The Best Military Movies and Shows Streaming Right Now on Amazon Prime Video

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If you're looking for the best war movies on Amazon's Prime Video service, we're here to help you beat the recommendation algorithm and get right to the movies you want to see. Prime Video has the most widely varied catalog of movies and shows, and sometimes it's hard to find what you want to watch. Our list can help you cut through the chaff and get to the action you crave.

The movies on our list are focused on wars from one era of human history or another, but we also list TV shows streaming on Prime Video that include a few spy stories.

There's enough military viewing here on Prime Video to justify that yearly subscription to Amazon Prime. You can also watch the latest war movies by trying out a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

In the aftermath of the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, many of Libya’s cities became dangerous places for foreign diplomats. Nowhere was that more evident than in Benghazi, when an enraged militia stormed an American compound, where U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens happened to be working that day. 

“13 Hours” is the story of former U.S. military special operators who were working as private contractors for the CIA less than a mile away. They volunteered to become the ambassador’s quick response force and tried to rescue the staff while repelling the violent crowd. Directed by Michael Bay (“Bad Boys”), it stars James Badge Dale (“The Pacific”), John Krasinski (“The Office”), Pablo Schreiber (“The Wire”), Max Martini (“Saving Private Ryan”), David Denman (“The Replacements”) and Dominic Fumusa (“Nurse Jackie”).

The Best Years of Our Lives

"The Best Years of Our Lives" was a surprisingly hard-nosed story about the struggles of veterans returning from World War II. WWII Army veteran Harold Russell, who lost both hands in a training accident, was awarded a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a Navy veteran who lost both arms in combat. The movie also won Best Picture, Best Director for WWII Army Air Corps veteran William Wyler ("Ben-Hur") and Best Screenplay for Robert E. Sherwood, the director of the overseas Office of War Information during WWII.

Three veterans return home to the small Midwestern town of Boone City: one Army sergeant, one Navy petty officer and one Army Air Forces bombardier captain. None of the men makes an easy transition back to civilian life, and "The Best Years of Our Lives" follows them as they experience varying degrees of success in sorting out their futures.

Breach

Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe, "Shooter”) is a newly minted FBI agent assigned to work with fellow agent Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper, “Adaptation”). But his assignment is just a cover; O’Neill is watching Hanssen because the bureau suspects him of being a sexual deviant. But anyone who’s interested in Cold War espionage knows the cover is really just a cover.

“Breach” is based on the true story of the real Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who specialized in counterintelligence during the Cold War. For most of his government career, he was also a spy for the Soviet Union. O’Neill is also a real FBI operative and really helped bring Hanssen to justice.  

The Bridge at Remagen

West Virginia Congressman Ken Hechler served in the House of Representatives between 1959 and 1977, but before that, he wrote a screenplay about his time spent fighting in World War II. Hechler landed in Normandy, liberated France and helped turn back the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. Most notably (and this is what the movie is about), he was with the 9th Armored Division when it captured the  Ludendorff Bridge that spanned the Rhine River, so the Allies could use it during the Battle of Remagen.

In 1957, Hechler wrote a book about the battle, “Bridge at Remagen: The Amazing Story of March 7, 1945.” In 1969, United Artists released the film adaptation of his book, “The Bridge at Remagen.” Like many real-world war stories, the movie version was a little more “Hollywood” than Hechler remembered about the battle, but he claimed it was mostly accurate and loved its depiction of his commander. 

The Bridge on the River Kwai

“The Bridge on the River Kwai” is not a true story, but its background setting is real. During World War II, Allied prisoners of war (along with many civilians) were forced to help build the Burma Railway to supply Japanese soldiers in the Burma theater of the war. Today, the railway runs between Thailand and Myanmar. At the end of the war, some 111 Japanese officials were tried for the use of forced labor, and 32 were sentenced to death. 

William Holden (“Stalag 17”) and Sir Alec Guinness (“Star Wars”) star as two POWs, one American and one British, at a worksite where the dense jungle makes escape impossible. The British and Americans are at odds over actually finishing the bridge, which has been held up due to faulty architecture and outright sabotage by the workforce. Both men argue back and forth about the morality of building it, until they finally come to an impasse. 

Britannia

Set during the Roman invasion of Britain in the year 43 A.D., "Britannia" portrays the brutal combat and even more brutal scheming between tribes as the native cultures try to survive and drive out the enemy.

