movielex
movie
L
ex

Movies like Fear and Desire

Key Features:
War, Survival, Psychological trauma, Existentialism, Moral dilemma, Loss of innocence, Humanity, Isolation, Violence-moderate, Anti-war
Tone:
serious, dramatic, poetic
Target Audience:
Film students, War film enthusiasts, Cerebral film viewers, Independent film aficionados
Emotional Arc:
Anxiety → Dread

Fear and Desire

1953-03-31
Fear and Desire Poster - Find Similar Movies

After their airplane crashes behind enemy lines, four soldiers must survive and try to find a way back to their battalion. However, when they come across a local peasant girl the horrors of war quickly become apparent.

Genres
Drama, War, Thriller
Cast
Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky, Stephen Coit, Virginia Leith, David Allen
Crew
Stanley Kubrick, Howard Sackler
Rating
5.4(530 votes)
Fear and DesireFear and Desire
Select exactly what you are looking for


Disorder
Disorder(2015)
5.669

An ex-soldier with PTSD is hired to protect the wife and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman while he's out of town.



Shadow
Shadow(2009)
5.487

A Young soldier returning from Iraq goes on a high mountain adventure in a desolate place in Europe to forget his past, he will lear truth in a mysterious local legend discovering that reality can be sicker than nightmares.



Lebanon
Lebanon(2009)
6.509

During the First Lebanon War in 1982, a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town.



Stop-Loss
Stop-Loss(2008)
6.137

A veteran soldier returns from his completed tour of duty in Iraq, only to find his life turned upside down when he is arbitrarily ordered to return to field duty by the Army.



Fearless
Fearless(1993)
6.888

After surviving a plane crash that kills many others, Max Klein develops a sense of invulnerability, leading to radical, compulsive actions. Can a psychologist and a fellow guilt-ridden survivor bring him down to earth?



Triage
Triage(2009)
6

The wife of a photojournalist sets out to discover why he came home from a recent assignment without his colleague.



Come and See
8.2

The invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.



The 4th Man
6.657

A man who has been having visions of an impending danger begins an affair with a woman who may lead him to his doom.



DEFCON-4
DEFCON-4(1985)
4.4

Two men and a woman circle the globe in a satellite armed with a nuclear device. The third world war breaks out, and a few months later the satellite crashes. They survive the crash but one man gets killed by survivors and the other man gets caught. The woman stays by the remains of the the satellite but is soon caught by evil punks who have taken power.



Prey
Prey(2024)
6.022

A young couple is compelled to leave their Christian missionary station in the Kalahari Desert after being threatened with death by an extremist militant gang. After crashing their aircraft they must battle man and beast for their lives.



Passengers
6.1

After a plane crash, a young therapist, Claire, is assigned by her mentor to counsel the flight's five survivors. When they share their recollections of the incident -- which some say include an explosion that the airline claims never happened -- Claire is intrigued by Eric, the most secretive of the passengers.



Dead of Night
6.3

A young soldier who was thought to be killed in Vietnam returns home and exhibits disturbing behavior, much to the confusion of his family.



The Squad
The Squad(2011)
6.1

The air is thick with tension as a military squad proceeds to the foot of a mountain base, where they're ordered to wait for backup and hold their position. The mountain is shrouded in fog and the men are exhausted. They've been fighting guerrillas on enemy turf for some time, and they're worn down by the stress and anxiety of battle. The men don't want to wait; they want to charge up the hill, fearing that their comrades in the base have been overrun by the guerrillas. The squad's leader tries futilely to keep his men in line while dealing with his insolent second-in-command.



No Man's Land
7.481

Two soldiers from opposite sides get stuck between the front lines in the same trench. The UN is asked to free them and both sides agree on a ceasefire, but will they stick to it?



Casualties of War
7.2

During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.



Plane
Plane(2023)
6.908

After a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in a war zone, a fearless pilot finds himself between the agendas of multiple militias planning to take the plane and its passengers hostage.



Redacted
Redacted(2007)
5.997

A fictional documentary discusses the effects the Iraq war has had on soldiers and local people through interviews with members of an American military unit, the media, and local Iraqis.



Hide and Seek
4.704

Four fragile young people flee London to start an unconventional utopia, creating a world of fantasy that overwhelms them.



War Games: At the End of the Day

A game of paintball turns deadly when three unhinged and deranged ex-soldiers play a twisted mind game of catch and release with their unsuspecting victims. This quickly leads to a bloody man hunt where everyone is a target and no one is safe.



Black Hawk Down
7.388

When U.S. Rangers and an elite Delta Force team attempt to kidnap two underlings of a Somali warlord, their Black Hawk helicopters are shot down, and the Americans suffer heavy casualties, facing intense fighting from the militia on the ground.



