Skip to content

Movies like The 49th Man (1953)

The best movies like The 49th Man (1953) are Black Widow (1987), The Quiller Memorandum (1966) and The Living Daylights (1987). If The 49th Man hooked you with its thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Black Widow (1987)

    Federal agent Alexandra Barnes believes that Catherine Petersen is a serial killer who marries rich men and then murders them for their money. But since Catherine is seemingly a master of disguise and has multiple identities, Alexandra can't prove anything with conventional detective work. With no other option, she goes undercover, pursuing the same man as Catherine, and hoping that Catherine will slip up and reveal her true identity.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  2. The Quiller Memorandum (1966)

    After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

  3. The Living Daylights (1987)

    After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. The Ipcress File (1965)

    Sly and dry intelligence agent Harry Palmer is tasked with investigating British Intelligence security, and is soon enmeshed in a world of double-dealing, kidnap and murder when he finds a traitor operating at the heart of the secret service.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  5. Pickup on South Street (1953)

    In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  6. What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)

    Two middle-aged women move to Hollywood after their sons are convicted of a notorious murder and open a dance school for children eager to tap their way to stardom.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

  7. Border Incident (1949)

    The story concerns two agents, one Mexican (PJF) and one American, who are tasked to stop the smuggling of Mexican migrant workers across the border to California. The two agents go undercover, one as a poor migrant.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  8. Octopussy (1983)

    James Bond is sent to investigate after a fellow “00” agent is found dead with a priceless Fabergé egg. Bond follows the mystery and uncovers a smuggling scandal and a Russian General who wants to provoke a new World War.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  9. Seven Days in May (1964)

    A U.S. Marine Corps colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  10. Ice Station Zebra (1968)

    A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday, is dispatched to save them.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  11. Journey into Fear (1943)

    An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by Nazi agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers that his pursuers are also on board.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Conflict (1945)

    Unhappily married Richard Mason concocts a meticulous scheme to kill his shrewish wife so that he'll be free to marry her sister.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  13. Cornered (1945)

    A World War II veteran hunts down the Nazi collaborators who killed his wife.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. The Blue Lamp (1950)

    P.C. George Dixon is a long-serving traditional copper who is due to retire shortly. He takes a new recruit under his aegis and introduces him to the easy-going night beat. Dixon is a classic ordinary hero but also anachronistic, unprepared and unable to answer the violence of the 1950s.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Maniac (1963)

    When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. T-Men (1947)

    Two T-men, U.S. Treasury agents, go undercover in Detroit, and then Los Angeles, in an attempt to break a U.S. currency counterfeiting ring.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. Get Smart (2008)

    When members of the nefarious crime syndicate KAOS attack the U.S. spy agency Control and the identities of secret agents are compromised, the Chief has to promote hapless but eager analyst Maxwell Smart to field agent. He is partnered with veteran and capable Agent 99, the only spy whose cover remains intact. Can they work together to thwart the evil world-domination plans of KAOS and its crafty operative?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. Z (2019)

    A family find themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. Futureworld (1976)

    Two years after the Westworld tragedy in the Delos amusement park, the corporate owners have reopened the park following over $1 billion in safety and other improvements. For publicity purposes, reporters Chuck Browning and Tracy Ballard are invited to review the park. Just prior to arriving, however, Browning is given a clue by a dying man that something is amiss.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

  20. WarGames (1983)

    High school student David Lightman has a talent for hacking. But while trying to hack into a computer system to play unreleased video games, he unwittingly taps into the Department of Defense's war computer and initiates a confrontation of global proportions. Together with his friend and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  21. Blood Diamond (2006)

    An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  22. Send a Man at Half Past One (1967)

    A young slacker circumstantially gets involved in the smuggling of falsified English pounds via Trieste-Yugoslavia route. He helps the police to solve the case.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

  23. French Connection II (1975)

    "Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseilles to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler that eluded him in New York.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  24. Babylon A.D. (2008)

    A veteran-turned-mercenary is hired to take a young woman with a secret from post-apocalyptic Eastern Europe to New York City.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

  25. Exit to Eden (1994)

    Photographer Elliot Slater has inadvertently snapped the only existing photos of elusive jewel thief Omar. When Elliot leaves for a private vacation on an S&M island, he is followed by Omar, Omar's partner, Nina, and undercover police officers Fred and Sheila. Unaware of the number of people chasing him, Elliot enjoys his stay at the resort, and finds himself falling in love with head dominatrix Lisa.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

  26. Captain Clegg (1962)

    A captain and his sailors investigate the rampaging "Marsh Phantoms" terrorizing a coastal town, but their search is hindered by a local reverend and a horrifying curse.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  27. Caribe (1987)

    Prepare to get tangled in the jungles of Belize when an arms smuggler loses her partner in a deadly shootout and finds herself on the run in the tropics of Central America. Helen is an amateur, making her money as an illegal arms trader to Central American terrorists. And as she runs for her life after the deal goes bad, she has no choice but to trusts Jeff, a British Intelligence Agent - it's a life and death chase, where passion and loyalty are easily confused...

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

  28. Gator King (1997)

    An environmental activist attempts to stop a dastardly villain who imports alligators from China in order to slaughter them for their meat in the US.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

  29. Madrid 2120 (2019)

    Madrid, Spain, 2120. The city has been transformed, stratified: the rich above, near the sky; the poor below, among the garbage. Nitrogreen, a highly unstable liquid capable of generating vegetation instantly, is the most valuable smuggled goods… and a ticket out.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

  30. City in Darkness (1939)

    Chan, in Paris for a reunion with friends from World War I, becomes involved in investigating the murder of a munitions manufacturer who was supplying arms to the enemy, even as the rising clouds of World War II force the city into nightly blackout status..

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller

Like The 49th Man and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The 49th Man?

The closest matches to The 49th Man are Black Widow (1987), The Quiller Memorandum (1966) and The Living Daylights (1987). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The 49th Man?

Start with Black Widow (1987), the closest match to The 49th Man.

What is the highest-rated movie like The 49th Man?

Blood Diamond (2006), rated 7.6/10 by 8,667 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The 49th Man?

Madrid 2120 (2019) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like The 49th Man?

Yes: Black Widow (1987), The Quiller Memorandum (1966) and The Living Daylights (1987).

How are movies similar to The 49th Man chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The 49th Man, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

↑ ↓ to move · Enter to open · Full search page