If you think Kelly Reilly is scary as Beth Dutton on "Yellowstone," wait until you see her with a sword in her hand as Queen Kerra in "Britannia." Seasons 1 & 2 are currently available on Prime Video.

City of Ghosts

As the Islamic State captured large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014, a secret group of citizen journalists called Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently documented ISIL's war crimes and atrocities for the world to see.

"City of Ghosts" is a documentary about the then-anonymous efforts of the reporters and how they uncovered ISIL crimes while living under the tyranny of the terrorist state or in exile. It was widely considered the best documentary of 2017 and became the "definitive documentary about the tragedy of Syria."

The Courier

"The Courier" is the true Cold War-era story of how the CIA and MI6 used a civilian salesman with no intelligence experience as a go-between for Western intelligence agencies and a Soviet agent from the Russian GRU.

After deciding they can't use one of their own officers, the CIA and MI6 enlist British salesman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch, "Doctor Strange") to visit Moscow and collect information from GRU member Oleg Penkovsky. Wynne uncovers information that leads to the Cuban Missile Crisis while trying to keep his family together and avoid capture by the KGB.

Dances with Wolves

Wounded in the middle of the Civil War, Union Army Lt. John J. Dunbar (Kevin Costner), travels to the American frontier in 1863 because he wants to see it while it still exists. He is sent to Kansas, where he’s sent to the farthest possible posting from American civilization, Fort Sedgwick in what is today Colorado. There, he encounters the Lakota Sioux and begins to learn their culture and language, garnering a mutual respect. Eventually, he marries into the tribe and abandons his post. 

That’s not the whole story, of course, but you’ll need to watch the movie for the rest of it -- and it’s worth a watch. Costner’s directorial debut earned him the Academy Award for Best Director and another for Best Picture. “Dances With Wolves” also won Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Sound Mixing.

The Devil's Brigade

"The Devil's Brigade" is a silver-screen adaptation of historian Robert H. Adleman's book that depicts the creation of the 1st Special Service Force, a joint unit of Canadian and American commandos formed during World War II. Trained in Montana, the joint force would fight in Italy, southern France and the Aleutian Islands. It was one of the foundational units for today's special operations forces. 

Starring William Holden ("Stalag 17"), Cliff Robertson ("Spider-Man") and Vince Edwards ("The Killing"), the movie recounts the training and formation of the unit. It culminates in the 1st Special Service Force's attack on Monte la Difensa, a German-held and supposedly impregnable fortress, taken during the Italian Campaign.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

“Dr. Strangelove” is the darkest of dark comedies, elevating the fear of a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union to political satire at a time when fears of such a war were very, very real. As such, it is considered one of the best movies of all time. Even if you’ve never seen this movie, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Slim Pickens waving his cowboy hat as he rides a nuclear bomb onto its target. 

Directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick, “Dr. Strangelove” stars Peter Sellers (“The Pink Panther”) in three roles, Capt. Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove himself. It also features George C. Scott (“Patton”) at his finest, playing Gen. “Buck” Turgidson.

Fallout 

Yes, “Fallout” is a series based on a video game. There are many of us old enough to remember when video-game movies and shows were just an awful cash grab designed to sell more merchandise to children, so we might be a little jaded. But Gen Xers and elder Millennials should take note: Today’s video games have more depth and better writing than most movies and TV shows -- and “Fallout” is considered one of the best of all time. 

Walton Goggins (“Justified”) and Ella Purnell (“Yellowjackets”) star in this post-apocalyptic, alt-history drama set in a world where a nuclear exchange irradiated the Earth and forced humans to take refuge in fallout shelters, called “vaults.” More than 200 years later, they start to emerge from the vaults for the first time. 

The Final Countdown

Before "Top Gun" was the catalyst for people to run to their Navy recruiter's office to join ROTC programs, the go-to movie for inspiring the future ranks of naval aviators was "The Final Countdown."

The USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier with 5,000 crewmembers and jet aircraft, mysteriously disappears in the Pacific Ocean, before it's discovered that it has traveled back in time to Dec. 6, 1941, off the coast of Hawaii. Knowing every detail of what's about to happen to the U.S., the ship's men ask themselves if they should change the course of history.

Fury

Brad Pitt plays Don “Wardaddy” Collier, commander of Fury, a Sherman tank in the U.S. Second Armored Division in World War II Europe. When the tank’s bow gunner is killed in combat, he’s replaced on the fly by an Army typist, Pfc. Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman, “Hunters”). The young soldier gets a harsh lesson in real-world combat.

