Movies about World War II

The scale and human cost of World War II have inspired countless films and series. You might remember a particular moment, a uniform, or a specific operation. Describe what you recall, or explore the full list below.

101 titles.

Shutter Island
8.0

Shutter Island

2010

World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.

DramaThrillerMystery Movie
More details Found in 565 other searches
Inglourious Basterds
8.0

Inglourious Basterds

2009

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.

DramaThrillerWar Movie
More details Found in 512 other searches
Captain America: The First Avenger
7.0

Captain America: The First Avenger

2011

During World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of an organization that intends to use a mysterious device of untold powers for world domination.

ActionAdventureScience Fiction Movie
More details Found in 137 other searches
The Imitation Game
8.0

The Imitation Game

2014

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.

HistoryDramaThrillerWar Movie
More details Found in 219 other searches
Dunkirk
8.0

Dunkirk

2017

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.

WarActionDrama Movie
More details Found in 152 other searches
Schindler's List
9.0

Schindler's List

1993

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

DramaHistoryWar Movie
More details Found in 298 other searches
Saving Private Ryan
8.0

Saving Private Ryan

1998

As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.

DramaHistoryWar Movie
More details Found in 582 other searches
Hacksaw Ridge
8.0

Hacksaw Ridge

2016

WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

DramaHistoryWar Movie
More details Found in 102 other searches
Life Is Beautiful
8.0

Life Is Beautiful

1997

A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.

ComedyDrama Movie
More details Found in 127 other searches
Fury
8.0

Fury

2014

In the last months of World War II, as the Allies make their final push in the European theatre, a battle-hardened U.S. Army sergeant named 'Wardaddy' commands a Sherman tank called 'Fury' and its five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.

WarDramaAction Movie
More details Found in 71 other searches
Oppenheimer
8.0

Oppenheimer

2023

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

DramaHistory Movie
More details Found in 55 other searches
The Wolverine
6.0

The Wolverine

2013

Wolverine faces his ultimate nemesis - and tests of his physical, emotional, and mortal limits - in a life-changing voyage to modern-day Japan.

ActionScience FictionAdventure Movie
More details Found in 31 other searches
Jojo Rabbit
8.0

Jojo Rabbit

2019

A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.

ComedyWarDrama Movie
More details Found in 153 other searches
The Pianist
8.0

The Pianist

2002

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

DramaWar Movie
More details Found in 190 other searches
The King's Speech
8.0

The King's Speech

2010

The King's Speech tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dreaded stutter and considered unfit to be king, Bertie engages the help of an unorthodox speech therapist named Lionel Logue. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, Bertie is able to find his voice and boldly lead the country into war.

DramaHistory Movie
More details Found in 168 other searches
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
8.0

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

2008

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

DramaWarHistory Movie
More details Found in 413 other searches
The Others
8.0

The Others

2001

Grace is a religious woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the family begins to suspect the house is haunted, Grace fights to protect her children at any cost in the face of strange events and disturbing visions.

HorrorMysteryThriller Movie
More details Found in 843 other searches
Pearl Harbor
7.0

Pearl Harbor

2001

The lifelong friendship between Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker is put to the ultimate test when the two ace fighter pilots become entangled in a love triangle with beautiful Naval nurse Evelyn Johnson. But the rivalry between the friends-turned-foes is immediately put on hold when they find themselves at the center of Japan's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

WarHistoryRomanceDramaAction Movie
More details Found in 100 other searches
Grave of the Fireflies
8.0

Grave of the Fireflies

1988

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

AnimationDramaWar Movie
More details Found in 106 other searches
Casablanca
8.0

Casablanca

1943

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

DramaRomance Movie
More details Found in 301 other searches
Darkest Hour
7.0

Darkest Hour

2017

In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.

DramaHistory Movie
More details Found in 20 other searches
Allied
7.0

Allied

2016

In 1942, an intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war.

ActionDramaWarRomanceThriller Movie
More details Found in 35 other searches
The Book Thief
7.0

The Book Thief

2013

While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.

