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Movies that feel like A Simple Plan (1998)

If you loved A Simple Plan, the closest films we have are One False Move (1992), The Yards (2000) and The Long Good Friday (1980). All three share A Simple Plan's gritty and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Sony Pictures Core Amazon Channel, fuboTV and Paramount Plus Premium and others, checked against today's data.

Captivated by the lure of sudden wealth, the quiet rural lives of two brothers erupt into conflicts of greed, paranoia and distrust when over $4 million in cash is discovered at the remote site of a downed small airplane. Their simple plan to retain the money while avoiding detection opens a Pandora's box when the fear of getting caught triggers panicked behavior and leads to virulent consequences.

🍅 91% Rotten Tomatoes7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Sam Raimigrittycontemplativetensewarmatmospheric

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If A Simple Plan hit the spot, these will too

One False Move poster
One False Move
1992 · dir. Carl Franklin
🍅 93%7.1crime · drama · thriller

Neo-noir is the engine of both

The difference: None of the warmth that defines A Simple Plan

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

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The Yards poster
The Yards
2000 · dir. James Gray
🍅 64%6.4crime · drama · thriller

Gritty and contemplative in the same breath

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

In the rail yards of Queens, contractors repair and rebuild the city's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption are rife. When Leo Handler gets out of prison, he finds his aunt married to Frank Olchin, one of the big contractors; he's battling with a minority-owned firm for contracts.

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The Long Good Friday poster
The Long Good Friday
1980 · dir. John Mackenzie
🍅 97%7.5crime · thriller · drama

The same preoccupation in both: neo-noir

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

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Jackie Brown poster
Jackie Brown
1997 · dir. Quentin Tarantino
🍅 88%7.5crime · drama · thriller

Both land tension and atmosphere at once

Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught in the middle of smuggling cash into the country for her gunrunner boss. When the cops try to use Jackie to get to her boss, she hatches a plan — with help from a bail bondsman — to keep the money for herself.

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The Talented Mr. Ripley poster
The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999 · dir. Anthony Minghella
🍅 85%7.4thriller · crime · drama

Both built around friendship

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.

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Night Moves poster
Night Moves
1975 · dir. Arthur Penn
🍅 78%7.1thriller · crime · drama

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

The difference: A 1970s film, from a different era of filmmaking

Private detective and former football player Harry Moseby gets hired on to what seems a standard missing person case - a former Hollywood actress wants Moseby to find and return her daughter. Harry travels to Florida to find her, but he begins to see a connection between the runaway girl, the world of Hollywood stuntmen, and a suspicious mechanic when an unsolved murder comes to light.

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Shoot the Piano Player poster
Shoot the Piano Player
1960 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 90%7.4drama · thriller · crime

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.

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The Rivals of Amziah King poster
The Rivals of Amziah King
2026 · dir. Andrew Patterson
🍅 89%7.7crime · drama · thriller

Tense thriller in both cases

Deep within the backwoods of rural Oklahoma, charismatic and musically gifted Amziah King herds a bluegrass-playing band of misfits while overseeing the premier honey-making operation in town. When Amziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, Amziah leaps at the possibility to renew connection and create a family business. But the honey game is ruthless, and Amziah’s rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built.

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Sexy Beast poster
Sexy Beast
2001 · dir. Jonathan Glazer
🍅 87%7.3crime · thriller · drama

Atmospheric crime, and it commits to that

Ex-safecracker Gal Dove has served his time behind bars and is blissfully retired to a Spanish villa paradise with a wife he adores. The idyll is shattered by the arrival of his nemesis Don Logan, intent on persuading Gal to return to London for one last big job.

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Le Samouraï poster
Le Samouraï
1967 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 92%8crime · thriller · drama

Both trade on grit more than on being drama

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

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Le Doulos poster
Le Doulos
1962 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 96%7.7drama · thriller · crime

Both trade on stillness more than on being thriller

Enigmatic gangster Silien may or may not be responsible for informing on Faugel, who was just released from prison and is already involved in what should be a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisting, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust?

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Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%7.4crime · drama · thriller

Both trade on tension more than on being crime

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

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The best-reviewed films that share A Simple Plan's defining feeling.