Best Thriller Movies: Top 100+ Thriller Movies of All Time

1

Blade Runner

In 2019 Los Angeles, former police officer Rick Deckard is detained by officer Gaff, and brought to his former supervisor, Bryant. Deckard, whose job as a “blade runner” was to track down bioengineered beings known…

2

Die Hard

On Christmas Eve, NYPD detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles, intending to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly, at the Christmas party of her employer, the Nakatomi corporation. McClane is driven to the party by Argyle, an…

3

Zodiac

On July 4, 1969, an unknown man attacks Darlene Ferrin (Ciara Hughes) and Mike Mageau (Lee Norris) with a handgun at a lovers’ lane in Vallejo, California. Mageau survives. One month later, the San Francisco…

4

The Untouchables

During Prohibition in 1930, reigning crime kingpin Al Capone has nearly the whole city of Chicago under his control and supplies illegal liquor. Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness is assigned to…

5

Jaws

During a beach party at dusk on Amity Island, New England, a young woman, Chrissie Watkins, goes skinny dipping in the ocean. While treading water, she is violently pulled under. The next day, her partial remains are found on…

6

No Country for Old Men

The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh, and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican–American border in remote Terrell County in…

7

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Following his pursuit by Kirill (in The Bourne Supremacy), Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) evades Moscow police while wounded and deals with more flashbacks of when he first joined Operation Treadstone. Six weeks…

8

Jurassic Park

Industrialist John Hammond and his bioengineering company, InGen, have created a theme park featuring cloned dinosaurs and prehistoric plants, called Jurassic Park, on Isla Nublar, a Costa Rican island. After a…

9

Kill Bill Volume 2

The pregnant Bride and her groom rehearse their wedding. Bill, the Bride’s former lover, the father of her child, and the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, arrives unexpectedly and orders the Deadly Vipers to kill everyone…

10

Kill Bill Volume 1

A woman in a wedding dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a chapel in El Paso, Texas, having been attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She tells their leader, Bill, that she is pregnant with his baby. Bill shoots her in…

11

The Dark Knight

A gang of criminals rob a Gotham City mob bank, murdering each other for a higher share of the money until only the Joker remains, who escapes with the money. Batman, District Attorney Harvey Dent and…

12

The Salesman

Emad and Rana are a married couple who both work in the theatre, currently starring in a production of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, with Emad portraying Willy Loman and Rana playing Linda. Emad is also a…

13

The Boondock Saints

Irish-American twin brothers Connor and Murphy MacManus attend Mass, where the priest mentions the fate of murder victim Kitty Genovese. Later, when Connor and Murphy are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with friends,…

14

Death Proof (2007)

Three friends, Arlene, Shanna and radio DJ “Jungle” Julia Lucai, drive down Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas on their way to celebrate Julia’s birthday. In a bar, Julia reveals that she made a radio announcement…

15

Nightcrawler

Petty thief Louis “Lou” Bloom is caught stealing from a Los Angeles construction site by a security guard. He attacks the guard, steals his watch and leaves with the stolen material. After selling the material at a scrap yard,…

16

Source Code

U.S. Army pilot Captain Colter Stevens wakes up on a Metra[6] commuter train headed to Chicago. Stevens is disoriented, his last memory before that was being on a mission in Afghanistan. To the world around him –…

17

Phone Booth

Stuart “Stu” Shepard (Colin Farrell) is an arrogant New York City publicist who has been courting a woman named Pam (Katie Holmes) behind the back of his wife Kelly (Radha Mitchell). He uses the last remaining public phone…

18

A History of Violence

Tom Stall is a diner owner who lives in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, with a loving wife Edie, teenage son Jack, and daughter Sarah. One night, two men attempt to rob the restaurant. When a waitress is threatened, Tom deftly kills both…

19

True Lies

Harry Tasker leads a double life: to his wife Helen and his daughter Dana, he is a computer salesman often away on business trips, while in reality he is a covert operative for a U.S. counter-terrorism task force called “Omega…

20

Now You See Me

Four stage magicians, J. Daniel “Danny” Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), are each given a tarot card that leads them to the same empty…

