Best movies like Escape from East Berlin
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Director Robert Siodmak's 1962 film, inspired by true events, is about an East Berlin resident who attempts to escape to West Berlin with his family and girlfriend through a secret underground tunnel.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 632
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: political
Best tv shows and movies like Escape from East Berlin (1962):
Similar in 80%
Cold Summer (2006)
Plot Summary:
The Wall - Berlin '61.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 172
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Die Klasse - Berlin '61 (2015)
Plot Summary:
Secondary school students from East Berlin are taking final exam in West Berlin (being politically rejected in GDR) as the Berlin wall is built. The dramatization is combined with interviews of the actual people 50 years later.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 42
Genere: Documentary, Drama, History
Country: Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Westler (1985)
Plot Summary:
Felix from West-Berlin falls in love with Thomas in East-Berlin. At first they keep their relationship going by regular visits from Felix, but the curfew forces him to return every evening. When the East-German authorities become suspicious, Thomas decides to try and flee to the West.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 429
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Sun Alley (1999)
Plot Summary:
A group of kids grow up on the short, wrong (east) side of the Sonnenallee in Berlin, right next to one of the few border crossings between East and West reserved for German citizens. The antics of these kids, their families, of the "West German" friends and relatives who come to visit, and of the East German border guards, all serve to illustrate the absurdity of everyday life on the Sonnenallee, and therefore throughout the former East Germany.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Germany
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: political, sentimental, clever, humorous, realistic, controversial, talky, semi serious, surprise ending
Similar in 80%
The Dirty Game (1965)
Plot Summary:
A U.S. intelligence general (Robert Ryan) recalls three Cold War cases of Soviet (Henry Fonda), French and Italian (Vittorio Gassman) spies.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 267
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: France, Italy, West Germany, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: anthology, retro, independent film, eurospy, microfilm
Similar in 80%
The Wall - The Final Days (2008)
Plot Summary:
The Berlin wall separated families and friends for 28 years. Some accepted it, and some worked hard to make it fall.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Same Sky (2017)
Plot Summary:
Lars is a "Romeo agent" from East Germany in the 1970s. His task is to go West, first to seduce and then to spy on Western women who worked in government or defense institutions.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, suspenseful, political
Similar in 75%
The Man on the Wall (1982)
Plot Summary:
An East German man finds a way to cross the border between East and West Berlin. But when he succeeds in bringing his wife out as well, things are not quite as expected.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Open the Wall (2014)
Plot Summary:
A lighthearted look at the opening of the border crossing of Bornholmer Straße in Berlin from the point of view of the confused border guards.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 858
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: tense, humorous, captivating, light
Similar in 88%
The Legend of Rita (2000)
Plot Summary:
Rita Vogt is a radical West German terrorist who abandons the revolution and settles in East Germany with a new identity provided by the East German secret service. She lives in constant fear of having her cover blown, which unavoidably happens after the German re-unification.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: melancholic, captivating, tense, suspenseful, political, stylized, sad, serious, realistic, tragic ending
Similar in 75%
Night Crossing (1982)
Plot Summary:
Two men want to escape from East Germany (under Communist rule) but they will only go if they can take their families with them. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Family, History, Thriller
Country: UK, West Germany, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: christian film, political, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
The Silent Revolution (2018)
Plot Summary:
It's 1956. During a visit to a cinema in West Berlin, East German high school pupils Theo and Kurt see disturbing newsreel footage of the uprising in Budapest. Back in Stalinstadt, one of the GDR’s flagship workers’ settlements, they have the idea of holding a minute’s silence in class for the victims of the Hungarian struggle for freedom.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Germany
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, suspenseful, disturbing, captivating, political, social, crying, banned
Similar in 78%
Judgement in Berlin (1988)
Plot Summary:
American judge in Germany must decide if the hijacking of an East German plane into West Berlin was justified.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 871
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, suspense, sincere, touching, political, independent film
Similar in 86%
Berlin Tunnel 21 (1981)
Plot Summary:
In Berlin in 1961, an American soldier and a German engineer join forces to build a tunnel under the Berlin Wall in order to smuggle out refugees, including the soldier's East German girlfriend.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
A Dandy in Aspic (1968)
Plot Summary:
Double-agent Alexander Eberlin is assigned by the British to hunt out a Russian spy, known to them as Krasnevin. Only Eberlin knows that Krasnevin is none other than himself! Accompanying him on his mission is a ruthless partner, who gradually discovers his secret as Eberlin tries to maneuver himself out of a desperate situation.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: neo noir, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychological thriller, political thriller, romantic drama, eurospy, british noir
Similar in 83%
The Looking Glass War (1970)
Plot Summary:
From the John le Carre novel about a British spy who sends a Polish defector to East Germany to verify missile sites.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: neo noir, political thriller, clever, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative, talky, suspense
Similar in 86%
The Defector (1966)
Plot Summary:
