The Best War Movies on PlutoTV

What it's about: Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV & Vudu) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV, Plex & Crackle), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Paramount+, Philo & 2 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: As World War II rages, the elite Sixth Ranger Battalion is given a mission of heroic proportions: push 30 miles behind enemy lines and liberate over 500 American prisoners of war.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare. Captain Fred Derry is returning to a loveless marriage; Sergeant Al Stephenson is a stranger to a family that's grown up without him; and young sailor Homer Parrish is tormented by the loss of his hands. Can these three men find the courage to rebuild their world? Or are the best years of their lives a thing of the past?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & Microsoft).

What it's about: An American girl on holiday in the English countryside with her family finds herself in hiding and fighting for her survival as war breaks out.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Philo, fuboTV & 2 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A man working for the War Crimes Commission suspects that an important Nazi official has folded himself into a quaint Connecticut town.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV, Plex & The Roku Channel), stream on a subscription service (Paramount+, Starz, Epix & 3 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz & Epix) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Paramount+) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A second-rate journalist from the US tries his luck in El Salvador during the military dictatorship in the 1980s.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & HBO) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: War in Abkhazia, 1992. An Estonian man Ivo has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines. In a bloody conflict at his door, a wounded man is left behind, and Ivo is forced to take him in.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Vudu & 1 other), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Philo & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Gritty adaption of William Shakespeare's play about the English King's bloody conquest of France.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV & The Roku Channel), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (Microsoft & Vudu).

What it's about: Set in 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 4 others), stream on a subscription service (Philo, fuboTV, Hoopla & 1 other) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: The true story of the formation of Ian Fleming's 30 Commando unit, a precursor for the elite forces in the U.K.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & YouTube), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Nazi POWs suspected of heinous acts are locked up in a Soviet women's prison run by vengeful female guards. To weed out the guilty, the innocent must pay. Can supposed enemies turn into great loves? Based on a true post-World War II story, this drama stars Thomas Kretschmann, John Malkovich and Vera Farmiga in a bitter game of cat and mouse and a battle between hate and humanity, mercy and revenge.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & Vudu) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: In the midst of World War II, Sherlock Holmes rescues the Swiss inventor of a new bomb-sight from the Gestapo and brings him to England, where he shortly falls into the clutches of Professor Moriarty.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, IMDb TV & 1 other), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Paramount+, Starz & 4 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Starz & Epix) & rent or buy from $2.00 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A true-life epic that revolves around an exclusive bataillon of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, "Carlson's Raiders," whose assignment is to take control of a South Pacific island once possessed by the United States but now under Japanese command.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Paramount+, Epix & 2 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 2 services (Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: A Nazi spy ring is after a chemical formula that increases the power of ordinary gasoline for U.S. Army aviation use. Two U.S. chemical companies are developing the formula, with each working on half for security purposes. The spies get half the formula and know that either of two chemists, Robert Norton or Tom Fielding, knows the rest. They capture Fielding, through a ruse by gang member Linda Pavlo, and threaten the life of his sister Nancy and his mother if he does not give them the formula. To protect his friend Fielding, who does know the formula and is engaged to Nancy, Tom pretends to know the secret and boards the Dawn Express plane with the spy leader and his gang.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Paramount+ & Epix), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haunted" by mysterious men.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & Plex), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Paramount+, Epix & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $2.00 on 2 services (Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Three stories told simultaneously in ninety minutes of real time: a Republican Senator who's a presidential hopeful gives an hour-long interview to a skeptical television reporter, detailing a strategy for victory in Afghanistan; two special forces ambushed on an Afghani ridge await rescue as Taliban forces close in; a poli-sci professor at a California college invites a student to re-engage.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Joe Enders is a gung-ho Marine assigned to protect a "windtalker" - one of several Navajo Indians who were used to relay messages during World War II because their spoken language was indecipherable to Japanese code breakers.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A naval officer reprimanded after Pearl Harbor is later promoted to rear admiral and gets a second chance to prove himself against the Japanese.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: 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.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV & The Roku Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a subscription service (Philo, fuboTV, Hoopla & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: 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.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Paramount+) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A young journalist, an experienced cameraman and a discredited reporter find their bold plan to capture Bosnia's top war criminal quickly spiraling out of control when a UN representative mistakes them for a CIA hit squad.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: War Inc. is set in the future, when the fictional desert country of Turaqistan is torn by a riot after a private corporation, Tamerlane, owned by the former Vice President of the United States, has taken over the whole country. Brand Hauser, a hit man who suppresses his emotions by gobbling down hot sauce, is hired by the corporation's head to kill the CEO of their competitors.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Peacock & 4 others), stream on a subscription service (Philo & fuboTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Microsoft).

