Top 30 Action/War Movies
by transitasis | created - 31 Dec 2013 | updated - 17 Nov 2016 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
M | 158 min | Action, Adventure, War
Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on.
Director: Brian G. Hutton | Stars: Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark
Votes: 62,888
2. The Train (1964)
Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Thriller, War
In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.
Directors: John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon
Votes: 18,870 | Gross: $7.41M
3. Das Boot (1981)
R | 149 min | Drama, War
A German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch
Votes: 264,274 | Gross: $11.49M
4. Platoon (1986)
R | 120 min | Drama, War
Chris Taylor, a neophyte recruit in Vietnam, finds himself caught in a battle of wills between two sergeants, one good and the other evil. A shrewd examination of the brutality of war and the duality of man in conflict.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David
Votes: 439,365 | Gross: $138.53M
5. The Big Red One (1980)
R | 113 min | Drama, War
A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco
Votes: 21,387
6. Morituri (1965)
Approved | 123 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A war pacifist is blackmailed to pose as an SS officer and to disable the scuttling explosives on a freighter carrying rubber cargo to be captured by the Allies.
Director: Bernhard Wicki | Stars: Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Janet Margolin, Trevor Howard
Votes: 4,493
7. '71 (2014)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In 1971, a young and disoriented British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the deadly streets of Belfast.
Director: Yann Demange | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Sam Reid, Sean Harris, Paul Popplewell
Votes: 60,141 | Gross: $1.27M
8. The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Approved | 150 min | Action, Adventure, War
During World War II, a rebellious U.S. Army Major is assigned a dozen convicted murderers to train and lead them into a mass assassination mission of German officers.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes
Votes: 79,072 | Gross: $45.30M
9. The Wild Geese (1978)
R | 134 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A British banker hires a group of British mercenaries to rescue a deposed African President from the hands of a corrupt African dictator.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen | Stars: Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 14,173
10. Eastern Condors (1987)
R | 93 min | Action, Adventure, War
A group of Asian prisoners is recruited, trained, armed and sent to Vietnam to destroy a cache of American weapons left behind after the Vietnam War, before the Vietcong discovers its location.
Director: Sammo Kam-Bo Hung | Stars: Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Biao Yuen, Haing S. Ngor, Ching-Ying Lam
Votes: 2,881
11. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,203 | Gross: $29.55M
12. The Admiral (2015)
TV-PG | 151 min | Action, Biography, Drama
When the young republic of The Netherlands is attacked by England, France, and Germany, and the country is on the brink of civil war, only one man can lead the country's strongest weapon, the Dutch fleet: Michiel de Ruyter.
Director: Roel Reiné | Stars: Frank Lammers, Sanne Langelaar, Barry Atsma, Lieke van Lexmond
Votes: 10,422
13. Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, War
A tough-as-nails general (Gregory Peck as General Savage) takes over a B-17 bomber unit suffering from low morale and whips them into fighting shape.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell
Votes: 15,795
14. Cross of Iron (1977)
R | 119 min | Drama, War
German commander Hauptmann Stransky places a squad in extreme danger after Sergeant Rolf Steiner refuses to lie for him.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, David Warner
Votes: 29,151
15. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd, James D'Arcy
Votes: 237,848 | Gross: $93.93M
16. Black Hawk Down (2001)
R | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of 160 elite U.S. soldiers who dropped into Mogadishu in October 1993 to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord, but found themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily armed Somalis.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana
Votes: 423,459 | Gross: $108.64M
17. Fixed Bayonets! (1951)
Not Rated | 92 min | Action, Drama, War
The story of a platoon during the Korean War. One by one Corporal Denno's superiors are killed until it comes to the point where he must try to take command responsibility.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Richard Basehart, Gene Evans, Michael O'Shea, Richard Hylton
Votes: 2,113
18. Attack (1956)
Approved | 107 min | Action, Drama, War
In 1944, an American Infantry company sets up an artillery observation post, but tensions between Captain Cooney and Lieutenant Costa run high.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Jack Palance, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert, Robert Strauss
Votes: 5,832
19. The Age of Shadows (2016)
TV-MA | 140 min | Action, History, Thriller
Korean resistance fighters smuggle explosives to destroy facilities controlled by Japanese forces in this period action thriller.
Director: Jee-woon Kim | Stars: Lee Byung-hun, Gong Yoo, Song Kang-ho, Jeon Yeo-been
Votes: 11,037 | Gross: $0.54M
20. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,495,973 | Gross: $216.54M
21. The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1988)
R | 97 min | Action, Drama, War
A tough U.S. sergeant and his sidekick roll into a demoralized firebase, where they attempt to rebuild morale and fortifications amid a climactic battle with the Viet Cong.
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith | Stars: Wings Hauser, R. Lee Ermey, Robert Arevalo, Mark Neely
Votes: 3,341
22. Nefes: Vatan Sagolsun (2009)
128 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Story of 40-man Turkish task force who must defend a relay station.
Director: Levent Semerci | Stars: Mete Horozoglu, Ilker Kizmaz, Birce Akalay, Ibrahim Akoz
Votes: 35,382
23. Dark of the Sun (1968)
Approved | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A band of mercenaries led by Captain Curry travel through war-torn Congo across deadly terrain, battling rival armies, to steal $50 million in uncut diamonds. But infighting, sadistic rebels and a time lock jeopardize everything.
Director: Jack Cardiff | Stars: Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Peter Carsten, Jim Brown
Votes: 3,534
24. Lone Survivor (2013)
R | 121 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster
Votes: 306,618 | Gross: $125.10M
25. The Young Lions (1958)
Approved | 167 min | Action, Drama, War
The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.
Director: Edward Dmytryk | Stars: Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Hope Lange
Votes: 8,813 | Gross: $9.96M
26. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Not Rated | 158 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A team of Allied saboteurs is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle
Votes: 55,369 | Gross: $28.90M
27. The Steel Helmet (1951)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Drama, War
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards
Votes: 4,735
28. Objective, Burma! (1945)
Approved | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A platoon of special ops are tasked to parachute into the remote Burmese jungle and destroy a strategic Japanese radar station, but getting out isn't as easy.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Errol Flynn, James Brown, William Prince, George Tobias
Votes: 5,548
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