Professor Bower, an American physicist, is effectively blackmailed by a shady CIA agent named Adams to help the CIA obtain secret microfilm from a defecting Russian scientist. The reluctant Bower travels to East Germany undercover as an antiques collector where he encounters Heinzmann, an East German fellow physicist, who is also a secret agent. Heinzmann is aware of Bower's meeting with Adams and his intention to steal the microfilm, however their mutual respect for one another's tactics complicate the proceedings.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 804
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, eurospy, microfilm
Similar in 77%
The Naked Runner (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sam Laker is an American industrialist, working in Britain, who has just been awarded an international award for industrial design. He is planning to travel to East Germany to attend a trade show and show off his invention, taking his 10 year old son with him for a holiday. Meanwhile a British Intelligence officer who served with Laker in the Second World War decides to use the opportunity of Laker's trip and his lack of an intelligence profile to coerce him into carrying out an assassination.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, microfilm
Similar in 84%
Barbara (2012)
Plot Summary:
It is the summer of 1980 in East Germany and, alone, Barbara is confined to living and working as a doctor in a small provincial town - her punishment for attempting to emigrate to the West. She has only one focus; to escape and for this, she has to wait patiently. Until Andre, her supervisor in the hospital, takes her off course. Are his motives of love or duty to the authorities? The day-to-day pretense, and content supervision slowly take their toll as the tension builds.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, melancholic, compassionate, atmospheric, psychological, sincere, realistic, philosophical, political, existential
Similar in 79%
Funeral in Berlin (1966)
Plot Summary:
Colonel Stok, a Soviet intelligence officer responsible for security at the Berlin Wall, appears to want to defect but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the British to handle his defection and asks for one of their agents, Harry Palmer, to smuggle him out of East Germany.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: political thriller, suspenseful, visually stunning, serious, realistic, psychotronic, psychological, exciting, tense, parody
Similar in 84%
Torn Curtain (1966)
Plot Summary:
During the Cold War, an American scientist appears to defect to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the formula for a resin solution, but the plan goes awry when his fiancee, unaware of his motivation, follows him across the border.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, suspenseful, stylized, political thriller, enigmatic, psychological, serious, realistic, clever
Similar in 76%
Balloon (2018)
Plot Summary:
Two families attempt a daredevil plan to escape DDR with a homemade hot air balloon, but it crashes just before the border. The Stasi finds traces of this attempt to escape and immediately starts investigations, while the two families are forced to build a new escape balloon. With each passing day the Stasi is closer on their heels – a nerve-wracking race against time begins.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Germany, France, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspenseful, tense, suspense
Similar in 81%
The Tunnel (2001)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by true events, Olympic swimmer Harry Melchior defects from East Germany in the 1960s and hatches a daring plot to help his sister and others flee East Berlin through a 145-yard underground tunnel.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, tense, political, compassionate, captivating, realistic, touching, costume drama, serious
Similar in 82%
23 (1998)
Plot Summary:
The movie's plot is based on the true story of a group of young computer hackers from Hannover, Germany. In the late 1980s the orphaned Karl Koch invests his heritage in a flat and a home computer. At first he dials up to bulletin boards to discuss conspiracy theories inspired by his favorite novel, R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus", but soon he and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers. Pepe, one of Karl's rather criminal acquaintances senses that there is money in computer cracking - he travels to east Berlin and tries to contact the KGB.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Thriller, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychological, political, surreal, cyber, cult classic, mindfuck, offbeat, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Plot Summary:
British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the cold war during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, black and white, suspense, grim, clever, bleak, realistic, talky, political thriller, retro
Similar in 90%
The Missiles of October (1974)
Plot Summary:
Based in part on Robert F. Kennedy's book, "Thirteen Days," this film profiles the Kennedy Administration's actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: political, tense, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 90%
The Lives of Others (2006)
Plot Summary:
A tragic love story set in East Berlin with the backdrop of an undercover Stasi controlled culture. Stasi captain Wieler is ordered to follow author Dreyman and plunges deeper and deeper into his life until he reaches the threshold of doubting the system.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 405000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: political thriller, gloomy, tense, political, atmospheric, sincere, suspense, breathtaking, harsh, bleak
Similar in 87%
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Plot Summary:
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan, recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel, the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 324000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA, India, Germany
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: suspense, realistic, dramatic, tricky, intense, historical drama, serious, entertaining, period piece, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Thirteen Days (2000)
Plot Summary:
Dramatisation of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the nuclear standoff with the USSR sparked by the discovery by the Americans of missle bases established on the Soviet allied island of Cuba. Shown from the perspective of the US President, John F Kennedy, his staff and advisors.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 62000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: tense, political, suspenseful, thought provoking, disturbing, sincere, realistic, educational, witty, serious
Similar in 79%
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Plot Summary:
Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 107000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 167 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, suspense, political, factual, serious, suspenseful, rough, political thriller, emotional