Some war films are exciting and action-packed, while others are brutal and dismal. Some are violent and terrible, while others are sarcastic and hilarious. In our choice of The best war movies on Netflix of the twenty-first century, there is something for everyone. Instead of focusing on allowing spectators to experience the nightmare clutter of life on the battle lines for themselves, Hollywood has shied away from the idea of the best modern war movies since 2000 as a somber morality story. When compared to cinematic blockbusters on Vietnam, the World Wars, or the American Civil Combat, there are comparatively few excellent modern war stories. Watching the finest military movies on Netflix can take your mind off reality for a minute, whether you’re stressed out from the holidays or the rest of the year. So far, these are the finest war films of 2022.
1. War Dogs (2016)
Director: Todd Phillips
Writers: Stephen Chin
Cast: Miles Teller, Gregg Weiner, Eddie Jemison
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
With the conflict in Iraq still raging, a young guy offers a boyhood buddy the opportunity to make a fortune as a weapons dealer. The film is loosely based on the actual tale of David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, two young men who secured a $300 million Pentagon contract to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan. They work together to take advantage of a government program that permits firms to compete on military contracts in the United States. Starting small helps the couple to amass wealth and live a lavish lifestyle. But, after obtaining a $300 million agreement to equip Afghan soldiers, they quickly find themselves in over their heads, doing business with some extremely unscrupulous individuals.
2. Wonder Woman (2020)
Director: Patty Jenkins
Writers: Patty Jenkins
Cast: Chris Pine, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen
IMDB Rating: 5.4/10
Diana Prince was employed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington in 1984. Diana Prince lives peacefully among mankind in the colorful, elegant 1980s, an age characterized by luxury and the desire to have it all. Despite the fact that she has fully developed her abilities, she keeps a low profile by preserving ancient relics and only doing heroic deeds in secret. Diana, on the other hand, will soon have to summon all of her power, knowledge, and courage as she faces up against Maxwell Lord and the Cheetah, a villain with superhuman strength and agility.
3. Megan Leavey (2017)
Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Writers: Pamela Gray
Cast: Edie Falco, Nick Madrick, Kate Mara
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
Megan Leavey is a former Military Police K9 handler who served in the United States Marine Corps. Rex, a military working dog, was sent to her (E168). Following a disciplinary hearing, Leavey is assigned to clean up the K-9 unit, and she begins to empathize with Rex, a particularly violent dog that she trains. Megan and Rex perform more than 100 missions during their service before being injured by an improvised explosive device, putting their lives at risk.
4. Dunkirk (2017)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Damien Bonnard, Lee Armstrong, Fionn Whitehead
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
Germany pushed into France in May 1940, trapping Allied soldiers on the Dunkirk beaches. Allied forces from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France were encircled and evacuated by the German Army after a severe fight in World War II. Troops were carefully and systematically evacuated from the beach under air and ground cover from British and French forces, utilizing every operable naval and civilian vessel that could be located.
5. 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi (2016)
Director: Michael Bay
Writers: Chuck Hogan
Cast: James Badge Dale, David Denman, Max Martini
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
A security crew tries to make sense of the pandemonium during an attack on a US outpost in Libya. Former soldiers have been deployed to defend investigators and diplomats in the city by the Annex Security Team. The six troops engage the fighters in a hard battle to preserve the lives of the surviving Americans as the attack continues.
6. A Hidden Life (2019)
Director: Terrence Malick
Writers: Terrence Malick
Cast: Valerie Pachner, Maria Simon, Tobias Moretti
IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
A Hidden Life is based on the true tale of Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian peasant farmer who refuses to serve the Nazis during World War II. Jägerstätter, a native of the tiny town of St. Radegund, is farming his property when the war starts out. The pair, who are married to Franziska, are prominent members of the close-knit rural community. They enjoy a modest existence, with the advent of the couple’s three daughters marking the passage of time.
