Movies like The DMZ (2018)
The best movies like The DMZ (2018) are Oscar Shaw (2026), Public Enemy Returns (2008) and The Mechanic (1972). If The DMZ hooked you with its action and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedJoint Security Area (2000)7.8/10 from 906 votes
- NewestBrothers Under Fire (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanPublic Enemy Returns (2008)Also in Korean
Oscar Shaw (2026)
After retiring from the police force, a relentless detective haunted by the tragic loss of his closest friend sets out on a perilous quest for vengeance, seeking redemption and fighting to restore justice to the streets he once swore to protect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPublic Enemy Returns (2008)
Kang Chul-jung has been a detective fighting crime for 15 years and is at it again against a mob boss who recruits young kids to do his dirty work.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mechanic (1972)
Arthur Bishop is a veteran hit man who, owing to his penchant for making his targets' deaths seem like accidents, thinks himself an artist. It's made him very rich, but as he hits middle age, he's so depressed and lonely that he takes on one of his victim's sons, Steve McKenna, as his apprentice. Arthur puts him through a rigorous training period and brings him on several hits. As Steven improves, Arthur worries that he'll discover who killed his father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGotcha! (1985)
A student on a trip to France is tricked into smuggling secrets across the Iron Curtain by a sexy spy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Parts You Lose (2019)
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOverdrive (2017)
Master car thieves square off against French gangsters in the South of France with money, women and lives all on the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Con Artists (2014)
A wily safecracker is forced to help a mob boss pull off a $150 million heist, but smells a double-cross in the works.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDecibel (2022)
A former Naval officer with a dark past must face off against an insurgent with a sound sensitive bomb.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Rob a Bank (2007)
Caught in the middle of a bank robbery, a slacker and a bank employee become the ones who arbitrate the intense situation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisGoing by the Book (2007)
The chief of Sampo City Police Office, Seung-u, organizes a simulation of a bank robbery, but a by-the-book cop gets too caught up in the role playing in which the simulation doesn't go the way he had anticipated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChildren... (2011)
On March 26, 1991, five boys set off to the mountain to go frog hunting and never come back to their family. While a documentary producer, detective and professor try to solve the mystery of the incident, one of the boys' parents is a suspect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBig Match (2014)
When his brother vanishes, ex-footballer and MMA star Ik-ho receives a call from a game planner who has turned the whole city into a board game that Ik-ho must navigate if he is to save his brother.
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 thisThe Seven-Ups (1973)
A tough detective who is part of an elite New York City unit is trying to find out who killed his partner, but uncovers a plot to kidnap mobsters for money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLimbo (2023)
Travis, a jaded detective, arrives in the remote outback town of Limbo to investigate the cold case murder of local Indigenous girl Charlotte Hayes 20 years ago. As truths about the murder begin to unfold, the detective gains a new insight into the unsolved case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRemember (2022)
Pil-ju, an Alzheimer's patient in his 80s, who lost all his family during the Japanese colonial era, and devotes his lifelong revenge before his memories disappear, and a young man in his 20s who helps him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIslands (2025)
In this twisty thriller, a tennis coach at a tropical resort finds himself at the center of a missing persons mystery. Tom teaches tennis during the day and parties at night. When an enigmatic tourist arrives, Tom is unable to shake the feeling he has met her before. Tension and attraction grow, until her husband disappears, and the police suspect Tom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Name on the Bullet (1959)
When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrothers Under Fire (2026)
Captain Jordan Wright's squadron on leave for a wedding in Mexico encounters a murderous cartel. As Jordan tries to lead survivors to safety, war erupts between his squad and the cartel, forcing him into a battle to save his men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDie Another Day (2002)
James Bond is sent to investigate the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a diamond mogul, who is funding the development of an international space weapon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEscape (2024)
After completing his required decade of military service and being honored as a hero, a North Korean sergeant makes a sudden shocking attempt to defect to the South, risking life and limb for the chance to finally determine his own destiny.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMusudan (2016)
Missing and death cases take place in succession along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. South Korea forms a unit led by Captain Jo Jin-Ho and First Lieutenant Shin Yoo-Hwa as assistant leader. They are given only 24 hours to find out the truth behind the incidents. Team members find evidence, but they feel like something isn't right.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & action
Take Point (2018)
On the day of the U.S. presidential election in 2024, a team of elite mercenaries embark on a secret CIA mission to abduct North Korea's politician in an underground bunker below the Korean Demilitarized Zone. However, they get caught in the crossfire which causes tensions to escalate to the brink of World War III.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSteel Rain (2017)
Amid a coup, a North Korean agent escapes south with the country's injured leader in an attempt to keep him alive and prevent a Korean war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Recon (2021)
An education officer who was dispatched died after a gunshot went off in the dead of night. At the same time, deserters flee to the DMZ in the access control zone, and the 3rd platoon is urgently deployed to the DMZ search operation. There, the crew sees an unidentified soldier, not a deserter or a search crew.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
DMZ: Reload (2019)
Peaceful unification between North and South Korea is about to take place. Therefore, the DMZ area near Panmunjom (JSA) will be designated as a Special Peaceful Zone (a.k.a SPZ) for unification of the Korean Commonwealth. So, Panmunjom has entered a overall development phase. However, murder takes place in the DMZ. The suspect is a deserter who is only known as code-name Firefox, the special agent of North Korea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Joint Security Area (2000)
Two North Korean soldiers are killed in the border area between North and South Korea, prompting an investigation by a neutral body. The lead investigator receives differing accounts from the two sides.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like this2035: The Greenlight (2023)
In 2025, South and North Korea unified. It was triggered by a sudden explosion in Midnight near the North of DMZ by a forest fire in December, 2024. The South Korean army unwittingly ended up helping to put out the fire. Such cooperation caused their unification. And 10 years later, A koreanAmerican Documentary Director Steven, working for USA tv-station NXN visits to korea. He is searching for information about the mysterical Green-light appeared in that forest fire in 2024. After some dangerous twists and turns, He found a huge secret of the DMZ fire and green light.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Shim: American Opens a Cafe at the DMZ (2024)
A cafe is growing, tucked in to the mountainside air raid shelter of the DMZ borderlands. A light light flickers, illuminating the past, present, and future. I'll see you at the DMZ! Shim was a free, one-day pop-up cafe staged in Yangji-ri village’s air raid shelter at the Korean DMZ. Referencing Korean cafe culture’s fixation on third place, the DMZ’s evolution from security tourism, to ecological peace tourism, and its repurposing as art production site, Shim attempts to intervene and align the past and present. Yangji-ri was one of many minbuk propaganda villages established by the Park Chung Hee regime in the 1960s to showcase the farming bounty and prosperity of the south for a North Korean gaze. The village was formerly part of the Civilian Control Line (CCL) until 2013 when it was reterritorialized as a normal part of South Korea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The DMZ?
The closest matches to The DMZ are Oscar Shaw (2026), Public Enemy Returns (2008) and The Mechanic (1972). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The DMZ?
Start with Oscar Shaw (2026), the closest match to The DMZ.
What is the highest-rated movie like The DMZ?
Joint Security Area (2000), rated 7.8/10 by 906 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The DMZ?
Brothers Under Fire (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like The DMZ?
Yes: Public Enemy Returns (2008), The Con Artists (2014) and Decibel (2022).
How are movies similar to The DMZ chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The DMZ, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.