Movies like Forbidden Zone (1974)
The best movies like Forbidden Zone (1974) are Causeway (2022), Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Uncommon Valor (1983). If Forbidden Zone hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedForrest Gump (1994)8.5/10 from 30,857 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
Causeway (2022)
A US soldier suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home in New Orleans. When she meets local mechanic James, the pair begin to forge an unexpected bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBorn on the Fourth of July (1989)
Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, Ron Kovic becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUncommon Valor (1983)
A group of Vietnam War veterans re-unite to rescue one of their own left behind and taken prisoner by the Vietnamese.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Still Hide to Smoke (2017)
Α tragi-comedy about 9 women of different ages and various backgrounds that gather in an Algerian hammam to talk about their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRemember (2015)
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShutter Island (2010)
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRolling Thunder (1977)
A recently-returned Vietnam POW loses his family and his right hand during a violent home invasion, and seeks retribution against those responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAct of Violence (1949)
A former prisoner of war, Frank Enley is hailed as a hero in his California town. However, Frank has a shameful secret that comes back to haunt him when fellow survivor Joe Parkson emerges, intent on making Frank pay for his past deeds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMudbound (2017)
In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHelen (2009)
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome (2021)
An ex-felon returns home from prison and must confront the demons of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Survivor (2022)
Harry Haft is a boxer who fought fellow prisoners in the concentration camps to survive. Haunted by the memories and his guilt, he attempts to use high-profile fights against boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as a way to find his first love again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnbroken: Path to Redemption (2018)
Zamperini returns to California where he wound up marrying Cynthia Applewhite while wrestling with untreated PTSD, suffering constant nightmares, angry, bitter and deeply depressed, his wife convinces Zamperini to attend the 1949 Billy Graham Crusade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMister Johnson (1991)
In 1923 British Colonial Nigeria, Mister Johnson is an oddity -- an educated black man who doesn't really fit in with the natives or the British. He works for the local British magistrate, and considers himself English, though he has never been to England. He is always scheming, trying to get ahead, which lands him in a lot of hot water.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShirley (2024)
Shirley Chisholm makes a trailblazing run for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination after becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Woman King (2022)
The story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen, and General Nanisca as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisForrest Gump (1994)
A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Girl at My Door (2014)
Sent from Seoul to serve in a remote coastal village, a policewoman gets involved in the life of a mysterious teenage girl who is abused by both her father and her grandmother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlan & Naomi (1992)
When Naomi, a young refugee from Nazi-occupied Paris, moves into Alan Silverman’s building in New York, he does his best to avoid her. But despite Naomi's strange behavior and the language barrier, they slowly develop a deep and touching friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParanoia (1967)
A man is under the illusion he is a wanted war criminal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wind from the South (1975)
Néfissa, a student in Algiers, returns to her village in the south in the summer. Her father wants her to marry the mayor but she wants to continue her studies. Confronting her father and the opinion of the villagers who do not understand her, she decides to flee to Algiers. The shepherd Rabah discovering her wounded and lost in the mountains, has her treated by her mother. In contact with Nefissa, Rabat becomes aware of his exploited condition and discovers the possibilities offered to him by the cooperatives of the agrarian revolution. The two young people will go through the decisive stage together which will allow them to escape obscurantism and exploitation. Based on the novel "Le vent du sud" by Abdelhamid Benahouga
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Yasmina (1961)
"Yasmina" filmed in 1961 in the middle of the Algerian war tells the story of a little Algerian girl with her hen and her family whose father was killed in a bombing by the French colonial army of occupation. The family, after a long journey, heads towards the refugee camps on the Tunisian border. Produced by the Cinema Service of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA) in the midst of the war of independence, these films were intended to re-inform the population and international public opinion on the abuses committed by the French colonial army: torture, arrests and arbitrary executions, napalm bombings, fires in douars, entire villages wiped off the map, etc. which the French media described as a "pacification" campaign. The latter censoring or reorienting any images that could harm the colonial narrative.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mysterious Skin (2005)
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPines (2024)
A man returns to the burnt forest where he last saw his brother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Combat Shock (1986)
A dangerously disturbed Vietnam veteran struggles with life 15 years after his return home, and slowly falls into insanity from his gritty urban lifestyle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Forbidden Zone and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Forbidden Zone?
The closest matches to Forbidden Zone are Causeway (2022), Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Uncommon Valor (1983). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Forbidden Zone?
Start with Causeway (2022), the closest match to Forbidden Zone.
What is the highest-rated movie like Forbidden Zone?
Forrest Gump (1994), rated 8.5/10 by 30,857 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Forbidden Zone?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Forbidden Zone chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Forbidden Zone, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.