Best movies like Hell in the Pacific
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
During World War II, a shot-down American pilot and a marooned Japanese navy captain find themselves stranded on the same small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. Following war logic, each time the crafty Japanese devises something useful, he guards it to deny its use to the Yank, who then steals it, its proceeds or the idea and/or ruins it. Yet each gets his chance to kill and/or capture the other, but neither pushes this to the end. After a while of this pointless pestering, they end up joining forces to build and man a raft.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Adventure, War
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, tense, realistic, harsh, serious, rough, bleak, minimal cast, historical drama, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Hell in the Pacific (1968):
Similar in 79%
Normandy (2011)
Plot Summary:
Klaus Muller, a battle-hardened veteran, finds himself fighting for his life on the Russian front. Surrounded by overwhelming numbers of Russian tanks and planes, he and his men are doomed until famed German tank ace, Michael Wittmann, shows up in his Tiger Tank and saves the day. Once wounded, Klaus is transferred to Normandy to serve under Field Marshal Rommel just days before the Allied invasion. Much to his surprise, he finds that his beloved Klaudia is also stationed nearby as a field nurse. Unfortunately, so is her father, who is working with the French resistance and now finds himself pursued by the ruthless Gestapo officer Brahms, whose search leads him to Klaus and Klaudia attempting a rescue. They are caught and imprisoned. As D-Day begins and the Allies attack from the beaches and the sky, they escape from the prison, fighting the Gestapo in the middle of the biggest invasion in world history... Written by tino struckmann.
IMDB Rating: 2.6
IMDB Votes: 460
Genere: War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, sex comedy, independent film
Similar in 77%
None But the Brave (1965)
Plot Summary:
American and Japanese soldiers, stranded on a tiny Pacific island during World War II, must make a temporary truce and cooperate to survive various tribulations. Told through the eyes of the American and Japanese unit commanders, who must deal with an atmosphere of growing distrust and tension between their men.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, serious, tense, bleak, realistic, retro
Similar in 82%
The Ascent (1994)
Plot Summary:
The real-life adventure of a dashing Italian soldier who escapes a British prisoner-of-war camp because he dreams of climbing 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya and planting the Italian flag at the summit. The obsessive British camp commander pursues him, and the two men are locked in a battle of wills, fuelled by honor and their love for the same woman.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Adventure, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
The Hunt for Wehrwolf (2011)
Plot Summary:
A small group of Russian soldiers with mixed skills are assembled to go on a covert mission to map out the area of Hitler's new HQ in the Ukraine known as Wehrwolf. But it's not until they get to their destination that the squads leader then decides to unveil the true details of the mission.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 74
Genere: Action, Adventure, War
Country: Russia, Ukraine
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, captivating, suspenseful, serious, realistic
Similar in 76%
The 7th Dawn (1964)
Plot Summary:
Political and personal intrigues surround a group of characters in Malaya, after the close of the Second World War.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
King Rat (1965)
Plot Summary:
When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942 the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. This was a POW detention center like no other. There were no walls or barbed-wire fences for the simple reason that there was no place for the prisoners to escape to. Included among the prisoners is the American Cpl. King, a wheeler dealer who has managed to established a pretty good life for himself in the camp. While most of the prisoners are near starvation and have uniforms that are in tatters, King eats well and and has crisp clean clothes to wear every day. His nemesis is Lt. Robin Grey, the camp Provost who attempts to keep good order and discipline. He knows that King is breaking camp rules by bartering with the Japanese but can't quite get the evidence he needs to stop him. King soon forms a friendship with Lt. Peter Marlowe an upper class British officer who is fascinated with King's élan and no rules approach to life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: black and white, bleak, realistic, sad, rough, serious, suspenseful, independent film, freeze frame, feel good
Similar in 82%
Von Ryan's Express (1965)
Plot Summary:
Von Ryan's Express stars Frank Sinatra as a POW colonel who leads a daring escape from Nazi Germany by taking over a freight train, but he has to win over the British soldiers he finds himself commanding.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Action, Adventure, War
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, retro, rough, serious, suspenseful, tragic ending, tense, sentimental, clever
