Movies like The Wave: 20 to watch next
If you loved The Wave (2008) — a drama and thriller film directed by Dennis Gansel — these 20 movies are the closest matches.
The first picks are what fans of The Wave most often go on to watch; the rest share its genres and themes like high school, experiment and dictator. 7 of them are streaming in India right now — each entry shows where.
Where to watch The Wave →·Get picks for your whole taste →
- 1
Land of the Blind 2006★ 5.8
Shares: Drama, Thriller
A soldier recounts his relationship with a famous political prisoner attempting to overthrow their country's authoritarian government.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 2
A Dry White Season 1989★ 6.7
Shares: Drama, Thriller
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Stream in India on MGM Plus Amazon Channel
- 3
Equilibrium 2002★ 7.1
Shares: Thriller
In a dystopian future, a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace with a drug, and displays of emotion are punishable by death. A man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 4
The Lords of Discipline 1983★ 6.6
Shares: Drama, Thriller
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 5
6 Underground 2019★ 6.3
Shares: Thriller
After faking his death, a tech billionaire recruits a team of international operatives for a bold and bloody mission to take down a brutal dictator.
Stream in India on Netflix
- 6
Child's Play 1972★ 6.1
Shares: Drama
At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 7
Closet Land 1991★ 6.7
Shares: Drama, Thriller
A young writer is interrogated by a sadistic secret policeman. She is accused of embedding political messages in her children's stories. The entire movie takes place in one room, with only the two actors. The movie is set in an unidentified, modern police state.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 8
Punishment Park 1971★ 7.3
Shares: Drama, Thriller
In this fictional documentary, U.S. prisons are at capacity, and President Nixon declares a state of emergency. All new prisoners, most of whom are connected to the antiwar movement, are now given the choice of jail time or spending three days in Punishment Park, where they will be hunted for sport by federal authorities. The prisoners invariably choose the latter option, but learn that, between the desert heat and the brutal police officers, their chances of survival are slim.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 9
Steve 2025★ 6.3
Shares: Drama
Over one intense day, the devoted head teacher of a last-chance reform school strives to keep his students in line while facing pressures of his own.
Stream in India on Netflix
- 10
One Eight Seven 1997★ 6.7
Shares: Drama, Thriller
When a Brooklyn high school student writes the police code for homicide, 187, inside a textbook owned by teacher Trevor Garfield, Garfield feels threatened. The principal dismisses the incident, but the same student stabs Trevor soon after. Fifteen months later, a physically and emotionally scarred Trevor relocates to California and takes up substitute teaching. To his dismay, his new school is as full of dangerously undisciplined students as his old one—including four Latin Americans and a European American claiming membership in tagging gang K.O.S. (Kappin' Off Suckers)—driving him over the edge.
Stream in India on Movie Sphere+
- 11
Luce 2019★ 6.4
Shares: Drama, Thriller
A star athlete and top student, Luce's idealized image is challenged by one of his teachers when his unsettling views on political violence come to light, putting a strain on family bonds while igniting intense debates on race and identity.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 12
Nineteen Eighty-Four 1984★ 6.8
Shares: Drama, Thriller
Winston Smith is a government employee whose job involves the rewriting of history in a manner that casts his fictional country's leaders in a charitable light. His trysts with Julia provide his only measure of enjoyment, but lawmakers frown on the relationship -- and in this closely monitored society, there is no escape from Big Brother.
Stream in India on MGM Plus Amazon Channel
- 13
Toy Soldiers 1991★ 6.5
Shares: Thriller
After federal agents arrest a drug czar and put him on trial, the cartel leader's vicious son storms a prep school and takes its students hostage. They rebel against the armed intruders and try to take back their academy by any means necessary.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 14
Light It Up 1999★ 6.6
Shares: Drama, Thriller
On a winter day in a southside Queens high school, events collide and six students are suddenly in an armed standoff with the NYPD. At the school, classrooms freeze, teachers come and go, resources are scant.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 15
if.... 1968★ 7.0
Shares: Drama
In an English boys' boarding school, social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. Three Lower Sixth students, Wallace, Johnny and leader Mick Travis decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 16
The Stanford Prison Experiment 2015★ 6.8
Shares: Thriller, Drama
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 17
Sin City 2005★ 7.5
Shares: Thriller
Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, others lust after redemption, and then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 18
To End All Wars 2001★ 6.4
Shares: Drama
Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.
Stream in India on Tubi TV
- 19
The Running Man 2025★ 6.7
Shares: Thriller
Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards is convinced by The Running Man's charming but ruthless producer to enter the deadly competition game as a last resort. But Ben's defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite — and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, so does the danger, and Ben must outwit not just the Hunters, but a nation addicted to watching him fall.
Stream in India on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
- 20
After the Dark 2013★ 6.0
Shares: Drama, Thriller
At an international school in Jakarta, a philosophy teacher challenges his class of twenty graduating seniors to choose which ten of them would take shelter underground and reboot the human race in the event of a nuclear apocalypse.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now