21

Panic Room

Recently divorced Meg Altman, and her eleven-year old daughter, Sarah, move into a four-story brownstone on the Upper West Sideof New York City. The house’s previous owner, a reclusive millionaire, installed a “panic…

22

Bridge of Spies

In 1957 New York City, Rudolf Abel is arrested and charged with spying for the Soviet Union. Insurance lawyer James B. Donovan is prevailed upon to take on the unenviable task of defending Abel, so that Abel’s…

23

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Andy Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a finance executive at a real estate firm in New York City. Facing an upcoming audit he knows will reveal his having embezzled from his employer (in support of a drug habit), Andy decides to escape to Brazil,…

24

Cape Fear

Sam Bowden is a lawyer in the town of New Essex, North Carolina. Max Cady is a former client whom Bowden defended 14 years earlier when he was working as a public defender in Atlanta. Cady was tried for the violent rape and…

25

Desperado

At the Tarasco bar in Mexico, an American man named Buscemi tells the story of how he witnessed a massacre in another bar committed by a Mexican with a guitar case full of guns. The bar’s patrons are uninterested until Buscemi mentions the…

26

This is a good article. Follow the link for more information. Blue Velvet

Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns to his logging home town of Lumberton, North Carolina, from Oak Lake College after his father suffers a near-fatal stroke. While walking home from the hospital, he cuts through a vacant lot and…

27

Blood Diamond

It is 1999 and Sierra Leone is ravaged by major political unrest. Rebel factions such as the Revolutionary United Front frequently terrorize the countryside, intimidating Mende locals and enslaving many to…

28

Sherlock Holmes

In 1890 London, private detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. John Watson prevent the ritual murder of a woman by Lord Henry Blackwood, who has killed five other young women similarly. Inspector…

29

Jackie Brown

In 1995 Jackie Brown, a middle-aged flight attendant for a small Mexican airline, makes ends meet smuggling money from Mexico into the United States for Ordell Robbie, a black-market gun runner living in the Los Angeles metropolitan…

30

Mr. Brooks

Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a wealthy, successful businessman recently honored by the Portland, Oregon, Chamber of Commerceas “Man of the Year”. However, Brooks lives a secret life as a serial killer, known as the…

31

The Next Three Days

Lara Brennan (Elizabeth Banks) is wrongly convicted of murdering her boss and is sentenced to life in prison. Her young son Luke ceases to acknowledge her during prison visits. Following the failure of her appeal, her attorney balks at her…

32

Match Point

Chris Wilton, a recently retired tennis professional, is taken on as an instructor at an upmarket club in London. He strikes up a friendship with a wealthy pupil, Tom Hewett, after discovering their common affinity for opera.…

33

Saw

Adam, a photographer, awakens in a bathtub in a large dilapidated bathroom, chained at the ankle to a pipe. Lawrence Gordon, an oncologist, is chained to a pipe across the room. Between them is a corpse holding a revolver and…

34

The Unknown Woman

Irena (Kseniya Rappoport), a Ukrainian prostitute on the run, is determined to find a job in an elegant apartment building in northern Italy, and starts by cleaning the stairs. She does it in order to inch her way into working for a family residing…

35

Road to Perdition

In 1931, during the Great Depression, Michael Sullivan, Sr. is an enforcer for Irish mob boss John Rooney in Rock Island, Illinois. Rooney raised the orphan Sullivan and loves him more than his own biological son, Connor. Rooney…

36

Face/Off

On September 24, 1991, FBI Special Agent Sean Archer survives an assassination attempt by freelance terrorist and homicidal sociopath Castor Troy, but the bullet penetrates Archer’s chest and strikes his son Michael, killing the…

37

Taken

Retired CIA field agent Bryan Mills attempts to build a closer relationship with his 17-year-old daughter Kim, who lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. While overseeing security at a concert for pop star Sheerah,…

38

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The character of Sweeney Todd had its origins in serialized Victorian popular fiction, known as “penny dreadfuls”. A story called The String of Pearls was published in a weekly magazine during the winter of…

39

Ronin

At a bistro in Montmartre, Irish operative Deirdre meets with former special operatives-turned-mercenaries Sam and Larry (Americans) and Vincent (a Frenchman). She takes them to a warehouse where fellow mercenaries (the Englishman Spence and…

