Movies like The Dogs of War (1980)
The best movies like The Dogs of War (1980) are The Wild Geese (1978), Predator (1987) and Wake of Death (2004). If The Dogs of War hooked you with its thriller and action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBerserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent (2013)7.7/10 from 430 votes
- NewestSide Effects (2026)Released 2026
The Wild Geese (1978)
A British multinational company seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPredator (1987)
A team of elite commandos on a secret mission in a Central American jungle come to find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWake of Death (2004)
Ben Archer, an ex-mob enforcer, seeks revenge against a ruthless Chinese kingpin responsible for his wife's brutal murder. When Archer joins forces with his old underworld friends, an all-out war is waged against the Chinese Triad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInterceptor (2022)
A U.S. Army Captain uses her years of tactical training to save humanity from sixteen nuclear missiles launched at the U.S. as a violent attack threatens her remote missile interceptor station.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Expendables (2010)
Barney Ross leads a band of highly skilled mercenaries including knife enthusiast Lee Christmas, a martial arts expert Yin Yang, heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar, demolitionist Toll Road, and a loose-cannon sniper Gunner Jensen. When the group is commissioned by the mysterious Mr. Church to assassinate the dictator of a small South American island, Barney and Lee visit the remote locale to scout out their opposition and discover the true nature of the conflict engulfing the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHidden Strike (2023)
Two elite soldiers must escort civilians through a gauntlet of gunfire and explosions.
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 & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisFinal Score (2018)
When a stadium is seized by a group of heavily armed criminals during a major sporting event, an ex-soldier must use all his military skills to save both the daughter of a fallen comrade and the huge crowd unaware of the danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpectral (2016)
A special-ops team is dispatched to fight supernatural beings that have taken over a European city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Scorpion (1988)
A Soviet commando is sent to eliminate a rebel leader in Africa. Soon he finds himself doubting his mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood Diamond (2006)
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSniper: No Nation (2026)
Brandon Beckett and Agent Zero lead a rescue mission in Costa Verde when their friends are taken hostage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTriple Cross (1966)
Safecracker Eddie Chapman is languishing in prison on the island of Jersey when the Nazis arrive. An adept manipulator of situations, Chapman convinces the Germans to use him to spy on the British. And when the would-be traitor arrives home, he convinces the English to use him as a double agent -- in exchange for a full pardon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSahara (1995)
After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Survivors (2014)
In the near future, society collapses and water becomes scarce. When a greedy water baron starts violently clearing out survivors, Kendal, a 17-year-old teenager, fights the baron's henchman to keep a well open.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Delta Force (1986)
A 707 aircraft jetliner, en route from Athens to Rome and then to New York City, is hijacked by Lebanese terrorists, who demand that the pilot take them to Beirut. What the terrorists don't realize is that an elite team of commandos have been called in to eliminate all terrorists on the jetliner.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Time Shifters (1999)
Tom Merrick gets caught up in a time-traveling conspiracy and must set the timeline right before it is irrevocably altered.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisLegionnaire (1998)
Alain Lefevre is a boxer paid by a Marseille mobster to take a dive. When he wins the fight he attempts to flee to America with the mobster's girlfriend Katrina. This plan fails and he seeks escape by joining the foreign legion. As part of the legion he tangles with abusive lieutenant Steinkampf and bonds with legionnaires Luther, Mackintosh and Rosetti.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Expendables 3 (2014)
Barney, Christmas and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks, who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables -- but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeadpool 2 (2018)
Wisecracking mercenary Deadpool battles the evil and powerful Cable and other bad guys to save a boy's life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBerserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent (2013)
One year has passed since Guts left the Band of the Hawk and Griffith was imprisoned by the Kingdom of Midland for treason. In the dead of night, at a camping site where they hide, the Band of the Hawk is attacked by Bakiraka assassins led by Silat. When all seems lost, Guts returns from his journey. "You destroyed everything." Crying that Griffith is nothing without Guts, Casca and Guts are joined together body and soul. Griffith is imprisoned in the oldest building in Wyndham Catle, the Tower of Rebirth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWelcome to Acapulco (2019)
When Matt Booth sets off to meet his fiance for a foreign wedding he couldn't have imagined the dangerous world he was about to step into. Betrayed and set up, Matt finds himself on the run from the CIA and hired mercenaries, all looking for a package that he has supposedly smuggled through customs. Hunted on all sides, Matt is aided by Agent Adriana Vasquez, a femme fatale with orders of her own to follow.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
As the war between the Capitol and the districts reaches its peak, Katniss Everdeen embarks on a perilous mission to liberate Panem and confront President Snow. Joined by a team of trusted allies, she navigates deadly traps, shifting loyalties, and the heavy cost of rebellion, determined to bring freedom to her people and end the Hunger Games once and for all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRun (2014)
Run escapes... He just killed the Prime Minister of his country. In order to do so, he had to act as if he was a crazy man, wandering through the city. His life comes back by flashes; his childhood with Tourou when his dream was to become a rain miracle-worker, his adventures with Gladys the eater, and his past as a young member of militia, in the heart of the politic and military conflict in Ivory Coast. All those lives, Run didn't choose them. Every time, he felt in by running from another life. That's the reason why his name's Run.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Side Effects (2026)
An interrogation of an agent spirals hilariously out of control.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
The Collection (2012)
Arkin escapes with his life from the vicious grips of "The Collector" during an entrapment party where he adds beautiful Elena to his "Collection." Instead of recovering from the trauma, Arkin is suddenly abducted from the hospital by mercenaries hired by Elena's wealthy father. Arkin is blackmailed to team up with the mercenaries and track down The Collector's booby trapped warehouse and save Elena.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Redemption With... Don Mitraglia (2012)
An upright priest, disliked the corrupt upper echelons of V.A.T.I.C.A.N.O., is imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to certain death. But by divine intercession he'd be able to save himself: once put back on track, and trained in the martial arts by an eccentric monk, he will take revenge in a crescendo of disproportionate violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Gold Run (2022)
Fredrik isn’t the bravest of men, but now he is faced with a great responsibility and an enormous task - to get the entire Norwegian gold reserve away from the Nazis during the invasion of Norway.
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 The Dogs of War?
The closest matches to The Dogs of War are The Wild Geese (1978), Predator (1987) and Wake of Death (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Dogs of War?
Start with The Wild Geese (1978), the closest match to The Dogs of War.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Dogs of War?
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent (2013), rated 7.7/10 by 430 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Dogs of War?
Side Effects (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Dogs of War?
Yes: The Wild Geese (1978), Predator (1987) and Wake of Death (2004).
How are movies similar to The Dogs of War chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Dogs of War, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.