Movies like The East (2013)
The best movies like The East (2013) are Backstabbing for Beginners (2018), How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023) and The Operative (2019). If The East 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 ratedDial M for Murder (1954)8.0/10 from 2,996 votes
- NewestAbove & Below (2026)Released 2026
Backstabbing for Beginners (2018)
An idealistic young employee at the U.N. investigates the grisly murder of his predecessor – and uncovers a vast global conspiracy that may involve his own boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023)
A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Operative (2019)
A young Western woman is recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler and her subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisNight Moves (2014)
The story about three radical environmentalists coming together to execute the most intense protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRelay (2025)
A broker of lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten them breaks his own rules when a new client seeks his protection to stay alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Deadly Affair (1967)
Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan. Dobbs suspects that Fennan's wife, Elsa, a survivor of a Nazi Germany extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. So Dobbs hires a retiring inspector, Mendel, to quietly make inquiries. Dobbs isn't at all sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home with his errant wife, whom he very much loves, having frequent affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, who he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who in fact assassinated Fennan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAva (2020)
A black ops assassin is forced to fight for her own survival after a job goes dangerously wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisChief of Station (2024)
After learning that the death of his wife was not an accident, a former CIA Station Chief is forced back into the espionage underworld, teaming up with an adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Painter (2024)
An ex-CIA operative is thrown back into a dangerous world when a mysterious woman from his past resurfaces. Now exposed and targeted by a relentless killer and a rogue black ops program, he must rely on skills he thought he left behind in a high-stakes game of survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarlos (2010)
The story of Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by the French police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbove & Below (2026)
A group of friends' dream diving vacation turns into a fight for survival when brutal criminals attack their boat in open waters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisKandahar (2023)
After his mission is exposed, an undercover CIA operative stuck deep in hostile territory in Afghanistan must fight his way out, alongside his Afghan translator, to an extraction point in Kandahar, all whilst avoiding elite enemy forces and foreign spies tasked with hunting them down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNighthawks (1981)
When one of Europe's most lethal terrorists shows up in New York, an elite undercover cop is assigned to take him down by any means necessary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAssassin Club (2023)
In this world of contract killers, Morgan Gaines is the best of the best. When Morgan is hired to kill six people around the world, he soon discovers all the targets are also assassins unknowingly hired to kill each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSniper: No Nation (2026)
Brandon Beckett and Agent Zero lead a rescue mission in Costa Verde when their friends are taken hostage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelly (1998)
Tommy Bundy and Sincere are best friends as well as infamous and ruthless criminals and shot-callers in the hood. Respected by many but feared by all. As the police are closing in on them and new players are looking for a come up, will their reign last?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Commuter (2018)
A businessman, on his daily commute home, gets unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that threatens not only his life but the lives of those around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMile 22 (2018)
An elite group of American operatives, aided by a top-secret tactical command team, must transport an asset who holds life-threatening information to an extraction point 22 miles away through the hostile streets of an Asian city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna (2019)
Beneath Anna Poliatova's striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the world's most feared government assassins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTough Enough (2006)
From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKilling Zoe (1993)
Zed is an American vault-cracker who travels to Paris to meet up with his old friend Eric. Eric and his gang have planned to raid the only bank in the city which is open on Bastille day. After offering his services, Zed soon finds himself trapped in a situation beyond his control when heroin abuse, poor planning and a call-girl named Zoe all conspire to turn the robbery into a very bloody siege.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDial M for Murder (1954)
When her American lover visits London, a wealthy woman’s jealous husband hatches a plan to murder her and inherit her fortune.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisInnuendo (2017)
Tuuli grows up in an oppressively religious and abusive family in Finland. To escape from the shadow of her angelic twin sister she travels to Melbourne, Australia. Curious of sexuality, she becomes a nude model for art classes. Her innocent surface reveals sordid cracks as she sets about exerting her twisted version of righteousness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
We Own the Night (2007)
A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Mighty Heart (2007)
Based on Mariane Pearl's account of the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's life and death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLemming (2005)
After the death of his boss's wife, a young engineer faces the sudden psychological metamorphosis of his own wife, seemingly possessed by the soul of the deceased...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Net (1995)
Angela Bennett is a freelance computer systems analyst who tracks down software viruses. At night, she hooks up to the internet and chats to others 'surfing the net'. While de-bugging a new high-tech game for a cyber friend, she comes across a top secret program and becomes the target of a mysterious organization, who will stop at nothing to erase her identity and her existence in order to protect the project.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDrugstore Cowboy (1989)
Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShaft (2000)
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The East?
The closest matches to The East are Backstabbing for Beginners (2018), How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023) and The Operative (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The East?
Start with Backstabbing for Beginners (2018), the closest match to The East.
What is the highest-rated movie like The East?
Dial M for Murder (1954), rated 8.0/10 by 2,996 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The East?
Above & Below (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The East?
Yes: Backstabbing for Beginners (2018), How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023) and The Operative (2019).
How are movies similar to The East chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The East, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.