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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi poster

Movies that feel like13 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.

If you loved 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, the closest films we have are The Zone of Interest (2023), The King (2019) and The Shadow in My Eye (2021). All three share 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi's bleak and epic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Katyn (2007).

🍅 52% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Michael Baybleakepiccontemplative
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Apple TV

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If 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi hit the spot, these will too

The Zone of Interest poster
The Zone of Interest
2023 · dir. Jonathan Glazer
🍅 93%★ 7.3drama · history · warRent or buy

History delivered with total, unflinching seriousness

The difference: Cold and clinical — no gunfire, no chaos, just quiet dread next door

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

The King poster
The King
2019 · dir. David Michôd
🍅 71%★ 7.3drama · history · warNetflix

A leader forced into command faster than he's ready for

The difference: Centuries removed — a costume drama, not boots-on-the-ground combat

England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.

The Shadow in My Eye poster
The Shadow in My Eye
2021 · dir. Ole Bornedal
★ 7.3war · drama · historyNetflix

A mission that goes wrong in real time, with real consequences

The difference: One catastrophic raid, not a night-long siege under fire

On March 21st, 1945, the British Royal Air Force set out on a mission to bomb Gestapo's headquarters in Copenhagen. The raid had fatal consequences as some of the bombers accidentally targeted a school and more than 120 people were killed, 86 of whom were children.

The Captain poster
The Captain
2018 · dir. Robert Schwentke
🍅 83%★ 7.3war · drama · historyPrime Video

War stripped of glory, shot with real weight behind it

The difference: A morality tale about power, not a rescue under fire

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of a Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

Katyn poster
Katyn
2007 · dir. Andrzej Wajda
🍅 91%★ 7drama · history · war

A true atrocity handled with unflinching, documentary weight

The difference: A slower, more mournful history, not a real-time firefight

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.

Land of Mine poster
Land of Mine
2015 · dir. Martin Zandvliet
🍅 91%★ 7.8war · drama · history

Bleak and epic in the same breath

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war is handed over to the Danish authorities and subsequently sent to the West Coast, where they are ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed in the sand along the coast. With their bare hands, crawling around in the sand, the boys are forced to perform the dangerous work under the leadership of a Danish sergeant.

Napoleon poster
Napoleon
2023 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 58%★ 6.3history · war · dramaApple TV+

History played straight, without irony or distance

The difference: A sprawling life story, not one brutal night in real time

An epic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine.

The Monuments Men poster
The Monuments Men
2014 · dir. George Clooney
🍅 30%★ 6.1war · drama · historyPrime Video

Both keep coming back to the same thing: a true story

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of WWII to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed?

T-34 poster
T-34
2018 · dir. Alexey Sidorov
★ 6.8drama · history · warPrime Video

War with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

In 1944, a courageous group of Russian soldiers managed to escape from German captivity in a half-destroyed legendary T-34 tank. Those were the times of unforgettable bravery, fierce fighting, unbreakable love, and legendary miracles.

War Horse poster
War Horse
2011 · dir. Steven Spielberg
🍅 74%★ 7.2war · history · drama

War's cost measured through the ones caught in its path

The difference: Sentimental and sweeping, not a tense procedural under fire

On the brink of the First World War, Albert's beloved horse Joey is sold to the Cavalry by his father. Against the backdrop of the Great War, Joey begins an odyssey full of danger, joy, and sorrow, and he transforms everyone he meets along the way. Meanwhile, Albert, unable to forget his equine friend, searches the battlefields of France to find Joey and bring him home.

The Champion poster
The Champion
2021 · dir. Maciej Barczewski
★ 6.8drama · history · warPrime Video

Bleak history, and it commits to that

It is 1940. The first transport of prisoners arrives at the newly created concentration camp Auschwitz. One of them is Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski, pre-war boxing champion of Warsaw. The camp officers force him to fight in the ring for his and other prisoners’ lives. However, his every win strengthens the hope that Nazis are not invincible. Auschwitz officers notice the growing resistance. The confrontation with the authorities of the camp becomes inevitable.

Kalashnikov AK-47 poster
Kalashnikov AK-47
2020 · dir. Konstantin Buslov
★ 6.6war · history · dramaPrime Video

Drama built on scale, twice over

A Russian military propaganda film about the tank commander Kalashnikov, severely injured in battle in 1941. The accident leaves him incapacitated and unable to return to the front line. While recovering in the hospital, he begins creating the initial sketches of what will become one of the world’s most legendary weapons. A self-taught inventor is only 29 when he develops the now iconic assault riffle — the AK-47. Shot in occupied Crimea.

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The best-reviewed films that share 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi’s defining feeling.