Similar in 78%
Escape to Athena (1979)
Plot Summary:
During the World War II, the prisoners of a German camp in a greek island are trying to escape. They don't want only their freedom, but they also seek for an ineffable treasure hidden in a monastery at the top of the island's mountain.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Comedy, War
Country: UK
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, suspense, disturbing, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, historical drama
Similar in 79%
USS Seaviper (2012)
Plot Summary:
Direct to DVD movie: The German U-Boat, U-234, from the Port of Kiel is trading cargo with the Japanese. USS Seaviper must locate and stop this dangerous exchange. The Captain of USS Seaviper must go ashore to conduct reconnaissance on an island near Sumatra, but the ship is left in the hands of Mister Cutter, after the Executive Officer is injured in battle. A conflict between Cutter and the Chief of the Boat puts the submarine in jeopardy. Seaviper is trapped below the surface, with decreasing oxygen, and a Japanese destroyer hunting them from above. Damage to the boat also leave her survival in question. They must fight the Japanese destroyer and get the information about U-235 back to Pearl Harbor.
IMDB Rating: 2.4
IMDB Votes: 966
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Miracle of the White Stallions (1963)
Plot Summary:
In WWII Austria, Col. Alois Podhajsky must protect his beloved Lipizzaner stallions and make sure that they are surrendered into the right hands. But Patton's something of a horse fancier and can help...if he sees the stallions perform.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 779
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, War
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Sahara (1995)
Plot Summary:
After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, War
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
Brothers War (2009)
Plot Summary:
The story is set in the latter days of World War 2, against the backdrop of fierce combat on the eastern front. Brother's War is based on real events.
IMDB Rating: 3.1
IMDB Votes: 890
Genere: History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak
Similar in 90%
Back Door to Hell (1964)
Plot Summary:
During WWII, a three-man commando team places its trust in the hands of a band of Filipino resistors, as they try to knock out a Japenese communication center.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 907
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Philippines, USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, tense, psychotronic, bleak, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Plot Summary:
A misfit group of World War II American soldiers goes AWOL to rob a bank behind German lines.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, War
Country: Yugoslavia, USA
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: entertaining, light, cynical, semi serious, humorous, realistic, witty, parody, action comedy, relaxing
Similar in 88%
The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985)
Plot Summary:
Major Reisman is "volunteered" to lead another mission using convicted army soldiers, sentenced to either death or long prison terms. This time their mission is to kill a Nazi general who plans to assassinate Hitler.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, War
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, exciting, rough, serious
Similar in 81%
Too Late the Hero (1970)
Plot Summary:
A WWII film set on a Pacific island. Japanese and allied forces occupy different parts of the island. When a group of British soldiers are sent on a mission behind enemy lines, things don't go exactly to plan. This film differs in that some of the 'heroes' are very reluctant, but they come good when they are pursued by the Japanese who are determined to prevent them returning to base.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, tense, suspense, psychological, exciting, realistic, rough, serious, historically accurate, independent film
Similar in 85%
Kokoda: 39th Battalion (2006)
Plot Summary:
A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, tense, inspirational
Similar in 83%
Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976)
Plot Summary:
The dramatized World War II adventures of US Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and his Marine Attack Squadron 214, AKA The Black Sheep Squadron.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, sitcom, vintage, period drama
Similar in 87%
Farewell to the King (1989)
Plot Summary:
An American soldier who escapes the execution of his comrades by Japanese soldiers in Borneo during WWII becomes the leader of a personal empire among the headhunters in this war story told in the style of Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. The American is reluctant to rejoin the fight against the Japanese on the urging of a British commando team but conducts a war of vengeance when the Japanese attack his adopted people.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: epic, exciting, rough, serious, independent film, thought provoking, brutal, enigmatic, unusual plot structure, bloody
Similar in 84%
Merrill's Marauders (1962)
Plot Summary:
Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3,000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), aka "Merrill's Marauders", behind Japanese lines across Burma to Myitkyina, pushing beyond their limits and fighting pitched battles at every strong-point.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crying, technicolor, historical drama, cult film
Similar in 78%
Fires on the Plain (2014)
Plot Summary:
In the final days of World War II, occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines face resistance from the local population and the American offensive. The dwindling Japanese soldiers attempt to survive through the horrors of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 831
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, realistic, captivating, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 88%
Canopy (2013)
Plot Summary:
An unlikely friendship between 2 young men becomes everything, when an Australian soldier takes refuge under the canopied jungles of Singapore, during the violent Japanese invasion in World War II. Jim is lost, injured and defenseless in a hostile, tropical world, hunted by Japanese troops, Seng, a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter emerges from the jungle and the two young men find themselves thrown together hoping to survive.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Australia, Singapore
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, exciting, serious, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 88%
Against the Sun (2014)
Plot Summary:
A WWII pilot, bombardier, and radioman find themselves adrift on a lifeboat without food or water after being forced to ditch their plane during a scouting mission.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, psychological, serious, realistic, minimal cast, independent film, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Rescue Dawn (2006)
Plot Summary:
A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 110000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, War
Country: USA, Luxembourg
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, bleak, tense, harsh, rough, emotional, intense, realistic, epic, sad
Similar in 85%
The Bridge at Remagen (1969)
Plot Summary:
In March of 1945, as the War in Europe is coming to a close, fighting erupts between German and American troops at the last remaining bridgehead across the Rhine.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA, Czechoslovakia, West Germany
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: realistic, harsh, intense, exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, surprise ending, spectacular, bleak
Similar in 87%
Windtalkers (2002)
Plot Summary:
Joe Enders is a gung-ho Marine assigned to protect a "windtalker" - one of several Navajo Indians who were used to relay messages during World War II because their spoken language was indecipherable to Japanese code breakers.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 73000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: realistic, factual, stylized, intense, sincere, serious, rough, emotional, suspense, exciting
Similar in 84%
Stalingrad (1993)
Plot Summary:
"Stalingrad" follows the progress of a German Platoon through the brutal fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad. After having half their number wiped out and after being placed under the command of a sadistic Captain, the Lieutenant of the platoon leads his men to desert. The men of the platoon attempt to escape from the city which is now surrounded by the Soviet Army.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, suspenseful, gloomy, rough, epic, captivating, factual, talky, political
Similar in 84%
The Devil's Brigade (1968)
Plot Summary:
1968 American war film about the formation and first mission of the joint Canadian-American WWII special forces winter and mountain unit formally called 1st Special Service Force, but commonly known as “The Devil’s Brigade”. The film dramatises the Brigade's first mission in the Italian Campaign, the task of capturing the German mountain stronghold Monte la Difensa, in December 1943. The film is based on the 1966 book of the same name, co-written by American novelist and historian Robert H. Adleman and Col. George Walton, a member of the brigade.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, tense, harsh, serious, suspenseful, epic, retro, cult classic, historical drama
Similar in 86%
The Pacific (2010)
Plot Summary:
A 10-part mini-series from the creators of "Band of Brothers" telling the intertwined stories of three Marines during America's battle with the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 125000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, Australia
Duration: 530 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, suspenseful, disturbing, epic, exciting, motivational, heartbreaking, political, educational
Similar in 88%
The Big Red One (1980)
Plot Summary:
A veteran sergeant of the World War I leads a squad in World War II, always in the company of the survivor Pvt. Griff, the writer Pvt. Zab, the Sicilian Pvt. Vinci and Pvt. Johnson in Vichy French Africa, Sicily, D-Day at Omaha Beach, Belgium and France, ending in a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia where they face the true horror of war.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: bleak, realistic, political, cynical, cult classic, historical drama, exciting, rough, serious, captivating