40

Mission: Impossible

Jim Phelps and his team, the Impossible Missions Force (IMF), attempt to retrieve the CIA non-official cover (NOC) list from the American embassy in Prague. Their mission fails: Phelps is shot, his wife Claire dies…

41

The Secret in Their Eyes

Retiree Benjamín Espósito is having trouble getting started on his first novel. He pays a visit to the offices of Judge Irene Menéndez Hastings to tell her about his plans to recount the story of the Liliana Coloto case, which they had both…

42

The Lives of Others

In 1984 East Germany, Stasi Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), code name HGW XX/7, is ordered to spy on the playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), who has escaped state scrutiny due to his pro-Communist views and…

43

Elephant

Mr. McFarland is driving erratically down a residential street on the way to drop off his son John. John notices damage to the car and realizes that his father is drunk, so John instructs him to move to the passenger seat and let him drive. Alex and…

44

JFK

The film opens with newsreel footage, including the farewell address in 1961 of outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, warning about the build-up of the “military-industrial complex“. This is followed by a summary…

45

Children of Men

In 2027, after 18 years of global human infertility and depression, the world is on the brink of collapse as humanity faces extinction. The United Kingdom, one of the very few stable nations with a functioning government, is deluged by asylum…

46

The Ghost Writer

A British ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) is hired by the publishing firm Rhinehart, Inc., to complete the autobiography of former Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). His predecessor and Lang’s aide, Mike…

47

The Imitation Game

In 1951, two policemen, Nock and Staehl, investigate the mathematician Alan Turing after an apparent break-in at his home. During his interrogation by Nock, Turing tells of his time working at Bletchley Park during…

48

Lost Highway

One day, Fred Madison, a Los Angeles saxophonist, receives a message on the intercom of his house: “Dick Laurent is dead.” The next morning, his wife Renee finds a VHS tape on their porch containing a video of their…

49

Fargo

In the winter of 1987, Jerry Lundegaard, the sales manager at an Oldsmobile dealership in Minneapolis, is desperate for money. He floats a $320,000 GMAC loan, which he collateralizes with nonexistent vehicles and is unable…

50

Straw Dogs

After securing a grant to study stellar structures, American applied mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) moves with his glamorous young British wife Amy (Susan George) to her natal village of Wakely in…

51

Arrival

Linguist Louise Banks’s daughter, Hannah, dies in adolescence from an incurable illness. Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft appear at separate locations around the Earth. A U.S. Army officer, Colonel G.T. Weber, recruits Banks and…

52

Captain Phillips

Richard Phillips takes command of MV Maersk Alabama, an unarmed container ship from the Port of Salalah in Oman, with orders to sail through the Guardafui Channel to Mombasa, Kenya. Wary of…

53

Vertigo

After a rooftop chase, where his fear of heights and vertigo result in the death of a policeman, San Francisco detective John “Scottie” Ferguson retires. Scottie tries to conquer his fear, but his friend and…

54

Gone Girl

The day of their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife Amy is missing. Her disappearance receives heavy press coverage because Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular Amazing…

55

Psycho

During a lunchtime tryst in a Phoenix, Arizona hotel, real-estate secretary, Marion Crane, and her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, discuss how they cannot afford to get married because of Sam’s debts. After lunch, Marion returns to…

56

The Devil’s Advocate

Kevin Lomax, a defense attorney from Gainesville, Florida, has never lost a case. As he defends a schoolteacher, Lloyd Gettys, against a charge of child molestation, Kevin belatedly realizes his client is guilty and local reporter Larry…

57

Munich

At the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Palestinian terrorist group Black September kills eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team. Avner Kaufman, a Mossad agent of German-Jewish descent, is chosen to lead a mission to assassinate 11…

58

Rear Window

Quadriplegic Jason Kemp, a former architect who now uses a wheelchair, relieves the boredom of his daily existence by engaging in voyeurism, a pastime that allows him to spy on his neighbors from the rear window of his apartment.…

59

Casino Royale

MI6 agent James Bond gains his licence to kill and status as a 00 agent by assassinating the traitorous MI6 section chief Dryden at the British Embassy in Prague, as well as his contact, Fisher,…

