Best movies like 21 and a Wake-Up

A story of Vietnam.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like 21 and a Wake-Up Starring Amy Acker, Danica McKellar, Faye Dunaway, Todd Cahoon, and more. If you liked 21 and a Wake-Up then you may also like: The X Files: I Want to Believe, War Hunt, War Requiem, The Killing Fields, Air America and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

"I learn that Chris McIntyre served in Vietnam and that "21 and a Wakeup," set in an Army hospital in the waning days of the war, is based on events that he experienced and heard about." - Roger Ebert

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The X Files: I Want to Believe

Six years after the events of The X-Files series finale, former FBI agent Doctor Dana Scully is now a staff physician at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Catholic hospital, and treating a boy named Christian who has Sandhoff disease, a terminal brain condition. FBI agent Drummy arrives to ask Scully’s help in locating Fox Mulder, the fugitive former head of the X-Files division, and says they will call off its manhunt for him if he will help investigate the disappearances of several women, including young FBI agent Monica Banan. Mulder and Scully are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.

War Hunt

Dispatched to the front lines during the Korean War, an idealistic American soldier discovers the horrors of combat and comes at odds with a psychopathic member of his platoon.

War Requiem

A film with no spoken dialogue, just follows the music and lyrics of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem, which include WWI soldier poet Wilfred Owen's poems reflecting the war's horrors. It shows the story of an Englishman soldier (Wilfred Owen) and a nurse (his bride) during World War I. It also includes actual footage of contemporary wars (WWII, Vietnam, Angola, etc.)

The Killing Fields

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

Air America

Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited into it, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.

8.3 / 10 1979 Drama War
suggested by: SunlitSalamander

Apocalypse Now

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.

Autopsy

Emily Johnson, her boyfriend Bobby and their friends Clare and Jude are recent college grads driving cross-country, taking a last vacation together before they face the "real" world. An accident leaves them hurt and stranded on a lonely Louisiana road. When the ambulance arrives, it whisks them to Mercy Hospital.

Bat★21

Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over enemy territory the Air Force very much wants to get him back. Hambleton knows the area he's in is going to be carpet-bombed but a temporary shortage of helicopters causes a delay. Working with an Air Force reconnaissance pilot, Capt. Bartholomew Clark, he maps out an escape route.

7.1 / 10 1984 Drama
suggested by: skateboarder

Birdy

Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam war. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?

The Boys in Company C

Disheartened by futile combat, appalled by the corruption of their South Vietnamese ally, and constantly endangered by the incompetence of their own company commander, the young men find a possible way out of the war. They are told that if they purposely lose a soccer game against a South Vietnamese team, they can spend the rest of their tour playing exhibition games behind the lines.

Killer Crush

Paige's crush on her professor takes a twisted turn when she is hired to be the caregiver for his wife who has Multiple Sclerosis.

Thank You for Your Service

A group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they've left the battlefield.

Pandemic

After a virus of epic proportions overwhelms the planet—with more infected than uninfected—humanity is losing its grip on survival and its only hope is finding a cure and keeping the infected contained. Lauren, a doctor, arrives in Los Angeles with her crack team to lead the hunt for uncontaminated civilian survivors, but nothing can prepare them for the blood-soaked mayhem they witness as they head into the Californian streets where everything is considered a trap.

Death Before Dishonor

Gunnery Sergeant Burns reports for duty to an American Embassy in the Middle East. However due to the 'enlightened' views of the Ambassador, the marine security detachment he is in charge of is severely restricted in their functions and presence to avoid upsetting the host government. As a result, when terrorists attack the compound, they are able to kidnap hostages and escape with little opposition. Burns ignores the Ambassador's restrictions, and throws the rule books out the window, as he becomes a one man army in an attempt to rescue the hostages, and wipe out the terrorists.

Streamers

Four young recruits about to be sent to Vietnam confront their prejudicial feelings toward one another when it's learned one of them is gay.

Full Metal Jacket

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.

The Last Sentinel

No emotion. No fear. No pain. They were the perfect soldiers to protect civilization until the drone police became the perfect enemy. With little hope left for mankind, Tallis, an electronically enhanced soldier, rescues a survivor from a failed resistance mission. She will have to learn to fight and think like a machine for the final battle to save the human race.

Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder

During the Vietnam War, Brian Anderson, a young Army medic, is stationed in Saigon. Initially apathetic and self-serving, he eventually has his heart won over by the children at a nearby orphanage where he does volunteer work. At first, a doctor named Katherine Cross has to persuade him to help the children. But soon, Brian willingly puts his career and safety on the line to provide the orphans with the food and medical supplies they need.