What it's about: The story revolves around three soldiers — Colee, T.K. and Cheaver — who return from the Iraq War after suffering injuries and learn that life has moved on without them. They end up on an unexpected road trip across the U.S.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A group of army personnel and nurses attempt a dangerous and arduous trek across the deserts of North Africa during the second world war. The leader of the team dreams of his ice cold beer when he reaches Alexandria.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & The Roku Channel), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Will Montgomery, a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant who has returned home from Iraq, is assigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service. Montgomery is partnered with Captain Tony Stone, to give notice to the families of fallen soldiers. The Sergeant is drawn to Olivia Pitterson, to whom he has delivered news of her husband’s death.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu, Philo, fuboTV & 3 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 3 others), stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & IMDb TV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: When George Carlin is asked which HBO concert is his favorite, his answer is always, "Jammin’ In New York." The show, taped at the Paramount Theater in Madison Square Garden and winner of the 1992 CableACE Award, is a perfect blend of biting social commentary and more gently-observed observational pieces.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & Vudu), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A young man who arrives at a remote island finds himself trapped in a battle for his life.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Vudu & 1 other), stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: On 9 April 1940, German soldiers arrive in the city of Oslo. The King of Norway faces a choice that will change his country forever. The King's Choice is a story about the three most dramatic days in Norway's history, the royal family's escape and King Haakon's difficult choice after Nazi Germany's invasion of Norway.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Vudu & 2 others), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Vudu & 1 other) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Near the end of World War II, Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz receives orders to burn down Paris if it becomes clear the Allies are going to invade, or if he cannot maintain control of the city. After much contemplation Choltitz decides to ignore his orders, enraging the Germans and giving hope to various resistance factions that the city will be liberated. Choltitz, along with Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, helps a resistance leader organize his forces.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Chronological look at the fiasco in Iraq, especially decisions made in the spring of 2003 - and the backgrounds of those making decisions - immediately following the overthrow of Saddam: no occupation plan, an inadequate team to run the country, insufficient troops to keep order, and three edicts from the White House announced by Bremmer when he took over.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a subscription service (Discovery+, Kanopy & Dox) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A gang of South Korean thieves team up with a Hong Kong crew to steal a diamond necklace from a heavily-guarded casino safe in Macau. As the cops close in, old betrayals — and misunderstandings — resurface.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Vudu & 1 other), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla & Hiyah) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a subscription service (Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $5.99 on 1 service (Google Play).

What it's about: When the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his flirtatious wife Caitlin sweep into war-torn London, the last thing they expect is to bump into Dylan's childhood sweetheart Vera. Despite her joy at seeing Dylan after so many years, Vera is swept off her feet by a dashing officer, William Killick, and finds herself torn between the open adoration of her new found beau and the wily charms of the exotic Welshman.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 3 others), stream on a subscription service (Philo & fuboTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The captain of a submarine sunk by the Japanese during WWII is finally given a chance to skipper another sub after a year of working a desk job. His singleminded determination for revenge against the destroyer that sunk his previous vessel puts his new crew in unneccessary danger.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Vudu).

What it's about: Construction workers in World War II in the Pacific are needed to build military sites, but the work is dangerous and they doubt the ability of the Navy to protect them. After a series of attacks by the Japanese, something new is tried, Construction Battalions (CBs=Seabees). The new CBs have to both build and be ready to fight.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Psychotic Angela is itching to do what she does best: slaughter dozens of teenage campers. As luck would have it, the previous site of her murders has been renamed and converted into an experimental summer camp meant to bring together privileged and lower-class teens. On the day the youths are boarding the buses to camp, Angela runs over a potential camper with a garbage truck and assumes her identity. Once she has infiltrated the camp, the real terror begins.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PlutoTV) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: In this radically reimagined American Western set towards the end of the Civil War, Southerner Augusta encounters two renegade, drunken soldiers who are on a mission of pillage and violence. After escaping an attempted assault, Augusta races back to the isolated farmhouse that she shares with her sister Louise and their female slave Mad. When the pair of soldiers track Augusta down intent on exacting revenge, the trio of women are forced to take up arms to fend off their assailants, finding ways to resourcefully defend their home––and themselves––as the escalating attacks become more unpredictable and relentless.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Peacock & 2 others), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hulu, Fandor & 3 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Afghanistan. War correspondent Elsa Casanova is taken hostage by the Taliban. Faced with her imminent execution, a Special Forces unit is dispatched to free her. In some of the world’s most breathtaking yet hostile landscapes, a relentless pursuit begins between her kidnappers who have no intention of letting their prey escape them and a group of soldiers who risk their lives in pursuit of their single aim – to bring her home alive. This strong, independent woman and these men of duty are thrown together and forced to confront situations of great danger that inextricably bind them – emotionally, violently and intimately.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).