Movies like The Third War (2021)
The best movies like The Third War (2021) are November (2022), Out of Control (2025) and 24 Days (2014). If The Third War hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Shop Around the Corner (1940)8.1/10 from 885 votes
- NewestCase 137 (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchNovember (2022)Also in French
November (2022)
In November 2015, a series of unprecedented and deadly attacks hits Paris. The anti-terrorist police led by Heloise and her chief commander Fred face an unprecedented level of pressure. In a race against the clock, they must find the perpetrators of the attacks as quickly as possible before they can strike again, travelling across Europe and beyond in one of the biggest manhunts in history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut of Control (2025)
Julien and Marie have enjoyed 15 years of seemingly stable marriage until Anaëlle, Julien’s childhood flame, returns. Her sudden presence awakens old insecurities in Marie, who begins to doubt Julien’s devotion and question her self-worth. Amid this emotional storm, Marie is drawn to Thomas, a charismatic stranger who offers her the validation she craves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this24 Days (2014)
When Ilan Halimi is kidnapped for ransom because Jewish and supposedly rich, his family and the police start a race against time to save him from the tortures of the "gang of barbarians".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpy, Stand Up (1982)
Sebastien Grenier, a former French spy, is working as a financial analyst in Zurich. However, his peaceful existence starts to disintegrate when he is recruited by a top French intelligence operative to discover how one of their own secret agents was found out and executed in broad daylight.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOmar Killed Me (2011)
In the summer of 1991 an elderly woman Ghislaine Marchal is found murdered in the basement of her home with the message "Omar M'a Tuer" (Omar has kill me) written beside in her own blood. Despite a lack of forensic or DNA evidence, her Moroccan gardener Omar Raddad is found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in a French prison. Shocked by the case, and convinced of his innocence, journalist Pierre-Emmanuel Vaugrenard moves to Nice to investigate, and uncover the truth...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlast (2022)
In a Parisian parking lot Sonia finds herself trapped in her car with her son and the daughter of her boyfriend Fred, who has been left outside, powerless to deal with the situation: an anti-tank mine has been set under the car. Sonia is a bomb-disposal expert, who works for a NGO with Fred. She just got back from a mission in Ukraine and, while she's used to face dangerous situations, with the children's lives on the line the stakes have never been higher. Along with colleagues Igor and Camille, who came to the rescue, Sonia and Fred have 30 minutes to defuse the bomb and work out who could be the mastermind behind this. Will they stand united until the end or will the family implode under pressure?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Silent One (1973)
Who is Anton Haliakov, who has just been abducted by the M.I.5 in London? A Soviet scientist apparently. But sixteen years before the man had another identity, Clément Tibère, and another nationality, French. So what led him to become Russian and to change identity? And why are the British secret services interested in him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLe Samouraï (1967)
After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this6 Below: Miracle on the Mountain (2017)
An adrenaline seeking snowboarder gets lost in a massive winter storm in the back country of the High Sierras where he is pushed to the limits of human endurance and forced to battle his own personal demons as he fights for survival....
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisRemember (2015)
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGreen Tide (2023)
Not less than 3 men and 40 animals were found dead on the Breton beaches. The identity of the killer is an open secret: green algae. Inès Léraud is still a young journalist when, driven by an ecological conscience, she decides to go to Brittany to investigate this phenomenon. Through her encounters with whistleblowers, scientists, farmers and politicians, she elucidates, not without difficulty, half a century of silence: samples that disappear in laboratories, bodies buried before being autopsied, influence games, pressure... Will the truth win?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArmy of Shadows (1969)
Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStillwater (2021)
Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison, who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Beasts (2022)
Antoine and Olga, a French couple, have been living in a small village in Galicia for a long time. They practice eco-responsible agriculture and restore abandoned houses to facilitate repopulation. Everything should be idyllic except for their opposition to a wind turbine project that creates a serious conflict with their neighbors. The tension will rise to the point of irreparability.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 drama & 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCase 137 (2025)
When Internal Affairs officer Stéphanie investigates a young man severely injured during a chaotic Paris demonstration and finds no police misconduct, the routine case hits close to home upon her discovering the victim is from her native town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEdison (2005)
In the troubled city of Edison, a young journalist, his jaded editor, and an honest investigator from the district attorney's office join forces to gather evidence against corrupt members of an elite police unit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisJoséphine Baker (TBA)
Plot TBA; follows the life of groundbreaking 1920s jazz-age dancer, singer, and Parisian entertainer Josephine Baker.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
District B13 (2004)
Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAvenue Montaigne (2006)
A young woman arrives in Paris where she finds a job as a waitress in bar next on Avenue Montaigne that caters to the surrounding theaters and the wealthy inhabitants of the area. She will meet a pianist, a famous actress and a great art collector, and become acquainted with the "luxurious" world her grandmother has told her about since her childhood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Tale of Winter (1992)
Felicie and Charles have a whirlwind holiday romance. Due to a mix-up on addresses they lose contact, and five years later at Christmas-time Felicie is living with her mother in a cold Paris with a daughter as a reminder of that long-ago summer. For male companionship she oscillates between hairdresser Maxence and the intellectual Loic, but seems unable to commit to either as the memory of Charles and what might have been hangs over everything.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaddy Cool (2008)
The story about the age gap between a scientist father, Philipe Le Tallec, and his newly discovered teen aged daughter, Eglantine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSnow White (2005)
The life of 20-year-old Nico from upper class Zurich is all party, sex and drugs when she meets Paco, the front man of a rap band. She finds herself drawn to his independent, creative and profound way of life, so different from her own. With naiveté and infinite self-confidence, she tries to adopt his lifestyle - without anticipating the consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Burning Out (2016)
Burning Out is literally a drama about life and death. For two years, the Belgian director Jérôme le Maire followed the members of a surgical unit in one of the biggest hospitals in Paris. Constantly under severe stress, understaffed and subject to severe budget cuts, employees fight each other for resources. Meanwhile the management imposes ever more stringent efficiency and profitability targets. All over Europe burnout has reached epidemic proportions among employees in the public and private sectors. Will we end up killing ourselves? Or will we be able to find meaning and joy at work?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lost Illusions (2021)
Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Third War?
The closest matches to The Third War are November (2022), Out of Control (2025) and 24 Days (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Third War?
Start with November (2022), the closest match to The Third War.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Third War?
The Shop Around the Corner (1940), rated 8.1/10 by 885 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Third War?
Case 137 (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Third War?
Yes: November (2022), Out of Control (2025) and 24 Days (2014).
How are movies similar to The Third War chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Third War, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.