Plot: When a covert mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA operative uncovers a chilling plot, an elite, highly trained U.S. SEAL team speeds to hotspots around the globe, racing against the clock to stop a deadly terrorist attack.

KBZ’s Take: Detractors of Act of Valor will often point out that the film has a pedestrian plot and suspect acting. We won’t argue those points because this isn’t a film you watch for the plot or acting – especially given that all the main actors in the film were (at the time) active U.S. Navy SEALs.

What you will get with Act of Valor is a raw, action-packed and exciting film that is one of the most accurate films in its portrayal of how SEALs perform on a mission and the tactics they use in real-life situations.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Tyler Rake, a fearless mercenary who offers his services on the black market, embarks on a dangerous mission when he is hired to rescue the kidnapped son of a Mumbai crime lord.

KBZ’s Take: One of the most action-packed and violent films of the subgenre, Extraction is an adrenaline rush from start to finish. The film also features special forces units not often represented in mainstream films from Chris Hemsworth as an ex-Australian SASR member turned mercenary and Randeep Hooda as a former member of India’s Para special forces.

This is another film on our list with a familiar plot (very reminiscent of Man on Fire (2004)) but with exhilarating action sequences that are the best of the subgenre.

Where to Stream / Buy: Netflix

Plot: Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.

KBZ’s Take: We had a bit of an internal debate on whether we should list Predator this high as it is mainly a sci-fi action film. But compared to other sci-fi films in the subgenre, Predator stands alone at the top with it’s heavy action focus centered around the paramilitary group led by Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger).

The final defining factor for our ranking here – it’s the only film on our list (and in the subgenre) that pits an elite special forces group against an elite militarized alien with futuristic versions of weaponry and equipment often used by special forces units.

Additional Lists: Best Alien Invasion Films #9

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: An American Ambassador is killed during an attack at a U.S. compound in Libya as a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos.

KBZ’s Take: Due to the politicization of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi in 2012, there were quite a few people who might have missed this film thinking it took one side or the other in the ongoing political debate. However, 13 Hours is a straightforward re-enactment of the events leading up to the attack with one of the most thrilling action sequences of the subgenre as a small GRS team led by Jack (John Krasinski) and Rone (James Badge Dale) fend off an all-out assault on the compound.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle takes his sole mission – protect his comrades – to heart and becomes one of the most lethal snipers in American history. His pinpoint accuracy not only saves countless lives but also makes him a prime target of insurgents. Despite grave danger and his struggle to be a good husband and father to his family back in the States, Kyle serves four tours of duty in Iraq. However, when he finally returns home, he finds that he cannot leave the war behind.

KBZ’s Take: Arguably the best film about snipers ever made, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper was nominated for six Academy Awards in 2015 including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. These are all well-deserved nominations but none more so than the Best Actor nomination for Bradley Cooper’s portrayal of Chris Kyle. It’s one of the best performances of the entire subgenre as Cooper’s elite sniper struggles psychologically with his home life and the ghosts of those he has killed on the battlefield.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Four Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative must make an impossible moral decision in the mountains of Afghanistan that leads them into an enemy ambush. As they confront unthinkable odds, the SEALs must find reserves of strength and resilience to fight to the finish.

KBZ’s Take: Peter Berg has made a name for himself within the subgenre directing films such as The Kingdom (2007) and Mile 22 (2018) and as the writer of The Losers (2010). But his magnum opus film involving special forces is, without a doubt, Lone Survivor.

This is a film with as much suspense as action as the small team of Navy SEALs (Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster) fight for their lives against the Taliban.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: FBI chemical warfare expert Stanley Goodspeed is sent on an urgent mission with a former British spy, John Patrick Mason, to stop Gen. Francis X. Hummel from launching chemical weapons on Alcatraz Island into San Francisco. Gen. Hummel demands $100 million in war reparations to be paid to the families of slain servicemen who died on covert operations. After their SEAL team is wiped out, Stanley and John deal with the soldiers on their own.

KBZ’s Take: Though The Rock follows Michael Bay’s principal rule of ‘style over substance’ like most of his films, it’s still one of the top films of the subgenre 29 years later.

This is a film that has it all from the Force Recon Marines turned terrorists led by Ed Harris, a Navy SEAL team led by Michael Biehn (in his third role portraying a Navy SEAL after The Abyss (1989) & Navy Seals (1990)) and even Sean Connery joins the party as a former SAS Captain.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as The Basterds are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine, soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

KBZ’s Take: We couldn’t have a list of special forces films without including this Quentin Tarantino classic. The only thing holding this back from being #1 on our list is that it’s technically not a true war film about special forces but rather a multi-genre film involving equal levels of comedy and violence.

With that said, even in the alternate universe of the film, Tarantino creates one of the most unique ‘black ops commando’ units of the entire subgenre who hunt Nazis in ways only Tarantino could dream of.

Additional Lists: Top Films About Nazi Fugitives & Nazi Hunters #2

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Vietnam veteran and drifter John J. Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) wanders into a small Washington town in search of an old friend but is met with intolerance and brutality by the local sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy). When Teasle and his deputies restrain and shave Rambo, he flashes back to his time as a prisoner of war and unleashes his fury on the officers. He narrowly escapes the manhunt, but it will take his former commander (Richard Crenna) to save the hunters from the hunted.

KBZ’s Take: It could be rightfully argued that the John Rambo series of films are the best of the entire subgenre. We wouldn’t necessarily disagree with this opinion but even with the influence of the Rambo films on various subgenre themes from post-Vietnam one-man-army rescue attempts in Rambo: First Blood II (1986) to Cold War U.S. vs. Soviet proxy wars in Afghanistan in Rambo III (1988), we couldn’t place any of the individual films above our #1 pick.

However, there’s no denying the massive influence Rambo had on the subgenre. First Blood set the tone for special forces in films (and is our personal favorite of the franchise) as it introduced an entire new generation to the elite Green Berets. And it also introduced an entire generation of kids to the survival weapon they wanted most (but knew their parents would never get for them) – the Rambo Knife.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: 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.

KBZ’s Take: There’s war films about special forces and there’s Black Hawk Down. It’s the rare film of the subgenre that puts the viewer directly within the action of a special forces group – from the initial planning stage to the chaos of combat. And this is a film that is non-stop chaos as an Army Rangers regiment and Delta Force team fight for their survival during the Battle of Mogadishu.

Ridley Scott has made his mark in cinema with some of the best films of various subgenres – from Alien (1979) in Cosmic Horror to Blade Runner (1982) in Sci-fi Future Noir to Gladiator (2000) in Ancient Warfare Films. But, despite his pedigree in sci-fi and historical epics, he’s also produced some of the best films of this subgenre with G.I. Jane (1997) and Body of Lies (2008). And while those films touch upon different themes of special forces from Navy SEAL training to counterterrorism, it’s Black Hawk Down that truly encapsulates the elite nature and role of special forces in war and doesn’t shy away from showing the unbridled brutality of modern warfare.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon