Movies like Special Agent (1935)
The best movies like Special Agent (1935) are The Undercover Man (1949), The FBI Story (1959) and Each Dawn I Die (1939). If Special Agent hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPolice Story (1985)7.6/10 from 1,129 votes
- NewestReality (2023)Released 2023
The Undercover Man (1949)
Frank Warren is a treasury agent assigned to put an end to the activities of a powerful mob crime boss. Frank works undercover, posing as a criminal to seek information, but is frustrated when all he finds are terrified witnesses and corrupt police officers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe FBI Story (1959)
A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEach Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPitfall (1948)
An insurance man wishing for a more exciting life becomes wrapped up in the affairs of an imprisoned embezzler, his model girlfriend, and a violent private investigator.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Caesar (1931)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPushover (1954)
A police detective falls for the bank robber's girlfriend he is supposed to be tailing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForce of Evil (1950)
Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Damned Don't Cry (1950)
Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Rise (2012)
After being released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, Harvey Miller has revenge on his mind. He recruits his three best friends to help him rob the local drug kingpin whose betrayal put him away in the first place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wrong Man (1956)
In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Big Combo (1955)
Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like this'G' Men (1935)
James “Brick” Davis, a struggling attorney, owes his education to a mobster, but always has refused to get involved with the underworld. When a friend of his is gunned down by a notorious criminal, Brick decides to abandon the exercise of the law and join the Department of Justice to capture the murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisT-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 crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Street with No Name (1948)
After two gang-related killings in "Center City," a suspect (who was framed) is arrested, released on bail...and murdered. Inspector Briggs of the FBI recruits a young agent, Gene Cordell, to go undercover in the shadowy Skid Row area (alias George Manly) as a potential victim of the same racket. Soon, Gene meets Alec Stiles, neurotic mastermind who's "building an organization along scientific lines." Stiles recruits Cordell, whose job becomes a lot more dangerous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrime Wave (1953)
Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then attempt to force him into doing a bank job.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnion Station (1950)
Police catch a break when suspected kidnappers are spotted on a train heading towards Union Station. Police, train station security and a witness try to piece together the crime and get back the blind daughter of a rich business man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRide in the Whirlwind (1966)
Three cowboys, mistaken for members of an outlaw gang, are relentlessly pursued by a posse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReality (2023)
Augusta, Georgia, United States, June 3, 2017. After running some errands, Reality Winner returns home, where she is approached by two men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOcean's Thirteen (2007)
Danny Ocean's team of criminals are back and composing a plan more personal than ever. When ruthless casino owner Willy Bank doublecrosses Reuben Tishkoff, causing a heart attack, Danny Ocean vows that he and his team will do anything to bring down Willy Bank along with everything he's got. Even if it means asking for help from an enemy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)
The story of Mark Felt, who under the name "Deep Throat" helped journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate scandal in 1974.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLorna's Silence (2008)
Lorna is a young Albanian woman in a marriage of convenience with Claudy, a heroin addict. Just as Lorna is about to be granted Belgian citizenship, Claudy finds the strength to detox; this presents a problem not only for Lorna, but for the criminal who brokered the deal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMercury Rising (1998)
Renegade FBI agent Art Jeffries protects a nine-year-old autistic boy who has cracked the government's new "unbreakable" code.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGomorrah (2008)
An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice and are forced to obey the rules of the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPublic Enemies (2009)
Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Informant! (2009)
A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company’s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew Jack City (1991)
A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGatwick Gangsters (2017)
Shampagne borrowed £100 Million from the London mob but a crook stole it. Things get worse for the mob boss of Gatwick after robberies and bank heists go bad. And there's a bomb, too...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Police Story (1985)
Officer Chan Ka Kui manages to put a major Hong Kong drug dealer behind the bars practically alone, after a shooting and an impressive chase inside a slum. Now, he must protect the boss' secretary, Selina, who will testify against the gangster in court.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSecurity (2017)
An ex-special services veteran, down on his luck and desperate for work, takes a job as a security guard at a run-down mall in a rough area of town. On his first night on the job, he opens the door to a distraught and desperate young girl who has fled the hijacking of a Police motorcade that was transporting her to testify as a witness in a trial. Hot on her heels is the psychopathic hijacker and his team of henchmen, who will stop at nothing to extract and eliminate the witness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWanted (2008)
Doormat Wesley Gibson is an office worker whose life is going nowhere. He meets an attractive woman named Fox and discovers that his recently murdered father - whom Wesley never knew - belonged to the Fraternity, a secret society of assassins which takes its orders from Fate itself. Fox and Sloan, the Fraternity's leader, teach Wesley, through intense training, to tap into dormant powers and hone his innate killing skills. Though he enjoys his newfound abilities, he begins to suspect that there is more to the Fraternity than meets the eye.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Special Agent?
The closest matches to Special Agent are The Undercover Man (1949), The FBI Story (1959) and Each Dawn I Die (1939). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Special Agent?
Start with The Undercover Man (1949), the closest match to Special Agent.
What is the highest-rated movie like Special Agent?
Police Story (1985), rated 7.6/10 by 1,129 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Special Agent?
Reality (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Special Agent?
Yes: The Undercover Man (1949), The FBI Story (1959) and Each Dawn I Die (1939).
How are movies similar to Special Agent chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Special Agent, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.