7. War Machine (2017)
Director: David Michôd
Writers: David Michôd
Cast: Emory Cohen, Brad Pitt, RJ Cyler
IMDB Rating: 6.0/10
Glenn McMahon, a brilliant, charismatic four-star general, takes command of NATO forces in Afghanistan like a rock star, only to be pulled down by a reporter’s no-holds-barred exposé. He’s surrounded by exhausted military and disillusioned politicians who are eager to get out. In this scenario, he believes his duty is to “win” the war, something everyone around him believes is impossible.
8. Midway (2019)
Director: Roland Emmerich
Writers: Wes Tooke
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Ed Skrein
IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
The Battle of Midway, a conflict between the US fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy that marked a key defining moment in the Pacific Theater during WWII, is the subject of MIDWAY. The Battle of Midway began six months later, on June 4, 1942, when the Japanese navy prepared to attack American ships in the Pacific. It is one of the finest military movies on Netflix, which is based on the true events of this amazing accomplishment and depicts the narrative of the leaders and troops who overcame the odds with their instincts, tenacity, and bravery.
9. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Director: Mel Gibson
Writers: Andrew Knight
Cast: Richard Pyros, Milo Gibson, Roman Guerriero
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
Doss was recruited and ridiculed by fellow troops for his pacifist position. Still, after risking his life — without firing a shot — to save 75 people in the Battle of Okinawa, he gained respect and love for his bravery, selflessness, and compassion.
10. Official Secrets (2019)
Director: Gavin Hood
Writers: Sara Bernstein
Cast: Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans, Keira Knightley
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
Official Secrets is a 21st-century morality tale based on the true story of British Intelligence whistle-blower Katharine Gun, who revealed that the US was trying to enlist Britain’s help in gathering incriminating information on U.N. Security Council members in order to blackmail them into voting in favor of an invasion of Iraq in the run-up to the 2003 election. Gun makes the difficult decision to oppose her government and leak the document to the public, unable to stand by and watch the world be pushed into war.
11. Tom Clancy’s: Without Remorse (2021)
Director: Stefano Sollima
Writers: Taylor Sheridan
Cast: James D. Dever, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10
An elite Navy SEAL uncovers a massive conspiracy while hunting revenge for the death of his pregnant wife in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, the spectacular origin story of action hero John Clark, one of the most renowned heroes in author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan world. When a group of Russian forces kills his family in retaliation for his involvement in a top-secret operation, Sr. Chief John Kelly chases the perpetrators at any cost.
12. The Tomorrow War (2021)
Director: Chris McKay
Writers: Zach Dean
Cast: J.K. Simmons, Chris Pratt, Sam Richardson
IMDB Rating: 6.6/10
The Tomorrow Battle is a military conflict film in which the world is shocked when a team of time travelers around the year 2051 appears to give an urgent message: mankind is losing a worldwide battle 30 years in the future against a dangerous extraterrestrial species. If soldiers and civilians from the present are to live, they must be sent to the future and join the fight. Many people have been recruited, which includes Dan Forester, who is not only a family man but a high school teacher as well.
13. The Last Full Measure (2019)
Director: Todd Robinson
Writers: Todd Robinson
Cast: Alison Sudol, LisaGay Hamilton, William Hurt
IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
In 1999, Scott Huffman, a leading political employee at the Pentagon, was tasked with looking into a proposal to promote a certificate to the Medal of Honour. After demonstrating courage in public, Airman William H Pitsenbarger was murdered in Vietnam in 1966. When he was recommended for the Award of Honor, his medals were lowered to the Air Force Cross.
14. Anthropoid (2016)
Director: Todd Robinson
Writers: Sean Ellis
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Karel Hermánek Jr., Sean Mahon
IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
The incredible true story of Mission Anthropoid, which was the World War II attempt to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich, served as the inspiration for Anthropoid. Heydrich was considered to be the Reich’s third-in-command after Hitler and Himmler. He was the chief architect of the Final Solution and the leader of invading Nazi forces in Czechoslovakia, whose terror campaign forced self-guilt Czech and Slovak soldiers to bury a top-secret assignment that would permanently transform Europe.
