Movies like Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
The best movies like Twelve O'Clock High (1949) are They Were Expendable (1945), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and Red Tails (2012). If Twelve O'Clock High hooked you with its war and action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Great Escape (1963)7.9/10 from 3,008 votes
- NewestThe Arctic Convoy (2023)Released 2023
They Were Expendable (1945)
After a demonstration of new PT boats, Navy brass are still unconvinced of their viability in combat, leaving Lt. "Rusty" Ryan frustrated. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Ryan and his buddy Lt. Brickley are told they can finally take their squadron into battle. The PT boats quickly prove their worth, successfully shooting down Japanese planes, relaying messages between islands, and picking off a multitude of enemy ships.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eagle Has Landed (1976)
When the Nazi high command learns in late 1943 that Winston Churchill will be spending time at a country estate in Norfolk, it hatches an audacious scheme to kidnap the prime minister and spirit him to Germany for enforced negotiations with Hitler.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Tails (2012)
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat squadron during World War II.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattle of Britain (1969)
In 1940, the Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle against the might of the Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain, thus preventing an attempted Nazi invasion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCommand Decision (1948)
High-ranking officers struggle with the decision to prioritize bombing German factories producing new jet fighters over the extremely high casualties the mission will cost.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
The Arctic Convoy (2023)
In 1942, a convoy of 35 civilian ships, carrying vital supplies from Iceland to the Soviet Union, faces deadly challenges in the Arctic. Despite Allied naval escort, catastrophic intelligence errors expose the convoy to relentless German air and naval attacks. In the brutal conditions, inexperienced civilian sailors fight for survival, with only 12 ships making it to their destination.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Heroes of Telemark (1965)
Set in German-occupied Norway, resistance fighter Knut Straud enlists the reluctant physicist Rolf Pedersen in an effort to destroy the German heavy water production plant in rural Telemark.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFury (2014)
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theater, a battle-hardened army sergeant commands a Sherman tank with a five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bunker (1981)
Dramatization depicting the events surrounding Adolf Hitler's last weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the battle for the city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDesperate Journey (1942)
A British bomber crew, including Australian and American, is shot down over Germany during a bombing run. The five make their way across a perilous Germany, intent on reaching the UK with the war secrets they have learned, battling Nazis along the way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Air Force (1943)
The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOperation Seawolf (2022)
During the last days of World War II, Germany, desperate for any last grasp to defeat the allied powers, looked to their last remaining weapons and soldiers. The German Navy and the last remaining U-Boats were formed together for one desperate last mission – a mission to attack the United States Homeland, known as Operation Seawolf. Captain Hans Kessler, a grizzled submarine commander from both World Wars, is called into service to make one mission a success and help turn the tide of the war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Last Days of Patton (1986)
Gen. George S. Patton now works a desk job for the U.S. military after World War II. In the midst of dealing with the difficulty of adapting to his dramatic change of lifestyle, Patton is involved in an auto wreck that leaves him in critical condition. While his body fails him, Patton introspectively reminisces about his relationship with his spouse, Beatrice; his childhood; and his days on the WWI battlefields.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
The Great Escape (1963)
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGuadalcanal Diary (1943)
Concentrating on the personal lives of those involved, a war correspondent takes us through the preparations, landing and initial campaign on Guadalcanal during WWII.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
Sahara (1943)
In Libya, an American tank commander, along with a handful of Allied soldiers, tries to defend an isolated well with a limited supply of water from a German Afrika Korps battalion during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMidway (1976)
This war drama depicts the U.S. and Japanese forces in the naval Battle of Midway, which became a turning point for Americans during World War II.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlying Leathernecks (1951)
Major Daniel Kirby takes command of a squadron of Marine fliers just before they are about to go into combat. While the men are well meaning, he finds them undisciplined and prone to always finding excuses to do what is easy rather than what is necessary. The root of the problem is the second in command, Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin. Griff is the best flier in the group but Kirby finds him a poor commander who is not prepared to make the difficult decision that all commanders have to make - to put men in harm's way knowing that they may be killed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Sea Chase (1955)
As the Second World War breaks out, German freighter captain Karl Ehrlich is about to leave Sydney, Australia with his vessel, the Ergenstrasse. Ehrlich, an anti-Nazi but proud German, hopes to outrun or out-maneuver the British warship pursuing him. Aboard his vessel is Elsa Keller, a woman Ehrlich has been ordered to return to Germany safely along with whatever secrets she carries. When Ehrlich's fiercely Nazi chief officer Kirchner commits an atrocity, the British pursuit becomes deadly.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caine Mutiny (1954)
When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardize his ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattleground (1949)
Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhen Trumpets Fade (1998)
In WWII Western Germany, Private David Manning reluctantly leaves behind a mortally wounded fellow soldier and searches for survivors from his platoon, only to learn from commanding officer Captain Pritchett that they have all been killed in action. Despite requesting a discharge on the grounds of mental disability, Manning is promoted to sergeant and assigned to lead a new platoon of young inductees.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young Lions (1958)
The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed (2012)
On August 15, 1944 the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team (PRCT) jumped over the south of France. Their mission was to support and protect the Allied Troops marching to Berlin. Landing in enemy territory, they fell under immediate attack. In their effort to complete the mission and rendez-vous with their unit, three isolated paratroopers come across a group of French resistants in desperate need. They decide to help liberate some of the captive Partisans. Doing so they will risk their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMemphis Belle (1990)
The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bombing raid before they have finished their duty and can go home. In the briefing before their last flight, the crew discover that the target for the day is Bremen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHell Is for Heroes (1962)
World War II drama where the action centers around a single maneuver by a squad of GIs in retaliation against the force of the German Siegfried line. Reese joins a group of weary GIs unexpectedly ordered back into the line when on their way to a rest area. While most of the men withdraw from their positions facing a German pillbox at the far side of a mine-field, half a dozen men are left to protect a wide front. By various ruses, they manage to convince the Germans that a large force is still holding the position. Then Reese leads two of the men in an unauthorized and unsuccessful attack on the pillbox, in which the other two are killed; and when the main platoon returns, he is threatened with court-martial. Rather that face the disgrace, and in an attempt to show he was right, he makes a one-man attack on the pillbox.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Guns of Navarone (1961)
A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMidway (2019)
The story of the Battle of Midway, and the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome massive odds.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Bridge Too Far (1977)
The story of Operation Market Garden—a failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere Eagles Dare (1968)
World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Twelve O'Clock High?
The closest matches to Twelve O'Clock High are They Were Expendable (1945), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and Red Tails (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Twelve O'Clock High?
People who watched Twelve O'Clock High most often go on to They Were Expendable (1945), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and Red Tails (2012).
What is the highest-rated movie like Twelve O'Clock High?
The Great Escape (1963), rated 7.9/10 by 3,008 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Twelve O'Clock High?
The Arctic Convoy (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Twelve O'Clock High?
Yes: They Were Expendable (1945), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and Red Tails (2012).
How are movies similar to Twelve O'Clock High chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Twelve O'Clock High, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.