Movies like Special Forces (2011)
The best movies like Special Forces (2011) are Long Gone Heroes (2024), Tears of the Sun (2003) and Dirty Angels (2024). If Special Forces hooked you with its action and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLone Survivor (2013)7.4/10 from 4,958 votes
- Newest13 Days, 13 Nights (2025)Released 2025
- In French15 Minutes of War (2019)Also in French
Long Gone Heroes (2024)
Gunner, a special forces soldier who has witnessed the darkest side of country and combat, is forced back into the field of battle to save his niece, who is being held in South America. As the fight intensifies, Gunner and his team discover that her disappearance is part of a corrupt private operation that hits way too close to home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisTears of the Sun (2003)
Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDirty Angels (2024)
During the United States' 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, a group of female soldiers posing as medical relief are sent back in to rescue a group of kidnapped teenagers caught between ISIS and the Taliban.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this15 Minutes of War (2019)
February 1976. Somalian rebels hijack a school bus carrying 21 French children and their teacher in Djibouti City. When the terrorists drive it to a no-man’s-land on the border between Somalia and French territory, the French Government sends out a newly formed elite squad to rescue the hostages. Within a few hours, the highly trained team arrives to the crisis area, where the Somalian National Army has taken position behind the barbed wire on the border. The French unit is left with very few options to rescue the hostages. As the volatile situation unravels, the French men quickly come up with a daring plan: carry out a simultaneous 5 men sniper attack to get the children and the teacher out safely. A true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLone Survivor (2013)
Four Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative must make an impossible moral decision in the mountains of Afghanistan that leads them into an enemy ambush. As they confront unthinkable odds, the SEALs must find reserves of strength and resilience to fight to the finish.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisValiant One (2025)
With tensions between North and South Korea, a US helicopter crashes on the North side. The survivors must work together to protect a civilian tech specialist and find their way out without the help of US military support.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRedemption Day (2021)
When his wife Kate is kidnapped by terrorists for ransom, veteran war hero Brad Paxton races against the clock to rescue her in a daring and deadly operation that pits him against powerful and dark forces.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisWarhorse One (2023)
A gunned down Navy SEAL Master Chief must guide a child to safety through a gauntlet of hostile Taliban insurgents and survive the brutal Afghanistan wilderness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJarhead 2: Field of Fire (2014)
Battle-scarred and disillusioned by the war, Corporal Chris Merrimette is put in charge of a unit whose next mission is to resupply a remote outpost on the edge of Taliban-controlled territory. While driving through the hostile Helmand province, a Navy SEAL flags down their convoy and enlists the unit on an operation of international importance: they must help an Afghan woman famous for her defiance of the Taliban escape the country. Without tanks or air support, Merrimette and his team will need all the courage and firepower they can muster to fight their way across the war-torn country and shepherd the woman to safety.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Fans watch both · both action & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hurt Locker (2008)
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGreen Zone (2010)
During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller and his team of Army inspectors are dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that threatens to invert the purpose of their mission.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like this13 Days, 13 Nights (2025)
Kabul, August 15, 2021. US troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, while the Taliban are marching on the capital to seize power. Amid the chaos, Commander Mohamed Bida and his men are in charge of security at the French embassy, the last Western mission to remain open. Trapped along with 500 people, left to their own devices, the team must reach the airport at all costs. A perilous mission with no guarantee of success to flee the hell of Kabul and rescue what remains of humanity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDanger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (2019)
Vietnam War, 1966. Australia and New Zealand send troops to support the United States and South Vietnamese in their fight against the communist North. Soldiers are very young men, recruits and volunteers who have never been involved in a combat. On August 18th, members of Delta Company will face the true horror of a ruthless battle among the trees of a rubber plantation called Long Tân. They are barely a hundred. The enemy is a human wave ready to destroy them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBravo Two Zero (1999)
When an elite eight-man British SAS team is dropped behind enemy lines, their mission is clear: take out Saddam Hussein's SCUD missile systems. But when communications are cut and the team finds themselves surrounded by Saddam's army, their only hope is to risk capture and torture in a desperate 185-kilometer run to the Syrian border. Based on the true story of a British Special Forces unit behind enemy lines during the Gulf War, Bravo Two Zero explores the tragedies and triumphs of men taken to the edge of survival in the Persian Gulf War.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
SnoozefestMovies like this12 Strong (2018)
A team of special forces head into Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in an attempt to dismantle the Taliban.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSand Castle (2017)
Set during the occupation of Iraq, a squad of U.S. soldiers try to protect a small village.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBehind Enemy Lines (2001)
While flying a routine reconnaissance mission over Bosnia, fighter pilot Lt. Chris Burnett photographs something he wasn't supposed to see and gets shot down behind enemy lines, where he must outrun an army led by a ruthless Serbian general. With time running out and a deadly tracker on his trail, Burnett's commanding officer, Admiral Reigart, decides to risk his career and launch a renegade rescue mission to save his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
An American Ambassador is killed during an attack at a U.S. compound in Libya as a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Outpost (2020)
A small unit of U.S. soldiers, alone at the remote Combat Outpost Keating, located deep in the valley of three mountains in Afghanistan, battles to defend against an overwhelming force of Taliban fighters in a coordinated attack. The Battle of Kamdesh, as it was known, was the bloodiest American engagement of the Afghan War in 2009 and Bravo Troop 3-61 CAV became one of the most decorated units of the 19-year conflict.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJarhead (2005)
Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHyena Road (2015)
Three different men, three different worlds, three different wars – all stand at the intersection of modern warfare – a murky world of fluid morality where all is not as it seems. A unique and dramatic look at the Canadian Army in Afghanistan.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThree Kings (1999)
A group of American soldiers stationed in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, and they embark on a secret mission that's destined to change everything.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wild Geese (1978)
A British multinational company seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wall (2017)
An American sniper and his spotter engage in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with an Iraqi sniper.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBehind Enemy Lines III: Colombia (2009)
Navy SEALS mount an attack on Colombian special forces to clear their names and rescue a hostage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Beast of War (1988)
During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost and in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas in the mountains.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSniper: Special Ops (2016)
A Special Ops military Force, led by expert sniper Sergeant Jake Chandler, are sent to a remote Afghan village to extract an American congressman being held by the Taliban.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisMachine Gun Preacher (2011)
The true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing biker who finds God and became a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese children who've been kidnapped and pressed into duty as soldiers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFreetown (2015)
A group of native Liberian missionaries make a desperate cross-country trip through their war torn country to save one of their own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Special Forces?
The closest matches to Special Forces are Long Gone Heroes (2024), Tears of the Sun (2003) and Dirty Angels (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Special Forces?
People who watched Special Forces most often go on to Long Gone Heroes (2024), Tears of the Sun (2003) and Dirty Angels (2024).
What is the highest-rated movie like Special Forces?
Lone Survivor (2013), rated 7.4/10 by 4,958 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Special Forces?
13 Days, 13 Nights (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Special Forces?
Yes: 15 Minutes of War (2019) and 13 Days, 13 Nights (2025).
How are movies similar to Special Forces chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Special Forces, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.