15. Air Strike (2018)
Director: Xiao Feng
Writers: Ping Chan
Cast: Bruce Willis, Wei Fan, Ye Liu
IMDB Rating: 3.2/10
Five Chinese civilians fight their way through Japanese airstrikes to defend military equipment during World War II. The plot revolves around the Chinese Air Force’s valiant resistance to the Japanese invasion and takeover of China, as well as the Imperial Japanese war machine’s overwhelming strength in destroying Shanghai and Nanjing, China’s wartime capital.
16. Sand Castle (2017)
Director: Fernando Coimbra
Writers: Chris Roessner
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Logan Marshall-Green, Beau Knapp
IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
Just before 9/11, a soldier enlists. He isn’t a brave man since he is just willing to protect liberty. He arrives in Iraq with a few men from his infantry unit in 2003, shortly after the capture of Baghdad, and is sent to deliver water to a town whose infrastructure has been devastated. When his unit is dispatched on a risky mission to repair a water pumping system in a remote Iraqi hamlet, a novice American private learns the actual cost of war.
17. Darkest Hour (2017)
Director: Joe Wright
Writers: Anthony McCarten
Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Gary Oldman, Ronald Pickup
IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
Winston Churchill’s fate in the initial periods of World War II hangs in the balance. The newly-promoted British Prime Minister must choose between negotiating with Hitler and continuing to fight despite overwhelming odds. However, even in his early days as the country’s leader, Churchill is under pressure to either begin peace discussions with Hitler or confront the Nazi dictatorship head-on, no matter what the cost. Thus, Churchill has no option but to shine at the country’s darkest hour, no matter how difficult or hazardous his choices may be.
18. The Siege Of Jadotville (2016)
Director: Richie Smyth
Writers: Kevin Brodbin
Cast: Danny Sapani, Jamie Dornan, Andrew Stock
IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
3,000 Congolese forces, headed by French and Belgian mercenaries working for mining firms, lay siege to an Irish commander and his battalion of 150 men. Quinlan and his men are soon besieged by a large number of Katangese and mercenary forces as a result of the mercenaries’ retaliation. Will the Irish soldiers be able to stave off the attack?
19. Uss Indianapolis: Men Of Courage (2016)
Director: Mario Van Peebles
Writers: Cam Cannon
Cast: Tom Sizemore, Matt Lanter, Nicolas Cage
IMDB Rating: 5.3/10
The true story of the crew of the USS Indianapolis, who were stranded in the Philippine Sea for five days after dropping the atomic bombs that brought WWII to an end. When the USS Indianapolis is targeted by a Japanese torpedo and collapses in the shark-infested Pacific, the crew members have a horrific nightmare. While waiting for rescue, they suffered from severe dehydration, hunger, and shark attacks.
20. 12th Man (2017)
Director: Harald Zwart
Writers: Petter Skavlan
Cast: Marie Blokhus, Thomas Gullestad, Vegar Hoel
IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian resistance soldier, finds himself escaping the Gestapo through the snowy expanses of Scandinavia after a botched anti-Nazi sabotage attempt kills 11 of his colleagues. The setting is magnificent, and you can feel cold, which is the bigger foe in this story of overcoming insurmountable obstacles. A lesson on human nature’s benevolence. The twelfth, Jan Baalsrud, manages to get away from the trap, but he is now the target of a major German manhunt. He has an extremely tiny chance of returning to the Allies.
Conclusion
You’ll experience battle, fraternity, and mortality in new ways while viewing the films we’ve chosen. For all, you movie buffs out there, this list of the 20 finest war movies of all time will provide you with all you need and more, so let’s get started at the beginning. Some of the military movies on Netflix listed above will make you think, while others will put you right in the thick of the action.