60

Gravity

NASA Space Shuttle Explorer, commanded by veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski, is in Earth orbit on mission STS-157 to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Dr. Ryan Stone is aboard on her first space mission as a mission…

61

Memento

The film starts with the Polaroid photograph of a dead man. As the sequence plays backwards the photo reverts to its undeveloped state, entering the camera before the man is shot in the head. The film then continues, alternating…

62

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

In December 2002, Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of the Swedish political magazine Millennium, loses a libel case involving allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström. Blomkvist is sentenced to three months…

63

Mad Max: Fury Road

Following an energy crisis, the world has become a desert wasteland and civilization has collapsed. Max Rockatansky, a survivor, is captured by the War Boys, the army of the tyrannical Immortan Joe, and taken to Joe’s Citadel. Designated…

64

Amores Perros

Amores perros is a 2000 Mexican crime drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga. Amores perros is the first installment in González Iñárritu’s…

65

North by Northwest

It is 1958. At a New York City hotel bar, two thugs looking for “George Kaplan” see a waiter calling his name; at the same time advertising executive Roger Thornhill summons the waiter (to help send a telegram to his mother). Thornhill…

66

The Game

Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy investment banker, is estranged from both his ex-wife and his younger brother, Conrad. He remains haunted from having seen his father commit suicide on the latter’s 48th birthday. For Nicholas’s own…

67

Eyes Wide Shut

Dr. Bill Harford and Alice are a young married couple living in New York. They attend a Christmas party hosted by a wealthy patient, Victor Ziegler, where Bill is reunited with Nick Nightingale, a medical school drop-out who now plays piano…

68

127 Hours

In April 2003, mountaineer Aron Ralston goes hiking at Utah‘s Canyonlands National Park. He befriends hikers Kristi and Megan, and shows them an underground pool. After swimming, Aron parts ways with the hikers,…

69

Twelve Monkeys

A deadly virus released in 1996 wipes out almost all of humanity, forcing survivors to live underground. A group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is believed to have released the virus. In 2035, James Cole is a prisoner living in a…

70

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published in black and white as an ongoing serial in the…

71

Apocalypto

While hunting in the Mesoamerican rainforest, Jaguar Paw, his father Flint Sky, and their fellow tribesmen encounter a procession of refugees fleeing warfare. The group’s leader explains that their lands were ravaged and they seek a…

72

The Sixth Sense

Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist in Philadelphia, returns home one night with his wife, Anna, after having been honored for his work. Anna tells Crowe that everything is second to his work, and that she believes he is truly gifted. A young…

73

The Hateful Eight

Years after the American Civil War, bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren is transporting three dead bounties to the town of Red Rock, Wyoming. He hitches a ride on a stagecoach driven by O.B. Jackson. Aboard is bounty…

74

Run Lola Run

Lola receives a frantic phone call from her boyfriend Manni, a bagman responsible for delivering 100,000 Deutsche Mark. While waiting for a subway to the drop-off location, Manni panicked at the sight of ticket inspectors and left the…

75

Oldboy

In 1993, alcoholic advertising executive, Joe Doucett, gets drunk after losing a major account. Before he passes out, he sees a woman with a yellow umbrella. When he wakes, he finds himself locked within a hotel room. His unseen captors…

76

Lucky Number Slevin

Two bookies are separately ambushed and murdered by their unseen killers; elsewhere, a young man is killed by a sniper. In a bus terminal, a young man is approached by Goodkat, who tells the story of Max and the Kansas City Shuffle: two decades…

77

Prisoners

In suburban Pennsylvania, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), his wife Grace, their teenage son Ralph and young daughter Anna attend a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of their friends, Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard) and his wife Nancy (Viola Davis),…

78

The Revenant

In late 1823, Hugh Glass guides Andrew Henry’s trappers through unorganized territory. While he and his half-Pawnee son, Hawk, are hunting, the company’s camp is attacked by an Arikara war party seeking to…

79

Collateral (2004)

Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx), a meticulous Los Angeles cab driver, is working to earn enough to start his own limousine business. One of the evening’s fares is U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Annie Farrell (Jada…

80

The Usual Suspects

A criminal, Dean Keaton, is lying badly wounded on a ship docked in San Pedro Bay. He is confronted by a mysterious figure whom he calls “Keyser”, who shoots him dead and sets fire to the ship. The next day, the police recover…

