Best movies like Thunder Over the Plains

THUNDER IN HIS HEART...LIGHTNING IN HIS HOLSTERS...

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Thunder Over the Plains Starring Randolph Scott, Lex Barker, Phyllis Kirk, Charles McGraw, and more. If you liked Thunder Over the Plains then you may also like: Three Young Texans, Vera Cruz, Westbound, News of the World, The Raiders 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.

Set in 1869, after the Civil War, Texas had not yet been readmitted to the Union and carpetbaggers, hiding behind the legal protection of the Union Army of occupation, had taken over the state. Federal Captain Porter, a Texan, has to carry out orders against his own people. He brings in the rebel leader Ben Westman whom he knows is innocent of a murder that he is accused of. In trying to prove his innocence, Porter himself becomes a wanted man.

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Three Young Texans

A Texan robs a train in an effort to prevent his father from committing the crime. A young girl attempts to help him after learning about the theft. A cowboy friend demands a share of the money.

Vera Cruz

After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz.

Westbound

As the Civil War spills our nation’s blood, Capt. John Hayes (Randolph Scott) fights on a vital but little-known battlefront. He aims to ship gold to Union banks through a small Colorado town, defying Southern sympathizers who aim to stop him at any cost.

News of the World

A Texan traveling across the wild West bringing the news of the world to local townspeople, agrees to help rescue a young girl who was kidnapped.

The Raiders

Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane help a Texas rancher against the railroad.

Ten Who Dared

The John Wesley Powell expedition of 1869 explores the dangerous Colorado River, withstands internal dissension, and finally discovers the Grand Canyon.

True Grit

The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy on a mission of 'justice', which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, 'Rooster' Cogburn because he has 'true grit', and a reputation of getting the job done.

The Undefeated

After the Civil War, ex-Union Colonel John Henry Thomas and ex-Confederate Colonel James Langdon are leading two disparate groups of people through strife-torn Mexico. John Henry and company are bringing horses to the unpopular Mexican government for $35 a head while Langdon is leading a contingent of displaced southerners, who are looking for a new life in Mexico after losing their property to carpetbaggers. The two men are eventually forced to mend their differences in order to fight off both bandits and revolutionaries, as they try to lead their friends and kin to safety.

Stagecoach

A group of unlikely travelling companions find themselves on the same stagecoach to Cheyenne. They include a drunken doctor, a bar girl who's been thrown out of town, a professional gambler, a travelling liquor salesman, a banker who has decided to embezzle money, a gun-slinger out for revenge and a young woman going to join her army captain husband. All have secrets but when they are set upon by an Indian war party and then a family of outlaws, they find they must all work together if they are to stay alive.

The Burning Hills

When Trace Jordan's brother is murdered by members of the land-grabbing Sutton family, he vows to report this injustice to the nearest Army fort.

Arizona Raiders

Murphy plays an ex-Quantrill's Raider who's released from jail with buddy Cooper to be deputized as Arizona Rangers in order to hunt down the remnant of the gang, rumored to he hiding out in a town "neer dee border" in the words of the loose-lipped saloon dancer. The goons are found hiding in an Indian mission. Murphy and Cooper pretend to want to rejoin the gang, but the bad guys catch on and brutally beat Cooper, who protects Murphy's true sentiments to the death.

The Big Land

Back home in Texas following the Civil War, former Confederate officer Chad Morgan (Alan Ladd) leads a cattle drive to Missouri, assuring fellow ranchers that their stock will bring $10 a head at auction. Instead, ruthless cattle baron Brog (Anthony Caruso) has scared off all competition and offers much less.

Alvarez Kelly

In 1864, during the American Civil War, Mexican cattleman Alvarez Kelly supplies the Union with cattle until unexpected circumstances force him to change his customers.

Dallas

After the Civil War, Confederate soldier Blayde Hollister travels to Dallas to avenge the savage murder of his family. Discovering his enemy is now an esteemed citizen, Hollister plots to expose the outlaw and his syndicate.

The Plunderers

Four young toughs have ridden into Trail City and claimed it as easy pickings for their bullying and gunplay. The whole town will be overrun by lawlessness if decent folks like rancher and Civil War veteran Sam Christy don’t take a stand.

Cattle Town

The governor of Texas sends a cowboy to keep the peace between ranchers and a land baron.

San Antone Ambush

Just after the Civil War a Texan and his men are fighting a ruthless Commissioner and his excessive taxes. After a Lieutenant is falsely accused of a pay wagon massacre by the Commissioner's men, he deserts the Army and tries to clear himself. At first he belives the Texan was behind the massacre but then learns it was the Commissioner and joins the Texan in his fight.