Behind Enemy Lines

An ex-marine returns to Vietnam when he learns his former mercenary partner whom he thought was killed is being held by a sadistic general.

Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except

Vietnam, 1969. War is Hell. For Marine Sergeant Jack Stryker, however, Hell is just the beginning. Trapped outside a Viet Cong village, Stryker takes two bullets to the leg. Sent home from the war, he discovers his ex-girlfriend has been kidnapped by a religious cult with a vicious Manson-like leader. Stryker teams up with some marine friends to form an assassination squad and annihilate the gang of crazed killers.

The Limb Salesman

Gabriel Goode is the Limb Salesman, a disgraced doctor who regenerates limbs on the black market. When Goode travels to the water mining regions of the north to heal the cherished daughter of a wealthy water miner, dark family secrets are revealed, and Goode is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice. A story of forbidden love in a dystopian future.

6.6 / 10 2000 Drama War
suggested by: user4315sdrxfqw

Tigerland

A group of recruits go through Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana's infamous Tigerland, last stop before Vietnam for tens of thousands of young men in 1971.

Slaughter's Big Rip Off

Vigilante Slaughter comes under attack from Duncan, a local money launderer whose hit-man traps Slaughter in a car at a cliff, but Slaughter escapes, arms himself, and goes after Duncan's hideout.

Trained To Kill

From the fields of Cambodia to the mean streets of L.A., there's no escaping death and it's blinding revenge.

Night Wars

Two Vietnam Veterans have realistic nightmares about the war. So real are these nightmares that they start getting injured in them, and bringing things back that they had in the dream. They then buy weapons and go in to try and get one of their friends out that originally died in a POW camp during the Vietnam war. This is made harder by a traitor from the US Military Corps.

Hamburger Hill

The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill… up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of earth so named because it chews up soldiers like chopped meat. They are fighting for their country, their fellow soldiers and their lives. War is hell, but this is worse. Hamburger Hill tells it the way it was, the way it really was. It's a raw, gritty and totally unrelenting dramatic depiction of one of the fiercest battles of America's bloodiest war. This happened. Hamburger Hill - war at its worst, men at their best.

Go Tell the Spartans

Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel "Incident at Muc Wa." It tells the story about U.S. Army military advisers during the early part of the Vietnam War. Led my Major Asa Barker, these advisers and their South Vietnamese counterparts defend the village of Muc Wa against multiple attacks by Viet-Cong guerrillas.

Article 99

Dr. Richard Sturgess leads a team of compassionate doctors at a veteran's hospital. Along with Drs. Morgan, Handleman and Van Dorn, he fights to deliver adequate care to needy veterans in the face of funding cuts and a corrupt administration. To succeed, the staff may have to bend the rules and circumvent the villainous "Article 99," a bureaucratic loophole that prevents veterans from receiving the benefits they deserve.

Platoon Leader

West Point graduate lieutenant Jeff Knight meets cynicism when taking command of sergeant Michael McNamara's tour veterans platoon in a Vietnamese trench camp. Unlike his predecessor, who hid till the end of his tour, Jeff takes charge, experiences the manual doesn't allow coping with all realities and gets wounded. He returns, now fully respect by men and superiors. Besides the Vietcong, the platoon wrestles with the inscrutable villagers, which the G.I.'s officially protect, but also fear as some collaborate with them, other covertly with the Cong, either way subject to bloody reprisals.

Purple Hearts

A Navy surgeon and a nurse fall in love while serving in Vietnam during the war. Their affection for one another provides a striking contrast to the violence of warfare.

6.4 / 10 1989 War
suggested by: gentleman

84C MoPic

An Army cameraman is embedded with a reconnaissance patrol and charts their mission across territory controlled by the North Vietnamese.

Where Does It Hurt?

In this classic hospital farce, Peter Sellers plays Dr. Albert T. Hopfnagel, a greedy, crooked hospital administrator who has perfected the art of bill padding, unnecessary surgery and kickbacks. Mistrusted by patients, and resented by other staffers, his assistant Alice can no longer endure his scams and plots to have him sent to prison - but not for long enough. Sellers again steals the show with an absurd and hilarious character study.

The Iron Triangle

Based on the diary of an unknown Viet Cong soldier, this film provides a sympathetic look at a Viet Cong soldier who protected a captured American soldier whom he believed did not kill him when the American had the opportunity. Written by John Sacksteder

The Shift

The Shift is the story of one 12 hour night shift in the ER and the life and death decisions that have to be made. With the issue of euthanasia in the headlines this is a timely and compelling story.

