Movies like The Chain Gang Killings (1982)
The best movies like The Chain Gang Killings (1982) are Hunting Season (2025), Dirt (2018) and Silverton Siege (2022). If The Chain Gang Killings hooked you with its drama and 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 227 votes
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
Hunting Season (2025)
When a reclusive survivalist and his daughter rescue a mysterious, wounded woman from a river, they become entangled in a deadly web of violence and revenge, forcing them to confront a brutal criminal to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirt (2018)
In search of a lifeline for his struggling off road racing team, a man takes on a young car thief looking for a second chance, but as their worlds collide, they must struggle to forge a successful alliance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilverton Siege (2022)
After a failed sabotage mission, a trio of anti-apartheid freedom fighters ends up in a tense bank hostage situation. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
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 & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSAS: Red Notice (2021)
An off-duty SAS soldier, Tom Buckingham, must thwart a terror attack on a train running through the Channel Tunnel. As the action escalates on the train, events transpire in the corridors of power that may make the difference as to whether Buckingham and the civilian passengers make it out of the tunnel alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisWelcome to Sudden Death (2020)
Jesse Freeman is a former special forces officer and explosives expert now working a regular job as a security guard in a state-of-the-art basketball arena. Trouble erupts when a tech-savvy cadre of terrorists kidnap the team's owner and Jesse's daughter during opening night. Facing a ticking clock and impossible odds, it's up to Jesse to not only save them but also a full house of fans in this highly charged action thriller.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWalking with the Enemy (2014)
Regent Horthy is the leader of Hungary and a German ally, but his favorable standing with Hitler changes as the war comes to an end. Forced to cede Hungary’s power or else witness the execution of his son, Regent Horthy gives up control of his country to the Nazis, who quickly move Hungarians to ghettos and death camps, with no hope in sight. But the despair changes when a young man named Elek emerges. Separated from his family during the relocations and aided by the woman he loves , Elek defies the enemy by becoming one of them. In a race against time, disguised as a Nazi Officer he embarks on a mission to save his family and thousands of his countrymen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalting the Battlefield (2014)
David Hare concludes his trilogy of films about MI5 renegade Johnny Worricker with another fugue on power, secrets and the British establishment. Johnny Worricker goes on the run with Margot Tyrell across Europe, and with the net closing in, the former MI5 man knows his only chance of resolving his problems is to return home and confront prime minister Alec Beasley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this40 Acres (2025)
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their 40 Acres.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003)
After a failed bank robbery, two heavily armed men hold the Los Angeles Police Department at bay for 44 minutes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Full Bloom (2019)
Set shortly after the end of World War II, a philosophical boxing drama of two fighters from opposite worlds (USA and Japan) who are pulled together for a questionable fight arranged by their unscrupulous managers and the Yakuza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & 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 action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisConvict (2014)
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the prison boss has it in for him and does everything possible to break Ray even going after his fiance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNowhere to Run (1993)
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lords of Discipline (1983)
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe System (2022)
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Blood (2014)
When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVengeance (1930)
John Meadham, in charge of a West African trading post, wires the home office in London that he is tired and worn out and that they need to send a replacement to take over. The company sends a stiff upper-lipper, Charles Summers, accompanied by his wife, Margaret. An antagonism develops between the two men from the moment Summers arrives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Run (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 drama
Out of Africa (1985)
Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on her 1937 autobiographical novel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe African Queen (1952)
At the start of the First World War, in the middle of Africa’s nowhere, a gin soaked riverboat captain is persuaded by a strong-willed missionary to go down river and face-off a German warship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShaft in Africa (1973)
Detective John Shaft travels incognito to Ethiopia, then France, to bust a human trafficking ring.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Silence of the Forest (2003)
A film about the difficulty for even the most well-intentioned person to know and respect another culture. In this case, the problem is so acute that there is even heated debate over what to call that 'other.' The subtitles in the film use the familiar word 'pygmies,' a relatively pejorative European term; the Bantu or villagers' expression for the same group, Babingas, carries similar negative connotations. These highly specialized, tropical rainforest hunter-gatherers should perhaps be called by their own ethnonym, Aka, MoAka (sing.) and BaAka (pl.)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Who Am I? (1998)
A group of covert CIA operatives trailing a potential new energy source are double-crossed by corrupt agent Morgan, who causes a helicopter crash in remote South Africa. The sole survivor, suffering severe amnesia, is nursed to recovery by a kindly native tribe who call him "Whoami" after the question he keeps asking. With the help of a mysterious reporter Christine, Whoami pieces together his past and tracks the turncoat agent and his criminal cohorts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
A Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane raises havoc among a normally peaceful tribe of African bushmen who believe it to be a utensil of the gods.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI'm for the Hippopotamus (1979)
In 1950, in Africa. Tom organizes safaris for tourists, secretly equipping them with guns loaded with blanks. When Slim, Tom’s cousin—a sly slacker and staunch environmentalist—arrives, the two men come into conflict with Jack Ormond, a local animal trafficker. A doctor, a friend of the duo, denounces Mr. Ormond’s exploitation of animals in a newspaper, prompting Ormond to send his henchmen to destroy the clinic where the good doctor practices. But at the medical facility, Ormond’s henchmen find Tom and Slim waiting for them, and in the blink of an eye, the two cousins wipe out these thugs in a brawl. Ormond then tries to bribe the two cousins, and when that fails, has them imprisoned for a theft they never committed. After escaping from prison, the two men rush toward Ormond’s ship, beating the merchant’s men to a pulp...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sheltering Sky (1990)
An American couple drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Chain Gang Killings?
The closest matches to The Chain Gang Killings are Hunting Season (2025), Dirt (2018) and Silverton Siege (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Chain Gang Killings?
Start with Hunting Season (2025), the closest match to The Chain Gang Killings.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Chain Gang Killings?
Beast (2026), rated 7.5/10 by 227 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Chain Gang Killings?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Chain Gang Killings?
Yes: Hunting Season (2025), Dirt (2018) and Silverton Siege (2022).
How are movies similar to The Chain Gang Killings chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Chain Gang Killings, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.