Movies like The Pretenders (2023)
The best movies like The Pretenders (2023) are Frank and Penelope (2022), In Cold Light (2026) and City of Ghosts (2002). If The Pretenders hooked you with its thriller and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLaRoy, Texas (2024)6.8/10 from 200 votes
- Newest180 (2026)Released 2026
Frank and Penelope (2022)
A tale of love and violence when a man on his emotional last legs finds a savior seductively dancing in a run-down strip club. And a life most certainly headed off a cliff suddenly becomes redirected - as everything is now worth dying for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Cold Light (2026)
Fresh out of prison, Ava's attempt to reclaim her drug operation collapses when she witnesses a brutal crime, forcing her to flee into a nightmarish underworld where allies are scarce and enemies multiply by the minute.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisCity of Ghosts (2002)
A con man who is on the run from law enforcement in the U.S. travels to Cambodia to collect his share in an insurance scam but discovers more than he bargained for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Virtuoso (2021)
Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when a professional assassin accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisBody Brokers (2021)
Utah and his girlfriend Opal, are drug addicts living on the streets in rural Ohio. After getting recruited by body broker Wood and offered treatment in Los Angeles, Wood takes Utah under his wing and introduces him to treatment center mogul Vin. Wood and Vin bring Utah in on their lucrative and illegal dealings, where saving lives comes second to the bottom line.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
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 crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWardriver (2026)
He’s a Wardriver: a hacker who steals from banks, not people—until he’s noticed. Now the money turns violent, and the woman caught in it could save him or kill them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAwake (2007)
While undergoing heart surgery, a man experiences a phenomenon called ‘anesthetic awareness’, which leaves him awake but paralyzed throughout the operation. As various obstacles present themselves, his wife must make life-altering decisions while wrestling with her own personal drama.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLaRoy, Texas (2024)
Broke and depressed, Ray is mistaken for a dangerous hitman and given an envelope of cash. Along with his P.I. friend Skip, he must escape the actual hitman to make it out of LaRoy alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Seven-Ups (1973)
A tough detective who is part of an elite New York City unit is trying to find out who killed his partner, but uncovers a plot to kidnap mobsters for money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Night in Bangkok (2020)
A hit man named Kai flies into Bangkok, gets a gun, and orders a cab. He offers a professional female driver big money to be his all-night driver. But when she realizes Kai is committing brutal murders at each stop, it's too late to walk away. Meanwhile, an offbeat police detective races to decode the string of slayings before more blood is spilled.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Man's Bluff (2005)
Sergei and Simon have to deliver a suitcase full of heroin to Mikhalych or else they will be killed. There is one minor detail: the only problem-solving technique they are familiar with is a shot in the head.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll the Devils Are Here (2025)
After a heist, four criminals lay low in a remote safehouse, waiting for orders. As paranoia builds, one thing becomes clear — the real threat may not be outside, but among them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like this180 (2026)
When an unexpected road rage incident puts his son in critical condition, an enraged father spirals down a dark path of emotional turmoil and vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe International (2009)
An interpol agent and an attorney are determined to bring one of the world's most powerful banks to justice. Uncovering money laundering, arms trading, and conspiracy to destabilize world governments, their investigation takes them from Berlin, Milan, New York and Istanbul. Finding themselves in a chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCanary Black (2024)
Top level CIA agent Avery Graves is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive and help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Execution (2022)
When the police finally catch an elusive serial killer, no one can prove his guilt, resulting in the lead detective making it personal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrafficking (2023)
Fresh out of prison, a former debt collector working for a gangland boss is told he has a terminal brain tumour. In an attempt to atone for his past he rescues a young girl from trafficking, forcing him into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStretch (2014)
A hard-luck limo driver struggling to go straight and pay off a debt to his bookie takes on a job with a crazed passenger whose sought-after ledger implicates some seriously dangerous criminals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSherlock Holmes: Memories of Murder (2024)
Sherlock Holmes is forced to confront his age and health condition as he struggles to solve the murder of a fellow detective.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
At All Costs (2024)
Achilles is driven by a relentless pursuit of monetary gain, unaware of the profound secrets that lie hidden within his own past. As his journey unfolds, he gradually unravels the tragic truths that have shaped his life, leading to a reckoning with identity, revenge, and the consequences of his choices.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Darkness of Man (2025)
Russell Hatch, an Interpol operative who takes on the role of father figure to Jayden, the son of an informant killed in a routine raid gone wrong. Years later, Hatch finds himself protecting Jayden and his grandfather from a group of merciless gangs in an all-out turf war, stopping at nothing to protect Jayden and fight anyone getting in his way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
The Divinity of a City (2024)
David Bono is a hitman hired to target Orshanabi Nazzar, a high-ranking priest-bureaucrat in a temple corporation in the fictional city of Babylonia (Brussels-based). The corporation has invented a way to avoid death by recording people's lives. While gathering information and preparing for the job, David meets Ellie, with whom they slept together. However, Ellie is a member of a cult called Children of Ishtar, and David's job would interrupt their life-recording ceremony. Facing an obsessive dilemma, David tries to find a way to do his mission without killing Ellie. First, he tries to convince Ellie not to attend the ceremony, and then he hires a local crook to kidnap her while he does the job. After the successful job, Ellie frees herself from the kidnapper, discovers the truth, and leaves for Akkadia. Meanwhile, David calls to receive the rest of his payment but gets ambushed by the contractor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
The Frontier (2016)
A desperate young woman, on the run from the law, takes a job at a remote desert motel. She quickly discovers the motel's patrons are rendezvousing after a large robbery. With nothing to lose, and all to gain, she hatches a plan to steal their loot.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Black Strait (1964)
Newly out of prison after killing his boss' rival, Akio Maki is eager to move on and start a new life with the boss' daughter. However, the chains of the past are not so easily broken and Maki is soon ordered to kill again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
The Sewing Circle (TBA)
When youthful, Golden-Age starlet Laura Hall shows up late to a secret support group for queer women, a deadly plot is unveiled that threatens the safety of Laura and the group.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Delfathoma (2023)
Loosely inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's short story 'Beyond the Wall of Sleep', this film follows Jude Slater, a man who has recently inherited the house of an important figure in the town of Freasdal. What horrors lay in wait beneath the foundations of the home have yet to be seen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Work of Art. (2019)
A short film about a college student who wants to make a artistic masterpiece, his canvas: people.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Long Play (2023)
Ex-Boy Scout Frankie Dobbs checks into an AirBnB to find a mystery behind its doors-- an anonymous stalker following the property's host, Rowan Emery. But, is this stalker situation as easy to crack as it seems?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Like The Pretenders and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Pretenders?
The closest matches to The Pretenders are Frank and Penelope (2022), In Cold Light (2026) and City of Ghosts (2002). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Pretenders?
Start with Frank and Penelope (2022), the closest match to The Pretenders.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Pretenders?
LaRoy, Texas (2024), rated 6.8/10 by 200 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Pretenders?
180 (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Pretenders chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Pretenders, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.