Flu Bird Horror

A group of teenagers go on a excursion to the mountains. There, they are attacked by birds infected with a lethal virus. When the teens reach a nearby village, the haunting birds start passing their virus on to all the dwellers.

The Harvest

Maryann moves in with her grandparents after she's orphaned. Desperately lonely, she sets out to befriend a neighboring deathly ill, bed-ridden boy, despite the outright disapproval of his mother. Maryann's persistence pays off, however, and during a series of secret visits she gradually uncovers some seriously sinister goings-on in the house.

Heaven Sent

Eddie, a fourteen-year-old juvenile delinquent of sorts, collides with a car during a petty theft and dies in the hospital. Due to some confusion in heaven, however, he is given three days to clean up his life with the help of a beginner angel - and save his mom.

The Surgeon

Dr. Julian Mater is suspended and gets his license revoked for performing experiments on dying patients in cellular regeneration. A couple of years later, he returns to the hospital that condemned his work to begin practicing his grizzly experiments once more.

Young Nurses in Love

Russian agents raid an American sperm bank in order to get the sperm of geniuses Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein to take back to Russia with them.

Going Back

A group of Marines return to Vietnam with a news crew to relive their tragic war experiences.

14 Hours

While Tropical Storm Allison brings one of the worst floods to hit Houston rages outside, the staff of Hermann hospital races against time to ensure hundreds of patients are evacuated safely.

The Gun Runner

Government agents hire a mercenary to infiltrate a crime ring that's selling guns to a right-wing militia in Texas.

Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7

Student nurses join some doctors to work in a medical station a few hours flying-time from the Mexican town of Catamaco. One of their planes goes down due to an engine malfunction and crashes in the rain forest. This is the story of the attempts to save the lives of the passengers (both nurses and doctors).

Florence Nightingale

This is the fact-based story of an aristocratic woman who defies Victorian society to reform hospital sanitation and to define the nursing profession as it is known today. After volunteering to travel to Scutari to care for the wounded soldiers, who are victims of the Crimean war, she finds herself very unwelcome and faces great opposition for her new way of thinking. However through her selfless acts of caring, she quickly becomes known as 'The Lady with the Lamp', the caring nurse whose shadow soldiers kiss.

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

A by-the-book Captain is ordered to capture a strategic village in Italy. The Italian soldiers are willing to surrender, if they can have a festival first. The lieutenant convinces the Captain this is the only way. Because of aerial reconnaissance, they must look like they are fighting. To sort this out an intelligence officer is sent in. Meanwhile the festival gets complicated with the Mayors daughter.

The House of God

Comedy about a couple of interns in a hospital named 'The House of God'.

DR. BENDERFAX

The titular Dr. Benderfax (Nigel Hazeldine) is an esteemed researcher (read: mad scientist) willing to go the extra mile for his experiments investigating a rare psychic phenomenon known as the “Telefaximial Field.” Unfortunately for the good doctor and his lovely assistant Nurse Clench (Caroline Hazeldine), many of the “volunteers” end up in the morgue. Actually on brief reflection, it’s probably more unfortunate for the patients. After some finagling the medical duo end up in a local nuthouse and use this fresh batch of patients to further their research. Just as they’re on the verge of a major breakthrough, in saunters Dr. Andrew… Fresh out of college in 1992 Tom Hosler decided to make his “first and only feature script worthy of production.” Armed with a savings account and several credit cards, the film was shot over the course of many weekends. After multiple years of post-production, the film finally saw the light of day in 1997. (Write up via Spectacle Theater)

6.4 / 10 1991 Drama
suggested by: user948wqtgg4n0

The Doctor

Jack McKee is a doctor with it all: he's successful, he's rich, and he has no problems.... until he is diagnosed with throat cancer. Now that he has seen medicine, hospitals, and doctors from a patient's perspective, he realises that there is more to being a doctor than surgery and prescriptions.

5.3 / 10 1998 Drama War TV Movie
suggested by: CrystalCaterpillar

A Bright Shining Lie

Something in his past keeps career Army man John Paul Vann from advancing past colonel. He views being sent to Vietnam as part of the US military advisory force a stepping stone to promotion. However, he disagrees vocally (and on the record) with the way the war is being run and is forced to leave the military. Returning to Vietnam as a civilian working with the Army, he comes to despise some South Vietnamese officers while he takes charge of some of the U.S. forces and continues his liaisons with Vietnamese women.

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