Movies like Nightmaster (1988)
The best movies like Nightmaster (1988) are The Principal (1987), Flight of the Intruder (1991) and Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses (2014). If Nightmaster hooked you with its action and tv movie, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPlatoon (1986)7.7/10 from 5,383 votes
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
The Principal (1987)
Burglary. Drugs. Assault. Rape. The students at Brandel High are more than new Principal Rick Latimer bargained for. Gangs fight to control the school using knives - even guns - when they have to. When Latimer and the head of security try to clean up the school and stop the narcotics trade, they run up against a teenage mafia. A violent confrontation on the campus leads to a deadly showdown with the drug dealer's gang, and one last chance for Latimer to save his career... and his life.
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 thisBad Ass 2: Bad Asses (2014)
Vietnam vet Frank Vega now runs an East L.A. community center where he trains young boxers to survive in and out of the ring. But when his prize student falls in with the wrong crowd and turns up dead, Frank teams up with his pal Bernie to take matters into their own fists and prove that justice never gets old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMissing in Action (1984)
American servicemen are still being held captive in Vietnam and it's up to one man to bring them home in this blistering, fast-paced action/adventure starring martial arts superstar Chuck Norris. Following a daring escape from a Vietnamese POW camp, Special Forces Colonel James Braddock (Norris) is on a mission to locate and save remaining MIAs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisOnly the Strong (1993)
Former Green Beret Louis Stevens returns to his hometown of Miami after completing military service in Brazil, only to learn that his old high school has become a haven for gangs and drug dealers. After Stevens uses his capoeira skills to kick several drug dealers off of the school property, Kerrigan, one of Stevens' old teachers, sees the impact that Stevens has on the students. Kerrigan gives him the task of teaching Capoeira to a handful of the worst at-risk students at the school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Big Brawl (1980)
A young Asian American martial artist is forced to participate in a brutal formal street-fight competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisSeal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines (2014)
Seal Team Eight must fight their way deep into Africa's Congo, decommission a secret uranium mine, and stop our most dangerous enemy from smuggling weapon's grade yellow-cake out of the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMissing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)
Prequel to the first Missing In Action, set in the early 1980s it shows the capture of Colonel Braddock during the Vietnam war in the 1970s, and his captivity with other American POWs in a brutal prison camp, and his plans to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender (1986)
The mob is trying to strongarm local martial arts schools, forcing young Jason Stillwell and his family to move after his father is injured defending their dojo. With his father now rejecting violence, Jason is forced to train on his own to protect himself and his best friend from the members of a rival karate school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNinja: Shadow of a Tear (2013)
Fight everyone and trust no one: it's the code of survival practiced by martial-arts master Casey Bowman after his life of domestic bliss is shattered by a savage act of violence. Vowing revenge, the fearless American stealthily tracks the killer from Osaka to Bangkok to Rangoon with the help of a wise and crafty sensei. His only clues: a series of victims whose necks bear the distinctive mark of strangulation by barbed wire. Fighting to avenge as well as to survive, Casey must sharpen his razor-like responses and take his battle skills to the next level, even using deep meditation to fake his own death. His target: the sinister drug lord Goro, who is flooding the streets with deadly meth cooked at his remote jungle factory. To prepare for his ultimate confrontation, Casey must finally become an invisible warrior worthy of the name Ninja. But just when his prey is cornered, an unexpected twist shows Casey that his battle is only beginning: he truly can trust no one.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Presidents (1995)
On the streets they call cash dead presidents. And that's just what a Vietnam veteran is after when he returns home from the war only to find himself drawn into a life of crime. With the aid of his fellow vets he plans the ultimate heist -- a daring robbery of an armored car filled with unmarked U.S. currency!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWalking Tall (2004)
A former U.S. soldier returns to his hometown to find it overrun by crime and corruption, which prompts him to clean house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Baker (2023)
A quiet, stoic man, lives a monk-like existence in self-imposed exile. When his estranged son is killed in a drug deal gone bad, he is left to look after a granddaughter he never knew existed, and he is forced back into a life he tried to put behind him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHomeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArt of Eight Limbs (2024)
Four canisters of deadly VX nerve gas have fallen into the hands of an international arms dealer in Myanmar. A CIA recruit delivers a high-tech detection device to an agent already on the ground.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrimsby (2016)
Wrongfully accused and on the run, a top MI6 assassin joins forces with his long-lost, football hooligan brother to save the world from a sinister plot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlackenstein (1973)
Eddie is a Vietnam veteran who loses his arms and legs when he steps on a land mine, but a brilliant surgeon is able to attach new limbs. Unfortunately, an insanely jealous assistant (who has fallen in love with Eddie's fiancée) switches Eddie's DNA injections, transforming him into a gigantic killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisBraven (2018)
A logger defends his family from a group of dangerous drug runners.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDOA: Dead or Alive (2006)
Four beautiful rivals at an invitation-only martial-arts tournament join forces against a sinister threat. Princess Kasumi is an aristocratic warrior trained by martial-arts masters. Tina Armstrong is a wrestling superstar. Helena Douglas is an athlete with a tragic past. Christie Allen earns her keep as a thief and an assassin-for-hire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisNinpu Sentai Hurricaneger Degozaru! Shushuuto 20th Anniversary (2023)
It is the Edo Period. Younosuke, Nami, and Koutaro of the Hayate School and Ikkaku and Ikki of the Ikazuchi School are confronted by Oiranda and Aunja of the "Seven Spears of Darkness" and then Teruhime, whom the two Ikazuchi School members guard, is attacked. They were after the "Tenshoishi" ("Ascension Stone"), a stone said to be capable of destroying the world, which was in Teruhime's possession. Just when all seemed to be lost, the Hurricangers and the Gouraigers suddenly appear, having traveled back in time from the future, and a fierce battle ensues.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
The Veteran (2006)
Thirty years on from Vietnam, a government official is trying to track down soldiers who went missing in action, in the hope that it may lead her to her father. Meanwhile, a war veteran is forced to relive painful memories of how he was left for dead by his own platoon, and the heinous crimes he once committed while in the line of duty.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)
Six young ninjas are tasked with defending their island home of Ninjago. By night, they’re gifted warriors using their skill and awesome fleet of vehicles to fight villains and monsters. By day, they’re ordinary teens struggling against their greatest enemy....high school.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCracked Up (1987)
17-year-old track star, John Owens, has never used any drug stronger than pot, until he meets an older woman who introduces him to crack cocaine. He quickly becomes addicted but is able to hide his problem from all except his best friend, Chris.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Rollin' with the Nines (2006)
Too Fine and his friends Finny, Pushy and Rage hope to set up a successful urban underground garage...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade (2005)
Even though Gennosuke and Oboro are from rival ninja villages, they are secretly in love. At an annual conference with the Lord, it is dictated that a competition--a fight to the death--will take place between the five best shinobi from each village. Gennosuke and Oboro's love is made even more impossible when they each got picked as the leader of the five to represent their respective villages.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRevenge of the Ninja (1983)
A peaceful ex-ninja's life shatters when his son's kidnapping forces him back into violence amid an American-Japanese criminal drug war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Nightmaster?
The closest matches to Nightmaster are The Principal (1987), Flight of the Intruder (1991) and Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Nightmaster?
Start with The Principal (1987), the closest match to Nightmaster.
What is the highest-rated movie like Nightmaster?
Platoon (1986), rated 7.7/10 by 5,383 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Nightmaster?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Nightmaster?
Yes: The Principal (1987), Flight of the Intruder (1991) and Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses (2014).
How are movies similar to Nightmaster chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Nightmaster, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.