Movies like The Words (2012)
The best movies like The Words (2012) are The Social Reckoning (2026), Paranoia (2013) and The Fifth Estate (2013). If The Words hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhiplash (2014)8.4/10 from 17,368 votes
- NewestThe Social Reckoning (2026)Released 2026
The Social Reckoning (2026)
Frances Haugen, a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz, a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network's most guarded secrets.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParanoia (2013)
An entry-level employee at a powerful corporation finds himself occupying a corner office, but at a dangerous price—he must spy on his boss's old mentor to secure for him a multi-billion dollar advantage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Fifth Estate (2013)
A look at the relationship between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his early supporter and eventual colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and how the website's growth and influence led to an irreparable rift between the two friends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Teacher (2024)
Julien, a young teacher, is wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct by a teenage girl from his class. As he faces mounting pressures from the girl’s older brother and her classmates, the situation spirals out of control. Allegations spread, the entire school is thrown into turmoil, and the teacher has to fight to clear his name.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMisconduct (2016)
An ambitious lawyer finds himself caught in a power struggle between a corrupt pharmaceutical executive and his firm’s senior partner. When the case takes a deadly turn, he must race to uncover the truth before he loses everything.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisBroken (2016)
A young female escapes her past and absconds to England in search of a new life. She takes a job caring for a tetraplegic, but burden of the job stirs up her past. It seems the limits of caring are not always as clear as they should be.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lesson (2023)
Liam, an aspiring and ambitious young writer, eagerly accepts a tutoring position at the family estate of his idol, renowned author J.M. Sinclair. But soon, Liam realizes that he is ensnared in a web of family secrets, resentment, and retribution. Sinclair, his wife Hélène, and their son Bertie all guard a dark past, one that threatens Liam’s future as well as their own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPawn Sacrifice (2015)
During the height of the Cold War, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer finds himself caught between two superpowers when he challenges the Soviet Empire.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adderall Diaries (2016)
Writer and Adderall enthusiast Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his writing. Adrift in the precarious gray area of memory, Stephen is led by three sources of inspiration: a new romance, the best friend who shares his history, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir of the same name.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLocked In (2010)
Josh decides to leave his advertising career at its peak and walks away from fame and success. But his life turns upside down when a car accident leaves his daughter in a strange coma.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Our Kind of Traitor (2016)
A young Oxford academic and his attorney girlfriend holiday in Morocco. They bump into a Russian millionaire who owns a peninsula and a diamond watch. He wants a game of tennis. What else he wants propels the lovers on a tortuous journey to the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain's intelligence establishment, to Paris and the Alps.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Machinist (2004)
Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Insider (1999)
A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFree Fall (2021)
Tom is a young trader in a London bank, whose recent performance has put his job on the line. When the first plane hits the World Trade Centre on the morning of September 11th 2001, Tom, convinced that it's a terrorist attack and not an accident, jumps into the biggest trade of his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDiamond Men (2000)
After 30 years on the road, a veteran jewellery salesman is forced to show his young replacement the tricks of the trade. But when the kid introduces him to the ladies of the "Altoona Riding Club," the old dog is introduced to a whole new set of "tricks."
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Dark Waters (2019)
A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCold Copy (2024)
A young broadcast journalism student is trying to win the approval of her influential mentor who pushes her to reconsider the meaning of truth if it means success.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician, he made a groundbreaking discovery early in his career and stands on the brink of international acclaim. But as the handsome and arrogant Nash accepts secret work in cryptography, he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. His life takes a nightmarish turn and he soon finds himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Social Network (2010)
In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, Mark is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Game (1997)
In honor of his birthday, San Francisco banker Nicholas Van Orton, a financial genius and a cold-hearted loner, receives an unusual present from his younger brother, Conrad: a gift certificate to play a unique kind of game. In nary a nanosecond, Nicholas finds himself consumed by a dangerous set of ever-changing rules, unable to distinguish where the charade ends and reality begins.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Kindergarten Teacher (2018)
Lisa Spinelli is a Staten Island teacher who is unusually devoted to her students. When she discovers one of her five-year-olds is a prodigy, she becomes fascinated with the boy, ultimately risking her family and freedom to nurture his talent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Critic (2024)
Jimmy Erskine is the most feared theatre critic of the age. He lives as flamboyantly as he writes and takes pleasure in savagely taking down any actor who fails to meet his standards. When the owner of the Daily Chronicle dies, and his son takes over, Jimmy quickly finds himself at odds with his new boss and his position under threat. In an attempt to preserve the power and influence he holds so sacred, Jimmy strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actress, entangling them and the boss in a thrilling but deadly web of desire, blackmail, and betrayal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAmerican Star (2024)
An assassin on a final assignment in Fuerteventura, to kill a man he has never met. When his target is delayed, he finds himself drawn to the island, people and a ghostly shipwreck. Instead of following protocol he stays. But when the target returns, the world has shifted. Before everything was simple, now nothing is.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisScent of a Woman (1992)
Charlie Simms is a student at a private preparatory school who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a cantankerous middle-aged man who lives with his niece and her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhiplash (2014)
Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisStillwater (2021)
Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison, who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Parts You Lose (2019)
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Words?
The closest matches to The Words are The Social Reckoning (2026), Paranoia (2013) and The Fifth Estate (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Words?
People who watched The Words most often go on to The Social Reckoning (2026), Paranoia (2013) and The Fifth Estate (2013).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Words?
Whiplash (2014), rated 8.4/10 by 17,368 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Words?
The Social Reckoning (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Words?
Yes: The Social Reckoning (2026), Paranoia (2013) and The Fifth Estate (2013).
How are movies similar to The Words chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Words, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.