Written and directed by Navy veteran David Ayer (“The Beekeeper”), “Fury” is based on the story of Staff Sgt. Lafayette G. "War Daddy" Pool, who landed at Normandy and whose tank was knocked out of the war multiple times. The film also features Michael Peña (“A Million Miles Away”), Jon Bernthal (“The Bear”) and a mustachioed Shia LaBeouf (“Transformers”).

Generation War

"Generation War" is German television's attempt to make its own "Band of Brothers." Of course, that's a more complicated endeavor when your military was defeated in World War II and a racist ideology fueled your leader's rise to power and eagerness to start a conflict.

The show has been praised for its depiction of the unrelenting combat on the Eastern Front, but it's a bit too light depicting the ideologies of the Third Reich. Though its portrayal of the war is flawed, it's fascinating to see German filmmakers attempt to tell the story of the war for a mainstream audience.

Gladiator

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius' greatest general, Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe, "Master and Commander"), wants to return home after subduing Germanic tribes. After the emperor is murdered by his son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix, "Joker"), Maximus moves to use his army to arrest the new emperor, but Commodus strikes first.

Surviving an assassination attempt, Maximus is captured and held as a slave. He must fight his way to the biggest games of all, in Rome, to exact his revenge against Commodus, who assumed the throne. 

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant 

While deployed to Afghanistan with U.S. Army Special Forces, Master Sgt. John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) gets a new interpreter, Ahmed (Dar Salim, “A War”). When his unit is ambushed and everyone but Kinley and Ahmed are killed, Ahmed carries the wounded soldier 100 kilometers back to Bagram Air Base while evading Taliban patrols. 

Kinley goes home but can’t forget what Ahmed did to save his life. He resolves to return to Afghanistan on his own to take Ahmed and his family out of the country. Kinley is in a race against time to rescue all of them before the Taliban can find and kill them --  all without the support of U.S. forces.  

Hunters

"Hunters" follows a team on Nazi hunters in early 1970s America. It's just as weird as "The Man in the High Castle," and Al Pacino ("The Godfather") leads the crew as Meyer Offerman, philanthropist and concentration camp survivor who's writing the checks for their missions. Logan Lerman ("Fury") stars as Jonah Heidelbaum, a young man who becomes Offerman's protegé.

The alternate history in "Hunters" is just as outrageous as what we saw in "The Man in the High Castle," and the show might have been too off-the-beaten path for the Prime Video action audience. The show has ended after two full seasons, so it's not a huge commitment if you want to find out whether it works for you.

JAG Seasons 1-10

Do you love the show “NCIS”? According to television ratings, most of you likely said “yes,” and some of the rest of you are lying. “NCIS” is one of the most popular shows of all time, with no fewer than six spinoffs and headed into its 22nd season. 

Younger fans who can’t get enough of the CBS procedural drama will be delighted to know that it is itself a spinoff of an earlier show: “JAG.” The term JAG is military slang for Judge Advocate General, or lawyer, and -- spoiler alert -- “JAG” is a show about military lawyers. Starring David James Elliott (“Trumbo”) and Catherine Bell (“Army Wives”), “JAG” was a show about criminal cases in the military, but this show was set in Washington. So if 22 seasons of “NCIS” aren’t enough, you can now go back and get your fill with 10 seasons of “JAG.”

Kesari

If you don't love Bollywood war movies, it's either because you hate subtitles or you just haven't seen one yet. Kesari is one of the most epic, visually stunning war movies ever to come from India. There's no better backdrop for the over-the-top action that Indian films bring to the screen than the 1897 Battle of Saragarhi.

At Saragarhi, 21 Sikh soldiers of the British Army defended an outpost as it was attacked by about 24,000 Afghan tribesmen. As the battle raged, the Sikhs transmitted details of the fight as they happened, all of which are beautifully recreated in "Kesari."

The Last Detail

An 18-year-old seaman named Larry Meadows (Randy Quaid, “Christmas Vacation”) is being sent to a military prison for stealing from a charity donation box. Escorting him to the brig are Signalman First Class Billy "Badass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and Gunner's Mate First Class Richard "Mule" Mulhall (played by real-world Korean War veteran Otis Young). Since they have one week to get Meadows to prison and believe his sentence was overly harsh, they decide to show him a good time across the East Coast. 