Birdy
Birdy(1984)
7.1

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 Thin Red Line
7.4

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.



Sputnik
Sputnik(2020)
6.543

At the height of the Cold War, a Soviet spacecraft crash lands after a mission gone awry, leaving the commander as its only survivor. After a renowned Russian psychologist is brought in to evaluate the commander’s mental state, it becomes clear that something dangerous may have come back to Earth with him…



Eden and After
6.046

A group of French students are drawn into the psychological and sexual games of a mysterious man called Duchemin. Once they sample his "fear powder" the students experience a series of hallucinations.



Diamonds of the Night

Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Ultimately, they are hunted down by a group of old, armed home-guardists.



Jacknife
Jacknife(1989)
6.35

A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived.



Infiltration
7.5

Ivan sets off on a dangerous mission into Syria to save his ex-commander Grey after his capture by ISIS. With the help of U.S. military patrols, he succeeds in freeing Grey and attempts to escape the country while being hunted by terrorists.



Bird Box
Bird Box(2018)
6.827

Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a survivor and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.



Shock and Awe
6.332

A group of journalists covering George Bush's planned invasion of Iraq in 2003 are skeptical of the presidents claim that Saddam Hussein has "weapons of mass destruction."



Recon
Recon(2019)
4.908

Four American soldiers in WW2, after witnessing the vicious murder of an innocent civilian at the hands of their platoon Sergeant, are sent on a reconnaissance/suicide mission led by a local partisan.



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.



Fear X
Fear X(2003)
5.797

When his wife is killed in a seemingly random incident, Harry, prompted by mysterious visions, journeys to discover the true circumstances surrounding her murder.



Human Desire
6.7

A Korean War vet returns to his job as a railroad engineer and becomes involved in a sordid affair with a co-worker's wife and murder. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, in 1997.



Andron
Andron(2015)
3.741

A group of people are plunged into a dark, claustrophobic maze, where they must fight to survive, as the outside world watches.



The Awakening
6.382

In post–War England, a writer and sometime-ghost hunter investigates a reported haunting at a boys boarding school.



Mine
Mine(2016)
6.589

After a failed assassination attempt, a soldier finds himself stranded in the desert. Exposed to the elements, he must survive the dangers of the desert and battle the psychological and physical toll of the treacherous conditions.



Platoon
Platoon(1986)
7.746

As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.



Phobias
Phobias(2021)
4.5

Five dangerous patients, suffering from extreme phobias at a government testing facility, are put to the ultimate test under the supervision of a crazed doctor and his quest to weaponize fear.



King and Country
7.108

During World War I, Army Private Arthur James Hamp is accused of desertion during battle. The officer assigned to defend him at his court-martial, Captain Hargreaves, finds out there is more to the case than meets the eye.



Accident
Accident(2017)
5.2

A group of teenagers suffer a terrible accident during a joy ride and get trapped at the bottom of a ravine.



Rescue Dawn
6.957

A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.



Sphere
Sphere(1998)
6.1

A spacecraft is discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, presumed to be at least 300 years old and of alien origin. A crack team of scientists and experts is assembled and taken to the Habitat, a state-of-the-art underwater living environment, to investigate.



The Beast
The Beast(1988)
7

During the war in Afghanistan a Soviet tank crew commanded by a tyrannical officer find themselves lost and in a struggle against a band of Mujahadeen guerrillas in the mountains.



Courage Under Fire
6.5

A US Army officer, who made a "friendly fire" mistake that was covered up, has been reassigned to a desk job. He is tasked to investigate a female chopper commander's worthiness to be awarded the Medal of Honor. At first all seems in order. But then he begins to notice inconsistencies between the testimonies of the witnesses...



Crash
Crash(1996)
6.5

After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims, and he begins to use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.



Aftermath
Aftermath(2017)
5.7

A fatal plane crash changes the lives of Roman and Jake forever. Roman loses his wife and daughter in the accident, while Jake loses his mind—as he happens to be the air traffic controller who failed to avert the nightmare. Rage and revenge engulfs Roman and Jake finds himself swamped with guilt and regret.



Johnny Got His Gun
7.498

A young American soldier, rendered in pseudocoma from an artillery shell from WWI, recalls his life leading up to that point.



Passenger
Passenger(1963)
7.211

A German woman on a ship returning to Europe notices a face of another woman which brings recollections from the past. She tells her husband that she had been an overseer in Auschwitz during the war, but she has actually saved a woman's life.



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.



Hart's War
6.4

When Col. William McNamara is stripped of his freedom in a German POW camp, he's determined to keep on fighting even from behind enemy lines. Enlisting the help of a young lieutenant in a brilliant plot against his captors, McNamara risks everything on a mission to free his men and change the outcome of the war.



