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Movies that feel like Blow Out (1981)

If you loved Blow Out, the closest films we have are Chinatown (1974), Se7en (1995) and L.A. Confidential (1997). All three share Blow Out's gritty and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel and Philo and others, checked against today's data.

While recording sound effects for a slasher flick, Jack Terry stumbles upon a real-life horror: a car careening off a bridge and into a river. Jack jumps into the water and fishes out Sally from the car, but the other passenger is already dead — a governor intending to run for president. As Jack does some investigating of his tapes, and starts a perilous romance with Sally, he enters a tangled web of conspiracy that might leave him dead.

🍅 88% Rotten Tomatoes7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Brian De Palmagrittytwistytenseparanoid

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If Blow Out hit the spot, these will too

Chinatown poster
Chinatown
1974 · dir. Roman Polanski
🍅 98%8.1crime · mystery · thriller

Conspiracy and whodunit, at the center of both

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

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Se7en poster
Se7en
1995 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 84%8.6crime · mystery · thriller

Gritty and twisty in the same breath

The difference: Not nearly as paranoid as Blow Out

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

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L.A. Confidential poster
L.A. Confidential
1997 · dir. Curtis Hanson
🍅 99%8.2crime · mystery · thriller

Both keep circling back to whodunit

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.

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Eastern Promises poster
Eastern Promises
2007 · dir. David Cronenberg
🍅 89%7.6thriller · crime · mystery

Hitman is the engine of both

The difference: A 2000s film, from a different era of filmmaking

A Russian teenager living in London dies during childbirth but leaves clues in her diary that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.

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Zodiac poster
Zodiac
2007 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 90%7.7crime · mystery · thriller

Crime built on tension, twice over

Over the course of a decade, editors of the San Francisco Chronicle entice themselves in the murders of the Zodiac Killer. However, as time runs its course, interest in the case dwindles in the eyes of the professionals. The Killer stops interacting with the public. However, believing he has the answers, an amateur cartoonist from the initial sightings races against time to prevent what he believes is another murder.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo poster
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2011 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 86%7.8thriller · crime · mystery

Gritty mystery, and it commits to that

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.

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Three Days of the Condor poster
Three Days of the Condor
1975 · dir. Sydney Pollack
🍅 88%7.4thriller · mystery

Both built around conspiracy

When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.

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Wind River poster
Wind River
2017 · dir. Taylor Sheridan
🍅 87%7.7crime · mystery · thriller

Thriller with a pulse of twists, in both cases

An FBI agent teams with the town's veteran game tracker to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation.

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The Batman poster
The Batman
2022 · dir. Matt Reeves
🍅 85%7.8crime · mystery · thriller

Both trade on tension more than on being crime

In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.

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Cutter's Way poster
Cutter's Way
1981 · dir. Ivan Passer
🍅 92%6.8drama · mystery · thriller

Paranoid mystery in both cases

The difference: Leans drama where Blow Out does not

Alex Cutter is a boozy, belligerent and deeply cynical Vietnam veteran whose encounter with a landmine during the war has left him minus an eye, a leg and an arm. When his drifter playboy friend Richard Bone is falsely accused of murder, Cutter sets out for revenge in his own inimitable style.

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Death on the Nile poster
Death on the Nile
2022 · dir. Kenneth Branagh
🍅 62%6.3mystery · crime · thriller

Thriller built on grit, twice over

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot's Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple's idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short.

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Angels & Demons poster
Angels & Demons
2009 · dir. Ron Howard
🍅 36%6.7thriller · mystery

Mystery built on paranoia, twice over

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is recruited by the Vatican to investigate the apparent return of the Illuminati – a secret, underground organization – after four cardinals are kidnapped on the night of the papal conclave.

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In the mood for more gritty?

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The best-reviewed films that share Blow Out's defining feeling.