Based on the novel “The Last Detail” by author and Navy veteran Darryl Poniscan (see “Last Flag Flying”), there’s a level of authenticity to real enlisted life in the Navy at the time -- both Buddusky and Mulhall are lifelong sailors, and it shows. 

Last Flag Flying

Steve Carrell ("The Office") plays "Doc" Shepard, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam who tracks down two of his old buddies, Sal (Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad") and Richard (Laurence Fishburne, "The Matrix"), for an impromptu reunion. Doc soon reveals that he brought them together hoping they would come with him to take the body of his son, who recently died in Iraq, to his burial.

The movie was adapted from the book of the same name, written by ​​Darryl Ponicsan, who served in the Navy between 1962 and 1965. As one might imagine, the fun and jokes among old friends who chewed the same dirt in Vietnam provides some much-needed relief from the drama of what the movie is actually about.

The Lost Battalion

In 1918, just after an American attack in the Argonne Forest, more than 550 men of the 77th Division were cut off from the rest of their Allied forces for nearly a week. Low on food, water and ammunition and under fire from their own artillery, hundreds were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. These nine companies became known as "The Lost Battalion."

This A&E movie stars Rick Schroder ("Silver Spoons") as Maj. Charles White Whittlesey, a real officer who received the Medal of Honor for leading the Lost Battalion through the Meuse-Argonne offensive, and eventually, back to friendly lines.

The Man in the High Castle

Prime Video gave a big-budget order to "The Man in the High Castle," an alternate history tale of the resistance in North America after Japan and Germany won World War II. Based on the classic 1962 novel by sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick, the show expands the book's plot and resolves its ambiguous ending over the course of 40 episodes and four seasons.

The show is both ambitious and incredibly weird. The period details are outstanding, and the show's writers and directors never dumb down their ambitions to make the twisted story easier to follow. As the streaming universe looks for less-expensive stories to tell, we're not getting many more strange tales like this one.

Paths of Glory

Stanley Kubrick's 1957 World War I classic is probably one of the best war movies ever made, with a stark, accurate depiction of trench warfare, despite never showing the enemy onscreen. Part war movie and part legal drama, it's based on the real story of five French soldiers who were convicted of cowardice during the war and subsequently executed. The actors in the movie even include real World War I veterans. 

Patriot

For the two seasons that it was on Amazon, “Patriot” was, low key, the best spy show on television. Sadly Amazon has not renewed it for a third season. It’s about John Tavner (Michael Dorman, “For All Mankind”), a wannabe folk singer whose father is a CIA officer and former congressman. 

The younger Tavner is deeply troubled, but that doesn’t stop his father Tom (Terry O'Quinn, “Lost”) from using him to rig an election in Iran. But before he can do the spycraft, he needs to secure a cover, which means getting a job at an industrial piping firm in Milwaukee.  

Reacher

Fans of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels didn't think Tom Cruise was right for the role, even though the 2012 movie "Jack Reacher" was one of the actor's best films. A sequel wasn't as good, and Cruise abandoned the character.

Enter Alan Ritchson, the huge and muscled actor who took on the role for Prime Video's 2022 series. Viewers went crazy for the new portrayal of the Army veteran who roams the backroads of the country and gets himself and the people he meets out of whatever trouble comes their way. "Reacher" just returned for Season 2 in December 2023.

The Report

I don’t know how many veterans reading this are Global War on Terror veterans, but the debate surrounding the torture of al-Qaida detainees during the Bush administration was a big one at my unit. Now imagine being the investigator who had to look into the initial allegations of torture by the CIA in the first place. 

Adam Driver (“BlacKkKlansman”) plays Daniel Jones, a real-life investigator for the U.S. Senate who was tasked with looking into those torture allegations in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks. His full 6,700-page report on the matter is still classified, but “The Report” shows how Jones managed to find the full truth. 

Saving Private Ryan

I assume this movie needs no introduction, but I'll reiterate why this is one of the best war movies ever made, anyway. Steven Spielberg's 1998 World War II classic has set the tone (and sometimes even the look and feel) for every World War II movie that came after it. It also sets a high bar for war movies anywhere, including a great story, an ensemble cast, a score by the legendary John Williams and input from real World War II veterans for maximum realism. 

Send Me

Many veterans will be familiar with Nick Palmisciano, West Point graduate and Army infantry officer, as the founder of Ranger Up. In 2021, he and 12 veteran friends moved to rescue an Afghan interpreter from being left behind in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. They formed Save Our Allies, and went to Kabul.

