Movies like Whatever It Takes (2022)
The best movies like Whatever It Takes (2022) are Absolution (2024), Gladiator Underground (2025) and The System (2022). If Whatever It Takes hooked you with its action, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Enforcer (2022)7.0/10 from 533 votes
- NewestTrap House (2025)Released 2025
Absolution (2024)
An aging ex-boxer gangster working as muscle for a Boston crime boss receives an upsetting diagnosis. Despite a faltering memory, he attempts to rectify the sins of his past and reconnect with his estranged children. He is determined to leave a positive legacy for his grandson, but the criminal underworld isn’t done with him and won’t loosen their grip willingly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisGladiator Underground (2025)
Two brothers compete in the world's deadliest underground fighting tournament, where they must decide whether to play by the rules or to cast their honor aside and team up to bring down the dark syndicate running the tournament.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe System (2022)
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight Train (2023)
Mother Holly McCord is driven to extremes to save the life of her young son. Even if it means hauling black market drugs in her souped-up truck, with the Feds in hot pursuit. With two bounties on her head and her son’s life on the line, Holly climbs behind the wheel of “Night Train,” ready to outrun, out gun, and outlast them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrap House (2025)
An undercover DEA agent and his partner embark on a game of cat and mouse with an audacious, and surprising group of thieves – their own rebellious teenagers, who have begun robbing from a dangerous cartel, using their parents' tactics and top-secret intel to do it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Right Hand (2024)
Cash is trying to live a quiet, honest life in a small Appalachian town. When a vicious crime boss forces him back into her services, he soon learns he's capable of anything -- even killing -- to protect his family and his home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOverdrive (2017)
Master car thieves square off against French gangsters in the South of France with money, women and lives all on the line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Charlie (2023)
When his aging mob boss is whacked, Charlie Swift, a loyal friend and hired gun, will stop at nothing to destroy the upcoming crew that took him out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWire Room (2022)
New recruit Justin Rosa must monitor arms-smuggling cartel member Eddie Flynn — and keep him alive at all costs. When a SWAT team descends on Flynn’s home, Rosa breaks protocol and contacts the gangster directly to save his life. As gunmen break into the Wire Room and chaos erupts, Mueller and Rosa make a final, desperate stand against the corrupt agents and officials who seek to destroy evidence and kill them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAl Capone (1959)
In this unusually accurate biography, small-time hood Al Capone comes to Chicago at the dawn of Prohibition to be the bodyguard of racketeer Johnny Torrio. Capone's rise in Chicago gangdom is followed through murder, extortion, and political fraud. He becomes head of Chicago's biggest "business," but moves inexorably toward his downfall and ignominious end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNever Back Down: Revolt (2021)
An amateur fighter is lured by a trafficking syndicate specializing in elite underground fighting where her brutal captor forces her to fight or face certain death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisState Property (2002)
A Philadelphia gang member becomes a drug kingpin and starts a feud with vicious rivals in his quest for the American Dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer (2024)
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRun (1991)
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Perfect Weapon (1991)
Jeff, a young delinquent, is enrolled by his father in a kenpo school, in the hopes of teaching the boy some self-discipline. Years later, Jeff's mentor, Kim, is being threatened by one of the Korean mafia families. Jeff tries to help his old friend, but is too late to prevent Kim's death at the hands of an unknown hitman. Vowing revenge, Jeff takes on all of the families, using his martial arts skills to find the man who killed his friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrouble Man (2025)
Jaxen, a former cop turned Atlanta PI, is hired to find missing R&B star Jahari. His investigation uncovers her disappearance is connected to a larger conspiracy, forcing him to question those around him and his own past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUntil Death (2007)
Anthony Stowe is a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin—and everyone hates him. After a serious accident, he is placed into an induced coma, but emerges from it a better person who wants to put things right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisShade (2003)
Tiffany, Charlie and Vernon are con artists looking to up the ante from their typical scams. They figure a good way of doing this is taking down Dean "The Dean" Stevens, a well-known cardsharp, in a rigged game. However, they first need enough money to enter a game with Stevens, so they decide to strike a deal with fellow crook Larry Jennings to scam a local gangster -- which turns out to be a bad idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStowaway (2022)
A tenacious party girl fights to survive after three thieves commandeer her luxury yacht. Unable to escape and trapped on the yacht at high seas, the prey becomes the hunter as she turns the tables on the intruders and takes matters into her own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Whatever It Takes and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Whatever It Takes?
The closest matches to Whatever It Takes are Absolution (2024), Gladiator Underground (2025) and The System (2022). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Whatever It Takes?
Start with Absolution (2024), the closest match to Whatever It Takes.
What is the highest-rated movie like Whatever It Takes?
The Enforcer (2022), rated 7.0/10 by 533 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Whatever It Takes?
Trap House (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Whatever It Takes?
Yes: Absolution (2024), Gladiator Underground (2025) and The System (2022).
How are movies similar to Whatever It Takes chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Whatever It Takes, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.