Movies like The Dream (1996)
The best movies like The Dream (1996) are The Black Book (2023), River Wild (2023) and The International (2009). If The Dream hooked you with its thriller and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAwake (2007)6.6/10 from 1,654 votes
- NewestIn Cold Light (2026)Released 2026
The Black Book (2023)
After his son is wrongly accused of kidnapping, a deacon who has just lost his wife takes matters into his own hands and fights a crooked police gang to clear him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRiver Wild (2023)
Follows a pair of siblings who love but distrust each other as they embark on a white-water rafting trip with a small group. One of their friends from childhood turns out to be more dangerous than he appears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & mystery
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 mystery & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisGhost Recon: Alpha (2012)
Ghost Recon: Alpha sees a team led by Ghost Leader infiltrate a trade at a Russian depot between a general and a mysterious other figure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPoint Blank (2019)
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930)
The boys think their days of fishing to feed themselves have come to an end, when Stan's rich uncle Ebenezer dies leaving a large estate. But they soon learn that Ebenezer was murdered and all the relatives, including Stan, are suspects.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Site (2022)
A group of officers based in a labyrinthine top-secret prison must fight for their lives against Hatchet, a brilliant and infamous high-value detainee. When he escapes, his mysterious and deadly agenda has far reaching and dire consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIcefall (2025)
A young Indigenous game warden arrests an infamous poacher only to discover that the poacher knows the location of a plane carrying millions of dollars that has crashed in a frozen lake. When a group of criminals and dirty cops are alerted to the poacher’s whereabouts, the warden and the poacher team up to fight back and escape across the treacherous lake before the ice melts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
SnoozefestMovies 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
SnoozefestMovies like thisCurve (2016)
Clinging to a smooth, curved surface high above a sentient abyss, a woman tries to cover the few feet back to safety without losing purchase and falling to her death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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 thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSAS: Red Notice (2021)
An off-duty SAS soldier, Tom Buckingham, must thwart a terror attack on a train running through the Channel Tunnel. As the action escalates on the train, events transpire in the corridors of power that may make the difference as to whether Buckingham and the civilian passengers make it out of the tunnel alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisSew Torn (2025)
A seamstress gets tangled in her own thread after stealing a briefcase from a drug deal gone bad. In an escalating game of cat and mouse, her different choices lead to drastically different outcomes along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this2073 (2024)
Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGotcha! (1985)
A student on a trip to France is tricked into smuggling secrets across the Iron Curtain by a sexy spy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCLEAN (TBA)
"Have you ever answered the wrong call—only to change a life? When a middle-aged sanitation worker picks up a ringing helpline phone, she becomes an unexpected lifeline to a young woman in despair, revealing the quiet power of empathy from society’s most overlooked."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
The Tell-Tale Heart (2010)
A computer-generated rendering of the classic Poe tale about a man's sanity being a point of contention as he confesses to murdering an elderly man, driven by the victim's pale blue 'vulture eye', culminating in guilt-induced auditory hallucinations of the victim's beating heart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & mystery
Curiosity (2009)
On a quiet night, a young couple find themselves caught up in a nightmarish ordeal after they witness a murderer disposing of a body in this claustrophobic thriller.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Ordeal of Evil (2026)
In a university controlled by a totalitarian regime, Lucas gradually becomes aware of the oppressive world around him. Guided by Elena, he discovers an underground network that is trying to save books by digitizing and distributing them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Chronicles of the Beyond (2009)
Watch as everyday people go from their safe, simple lives into a realm of the supernatural.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Unsettled (2024)
A young man is drugged and abducted from a gay club, escapes and seeks to bring his tormentors to justice in a deeply conservative Bible Belt Oklahoma.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
MRITYORMUKSHI (2025)
Single father Raghu is pulled into a deadly conspiracy when his child is taken hostage, forcing him into a violent game of crime and fate.Hunted by a mysterious masked figure, he must confront the consequences of his past choices. Mrityormukshi is a gripping thriller about guilt,morality, and the price of one’s actions. “Mrityormukshi” is a a gripping thriller that explores guilt,morality, and the inescapable grasp of destiny.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Boiling Point (2019)
During the busy run-up to Christmas, a single-take snapshot of the immense stress and skills of a talented head chef reveals that things are about to burst behind the restaurant's flash façade.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
The Uninvited (2014)
Jeong-tae, who was sleeping late, wakes up when his daughter brings a friend. But Jung-tae looks familiar to his daughter's friend. Jung-tae tries to get out of the house to avoid her. But he can't get out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Cowboy and Indian (2017)
When a young Bengali bride collapses in the desert, a cowboy appears out of the sunset and rescues her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Like The Dream and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Dream?
The closest matches to The Dream are The Black Book (2023), River Wild (2023) and The International (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Dream?
Start with The Black Book (2023), the closest match to The Dream.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Dream?
Awake (2007), rated 6.6/10 by 1,654 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Dream?
In Cold Light (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Dream chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Dream, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.