Movies like Surface to Air (1997)
The best movies like Surface to Air (1997) are Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Mayday (2026) and Top Gunner: Danger Zone (2022). If Surface to Air hooked you with its action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTop Gun: Maverick (2022)8.2/10 from 11,888 votes
- NewestMayday (2026)Released 2026
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMayday (2026)
When a U.S. Navy pilot on a top-secret mission during the Cold War gets trapped behind enemy lines, his only chance at survival is to form an alliance with an eccentric ex-KGB agent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTop Gunner: Danger Zone (2022)
An airliner filled with 800 passengers is forced to fly fast and low, above farmlands, suburbs and skyscraper-packed cities or the tons of explosives aboard will detonate. When an elite unit of US Air Force fighter jets is sent to provide escort, they find themselves facing a squadron of unidentifiable warplanes which ignites a deadly air battle that threatens to destroy all life above and below.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlane (2023)
After a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in a war zone, a fearless pilot finds himself between the agendas of multiple militias planning to take the plane and its passengers hostage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAir Force One Down (2024)
On her first assignment aboard Air Force One, a rookie Secret Service agent faces the ultimate test when terrorists hijack the plane, intent on derailing a pivotal energy deal. With the President's life on the line and a global crisis at stake, her bravery and skills are pushed to the limit in a relentless battle that could change the course of history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlying Tigers (1942)
Jim Gordon commands a unit of the famed Flying Tigers, the American Volunteer Group which fought the Japanese in China before America's entry into World War II. Gordon must send his outnumbered band of fighter pilots out against overwhelming odds while juggling the disparate personalities and problems of his fellow flyers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTop Gun (1986)
For Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell and his friend and co-pilot Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete's dreams of becoming an ace pilot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLights 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTake Cover (2024)
A burned-out professional sniper finds himself trapped in an all-glass penthouse by a lethal competitor and must find a way to survive and escape with little to no cover between him and the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Marine 4: Moving Target (2015)
WWE Superstar Mike "The Miz" Mizanin returns as Jake Carter where he is assigned to protect a whistleblower who wishes to expose a corrupt military defense contractor. However, the military hires a heavily armed team of mercenaries to kill her and it's up to Carter to stop them at any cost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrategic Air Command (1955)
Air Force reservist Lt. Col. Robert "Dutch" Holland is recalled into active duty at the peak of his professional baseball career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirefox (1982)
The Soviets have developed a revolutionary new jet fighter, called 'Firefox'. Worried that the jet will be used as a first-strike weapon—as there are rumours that it is undetectable by radar—the British send ex-Vietnam War pilot, Mitchell Gant on a covert mission into the Soviet Union to steal the Firefox.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Marine 3: Homefront (2013)
A Marine must do whatever it takes to save his kidnapped sister and stop a terrorist attack masterminded by a radical militia group.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlight of the Intruder (1991)
U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Jake Grafton and his bombardier buddy, Lt. Cmdr. Virgil Cole, are two soldiers embedded in the Vietnam War growing frustrated by the military's constraints on their missions. Despite the best efforts of their commanding officer, Cmdr. Frank Camparelli, to re-engage them, this disillusioned pair decide to take the war effort into their own hands with an explosive battle plan that could well get them court-martialed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Delta Force (1986)
A 707 aircraft jetliner, en route from Athens to Rome and then to New York City, is hijacked by Lebanese terrorists, who demand that the pilot take them to Beirut. What the terrorists don't realize is that an elite team of commandos have been called in to eliminate all terrorists on the jetliner.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFight or Flight (2025)
A mercenary takes on the job of tracking down a target on a plane but must protect that target when they're surrounded by people trying to kill both of them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Eagle III (1992)
Chappy discovers a drug-smuggling scheme at his own air base. It turns out that the lives of some village people in Peru are at stake, and he decides to fly there with ancient airplanes and friends to free them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisHamburger Hill (1987)
The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill… up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of earth so named because it chews up soldiers like chopped meat. They are fighting for their country, their fellow soldiers and their lives. War is hell, but this is worse. Hamburger Hill tells it the way it was, the way it really was. It's a raw, gritty and totally unrelenting dramatic depiction of one of the fiercest battles of America's bloodiest war. This happened. Hamburger Hill - war at its worst, men at their best.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIlsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976)
Ilsa works for an Arab sheik who enjoys importing females to use as sex slaves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Last Eve (2004)
"The Last Eve" is a film that takes the audience on an emotional adventure through history. In a way never before seen, the story of Eve is shown from front to back. We start in the future and ride all the way back to the loss of all innocence. Our ride through time shows us three greatly contrasting tales that in their own unique ways reveal the dark tragedy at the heart of all romance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Highway (2002)
Jack is caught with the wife of his employer, a Vegas thug. The thug sends goons after Jack, who convinces his best friend, Pilot, to flee with him. Pilot insists that they head for Seattle, but doesn't tell Jack why. The goons learn from Pilot's drug source where the youths are headed, and they follow, hell bent on breaking Jack's feet. On the road, Jack and Pilot give a ride to Cassie, a distressed young woman. She and Jack hit it off. They pick up an aging stoner headed to Seattle for Kurt Cobain's memorial, and they help a circus sideshow family. Why is Pilot so set on Seattle, will the goons catch Jack, and is there any way the friends' competing needs can be resolved?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Hunt for Eagle One (2006)
A group of US Marines are sent to rescue captured a US Marine and a Filipino Captain while stopping a group of Al-Qaeda-backed local rebels from launching biological weapons.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Macross Plus: The Movie (1995)
Three decades after the great war between the humans and the Zentradi, the U.N. government is developing new technologies to use in their transforming fighter aircraft by running tests on the colony planet Eden. Military test pilots and former childhood friends, loose cannon Isamu Alva Dyson and the Zentradi mixed race Guld Goa Bowman, are selected to each pilot a new aircraft (Shinsei Industries' YF-19 & General Galaxy's YF-21) for Project Super Nova, to choose the newest successor to the VF-11 Thunderbolt variable fighter which is currently still in use by the U.N. Spacy military forces. Their own personal grudges end up disrupting the tests, and begin to wreak havoc on the program.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hebrew Hammer (2003)
When a psychotic Santa tries to destroy Chanukah by hypnotizing Jewish children with bootlegged copies of the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life," it's up to the Hebrew Hammer to save the day. Together with Mohammed, head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, the Hammer takes no prisoners in his quest to hunt down the renegade Santa and make the holiday season safe for all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisEye of the Tiger (1986)
Buck is a Vietnam vet, recently released from prison. He returns home to discover the town being terrorized by a vicious motorcycle gang. When the bikers murder his wife and traumatize his daughter, Buck and his friends arm themselves to the teeth and wage war against the gang to destroy them once and for all.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Surface to Air?
The closest matches to Surface to Air are Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Mayday (2026) and Top Gunner: Danger Zone (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Surface to Air?
Start with Top Gun: Maverick (2022), the closest match to Surface to Air.
What is the highest-rated movie like Surface to Air?
Top Gun: Maverick (2022), rated 8.2/10 by 11,888 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Surface to Air?
Mayday (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Surface to Air?
Yes: Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Mayday (2026) and Top Gunner: Danger Zone (2022).
How are movies similar to Surface to Air chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Surface to Air, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.