Movies like Defence of the Realm (1986)
The best movies like Defence of the Realm (1986) are Foreign Correspondent (1940), The Hunting Party (2007) and Fast Track: No Limits (2008). If Defence of the Realm 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 ratedCrows Zero II (2009)7.2/10 from 256 votes
- NewestMurder at the Embassy (2025)Released 2025
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
American crime reporter John Jones is reassigned to Europe as a foreign correspondent to cover the imminent war. When he walks into the middle of an assassination and stumbles on a spy ring, he seeks help from a beautiful politician’s daughter and an urbane English journalist to uncover the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hunting Party (2007)
A young journalist, an experienced cameraman and a discredited reporter find their bold plan to capture Bosnia's top war criminal quickly spiraling out of control when a UN representative mistakes them for a CIA hit squad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Track: No Limits (2008)
Four young thrill-seekers race cars on the streets of Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisMurder at the Embassy (2025)
Murder at the Embassy is a 2025 American murder mystery film directed by Stephen Shimek and starring Mischa Barton, Mido Hamada, Kojo Attah, Nell Barlow, Raha Rahbari, Antonia Bernath, and Richard Dillane. It serves as the sequel to Invitation to a Murder (2023)
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGotcha! (1985)
A student on a trip to France is tricked into smuggling secrets across the Iron Curtain by a sexy spy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 355 (2022)
A group of top female agents from American, British, Chinese, Colombian, and German government agencies are drawn together to try and stop an organization from acquiring a deadly weapon to send the world into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisState of Play (2009)
When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe MacKintosh Man (1973)
A member of British Intelligence assumes a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught, imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization and expose a traitor; only, someone finds him out and exposes him to the gang...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Company You Keep (2012)
A former Weather Underground activist goes on the run from a journalist who discovers his identity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Skulls (2000)
A senior at an Ivy League college, who depends on scholarships and working on the side, gets accepted into the secret society The Skulls. He hopes it betters chances at Harvard but The Skulls is not what he thought and comes at a price.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisEradication (2022)
When an unknown disease wipes out most of the world’s population, a man with unique blood is isolated for study. Fearing for his wife’s safety, he breaks his quarantine – into a world overrun by monstrous Infected and a shadowy agency hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhile the City Sleeps (1956)
Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNight Watch (1973)
A woman recovering from a nervous breakdown tries to convince her husband and and the local London police that she has witnessed a murder in the abandoned house next door.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fifth Estate (2013)
A look at the relationship between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his early supporter and eventual colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and how the website's growth and influence led to an irreparable rift between the two friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Spy (2020)
A hardened CIA operative finds himself at the mercy of a precocious 9-year-old girl, having been sent undercover to surveil her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Unhealer (2021)
A botched faith healing bestows supernatural Shaman powers on a bullied teenager. When his lifelong tormentors pull a prank that kills someone he loves, he uses his powers for revenge and goes on a bloody rampage to settle the score.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSeptember 5 (2024)
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Dead Pool (1988)
Dirty Harry Callahan returns for his final film adventure. Together with his partner Al Quan, he must investigate the systematic murder of prominent figures. By the time Harry learns that the murders are part of a sick game to predict such deaths, it may be too late.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crow: Salvation (2000)
Alex Corvis, a man wrongly executed for the murder of his girlfriend, returns from the dead and sets out to find the real killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisCrows Zero II (2009)
Genji and his victorious G.P.S. alliance find themselves facing down a new challenge by the students of Hosen Academy, feared by everyone as 'The Army of Killers.' The two schools, in fact, have a history of bad blood between them. And the simmering embers of hatred are about to flare up again, burning away any last remnants of the truce they had so rigorously observed until now.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMortality (2021)
A Man runs away from a Shadowy Figure whilst coming to terms with what’s next…His Mortality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital clutching the year's most popular Halloween mask, Dr. Daniel Challis sets out to investigate the strange events and finds himself thrust into a nightmarish conspiracy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisInsomnia (1997)
Detectives Jonas and Erik are called to the midnight sun country of northern Norway to investigate a recent homicide, but their plan to arrest the killer goes awry, and Jonas mistakenly shoots Erik. The suspect escapes, and a frightened Jonas pins Erik's death on the fugitive. Jonas continues to pursue the killer as he seeks to protect himself; however, his mounting guilt and the omnipresent sun plague him with an insomnia that affects his sanity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
The true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHuman Cargo (1936)
Bonnie Brewster and "Packy" Campbell, rival reporters on competing newspapers, team up to put an end to a smuggling gang that brings illegal aliens to the United States, and then makes further victims of them by extortion payments. They go to Vancouver, Canada and board a ship carrying aliens. But the gang recognizes them as reporters and gang-henchmen Tony Scula (Ralf Harolde) and Ira Conklin take them off the ship. But Campbell recognizes Scula as the gunman who killed Carmen Zoro.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Romeo's Distress (2017)
"Romeo's Distress" is a weird, gothic noir horror-thriller that tells a story of a boy name James, his unrequited love for a girl named Jane, and her father's sadistic (yet dutiful) response to it all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Defence of the Realm?
The closest matches to Defence of the Realm are Foreign Correspondent (1940), The Hunting Party (2007) and Fast Track: No Limits (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Defence of the Realm?
Start with Foreign Correspondent (1940), the closest match to Defence of the Realm.
What is the highest-rated movie like Defence of the Realm?
Crows Zero II (2009), rated 7.2/10 by 256 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Defence of the Realm?
Murder at the Embassy (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Defence of the Realm?
Yes: Foreign Correspondent (1940), The Hunting Party (2007) and Fast Track: No Limits (2008).
How are movies similar to Defence of the Realm chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Defence of the Realm, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.