Home of the Brave
5.4

The day after they get the word they'll go home in two weeks, a group of soldiers from Spokane are ambushed in an Iraqi city. Back stateside we follow four of them - a surgeon who saw too much, a teacher who's a single mom and who lost a hand in the ambush, an infantry man whose best friend died that day, and a soldier who keeps reliving the moment he killed a civilian woman.



The Pilot: A Battle for Survival

December of 1941, Northwestern Front. A German tank column is moving towards Moscow. During a mission to stop the enemy advance, Nikolai Komlev's IL-2 is shot down. Komlev manages to crash-land his plane in a remote forest clearing. He's alive, but far from friendly territory. Ahead of him is a relentless trial of severe physical and mental endurance. After battling hunger and extreme cold, evading packs of wolves and detachments of Nazi soldiers, the wounded Komlev finally makes it back to safety. But there he faces another challenge, the most life-changing of them all.



Hell in the Pacific

During World War II, a shot-down American pilot and a marooned Japanese navy captain find themselves stranded on the same small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean.



Repulsion
Repulsion(1965)
7.4

Beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.



Coming Home
7

In 1968 California, a Marine officer's wife falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in the war.



Death and the Maiden

A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.



Possession
7.3

A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.



Mazes and Monsters
4.3

Bound together by a desire to play "Mazes and Monsters," Robbie and his four college classmates decide to move the board game into the local cavern. Robbie loses his mind, and the line between reality and fantasy fuse into a harrowing nightmare.



Duel
Duel(1971)
7.417

Traveling businessman David Mann angers the driver of a rusty tanker while crossing the California desert. A simple trip turns deadly, as Mann struggles to stay on the road while the tanker plays cat and mouse with his life.



Bat★21
Bat★21(1988)
6.3

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.



Penny Dreadful
5.471

Young Penny goes on a retreat with her psychologist; the intention is to help her overcome her phobia, an intense fear of cars. Unexpected events find her in a nightmarish situation where her worst fears come true.



Dreamscape
6.1

In order to diagnose the psychic traumas suffered by his patients, Dr. Paul Novotny gets young Alex Gardner to enter their dreams.



The Purple Plain
6.516

An RAF airfield in Burma in 1945, during World War II. Canadian bomber pilot Bill Forrester is a bitter man who lives haunted by a tragic past. He has became a reckless warrior, and is feared by his comrades, who consider him a madman. Dr. Harris, the squadron physician, is determined to help him heal his tormented soul.



The Sheltering Sky
6.482

An American couple drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.



Ghosts of War
6.3

A group of World War II American soldiers encounter a supernatural enemy as they occupy a French castle previously under Nazi control.



Pressure
Pressure(2015)
5.6

Four divers are stuck deep underwater in a vessel after a freak storm destroys their ship. Will they survive?



Behind Enemy Lines
6.4

While flying a routine reconnaissance mission over Bosnia, fighter pilot Lt. Chris Burnett photographs something he wasn't supposed to see and gets shot down behind enemy lines, where he must outrun an army led by a ruthless Serbian general. With time running out and a deadly tracker on his trail, Burnett's commanding officer, Admiral Reigart, decides to risk his career and launch a renegade rescue mission to save his life.



Donovan's Echo
6.007

A series of uncanny déjà vu events force a man to re-examine his tragic past, memory, instinct, and future.



Born on the Fourth of July

Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, Ron Kovic becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.



Altered States
6.7

A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind.



ID:A
ID:A(2011)
6

A woman wakes up in a river. Wounded and without memory, then races to elude mysterious followers and recover from amnesia.



The Trip
The Trip(1967)
5.688

After his wife leaves him, a disillusioned director dives into the drug scene, trying anything his friend suggests.



The Veteran
5.797

Soldier Robert Miller returns home from Afghanistan unable to fit back into society. Living on a violent council estate and finding work in undercover surveillance, he becomes obsessed with taking down a group of local gangsters who are intrinsically tied to a suspected terrorist cell. Taking the situation into his own hands, Robert embarks on a brutal quest for justice, with devastating consequences.



Fires on the Plain
7.585

In the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier afflicted with tuberculosis is abandoned by his company and left to wander the Philippine island of Leyte.



Urge
Urge(2016)
4.307

A group of friends on holiday on an island experiment with a new designer drug that makes them lose their ability to control their urges.



Flight Crew
6.9

A story about bravery, self-sacrifice and human dignity put on trial by the merciless power of nature. A young pilot is fired from military air force after disobeying an absurd order. He gets a job as a co-pilot with a civil airline. Being brutally honest and direct, he is not on best terms with his new colleagues. During a flight to Asia his crew receives a distress message from a volcanic island and makes a decision to attempt a rescue mission. Will it be a success? Will they survive the disaster? They have a single chance to find that out: by being a team and sticking up for one another.



