Movies like Salvador (1986)
The best movies like Salvador (1986) are Under Fire (1983), The Killing Fields (1984) and Darfur (2009). If Salvador hooked you with its drama and war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedApocalypse Now (1979)8.3/10 from 9,547 votes
- Newest180 (2026)Released 2026
Under Fire (1983)
Three U.S. journalists get too close to one another and their work in 1979 Nicaragua.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killing Fields (1984)
New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDarfur (2009)
American journalists in Sudan are confronted with the dilemma of whether to return home to report on the atrocities they have seen, or to stay behind and help some of the victims they have encountered.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCivil War (2024)
In the near future, a group of war journalists attempt to survive while reporting the truth as the United States stands on the brink of civil war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFatherland (1994)
Fictional account of what might have happened if Hitler had won the war. It is now the 1960s and Germany's war crimes have so far been kept a secret. Hitler wants to talk peace with the US president. An American journalist and a German homicide cop stumble into a plot to destroy all evidence of the genocide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Private War (2018)
One of the most celebrated war correspondents of our time, Marie Colvin is an utterly fearless and rebellious spirit, driven to the frontlines of conflicts across the globe to give voice to the voiceless.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Sarajevo (1997)
Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeasts of No Nation (2015)
Based on the experiences of Agu, a child fighting in the civil war of a West African country. Follows Agu's journey as he's forced to join a group of soldiers. While he fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first torn between conflicting revulsion and fascination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApocalypse Now (1979)
At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Siege of Jadotville (2016)
Irish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during the early 1960s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSavior (1998)
A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFull Metal Jacket (1987)
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPlatoon (1986)
As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlood Diamond (2006)
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStorm Warning (1951)
A fashion model witnesses the brutal assassination of an investigative journalist by the Ku Klux Klan while traveling to a small town to visit her sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this180 (2026)
When an unexpected road rage incident puts his son in critical condition, an enraged father spirals down a dark path of emotional turmoil and vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisProof of Life (2000)
When Peter Bowman, an American engineer working in a South American country, is captured by anti-government forces, the rebels learn his identity and demand $5 million for his safe return. However, his US employer is on the verge of insolvency and will not provide the ransom. Peter's wife Alice is forced to deal with the matter on her own and she retains the services of freelance professional hostage negotiator Terry Thorne.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Parallax View (1974)
An ambitious reporter gets in trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Devil All the Time (2020)
In Knockemstiff, Ohio and its neighboring backwoods, sinister characters converge around young Arvin Russell as he fights the evil forces that threaten him and his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Good German (2006)
An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLetters from Iwo Jima (2006)
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBabel (2006)
Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Epidemic (1972)
Based on a true outbreak of smallpox in Wroclaw. A young doctor picks up a girl and they go to bed, but the night is ruined by the doctor being called to the epidemic. The doctor has to leave, and when it is all over, runs into her with another man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Don't Worry, I'm Fine (2006)
A 19-year-old searches for her twin brother after he runs away from home, following a fight with their father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this300 (2007)
A story very loosely based the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Story (2019)
Young talented Elizabeth leaves a successful career in ballet for love. The man who has stolen her heart, however, has a dark side, and in a single moment Elizabeth loses everything dear to her in life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (TBA)
Nombeko Mayeki is a young woman from Soweto who finds herself caught in an international whirlwind from South Africa to Sweden. A heroine born in the slums of South Africa, she rises from obscurity to become the key player in an international nuclear conspiracy, accidentally saving the Swedish monarchy and averting global catastrophe with her quick-witted resourcefulness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
American Psycho (2000)
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSex and Lucía (2001)
Lucía is a young waitress in Madrid who seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island after the loss of her longtime boyfriend. Amidst the fresh air, dazzling sun, and glistening deep blue water, Lucía begins to piece together the dark corners of her past relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonster's Ball (2001)
A prison guard begins a tentative romance with the unsuspecting widow of a man whose execution he presided over.
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 Salvador?
The closest matches to Salvador are Under Fire (1983), The Killing Fields (1984) and Darfur (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Salvador?
Start with Under Fire (1983), the closest match to Salvador.
What is the highest-rated movie like Salvador?
Apocalypse Now (1979), rated 8.3/10 by 9,547 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Salvador?
180 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Salvador?
Yes: Under Fire (1983), The Killing Fields (1984) and Darfur (2009).
How are movies similar to Salvador chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Salvador, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.