Movies like In the Name of the Law (1986)
The best movies like In the Name of the Law (1986) are Cop (1988), Q & A (1990) and Copycat (1995). If In the Name of the Law hooked you with its crime and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)7.4/10 from 7,928 votes
- NewestBarron's Cove (2025)Released 2025
Cop (1988)
An obsessive, insubordinate homicide cop is convinced a serial killer is loose in the Hollywood area and disobeys orders in order to catch him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQ & A (1990)
A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisCopycat (1995)
An agoraphobic psychologist and a female detective must work together to take down a serial killer who copies serial killers from the past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwilight (1998)
A retired detective accepts a simple task, unaware that it will tear open old, forgotten, but deadly wounds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlitz (2011)
A tough cop is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man from Majorca (1984)
On 13 December (St Lucy's Day), a bandit daringly robs a crowded post office. Within a fortnight, two witnesses are dead. Vice cops Johansson and Jarnebring, the first to the scene of the crime, pursue all leads and identify a suspect, an arrogant member of the elite secret police, assigned to guard the country's Minister of Justice. Just as they think they've tightened the noose around the suspect, loose ends appear, witnesses lose certainty, alibis arise, and even the cops doubt what they've seen. Who's protecting the suspect and why?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMan on the Roof (1976)
When an inspector is murdered in hospital, the investigation led by Detective Martin Beck uncovers reports of misconduct and possibly revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeck 03 - White Nights (1998)
When the police reveal a narcotic smuggling the driver is shot dead. It appears that the driver is Superintendent Martin Beck's son. Beck breaks down and moves out of the way. But on his colleagues request he returns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTed Bundy: American Boogeyman (2021)
Set in a gritty and decadent 1970s America, American Boogeyman follows the elusive and charming killer and the manhunt that brought him to justice involving the detective and the FBI rookie who coined the phrase ‘serial killer’.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Too Deep (1999)
Drug lord Dwayne Gittens rules Cincinnati with an iron fist. No wonder he's known as "God" on the streets. Determined to break Gittens' stranglehold on the city is undercover cop Jeffrey Cole. But as Cole takes on an assumed identity to penetrate Gittens' criminal empire, he makes a disturbing discovery -- he kind of likes being a gangster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohan Falk: Operation Nightingale (2009)
Johan Falk and his colleagues at the GSI go after sex traffickers importing young women from the East and forcing them into prostitution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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 & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisDeath Sentence (2007)
Nick Hume is a mild-mannered executive with a perfect life, until one gruesome night he witnesses something that changes him forever. Transformed by grief, Hume eventually comes to the disturbing conclusion that no length is too great when protecting his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAcross 110th Street (1972)
In a daring robbery, some $300,000 is taken from the Italian mob. Several mafiosi are killed, as are two policemen. Lt. Pope and Capt. Mattelli are two New York City cops trying to break the case. Three small-time criminals are on the run with the money. Will the mafia catch them first, or will the police?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeck 04 - Eye for an Eye (1998)
In this film Beck and his team are trying to find a serial killer, whose victims are spread all over Sweden. An obvious connection is that all the victims are women, and they were all in the same class, and Beck thinks that a scandal back in the past has something to do with the murders. But no one wants to talk about the past and it becomes a struggle to find the perpetrator before the final murder - only one woman is still alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
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 thisBarron's Cove (2025)
When his young son is viciously murdered by a classmate, a grieving father with a history of violence kidnaps the child responsible, igniting a frenzied manhunt fueled by a powerful politician -- the father of the kidnapped boy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOn Dangerous Ground (1951)
A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Postcard Killings (2020)
After suffering a personal tragedy, and desperate for justice, Jacob Kanon, a veteran New York City police detective, embarks on the search for a twisted killer who is leaving a bloody trail of elaborate murders across Europe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSnakes and Earrings (2008)
While alone in a nightclub, straight-laced Lui meets sensitive but troubled punk kid Ama. Mesmerized by his split tongue, she becomes obsessed with body modification and soon wants the same treatment. After Ama's heavily-tattooed friend Shiba pierces her tongue, Lui finds herself inexorably drawn to both men – and to her growing list of desires, she now adds a tattoo.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady Joker (2004)
Men and women caught up in a downward spiral of corruption, discrimination, poverty and death are the focus of this detective-thriller/social-drama inspired by the unsolved 1984 kidnapping of a Japanese candy company president.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Blackout (1954)
When a beautiful young woman suddenly offers inebriated Casey Morrow a lot of money for a quick and easy job, he doesn't ask too many questions. But when the girl's father is found murdered the following day and Morrow's coat is soaked with blood, he must unravel the mystery to clear his name.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Ripley Under Ground (2007)
Now living a quiet, luxurious life at his French estate—funded by past crimes and his marriage to an heiress—Tom Ripley finds that an art scam he supports—selling forged paintings by a supposedly living artist named Derwatt—beginning to collapse. An inquisitive American collector suspects his Derwatt painting is fake and demands answers. As the situation escalates, Ripley turns to murder and elaborate identity deception to protect his reputation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisBoundless (2024)
In a moment of cowardice, Detective Carl Mørck sends Rose, his junior colleague in Department Q, to the remote Danish island of Bornholm to answer his old colleague Christian Habersaat's repeated requests. But during his forced retirement ceremony Christian kills himself sending Rose into a journey deep into her own traumatic past. Later, Department Q are embroiled into an old cold case of a girl found dead hanging in a tree.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisMission to Venice (1964)
An American polo player in Paris gets roped into intrigue when he's asked to find a family friend whom has gone missing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008)
Jacques Mesrine, a loyal son and dedicated soldier, is back home and living with his parents after serving in the Algerian War. Soon he is seduced by the neon glamour of sixties Paris and the easy money it presents. Mentored by Guido, Mesrine turns his back on middle class law-abiding and soon moves swiftly up the criminal ladder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRaazi (2018)
An Indian spy is married to a Pakistani military officer during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReversal of Fortune (1990)
Wealthy Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, husband Claus guilty of attempted murder; but he says he's innocent and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLeft Behind: World at War (2005)
A year and a half ago, the globe was hit with the biggest catastrophe it had ever seen. Without warning and without explanation, hundreds of millions simply vanished off the face of the Earth. The world was in chaos like never before. Yet somehow one man seemed to rise to the challenge. One man had the strength and conviction to unite a shattered world. One man gave the world hope. That man was Nicolae Carpathia, who now rules the entire world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In the Name of the Law?
The closest matches to In the Name of the Law are Cop (1988), Q & A (1990) and Copycat (1995). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In the Name of the Law?
Start with Cop (1988), the closest match to In the Name of the Law.
What is the highest-rated movie like In the Name of the Law?
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), rated 7.4/10 by 7,928 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In the Name of the Law?
Barron's Cove (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to In the Name of the Law chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In the Name of the Law, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.