feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like Desperado (1995)

If you loved Desperado, the closest films we have are Crank (2006), Run All Night (2015) and The Man from Nowhere (2010). All three share Desperado's tense and kinetic feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

El Mariachi plunges headfirst into the dark border underworld when he follows a trail of blood to the last of the infamous Mexican drug lords, Bucho, for an action-packed, bullet-riddled showdown. With the help of his friend and a beautiful bookstore owner, El Mariachi tracks Bucho, takes on his army of desperados, and leaves his own trail of blood.

🍅 71% Rotten Tomatoes7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Rodrigueztensekineticgrittyrelentless
Stream it:Netflix
See it on the map

When is Desperado streaming? →

If Desperado hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: El Mariachi (1993)

Crank poster
Crank
2006 · dir. Brian Taylor
🍅 62%6.9action · thriller · crime

Common ground in both: hitman and revenge

Chev Chelios, a hit man wanting to go straight, lets his latest target slip away. Then he awakes the next morning to a phone call that informs him he has been poisoned and has only an hour to live unless he keeps adrenaline coursing through his body while he searches for an antidote.

Feels alike?
Run All Night poster
Run All Night
2015 · dir. Jaume Collet-Serra
🍅 59%6.6action · crime · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: hitman

The difference: 20 years apart, and the 2010s show

Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon has seen better days. Longtime best friend of a mob boss, Jimmy is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. But when Jimmy’s estranged son becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy has just one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

Feels alike?
The Man from Nowhere poster
The Man from Nowhere
2010 · dir. Lee Jeong-beom
🍅 100%7.7action · thriller · crime

Common ground: tragic hero

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

A reclusive pawnshop owner goes on a brutal rampage to rescue a young girl kidnapped by a criminal organization.

Feels alike?
Rolling Thunder poster
Rolling Thunder
1977 · dir. John Flynn
🍅 82%6.9drama · thriller · action

The same preoccupation in both: shootout

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Desperado does

A Vietnam veteran, Charles Rane, returns home after years in a POW camp and is treated as a hero. He has a hard time adjusting, and things go badly. A movie about the walking dead, before that meant just flesh-eating zombies.

Feels alike?
New Police Story poster
New Police Story
2004 · dir. Benny Chan
🍅 63%6.9action · thriller · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: revenge

Sent into a drunken tailspin when his entire unit is killed by a gang of thrill-seeking punks, disgraced Hong Kong police inspector Wing needs help from his new rookie partner, with a troubled past of his own, to climb out of the bottle and track down the gang and its ruthless leader.

Feels alike?
John Wick: Chapter 2 poster
John Wick: Chapter 2
2017 · dir. Chad Stahelski
🍅 89%7.4action · thriller · crime

One thread runs through both: shootout

John Wick is forced out of retirement by a former associate looking to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to aid him, Wick travels to Rome and does battle against some of the world’s most dangerous killers.

Feels alike?
Rumble in the Bronx poster
Rumble in the Bronx
1995 · dir. Stanley Tong Gwai-Lai
🍅 81%6.8crime · action · comedy

Tense and kinetic in the same breath

Keong comes from Hong Kong to visit New York for his uncle's wedding. His uncle runs a market in the Bronx and Keong offers to help out while Uncle is on his honeymoon. During his stay in the Bronx, Keong befriends a neighbor kid and beats up some neighborhood thugs who cause problems at the market. One of those petty thugs in the local gang stumbles into a criminal situation way over his head.

Feels alike?
The Equalizer poster
The Equalizer
2014 · dir. Antoine Fuqua
🍅 61%7.3thriller · action · crime

Both land grit and relentlessness at once

McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.

Feels alike?
Extraction 2 poster
Extraction 2
2023 · dir. Sam Hargrave
🍅 79%7action · thriller · crime

Thriller built on tension, twice over

Back from the brink of death, highly skilled commando Tyler Rake takes on another dangerous mission: saving the imprisoned family of a ruthless gangster.

Feels alike?
Below Zero poster
Below Zero
2021 · dir. Lluís Quílez
🍅 86%6.2action · crime · thriller

Kinetic action, and it commits to that

When a prisoner transfer van is attacked, the cop in charge must fight those inside and outside while dealing with a silent foe: the icy temperatures.

Feels alike?
Road to Perdition poster
Road to Perdition
2002 · dir. Sam Mendes
🍅 82%7.6crime · drama · thriller

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

The difference: Missing the momentum of Desperado

Mike Sullivan works as a hit man for crime boss John Rooney. Sullivan views Rooney as a father figure, however after his son is witness to a killing, Mike Sullivan finds himself on the run in attempt to save the life of his son and at the same time looking for revenge on those who wronged him.

Feels alike?
Con Air poster
Con Air
1997 · dir. Simon West
🍅 59%6.9action · thriller · crime

Common ground: ambush

Newly-paroled former US Army ranger Cameron Poe is headed back to his wife, but must fly home aboard a prison transport flight dubbed "Jailbird" taking the “worst of the worst” prisoners, a group described as “pure predators”, to a new super-prison. Poe faces impossible odds when the transport plane is skyjacked mid-flight by the most vicious criminals in the country led by the mastermind — genius serial killer Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, and backed by black militant Diamond Dog and psychopath Billy Bedlam.

Feels alike?

In the mood for more tense?

all tense movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Desperado’s defining feeling.