Some of the best war movies in history lock the story into one objective, which makes every decision and casualty carry more weight than a sprawling war epic ever could. There is a movie of this type hitting theaters in 2026 with the Anthony Maras release, Pressure. The movie follows the United States military system as it plans out its attack for D-Day, with Brendan Fraser starring as General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Based on the stage play of the same name by David Haig, Pressure features General Eisenhower attempting to plan out the D-Day attack while relying on a meteorologist named Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott), who wants the attack delayed one day to avoid perilous weather conditions. This decision saved countless lives, and following the science to delay the attack by a day helped turn the war in the Allies' favor.
Having the entire movie based on the success or failure of one mission increases the tension like no other war movie. This has been true throughout history, as well, as some of the best war movies choose to focus on one mission, whether that is a bridge demolition in Kwai, a mission to save one soldier during D-Day, or the crossing into German-held territory in 1917. Every story has high stakes and a personal nature that helps it stand the test of time.
10 Lone Survivor (2013)
Lone Survivor is a 2013 war movie by Peter Berg that is based on the non-fiction book by Marcus Luttrell, co-written by Patrick Robinson. This film dramatizes the intense Operation Red Wings from 2005, which sees a four-man Navy SEAL recon team sent in to track down Taliban leader Ahmad Shah in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains. As the title suggests, only one of the four men returns alive.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Luttrell, with the other three Navy SEALs played by Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster. Eric Bana also stars as a commanding officer. This was a box office success, making $154 million on a $40 million budget, and it earned two Oscar nominations for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. While it was dramatized, the story was pulled from Luttrell's first-hand experience.
9 U-571 (2000)
Directed by Jonathan Mostow, U-571 is a movie about an American Navy crew who disguise themselves as a German rescue sub. Their mission is to board the crippled U-571 and steal its Enigma encryption machine before more Nazi backup arrives. The cast is solid, with Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, and Matthew Settle on board, and the ticking clock keeps the mission tense, and the mission is an intense one since there is a ticking clock.
U-571 holds a 67% critics' score, but the positive reviews praise it as a tense thriller with incredible cinematography. The story itself is fiction, built around the capture of the Enigma machine, which the British Royal Navy actually executed in 1941. The BBC reported that this drew criticism from then-United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the movie heralding the Americans as the heroes, when it was, in fact, the British.
8 1917 (2019)
Sam Mendes directed the movie 1917, which was released in 2019. The mission in this movie sees two British lance corporals crossing into enemy territory after the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line to warn the troops about a doomed offensive attack. This attack was headed straight into a trap, and it would have cost the British side 1,600 men, including the brother of one of the corporals.
This is an intense thriller, as the two corporals have to run in and through enemy fire in a race against time to get the message delivered. There are several big names in the cast who appear in small roles, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, and Richard Madden. The film earned 11 Oscar nominations, winning three (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects). It lost Best Picture to Parasite.
7 Fury (2014)
Fury is a 2014 war movie written and directed by David Ayer that is about a battle-hardened tank crew in April 1945 who have to undertake a deadly mission behind enemy lines in Nazi Germany during the final weeks of the European theater. This is an intense mission that has several casualties, and it all culminates in a five-man stand against an SS battalion at a crossroads.
The movie was inspired by the Belton Y. Cooper memoir called Death Traps, which described the American tank crew casualties during World War II. Brad Pitt leads the cast as Sgt. Don "Wardaddy" Collier. The movie was critically praised, with a 78% Rotten Tomatoes score, with critics calling it well-acted, while delivering a raw look at the horrors of war.
6 Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Mel Gibson directed Hacksaw Ridge, his first film as director in 10 years, following Apocalypto. The movie is based on the true story of a Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector and Army medic named Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) who refuses to carry any weapon. However, during the war, he saved 75 wounded men during the Battle of Okinawa at the Maeda Escarpment and received the Medal of Honor from President Truman.
The movie made $180.6 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, and it earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Garfield. It won Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing. With an 84% Rotten Tomatoes score, it still holds up today as an intense war story about a man who holds onto his morals at all costs.
5 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
The movie 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is a 2016 movie that unfolds over just over half a day. Directed by Michael Bay, the movie depicts the September 11, 2012, attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. It is here that six members of the Annex Security Team, all special ops contractors, defend the CIA annex less than a mile away after Ambassador Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith are killed.
John Krasinski stars in the movie in his first big-time dramatic role after his time on The Office, and it would end up helping him transition into more serious roles, including his time starring as Jack Ryan. The film was a box office disappointment for Bay, but it was also one of his most restrained movies and was a nice switch-up for the action director.
4 Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Kathryn Bigelow directed Zero Dark Thirty, which was released in 2012. This was Bigelow's follow-up to The Hurt Locker, another war movie, but this focused on one single mission rather than the previous movie's look at the life of a soldier. The mission here was the decade-long CIA manhunt for Osama bin Laden after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. This film shows SEAL Team Six's hit on bin Laden's Abbottabad compound on May 2, 2011.
Zero Dark Thirty was a box office and critical hit, making $132 million and earning five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Chastain), and Best Original Screenplay. It tied in a win for Best Sound Editing, and Chastain went on to win Best Actress in a Drama at the Golden Globes. It has a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, although it received criticism for showing enhanced interrogation tactics, which border on torture.
3 Black Hawk Down (2001)
Black Hawk Down was one of the first great war movies of the 21st century, arriving in theaters in 2001. Ridley Scott directs the movie, based on the 1999 nonfiction book by Mark Bowden. The cast was stacked, with Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Sam Shepard, Jeremy Piven, and Tom Hardy, in his film debut.
The movie chronicles the October 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, where 160 elite U.S. Rangers and Delta Force operators dropped in to capture two lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The battle then became a firefight after two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. Black Hawk Down won two Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Sound on four total nominations.
2 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Released in 1957, The Bridge on the River Kwai is a David Lean movie, based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. This film stars William Holden, Alec Guinness as Col. Nicholson, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa, in a story about British POWs who are forced to build a railway bridge over the Kwai in occupied Burma. The problem here is that the Allied commandos, led by Major Warden (Hawkins), are on their way through the jungle to blow the bridge up.
The Bridge on the River Kwai went on to win seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Guinness), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Original Score. The interesting thing about the screenplay award is that it went to Boulle, because screenwriters Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were both blacklisted. The final destruction of the bridge is masterful, with Col. Nicholson's "What have I done?" one of the best quotes in any war movie.
1 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Saving Private Ryan is among the best war movies built around a single mission, and among the best war movies ever made. Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 film by Steven Spielberg that stars Tom Hanks as Capt. John H. Miller, a man tasked with taking in a squad of soldiers to rescue one man. That man is Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), the last survivor of his brothers, who all died at war.
This mission was during the June 1944 Normandy invasion, and it has been praised as one of the most realistic combat war movies ever made. The movie earned 11 Oscar nominations, with Spielberg winning his second Best Director award. However, it lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love. The opening sequence, which was a 24-minute scene with the storming of Omaha Beach, is one of the most intense war sequences ever filmed.
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