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Battle Royale poster

Movies that feel likeBattle Royale (2000)

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

If you loved Battle Royale, the closest films we have are Valkyrie (2008), Cell 211 (2009) and Looper (2012). All three share Battle Royale's tense and melancholy feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Girl, Interrupted (1999).

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If Battle Royale hit the spot, these will too

Valkyrie poster
Valkyrie
2008 · dir. Bryan Singer
🍅 62%★ 7.1drama · thriller · warPrime Video

Common ground in both: friendship and suicide

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.

Cell 211 poster
Cell 211
2009 · dir. Daniel Monzón
🍅 98%★ 7.6action · thriller · dramaNetflix

Both keep coming back to the same thing: suicide

The difference: Trades the warmth of Battle Royale for an angle of its own

The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

Looper poster
Looper
2012 · dir. Rian Johnson
🍅 93%★ 7.4action · thriller · science fictionStarz

Two things both keep coming back to: dystopia and tragedy

The difference: Easier on the stillness than Battle Royale

In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

The Last Samurai poster
The Last Samurai
2003 · dir. Edward Zwick
🍅 65%★ 7.8drama · action · warMax

Common ground: japan

The difference: Leans harder into war than Battle Royale does

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

Brothers poster
Brothers
2009 · dir. Jim Sheridan
🍅 63%★ 7.1drama · thriller · warPrime Video

Both land stillness and tension at once

When his helicopter goes down during his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan, Marine Sam Cahill is presumed dead. Back home, brother Tommy steps in to look over Sam’s wife, Grace, and two children. Sam’s surprise homecoming triggers domestic mayhem.

The Patriot poster
The Patriot
2000 · dir. Roland Emmerich
🍅 61%★ 7.2drama · history · warParamount+

One thread runs through both: gore

After proving himself on the field of battle in the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin wants nothing more to do with such things, preferring the simple life of a farmer. But when his son Gabriel enlists in the army to defend their new nation, America, against the British, Benjamin reluctantly returns to his old life to protect his son.

Rocky IV poster
Rocky IV
1985 · dir. Sylvester Stallone
🍅 38%★ 6.9drama · actionPrime VideoParamount+

Both are built on the same subject: friendship

Rocky Balboa holds the world heavyweight championship, but a new challenger has stepped forward: Drago, a six-foot-four, 261-pound fighter who has the backing of the Soviet Union. This time, Rocky's training regimen takes him to Siberia, where he prepares for a globally televised match in the heart of Moscow. But nothing can truly prepare him for what he's about to face – a fight to the finish, in which he must defend not only himself, but also the honor of his country!

Girl, Interrupted poster
Girl, Interrupted
1999 · dir. James Mangold
🍅 53%★ 7.3drama

The same mix in both: warmth, then melancholy

Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes poster
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2011 · dir. Rupert Wyatt
🍅 82%★ 7.6thriller · action · dramaHulu

The same preoccupation in both: dystopia

A highly intelligent chimpanzee named Caesar has been living a peaceful suburban life ever since he was born. But when he gets taken to a cruel primate facility, Caesar decides to revolt against those who have harmed him.

Blood Diamond poster
Blood Diamond
2006 · dir. Edward Zwick
🍅 64%★ 8drama · thriller · actionApple TV+

Drama built on momentum, twice over

An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.

In the Heart of the Sea poster
In the Heart of the Sea
2015 · dir. Ron Howard
🍅 42%★ 6.9thriller · drama · adventure

Both keep coming back to the same thing: survival

In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex is assaulted by something no one could believe—a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance.

Death Proof poster
Death Proof
2007 · dir. Quentin Tarantino
🍅 66%★ 7action · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: gore

Austin's hottest DJ, Jungle Julia, sets out into the night to unwind with her two friends Shanna and Arlene. Covertly tracking their moves is Stuntman Mike, a scarred rebel leering from behind the wheel of his muscle car, revving just feet away.

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The best-reviewed films that share Battle Royale’s defining feeling.