Movies like American Shaolin (1991)
The best movies like American Shaolin (1991) are No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987), No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990) and Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday (2022). If American Shaolin hooked you with its action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBeast (2026)7.5/10 from 226 votes
- NewestLion Fist (2026)Released 2026
No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987)
In this sequel, Scott Wylde, an American kickboxer, must go to Cambodia to rescue his Vietnamese girlfriend from Russian and Vietnamese troops.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)
Two feuding brothers of differing political views, one a policeman, the other a martial artist, join forces to avenge the death of their father, a retired agent who was brutally murdered by the mafia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAccident Man: Hitman's Holiday (2022)
The Accident Man is back, and this time he must best the top assassins in the world to protect the ungrateful son of a mafia boss, save the life of his only friend and rekindle his relationship with his maniacal father figure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeast (2026)
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRemo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
Tough Brooklyn street cop Sam Makin is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a secret United States organization known as CURE, who fake his death and give him a new identity: Remo Williams. With his appearance surgically altered, Williams is trained to be a human killing machine by his aged, derisive and impassive Korean martial arts master Chiun.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Ass 2: Bad Asses (2014)
Vietnam vet Frank Vega now runs an East L.A. community center where he trains young boxers to survive in and out of the ring. But when his prize student falls in with the wrong crowd and turns up dead, Frank teams up with his pal Bernie to take matters into their own fists and prove that justice never gets old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisArt of Eight Limbs (2024)
Four canisters of deadly VX nerve gas have fallen into the hands of an international arms dealer in Myanmar. A CIA recruit delivers a high-tech detection device to an agent already on the ground.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRevenge of the Ninja (1983)
A peaceful ex-ninja's life shatters when his son's kidnapping forces him back into violence amid an American-Japanese criminal drug war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLion Fist (2026)
Martial arts fighter Joe goes to prison for four years and takes his wife's blame for a drug bust. After his release, he learns that his son needs expensive surgery because of a life-threatening tumor. Joe's only chance to save him: a brutal all-styles tournament with a $100,000 prize.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Marine 5: Battleground (2017)
While working as an EMT back stateside Jake Carter after responding to a distress call, finds himself caught up protecting a person of interest from a biker gang ruthlessly hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMechanic: Resurrection (2016)
Arthur Bishop thought he had put his murderous past behind him when his most formidable foe kidnaps the love of his life. Now he is forced to travel the globe to complete three impossible assassinations, and do what he does best, make them look like accidents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDebt Collectors (2020)
A pair of debt collectors are thrust into an explosively dangerous situation, chasing down various lowlifes while also evading a vengeful kingpin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJawbone (2017)
A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill corner man Eddie and promoter Joe. Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard Target 2 (2016)
Forced into a deadly cat-and-mouse game, a disgraced mixed martial arts fighter is hunted through the jungles of Southeast Asia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFemale Fight Squad (2017)
A former fighter reluctantly returns to the life she abandoned in order to help her sister survive the sadistic world of illegal fighting and the maniac who runs it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSniper: The Last Stand (2025)
To stop an arms dealer from unleashing a deadly superweapon, Ace sniper Brandon Beckett and Agent Zero are deployed to Costa Verde to lead a group of elite soldiers against an unrelenting militia. Taking an untested sniper under his wing, Beckett faces his newest challenge: giving orders instead of receiving them. With both time and ammo running low in a race to save humanity, the team must overcome all odds just to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNever Back Down: No Surrender (2016)
Picking up after the events of Never Back Down 2, former MMA champion Case Walker is on the comeback trail to become champion once again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBloodsport (1988)
An American Army Major goes AWOL to Hong Kong for an outlawed martial arts contest called the Kumite.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRomeo Must Die (2000)
Two warring gang families (one African-American, the other Chinese) maneuver for bragging rights to the Oakland, California docks. Han Sing and Trish O'Day uncover a trail of deceit that leaves most of the warring factions dead... or worse!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hard Corps (2005)
An Army veteran assembles a team of bodyguards to protect a former boxer. Complications arise when the boxer suspects his sister may be romantically involved with the bodyguard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Legend of Drunken Master (1994)
Returning home with his father after a shopping expedition, Wong Fei-hung is unwittingly caught up in the battle between foreigners who wish to export ancient Chinese artifacts and loyalists who don't want the pieces to leave the country. Fei-hung must fight against the foreigners using his Drunken Boxing style, and overcome his father's antagonism as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFrom Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999)
A bank-robbing gang of misfits heads to Mexico with the blueprints for the perfect million-dollar heist, but when one of the crooks wanders into the wrong bar, the thieving cohorts develop a thirst for blood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisSpy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
Carmen's caught in a virtual reality game designed by the Kids' new nemesis, the Toymaker. It's up to Juni to save his sister, and ultimately the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisRed Cliff (2008)
In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMissing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)
Prequel to the first Missing In Action, set in the early 1980s it shows the capture of Colonel Braddock during the Vietnam war in the 1970s, and his captivity with other American POWs in a brutal prison camp, and his plans to escape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like this小和尚出馬 (1972)
A young boy enters the Shaolin Temple and undergoes rigorous training in traditional martial arts. The film focuses on discipline, endurance, and classical Shaolin forms as the child monk learns the fundamentals of kung fu. This is a 1972 Taiwanese production by Hwa Shing Film Co. and is not related to the similarly titled 1984 Hong Kong film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
The Ferocious Brothers (1972)
A man returns to Japan to avenge the death of his father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
The Big Boss (1971)
Cheng is a young Chinese mainlander who moves in with his expatriate cousins to work at an ice factory in Thailand. He does this with a family promise never to get involved in any fights. However, when members of his family begin disappearing after meeting the management of the factory, the resulting mystery and pressures force him to break that vow and take on the villainy of the Big Boss.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStreet Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)
Bison, the ruthless leader of the international terrorist organization Shadowlaw, has been desperately searching for the greatest fighter on the planet for years. He finds it in Ryu, a young wanderer who never stays in one place long enough for Bison to find him. He does, however, get a fix on Ken Masters, an American martial arts champion who studied with Ryu as a child under the same master. Meanwhile, Major Guile of the United States Army is forced to team up with Chun Li from China in hopes of apprehending Bison and putting a stop his international ring of crime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSmokey and the Bandit II (1980)
The Bandit goes on another cross-country run, transporting an elephant from Florida to Texas. And, once again, Sheriff Buford T. Justice is on his tail.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like American Shaolin?
The closest matches to American Shaolin are No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987), No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990) and Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after American Shaolin?
Start with No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987), the closest match to American Shaolin.
What is the highest-rated movie like American Shaolin?
Beast (2026), rated 7.5/10 by 226 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like American Shaolin?
Lion Fist (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like American Shaolin?
Yes: No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987), No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990) and Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday (2022).
How are movies similar to American Shaolin chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside American Shaolin, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.