Solis
Solis(2018)
4.832

Following an accident, an Engineer of an asteroid mining company endures the extreme limits – both physical and psychological – of human survival, trapped inside an escape pod as he helplessly idles towards the Sun.



The Deer Hunter
8

A group of working-class friends decide to enlist in the Army during the Vietnam War and finds it to be hellish chaos -- not the noble venture they imagined. Before they left, Steven married his pregnant girlfriend -- and Michael and Nick were in love with the same woman. But all three are different men upon their return.



Stalingrad
7.3

A German Platoon is explored through the brutal fighting of the Battle of Stalingrad. After half of their number is wiped out and they're placed under the command of a sadistic captain, the platoon lieutenant leads his men to desert. The platoon members attempt escape from the city, now surrounded by the Soviet Army.



Preservation
4.862

Three family members head deep into the woods for a hunting trip that doubles as a distraction from their troubles at home. When all of their gear is stolen, they turn on each other, but soon realize there are much more treacherous forces at work.



Aftermath
Aftermath(2024)
6.281

A returning war veteran, stricken with PTSD, gets trapped with his teenage sister on Boston's Tobin Memorial Bridge when a heavily armed group of ex-military revolutionaries take everyone hostage.



Wrecked
Wrecked(2010)
5.359

A man awakens in a car wreck at the bottom of a steep cliff. He can't remember who he is or how he got there, but a report over the radio fills in some of the blanks, as it describes a violent bank robbery and names a perpetrator who happens to be sitting dead in the back seat.



Black Box
Black Box(2005)
5.46

An accident survivor wakes from a coma and confronts old, uncomfortable memories.



Die
Die(2010)
4.672

Six people, each of them is on the road to self-destruction. They wake up in cells in a surreal facility, without knowing how they got there or why.



Catch-22
Catch-22(1970)
6.7

A WWII military pilot makes a valiant effort to be certified insane in order to be excused from flying missions. But there's a catch.



Love and Honor
6

When a young soldier in Vietnam gets dumped by his hometown girl, he and his best friend decide to go AWOL and return to the States to win her back.



Danika
Danika(2006)
5.071

Traumatized since childhood by her brother's accidental death, Danika Merrick hallucinates a bank robbery and quits her job. Despite support from her three children and loving husband, Danika continues to experience unnerving visions. She seeks help from therapist Evelyn Harris but pervasive reports of violent incidents involving children make Danika fear for her own family, and she grows increasingly paranoid, worrying she may be going insane.



Flight
Flight(2012)
6.851

Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker has a problem with drugs and alcohol, though so far he's managed to complete his flights safely. His luck runs out when a disastrous mechanical malfunction sends his plane hurtling toward the ground. Whip pulls off a miraculous crash-landing that results in only six lives lost. Shaken to the core, Whip vows to get sober -- but when the crash investigation exposes his addiction, he finds himself in an even worse situation.



Real
Real(2013)
6.2

Neurosurgeon Koichi uses an experimental technique to enter the brain of his beloved Atsumi, who is in a coma after attempting suicide. In his quest, Koichi drifts steadily further into the sweltering marshes of the spirit. It is soon no longer clear what is real and what is not.



Air Crew
Air Crew(1980)
6.6

Story of the lives of three Soviet pilots who are united by disaster in a small town in the mountains.



The Ninth Configuration

Army psychiatrist Colonel Kane is posted to a secluded gothic castle housing a military asylum. With a reserved calm, he indulges the inmates' delusions, allowing them free rein to express their fantasies.



9th Company
6.703

Russian army recruits complete training and take their posting in late 1980s Afghanistan, where the insurgents are slowly gaining the upper hand.



The Search
6.8

A woman who works for a non-governmental organization (NGO) forms a special relationship with a young boy in war-torn Chechnya.



The Hurt Locker
7.256

During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.



Prisoner of War
7.163

British RAF Wing Commander James Wright is captured by the Japanese during WWII and forced to fight in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The Japanese soldiers get more than they bargained for when Wright’s years of martial arts training in Hong Kong prove him to be a formidable opponent.



In Fear
In Fear(2013)
5.5

Driving to a music festival in Ireland, a young couple gets trapped in a country maze on their way to a remote hotel, where an unidentifiable sinister force torments them.



Prey
Prey(2019)
4.696

After being put on a supposedly uninhabited island as a form of behavioral rehabilitation, a high school senior finds that he's not alone on the island, and that getting discovered could be deadly.



Platoon Leader
5.457

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.



Copycat
Copycat(1995)
6.472

An agoraphobic psychologist and a female detective must work together to take down a serial killer who copies serial killers from the past.

AboutPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceContact Us