Best Thriller Movies
by eudemonicnick | created - 1 month ago | updated - 4 days ago | PublicBest Thriller Movies to Watch At Least Once in a Lifetime
Movies included in the list either have an outstanding craftsmanship in which case they have been rated ten by the list creator, or have some achievement in the plot, cinematography, directing, approach etc. which in some sense compensates for any flaw & qualifies them for being dubbed "best thriller movie", although with a lower rating.
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Sin City (2005)
R | 124 min | Crime, Thriller
An exploration of the dark and miserable Basin City and three of its residents, all of whom are caught up in violent corruption.
Directors: Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba
Votes: 793,873 | Gross: $74.10M
2. Basic Instinct (1992)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A violent police detective investigates a brutal murder that might involve a manipulative and seductive novelist.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Votes: 219,193 | Gross: $117.73M
3. Get Out (I) (2017)
R | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young African-American visits his white girlfriend's parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
Director: Jordan Peele | Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener
Votes: 697,039 | Gross: $176.04M
4. The Departed (2006)
R | 151 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Votes: 1,422,565 | Gross: $132.38M
5. Wild Tales (2014)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Six short stories that explore the extremities of human behavior involving people in distress.
Director: Damián Szifron | Stars: Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa, Diego Starosta
Votes: 216,349 | Gross: $3.11M
6. The Game (1997)
R | 129 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a wealthy San Francisco banker is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down as he begins to question if it might really be a concealed conspiracy to destroy him.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Michael Douglas, Deborah Kara Unger, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn
Votes: 429,501 | Gross: $48.32M
7. Taken (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
Director: Pierre Morel | Stars: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser
Votes: 634,578 | Gross: $145.00M
8. Parasite (2019)
R | 132 min | Drama, Thriller
Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly-formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik
Votes: 959,804 | Gross: $53.37M
9. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen
Votes: 1,194,250 | Gross: $70.10M
10. No Country for Old Men (2007)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson
Votes: 1,060,452 | Gross: $74.28M
11. Memento (2000)
R | 113 min | Mystery, Thriller
A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 1,323,114 | Gross: $25.54M
12. No Time to Die (2021)
PG-13 | 163 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when Felix Leiter, an old friend from the CIA, turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga | Stars: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux
Votes: 444,823 | Gross: $160.87M
13. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
PG-13 | 164 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Eight years after the Joker's reign of chaos, Batman is coerced out of exile with the assistance of the mysterious Selina Kyle in order to defend Gotham City from the vicious guerrilla terrorist Bane.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman
Votes: 1,827,715 | Gross: $448.14M
14. True Lies (1994)
R | 141 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller
A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used-car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton
Votes: 281,025 | Gross: $146.28M
15. Ocean's Eleven (2001)
PG-13 | 116 min | Crime, Thriller
Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon
Votes: 619,357 | Gross: $183.42M
16. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 383,911 | Gross: $7.22M
17. Death Proof (2007)
R | 127 min | Action, Thriller
Two separate sets of voluptuous women are stalked at different times by a scarred stuntman who uses his "death proof" cars to execute his murderous plans.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Kurt Russell, Zoë Bell, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito
Votes: 313,917
18. Casino Royale (2006)
PG-13 | 144 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
After earning 00 status and a licence to kill, secret agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, Montenegro.
Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright
Votes: 694,674 | Gross: $167.45M
19. Skyfall (2012)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Judi Dench
Votes: 731,197 | Gross: $304.36M
20. Psycho (1960)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 718,400 | Gross: $32.00M
21. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
PG-13 | 147 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg
Votes: 378,212 | Gross: $220.16M
22. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
R | 137 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
The Bride continues her quest of vengeance against her former boss and lover Bill, the reclusive bouncer Budd, and the treacherous, one-eyed Elle.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah
Votes: 805,785 | Gross: $66.21M
23. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
PG-13 | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Ethan and his team take on their most impossible mission yet when they have to eradicate an international rogue organization as highly skilled as they are and committed to destroying the IMF.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg
Votes: 411,010 | Gross: $195.04M
24. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name.
Director: Brad Bird | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton
Votes: 528,501 | Gross: $209.40M
25. Crash (I) (2004)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.
Director: Paul Haggis | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Thandiwe Newton, Karina Arroyave
Votes: 449,048 | Gross: $54.58M
26. Rear Window (1954)
PG | 112 min | Mystery, Thriller
A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter
Votes: 522,167 | Gross: $36.76M
27. Limitless (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100% of his brain's abilities transforms a struggling writer into a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with many dangers.
Director: Neil Burger | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro
Votes: 612,514 | Gross: $79.25M
28. Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
PG-13 | 122 min | Crime, Thriller
Danny Ocean rounds up the boys for a third heist after casino owner Willy Bank double-crosses one of the original eleven, Reuben Tishkoff.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Michael Mantell
Votes: 367,458 | Gross: $117.15M
29. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 426,995 | Gross: $3.20M
30. Enemy of the State (1998)
R | 132 min | Action, Thriller
A lawyer becomes targeted by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a politically motivated crime.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet
Votes: 258,948 | Gross: $111.55M
31. Spy Game (2001)
R | 126 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane
Votes: 167,097 | Gross: $0.03M
Tell Your Friends