"Send Me" is a 2022 documentary about how the mission to save that one interpreter ballooned into one of the largest civilian rescue operations ever, bringing 12,000 people out of danger.

Sobibor

In 1941, a Soviet soldier of Jewish descent was captured by the Nazis and sent to the Sobibor extermination camp in occupied Poland. Despite the brutal oppression of his Nazi captors, Lt. Alexander "Sasha" Pechersky incites and leads an uprising against the camp guards just three weeks after his arrival. 

The film was made in Lithuania by Russian director Konstantin Khabenskiy, who also plays the part of Sasha Pechersky. It was submitted to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film but did not receive a nomination. Its depiction of Pechersky's successful uprising and mass escape of hundreds of Jews is not entirely accurate, but it's still good viewing. 

Spies of Warsaw

Based on the novel by American espionage master Alan Furst, "Spies of Warsaw" follows a spy who's posing as a military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw, Poland just before the outbreak of World War II. David Tennant ("Broadchurch," "Doctor Who") stars. The series, much like Furst's novels, lingers over the intrigue and downplays the action.

We know that Hitler is going to invade Poland, but obviously none of the characters in this series know what we know. Less-patient viewers may want to yell at the television as the "Spies of Warsaw" characters fail to see what's coming, but it's the slow resolution that's the point of this show.

Strategic Air Command

There were a lot of Hollywood folk whose World War II military service involved performing shows for other military personnel or sitting behind a desk. James Stewart enlisted in the Army in February 1941 and went on to fly bombing missions over Germany. He continued to serve in the Air Force Reserves after the war and stayed active until 1968.

That made Stewart uniquely qualified to play the lead in the 1955 movie "Strategic Air Command," the story of a professional baseball player and WWII pilot recalled to active duty to fly the Convair B-36. The Cold War drama mainly exists to celebrate the further evolution of American air power after WWII, but there's a big question about how Stewart will sort out the conflict between his two great loves, flying and baseball.

The Terminal List

Former Navy SEAL Jack Carr's series of thriller novels about fictional former Navy SEAL James Reece has spawned a new franchise. "The Terminal List" sets up the epic tale, as Reece seeks revenge on the forces that killed his family. Chris Pratt ("Parks and Recreation") stars as Reece, and Pratt looks to be set up to play the role for years to come.

The Reeceverse has already locked in Season 2 of the tale, which will be based on Carr's novel "True Believer." There's also a prequel series in the works that will explore the complicated backstory of Reece's former SEAL teammate Ben Edwards, played by Taylor Kitsch.

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan

Prime Video has carved out a niche as the home of military-themed action shows, and the streaming service's reimagining of Tom Clancy's beloved CIA operative, Jack Ryan, paved the way for all the shows that came after.

John Krasinski ("13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi") plays a version of the character that may be the closest to the one who appears in Clancy's novels, but the contemporary plots of the series have nothing to do with the stories that the author wrote in his books. The fourth and final season of Prime Video’s “Jack Ryan” series started streaming in June 2023.

Tom Clancy's Without Remorse

Michael B. Jordan ("Creed") stars in this military thriller that gives the backstory for one of Tom Clancy's greatest characters, former Navy SEAL John Clark. In the movie, we meet SEAL John Kelly, who goes to prison for taking revenge on the Russian diplomat responsible for the murder of his wife and unborn child. He's sprung from his cell with an opportunity to hunt down the surviving operative who carried out the murder mission.

That's a heavily redacted version of a complicated plot, which was written for the screen by Taylor Sheridan, the man who writes and produces the television series "Yellowstone." "Tom Clancy's Without Remorse" was intended for a theatrical release, but Paramount Pictures sold it to Amazon in the depths of the pandemic, and it went straight to streaming. The good news is that Jordan has been booked for a sequel intended for theatrical release.

Top Gun: Maverick

It was the war movie sequel fans waited more than 35 years to see, delayed time and again by the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was, apparently, worth the wait as it became the second highest-grossing movie of 2022, the highest grossing movie of Tom Cruise's career and was even nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Tom Cruise reprises his role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell to train Top Gun graduates for one of the most dangerous missions of their entire career. Although the movie has a lot of throwbacks to the original "Top Gun," including a return of Val Kilmer as Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, it is often regarded as much better than the original, which is saying a lot.

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