feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like Fail Safe (1964)

If you loved Fail Safe, the closest films we have are Inglourious Basterds (2009), The Hurt Locker (2008) and Valkyrie (2008). All three share Fail Safe's tense and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads and Lionsgate+ Amazon Channels and others, checked against today's data.

Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. The President of the United States has but little time to prevent an atomic catastrophe from occurring.

πŸ… 93% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Sidney Lumettensecontemplativebleak

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If Fail Safe hit the spot, these will too

Inglourious Basterds poster
Inglourious Basterds
2009 Β· dir. Quentin Tarantino
πŸ… 89%β˜… 8.4drama Β· thriller Β· war

The same mix in both: tension, then stillness

The difference: A 2000s film, from a different era of filmmaking

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

Feels alike?
The Hurt Locker poster
The Hurt Locker
2008 Β· dir. Kathryn Bigelow
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.5drama Β· thriller Β· war

Bleak thriller in both cases

During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.

Feels alike?
Valkyrie poster
Valkyrie
2008 Β· dir. Bryan Singer
πŸ… 62%β˜… 7.1drama Β· thriller Β· war

Both trade on tension more than on being drama

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

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 FΓΌhrer.

Feels alike?
Fight Club poster
Fight Club
1999 Β· dir. David Fincher
πŸ… 81%β˜… 8.8drama Β· thriller

War built on stillness, twice over

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

Feels alike?
Army of Shadows poster
Army of Shadows
1969 Β· dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
πŸ… 97%β˜… 8.1war Β· drama Β· thriller

Bleak thriller, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans history where Fail Safe does not

Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.

Feels alike?
The Imitation Game poster
The Imitation Game
2014 Β· dir. Morten Tyldum
πŸ… 90%β˜… 8history Β· drama Β· thriller

Drama with a pulse of tension, in both cases

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

Feels alike?
Yojimbo poster
Yojimbo
1961 Β· dir. Akira Kurosawa
πŸ… 96%β˜… 8.2drama Β· thriller

Contemplative war in both cases

The difference: Missing the bleakness of Fail Safe

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

Feels alike?
Blade Runner poster
Blade Runner
1982 Β· dir. Ridley Scott
πŸ… 89%β˜… 8.1science fiction Β· drama Β· thriller

Bleak thriller, and it commits to that

In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.

Feels alike?
A Man Escaped poster
A Man Escaped
1956 Β· dir. Robert Bresson
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.2drama Β· thriller

The same thriller instincts

A captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from prison.

Feels alike?
Apocalypse Now poster
Apocalypse Now
1979 Β· dir. Francis Ford Coppola
πŸ… 91%β˜… 8.4drama Β· war

Cut from the same drama cloth

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

Feels alike?
Full Metal Jacket poster
Full Metal Jacket
1987 Β· dir. Stanley Kubrick
πŸ… 90%β˜… 8.2drama Β· war

Both are war through and through

A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Feels alike?
No Way Out poster
No Way Out
1987 Β· dir. Roger Donaldson
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.1thriller Β· drama

Both keep circling back to pentagon

Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell, and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretary David Brice, is also romantically involved with Atwell. When the young woman turns up dead, Farrell is put in charge of the murder investigation. He begins to uncover shocking clues about the case, but when details of his encounter with Susan surface, he becomes a suspect as well.

Feels alike?

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The best-reviewed films that share Fail Safe's defining feeling.