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American Sniper poster

Movies that feel likeAmerican Sniper (2014)

U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle takes his sole mission—protect his comrades—to heart and becomes one of the most lethal snipers in American history. His pinpoint accuracy not only saves countless lives but also makes him a prime target of insurgents. Despite grave danger and his struggle to be a good husband and father to his family back in the States, Kyle serves four tours of duty in Iraq. However, when he finally returns home, he finds that he cannot leave the war behind.

If you loved American Sniper, the closest films we have are Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), Lone Survivor (2013) and Shadow (2018). All three share American Sniper's bleak and kinetic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019).

🍅 71% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Clint Eastwoodbleakkinetic
8 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Apple TV · Paramount Plus Premium

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If American Sniper hit the spot, these will too

Letters from Iwo Jima poster
Letters from Iwo Jima
2006 · dir. Clint Eastwood
🍅 91%★ 7.8action · drama · war

Eastwood on war's cost — duty and doubt inside the men doing the fighting

The difference: The enemy's-eye view of WWII — subtitled, elegiac, no home front

The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.

Lone Survivor poster
Lone Survivor
2013 · dir. Peter Berg
🍅 75%★ 7.5war · action · dramaPrime VideoStarz

Boots-on-ground combat filmed with real weight and no glory in it

The difference: One brutal mission end to end, with no home life to return to

Four Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative must make an impossible moral decision in the mountains of Afghanistan that leads them into an enemy ambush. As they confront unthinkable odds, the SEALs must find reserves of strength and resilience to fight to the finish.

Shadow poster
Shadow
2018 · dir. Zhang Yimou
🍅 94%★ 7action · warPrime Video

A soldier defined by a role that slowly consumes the man inside it

The difference: Stylized wuxia court intrigue — ink-wash fantasy, not realism

In a kingdom ruled by a young and unpredictable king, the military commander has a secret weapon: a shadow, a look-alike who can fool both his enemies and the King himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the King does not want.

Fury poster
Fury
2014 · dir. David Ayer
🍅 75%★ 7.6war · drama · actionApple TV+

Men inside a machine of war, hardened and slowly hollowed out by it

The difference: Confined to a tank crew in 1945, without the marriage back home

April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theater, a battle-hardened army sergeant commands a Sherman tank with a five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.

Greyhound poster
Greyhound
2020 · dir. Aaron Schneider
🍅 77%★ 7war · action · dramaApple TV+

One commander's nerve holding lives together under constant threat

The difference: Nearly all procedure — combat choreography with little inner life

A first-time captain leads a convoy of allied ships carrying thousands of soldiers across the treacherous waters of the "Black Pit" to the front lines of WWII. With no air cover protection for 5 days, the captain and his convoy must battle the surrounding enemy Nazi U-boats in order to give the allies a chance to win the war.

Civil War poster
Civil War
2024 · dir. Alex Garland
🍅 80%★ 7war · action · dramaRent or buy

Scoped dread and the numbing of people who have seen far too much

The difference: Ambiguous and journalistic — no cause to believe in, no hero

In the near future, a group of war journalists attempt to survive while reporting the truth as the United States stands on the brink of civil war.

Tom Clancy's Without Remorse poster
Tom Clancy's Without Remorse
2021 · dir. Stefano Sollima
🍅 45%★ 5.8action · thriller · warPrime Video

A lethal Navy SEAL pushed past the limits of duty

The difference: A generic conspiracy actioner — the true-story weight is gone

An elite Navy SEAL uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife.

Uri: The Surgical Strike poster
Uri: The Surgical Strike
2019 · dir. Aditya Dhar
🍅 57%★ 8.2action · drama · war

A retaliation mission carried out with military precision and fervor

The difference: Openly rah-rah Indian blockbuster — subtlety isn't the aim

Following the roguish terrorist attacks at Uri Army Base camp in Kashmir, India takes the fight to the enemy, in its most successful covert operation till date with one and only one objective of avenging their fallen heroes.

Stalingrad poster
Stalingrad
2013 · dir. Fyodor Bondarchuk
🍅 51%★ 5.7war · action · drama

Soldiers holding a deadly position where every shot draws fire back

The difference: Bombastic Russian spectacle — melodrama swamps the realism

A band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to a Russian woman who has been living there.

300: Rise of an Empire poster
300: Rise of an Empire
2014 · dir. Noam Murro
🍅 45%★ 6.2action · drama · warParamount+

Battle as spectacle, driven by vengeance and duty to a homeland

The difference: Slow-motion mythic bloodshed with none of the psychological toll

Greek general Themistocles attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. Themistocles faces the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god, Xerxes and Artemesia, the vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

Balkan Line poster
Balkan Line
2019 · dir. Andrey Volgin
★ 6.6drama · action · warPrime Video

Both land bleakness and momentum at once

The difference: Sits closer to drama than American Sniper does

After the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the Yugoslav army pulls out of Kosovo region, leaving Serbian people at the mercy of the Albanian UCK. A small band of soldiers must take over the Slatina airport, and hold it until the Russian peacekeepers arrive.

Dunkirk poster
Dunkirk
2017 · dir. Christopher Nolan
🍅 92%★ 7.8war · action · dramaParamount+

Tension held for long stretches, survival counted breath by breath

The difference: Near-wordless and abstract, with no single soldier's inner life

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

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The best-reviewed films that share American Sniper’s defining feeling.