Movies like The winner (1997)
The best movies like The winner (1997) are Lights Out (2024), Section 8 (2022) and Dead Man's Shoes (2004). If The winner hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedPlatoon (1986)7.7/10 from 5,394 votes
- NewestHounds of War (2024)Released 2024
Lights 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSection 8 (2022)
After avenging the murder of his family, a former soldier is sprung from prison and recruited by a shadowy government agency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Man's Shoes (2004)
A soldier returns to his small town and exacts a deadly revenge on the thugs who tormented his disabled brother while he was away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlow (2001)
The story of how George Jung, together with the Medellín Cartel led by Pablo Escobar, established the billion-dollar cocaine empire in the United States in the 1970s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Yellow Birds (2018)
Two young soldiers, Bartle and Murph, navigate the terrors of the Iraq war under the command of the older, troubled Sergeant Sterling. All the while, Bartle is tortured by a promise he made to Murph's mother before their deployment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNever Back Down: Revolt (2021)
An amateur fighter is lured by a trafficking syndicate specializing in elite underground fighting where her brutal captor forces her to fight or face certain death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe System (2022)
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDangerous (2021)
A reformed sociopath heads to a remote island after the death of his brother. Soon after his arrival, the island falls under siege from a deadly gang of mercenaries, and when he discovers their role in his brother’s demise, he sets out on a relentless quest for vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCadence (1990)
As punishment for drunken, rebellious behavior, a young white soldier is thrown into a stockade populated entirely by black inmates. But instead of falling victim to racial hatred, the soldier joins forces with his fellow prisoners and rises up against the insanely tyrannical and bigoted prison warden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMK Ultra (2022)
Set during the true and unconscionable Central Intelligence Agency MK ULTRA drug experimentations in the early 1960s. The journey of Ford Strauss, a brilliant psychiatrist, whose moral and scientific boundaries are pushed to the limit as he is recruited to run a subsect of the program in a rural Mississippi Mental Hospital.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBunker (2023)
Trapped in a bunker during World War I, a group of soldiers are faced with an ungodly presence that slowly turns them against each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThank You for Your Service (2017)
A group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they've left the battlefield.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJacknife (1989)
A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like The winner and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The winner?
The closest matches to The winner are Lights Out (2024), Section 8 (2022) and Dead Man's Shoes (2004). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The winner?
Start with Lights Out (2024), the closest match to The winner.
What is the highest-rated movie like The winner?
Platoon (1986), rated 7.7/10 by 5,394 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The winner?
Hounds of War (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The winner chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The winner, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



















