feelsalike.comSign in
Die Hard poster

Movies that feel likeDie Hard (1988)

High above the city of L.A. a team of terrorists has seized a building, taken hostages, and declared war. One man has manages to escape... An off-duty cop hiding somewhere inside. He's alone, tired... and the only chance anyone has got.

If you loved Die Hard, the closest films we have are The Hunt for Red October (1990), Speed (1994) and True Lies (1994). All three share Die Hard's kinetic and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Warriors (1979).

🍅 94% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. John McTiernankinetictenseplayful
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · FXNow · AMC

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

See it on the Mood Map

When is Die Hard streaming? →

If Die Hard hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Die Hard 2 (1990) · Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995) · Live Free or Die Hard (2007) · A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

The Hunt for Red October poster
The Hunt for Red October
1990 · dir. John McTiernan
🍅 88%★ 7.5action · thriller

McTiernan's clockwork tension, moved from a tower to a submarine

The difference: Chess-match suspense — talk and sonar, not one man under fire

A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. Lone CIA analyst Jack Ryan has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it - because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find Ramius, too. The hunt is on!

Speed poster
Speed
1994 · dir. Jan de Bont
🍅 95%★ 7.3action · thrillerNetflix

A pressure cooker where one improviser has to outthink a bomber

The difference: Kept in constant motion, with no building to trap and wear you down

Tensions run high when a crazed bomber rigs a Los Angeles bus with a device that will kill everyone on board if the vehicle's speed dips below fifty miles per hour.

True Lies poster
True Lies
1994 · dir. James Cameron
🍅 77%★ 7.3action · thrillerRent or buy

Big practical action laced with jokes about a strained marriage

The difference: Globe-trotting and cartoonish, led by a man who is never outmatched

A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.

Ronin poster
Ronin
1998 · dir. John Frankenheimer
🍅 70%★ 7.2action · thriller · crime

Pros with guns, a prize in a case, and no one to trust

The difference: Cool and terse — car chases stand in for wisecracks

A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals' hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or 'ronin', and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.

Cliffhanger poster
Cliffhanger
1993 · dir. Renny Harlin
🍅 67%★ 6.5action · adventure · thriller

Ordinary-guy grit against armed thieves in a hostile place

The difference: The mountain does half the menacing — the villains are stock

A year after losing his friend in a tragic 4,000-foot fall, former ranger Gabe Walker and his partner, Hal, are called to return to the same peak to rescue a group of stranded climbers, only to learn the climbers are actually thieving hijackers who are looking for boxes full of money.

Den of Thieves poster
Den of Thieves
2018 · dir. Christian Gudegast
🍅 42%★ 7crime · thriller · action

LA cops, career thieves and a heist built on hidden angles

The difference: Sprawling and grimy — it lacks Die Hard's tight single setting

A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.

Gone in Sixty Seconds poster
Gone in Sixty Seconds
2000 · dir. Dominic Sena
🍅 25%★ 6.5action · crime · thriller

Crooks running a job against a clock with a cocky grin throughout

The difference: Car-obsessed and low-stakes, and nobody here is ever truly cornered

Ex-car thief Randall Raines is forced out of retirement to save his brother Kip after a boost gone wrong. With the help of allies old and new, they race to meet the demands of notorious crime boss Raymond Calitri as the police are in hot pursuit.

The Warriors poster
The Warriors
1979 · dir. Walter Hill
🍅 88%★ 7.5action · thrillerNetflix

Kinetic where it counts, tense underneath

The difference: Easier on the play than Die Hard

Prominent gang leader Cyrus calls a meeting of New York's gangs to set aside their turf wars and take over the city. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus' death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors' trail.

Fast Five poster
Fast Five
2011 · dir. Justin Lin
🍅 77%★ 7.3action · thriller · crimeNetflix

Loud fun built on banter and a heist that goes sideways

The difference: An ensemble in the sun, so nobody is alone or badly outnumbered

Former cop Brian O'Conner partners with ex-con Dom Toretto on the opposite side of the law. Since Brian and Mia Toretto broke Dom out of custody, they've blown across many borders to elude authorities. Now backed into a corner in Rio de Janeiro, they must pull one last job in order to gain their freedom.

Predator poster
Predator
1987 · dir. John McTiernan
🍅 65%★ 7.8science fiction · action · adventure

McTiernan again strips heroes down to pure survival craft

The difference: Jungle sci-fi horror — the enemy is a monster, not a mastermind

A team of elite commandos on a secret mission in a Central American jungle come to find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.

Thunderbolt poster
Thunderbolt
1995 · dir. Gordon Chan
★ 6.3action · thriller

Kinetic action in both cases

In order to release his kidnapped sister, sports car mechanic, Chan Foh To, has to defeat a super-criminal street racer.

Air Force One poster
Air Force One
1997 · dir. Wolfgang Petersen
🍅 78%★ 6.5action · thriller

Thriller with a pulse of tension, in both cases

When Russian neo-nationalists hijack Air Force One, the world's most secure and extraordinary aircraft, the President is faced with a nearly impossible decision to give in to terrorist demands or sacrifice not only the country's dignity, but the lives of his wife and daughter.

In the mood for more kinetic?

all kinetic movies →

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