Three Violent People

A rancher, his shady bride and his one-armed brother fight amid carpetbaggers in Texas.

Apache Ambush

Two former enemies find themselves together on a cattle drive and fighting marauding Apaches and Mexican bandits.

The Hard Man

A Texas Ranger turns deputy sheriff; a woman wants him to kill her cattle-baron husband.

The Tall Stranger

A Union soldier returns to his western home at the end of the Civil War and finds himself caught in the middle of a land war between his greedy half-brother and a wagon train of Confederate homesteaders.

Hitman's Run

A former mob hitman, now in witness protection, is forced to come out of retirement when his family is threatened by his cohorts. He teams up with a skateboarding kid, who has a computer disk that the mob wants to get their hands on that has a list of new names for individuals in the FBI witness protection program. The list includes his dad, who separated from his mother years before and hadn't been seen since.

Bandit!

American arms dealer Kennedy hopes to make a killing by selling to the "regulares" in the 1916 Mexican revolution. American mercenary Wilson favors the rebel faction headed by Escobar, and they plot to hijack Kennedy's arms; but Wilson also has his eye on Kennedy's wife. Raids, counter-raids, and escapes follow in a veritable hail of bullets.

A Time for Killing

During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers escape from a Union prison and head for the Mexican border. Along the way, they kill a Union courier bearing the news that the war is over. Keeping the message a secret, the captain has his men go on and they soon find themselves in a battle with the Union search party who also is unaware of the war's end.

The Man from Colorado

Two friends return home after their discharge from the army after the Civil War. However, one of them has had deep-rooted psychological damage due to his experiences during the war, and as his behavior becomes more erratic--and violent--his friend desperately tries to find a way to help him.

The Renegade Ranger

Two Texas Rangers have their worlds rocked by a wrongfully accused female bandit.

Last Stand at Saber River

As America recovers from the Civil War, one man tries to put the pieces of his life back together but finds himself fighting a new battle on the frontier. Cable is an embittered Confederate soldier who returns from the war to reclaim his Arizona homestead from rebel pioneers who sympathize with the Union war effort.

South of St. Louis

With the advent of the American Civil War, three partners in a ranch see how this is destroyed. Needing money, will join the Confederate troops, each for their particular motivations.

Great Day in the Morning

After a card game, Southerner Owen Pentecost finds himself the owner of a Denver hotel. Involved with two women, he then has to make even more fundamental choices when, with the start of the Civil War, he becomes one of a small minority in a strongly Unionist town.

The Proud and Damned

A group of five Confederate mercenaries led by Sergeant Will Hansen must choose sides carefully in a small village where they find themselves trapped in the middle of a rebellion. The group is torn as to whether they should honor the powerful military dictator who forces them to spy for him or help the local village fight for its independence. Follow Sergeant Hansen and his men as they make a decision that could cost them their lives.

The Toast of New York

After the American Civil War, Jim Fisk, a former peddler and cotton smuggler, arrives in New York, along with his partners Nick and Luke, where he struggles to make his way through the treacherous world of Wall Street's financial markets.

Red Mountain

Towards the end of the American Civil War, a rebel captain flees to Colorado to join a band of Southern mercenaries. He drags an innocent gold prospecting couple into trouble when the husband is accused of a murder he committed.

Belle Starr

After her family's mansion is burned down by Yankee soldiers for hiding the rebel leader Captain Sam Starr Belle Shirley vows to take revenge. Breaking Starr out of prison, she joins his small guerrilla group for a series of raids on banks and railroads, carpetbaggers and enemy troops. Belle's bravado during the attacks earns her a reputation among the locals as well as the love of Starr himself. The pair get married, but their relationship starts to break down when Sam Starr lets a couple of psychotic rebels into the gang, leaving Belle to wonder if he really cares about the Southern cause.

El Paso

Ex-confederate officer Clay Fletcher jumps at the chance to reunite with his once lady-friend, Susan Jeffers, when his father, Judge Fletcher, sends him on an errand to El Paso, Texas to get the signature of Susan's father, Judge Jeffers, on a legal document. Once there he finds the judge has become a drunk and a laughing stock, doing the bidding of local magnate Bert Donner and his running dog, Sheriff La Farge. Just as Clay starts straightening out the town's problems, events occur which force him to abandon the legal system and instead adopt the murderous tactics of a vigilante.

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