Movies like Hotel California (2008)
The best movies like Hotel California (2008) are Lights Out (2024), Border Hunters (2025) and Exit Protocol (2025). If Hotel California 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 ratedMs .45 (1981)6.7/10 from 424 votes
- NewestZip Wire (2026)Released 2026
Lights Out (2024)
A drifting ex-soldier turns underground fighter with the help of a just-released ex-con, pitting him against corrupt cops and hired killers now gunning for him and all those he cares about.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBorder Hunters (2025)
After his police officer brother is killed by a drug dealer who flees to the protection of his cartel-connected uncle in Mexico, an American man with a diverse law enforcement/military background goes south of the border to get revenge
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExit Protocol (2025)
An assassin whose specialty is killing other assassins trying to get out of the business decides to try to get out himself and must then team up with his former mark to escape the hired killers now gunning for them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSection 8 (2022)
After avenging the murder of his family, a former soldier is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDangerous (2021)
A reformed sociopath heads to a remote island after the death of his brother. Soon after his arrival, the island falls under siege from a deadly gang of mercenaries, and when he discovers their role in his brother’s demise, he sets out on a relentless quest for vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounds of War (2024)
After a mission goes wrong, only one of a group of mercenaries is left alive to avenge his fallen brothers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKing of Killers (2023)
Garan is a part of a group of international hitmen who are contracted to take out the most dangerous killer in the world, only to find out that they're the ones being hunted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChief of Station (2024)
After learning that the death of his wife was not an accident, a former CIA Station Chief is forced back into the espionage underworld, teaming up with an adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZip Wire (2026)
When her ground-breaking pharmaceutical discovery is stolen and partner murdered, researcher Amy must face her fear of heights to escape nefarious attackers, with the only path to salvation being a treacherous aerial runway. To outsmart the mysterious hostiles, she has to summon every ounce of courage to protect the world-changing scientific discovery — and herself — before it's too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHunting Grounds (2025)
Desperate to find refuge for her children, Chloe Marvino runs away from her Mafia tied husband, and finds shelter in a cabin with a recluse drifter named Jake. But as her husband's henchmen draw closer to her, it turns out that Jake is the biggest enemy of them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hit List (2011)
A disgruntled man creates a hit list with a stranger during a drunken night out and must then race to try to save those he marked for extermination as the bodies begin to pile up and all fingers point to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisOne Ranger (2023)
A Texas Ranger is recruited by British Intelligence to track down a dangerous terrorist and stop him from attacking London.
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 thisThe Best Man (2023)
Mercenaries seize control of a remote resort hotel during a wedding and it's up to the best man, the groom and their drunken best friend to stop the terrorists and save the hostages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Get Out (2026)
A nightclub owner is on the verge of leaving his dangerous past behind for retirement with his girlfriend. When masked gunmen rob him and he finds himself squeezed by ruthless cartels, a mysterious newcomer arrives with an interest in buying the business. With danger closing in from all sides, he must navigate a deadly web of deception, power, and survival - where escape may no longer be an option.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoint Blank (2019)
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeat (1986)
Reynolds plays an ex-soldier-of-fortunish character in Vegas, taking "Chaperone" jobs, fighting with the mob, and trying to get enough money together to move to Venice, Italy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Specialist (1994)
May Munro is a woman obsessed with getting revenge on the people who murdered her parents when she was still a girl. She hires Ray Quick, a retired explosives expert, to kill her parents' killers. When Ned Trent, embittered ex-partner of Quick's, is assigned to protect one of Quick's potential victims, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJericho Ridge (2024)
North Washington county sheriff Tabby finds herself alone in the sheriff’s office one night while her colleagues are out on patrol, but she soon finds out they’ve been set up by a murderous drug cartel while she herself comes under siege at the office, where she must battle desperately to save herself and her son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMs .45 (1981)
After being attacked and raped twice in one day, a timid, mute seamstress becomes a violent agent of revenge for wronged women.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLonely Street (2009)
Bubba Mabry, a gullible private detective, becomes the prime suspect in a tabloid reporter's murder after being hired to snoop on him by a mysterious celebrity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Bone Dry (2007)
Eddie finds himself being forced at a gunpoint, by an unseen assailant, on a dark and brutal journey through the harsh terrain of the Mojave desert. His nemesis is Jimmy, a man with an aberrant agenda; armed with a rifle, a scope, walkie-talkies and a truck, he has organized a series of ambushes and mantraps designed to push Eddie to the limits of his humanity and beyond.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Ancient Warriors (2003)
Special Forces Captain Aldo Paccione must pull together his former world team Delta Force and go deep within the mines of Sardinia when it is discovered that a vengeful band of mercenaries are developing deadly biochemical weapons.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Neuroworld (2014)
Nothing is what it looks like. Everything is possible. Emotional parasyte dance in a mask play. Monika and Kristina are flatmates and maybe friends. One of the two is a famous YouTuber. One gun, two guns... Based on Miguel Ángel Martín's comics, this story won't leave you indifferent. It happens in a world which could be ours, where technology and social media changed the way we relate to each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Millennium (1989)
An investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster discovers the involvement of an organisation of time travellers from a future Earth irreparably polluted who seek to rejuvenate the human race from those about to die in the past. Based on a novel by John Varley.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisFuture Lies (2019)
A love-crazed couple from the future is chased back in time by the treacherous underworld they betrayed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Trancers (1984)
Angel City trooper Jack Deth is sent back in time from 2247 to 1985 L.A. to inhabit the body of his ancestor. Deth's assignment is to find his archenemy, Whistler, who turns people into zombies, before the fiend is able to kill all the ancestors of the future's governing council.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisFinder's Fee (2001)
Friends Tepper, Quigley, Fishman, and Bolan get together for a weekly poker night with two simple rules: Everyone contributes a lottery ticket to the pot, and no one checks the numbers until the game ends. But this particular, stormy night is different: Tepper plans to propose to his girlfriend, and just before the weekly game, he finds a wallet outside his apartment with a winning lottery ticket worth $6 million. Tepper calls the wallet's owner, Avery, to come collect what's his, but keeps the winning ticket for himself...only for Avery to show up and ask to play a hand.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiller Workout (1987)
Two years ago, a young woman named Valerie was burned after entering a tanning salon. Now, Rhonda runs a local gym where all of a sudden, people are being murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like Hotel California and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Hotel California?
The closest matches to Hotel California are Lights Out (2024), Border Hunters (2025) and Exit Protocol (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Hotel California?
Start with Lights Out (2024), the closest match to Hotel California.
What is the highest-rated movie like Hotel California?
Ms .45 (1981), rated 6.7/10 by 424 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Hotel California?
Zip Wire (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Hotel California?
Yes: Lights Out (2024), Border Hunters (2025) and Exit Protocol (2025).
How are movies similar to Hotel California chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Hotel California, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.