81

The Prestige

In 1890s London, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden work as shills for a magician. In one trick, Angier’s wife Julia escapes from a water tank while tied up. When Borden ties her hands with a risky double knot, Julia fails to…

82

Mystic River

Three boys, Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle, play hockey in a Boston street in 1975. Spotting wet concrete, they start writing their names into it when a car pulls up with two men, one pretending to be a police officer and the…

83

Chinatown

A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires private investigator J.J. “Jake” Gittes to follow her husband, Hollis Mulwray, chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gittes tails him, hears…

84

Insomnia

In the small fishing town of Nightmute, Alaska, 17-year-old Kay Connell is found murdered. LAPD detectives Will Dormer and Hap Eckhart are sent to assist the local police with their investigation, at the request of police chief Nyback, an old…

85

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Ghost Dog sees himself as a retainer of Louie, a local mobster, who saved Ghost Dog’s life years earlier. While living as a hitman for the American Mafia, he adheres to the code of the samurai, and interprets and applies the…

86

The Others

Set in 1945, Grace Stewart occupies a remote country house in the Channel Islands and one day awakens from a harsh nightmare in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She lives with her two young children, Anne and Nicholas, who…

87

The Fugitive

Dr. Richard Kimble, a prominent Chicago vascular surgeon, arrives home to find his wife Helen fatally wounded by a one-armed man. Kimble struggles with the killer but he escapes. The lack of evidence of a break-in, Helen’s lucrative…

88

Shutter Island

In 1954, widower U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule go on a ferry boat to Shutter Island, the home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient, Rachel…

89

Minority Report

In April 2054, Washington, DC‘s PreCrime police stops murderers before they act, reducing the murder rate to zero. Murders are predicted using three mutated humans, called “Precogs”, who “previsualize” crimes by…

90

The Silence of the Lambs

FBI trainee Clarice Starling, is pulled from her training at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia by Jack Crawford of the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit. He assigns her to interview Hannibal…

91

Sin City

Sin City is a series of neo-noir comics by American comic book writer Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special (April 1991), and continued…

92

The Dark Knight Rises

Eight years after the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman has disappeared and organized crime has been eradicated in Gotham City thanks to the Dent Act. Police Commissioner James…

93

Se7en

Soon-to-retire detective William Somerset is partnered with short-tempered but idealistic David Mills, who has recently moved to the city with his wife Tracy. Tracy confides to Somerset that she is pregnant and has yet to tell Mills, as she is…

94

Crash

The movie begins with Detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) and his partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito) being involved in a minor collision with a car being driven by Kim Lee (Alexis Rhee). A subsequent exchange of racially charged insults occurs. The…

95

Mulholland Drive

A dark-haired woman is the sole survivor of a car crash on Mulholland Drive, a winding road high in the Hollywood Hills. Injured and in shock, she makes her way down into Los Angeles and sneaks into an apartment. Later that morning, an…

96

Black Swan (2010)

Nina Sayers is a 28-year-old dancer in a New York City ballet company, which is preparing to open its new season with Tchaikovsky‘s Swan Lake. With prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre being forced into retirement, artistic…

97

Léon: The Professional

Léon Montana is an Italian hitman (or “cleaner”, as he refers to himself) living a solitary life in New York City’s Little Italy. His work comes from a mafioso named Tony. Léon spends his idle time…

98

Heat

Neil McCauley (De Niro), a highly skilled career criminal, and his crew – Chris Shiherlis (Kilmer), Michael Cheritto (Sizemore), and Trejo – hire Waingro (Gage) to help them rob $1.6 million in bearer bonds from an armored car. During…

99

The Departed (2006)

As a child, Colin Sullivan is introduced to organized crime by Irish-American mobster Frank Costello in the Irish neighborhood of South Boston. Over the years, Costello grooms him to become a mole inside…

100

Inception

Dominick “Dom” Cobb and Arthur are “extractors”, who perform corporate espionage using an experimental military technology to infiltrate the subconscious of their targets and extract valuable information…

Best Thriller Movies: Top 100+ Thriller Movies of All Time

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