Logan Affair (2011)
A young psychologically unstable young police woman named Kate Logan and a married Frenchman find themselves caught up in a dramatic twisted affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Bholaa (2023)
An ex-convict must undertake a perilous, violent journey in order to meet his daughter after ten years of imprisonment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Guardian Angel (1994)
Detective-turned-bodyguard Cynthia McKay is hired by a psychotic, icy seductress, Nina Lindell, the same woman who killed McKay's lover months earlier. With vendetta in her heart, McKay accompanies a flamboyantly playful womanizer through the glamorous world of the super-rich, as his protector. In a unique role reversal, it is the woman protecting the man from another woman, erupting into a deadly triangle of passion, suspense and action.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Black and Blue (2019)
Rookie cop Alicia West, an Army veteran, inadvertently captures the murder of a young drug dealer on her body cam. After realizing that the murder was committed by corrupt cops, she teams up with the one person from her community who is willing to help her as she tries to escape both the criminals out for revenge and the police who are desperate to destroy the incriminating footage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVettah (2016)
Two police officers trapped in a web of deception and lies from everyone they trust after they take up a case involving a mysterious man who is arrested for a double homicide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Mardaani (2014)
A Mumbai police officer's search for a missing teenage girl leads her to the depraved world of child trafficking. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game between the officer and a ruthless mafia kingpin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Police War?
The closest matches to The Police War are Body Cam (2020), Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost (2011) and Home Sweet Home: Rebirth (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Police War?
Start with Body Cam (2020), the closest match to The Police War.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Police War?
The Stronghold (2021), rated 7.3/10 by 1,463 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Police War?
Hard Justice (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Police War?
Yes: The Stronghold (2021), Squad 36 (2025) and Mea Culpa (2014).
How are movies similar to The Police War chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Police War, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.