Drama Movie
More details Found in 64 other searches
Atonement
8.0

Atonement

2007

As a 13-year-old, fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.

DramaRomance Movie
More details Found in 440 other searches
Unbroken
7.0

Unbroken

2014

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

DramaWar Movie
More details Found in 23 other searches
Downfall
8.0

Downfall

2004

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

DramaHistoryWar Movie
More details Found in 1 other search
Valkyrie
7.0

Valkyrie

2008

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.

DramaThrillerWar Movie
More details Found in 41 other searches
Enemy at the Gates
7.0

Enemy at the Gates

2001

A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.

DramaWarHistoryRomance Movie
More details Found in 52 other searches
Band of Brothers
9.0

Band of Brothers

2001

Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear - and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose's acclaimed book of the same name.

DramaWar & Politics Show
More details Found in 50 other searches
The Monuments Men
6.0

The Monuments Men

2014

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?

WarDramaHistoryAction Movie
More details Found in 27 other searches
The Great Dictator
8.0

The Great Dictator

1940

Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.

ComedyWar Movie
More details Found in 213 other searches
The Sound of Music
8.0

The Sound of Music

1965

In the years before the Second World War, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home.

DramaFamilyMusicRomance Movie
More details Found in 596 other searches
The Reader
7.0

The Reader

2008

The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

DramaRomance Movie
More details Found in 236 other searches
Memoirs of a Geisha
8.0

Memoirs of a Geisha

2005

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

DramaRomanceHistory Movie
More details Found in 67 other searches
The Wind Rises
8.0

The Wind Rises

2013

A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

DramaAnimationRomanceWarHistory Movie
More details Found in 9 other searches
The Thin Red Line
7.0

The Thin Red Line

1998

The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.

DramaHistoryWar Movie
More details Found in 113 other searches
Greyhound
7.0

Greyhound

2020

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.

WarActionDrama Movie
More details Found in 14 other searches
Overlord
7.0

Overlord

2018

France, June 1944. On the eve of D-Day, some American paratroopers fall behind enemy lines after their aircraft crashes while on a mission to destroy a radio tower in a small village near the beaches of Normandy. After reaching their target, the surviving paratroopers realise that, in addition to fighting the Nazi troops that patrol the village, they also must fight against something else.

HorrorWarScience Fiction Movie
More details Found in 178 other searches
Seven Years in Tibet
7.0

Seven Years in Tibet

1997

Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Llaso, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.

AdventureDramaHistory Movie
More details Found in 28 other searches
The Great Escape
8.0

The Great Escape

1963

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

AdventureDramaWar Movie
More details Found in 304 other searches
Midway
7.0

Midway

2019

The story of the Battle of Midway, and the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome massive odds.

ActionWarHistory Movie
More details Found in 73 other searches
The Pacific
8.0

The Pacific

2010

Track the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge – across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. A companion piece to the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers.

DramaAction & AdventureWar & Politics Show
More details Found in 21 other searches
Gandhi
8.0

Gandhi

1982

In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.

DramaHistory Movie
More details Found in 9 other searches
Australia
7.0

Australia

2008

Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.

AdventureRomanceDrama Movie
More details Found in 13 other searches
Malena
7.0

Malena

2000

During WWII, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.

Drama Movie
More details Found in 199 other searches
Sisu
7.0

Sisu

2022

When an ex-soldier who discovers gold in the Lapland wilderness tries to take the loot into the city, German soldiers led by a brutal SS officer battle him.

ActionWarAdventure Movie
More details Found in 16 other searches
Das Boot
8.0

Das Boot

1981

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.

DramaHistoryWar Movie
More details Found in 108 other searches
Hannibal Rising
6.0

Hannibal Rising

2007

The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a medical student he hones his appetite for the kill.

CrimeThrillerHorror Movie
More details Found in 5 other searches
The English Patient
7.0

The English Patient

1996

In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.

DramaRomanceWar Movie
More details Found in 293 other searches
The Bridge on the River Kwai
8.0

The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

DramaHistoryWar Movie
More details Found in 85 other searches