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Movies that feel like Dirty Harry (1971)

If you loved Dirty Harry, the closest films we have are Bullitt (1968), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and In the Line of Duty 4 (1989). All three share Dirty Harry's kinetic and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath.

🍅 89% Rotten Tomatoes7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Don Siegelkineticgrittytense

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If Dirty Harry hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Magnum Force (1973)

Bullitt poster
Bullitt
1968 · dir. Peter Yates
🍅 98%7.4action · crime · thriller

San Francisco shapes both of them

Senator Walter Chalmers is aiming to take down mob boss Pete Ross with the help of testimony from the criminal's hothead brother Johnny, who is in protective custody in San Francisco under the watch of police lieutenant Frank Bullitt. When a pair of mob hitmen enter the scene, Bullitt follows their trail through a maze of complications and double-crosses. This thriller includes one of the most famous car chases ever filmed.

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Assault on Precinct 13 poster
Assault on Precinct 13
1976 · dir. John Carpenter
🍅 94%7.3thriller · action · crime

Two things both keep coming back to: police and ambush

A highway patrol officer, two criminals, and a station secretary form an unlikely alliance to defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang.

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In the Line of Duty 4 poster
In the Line of Duty 4
1989 · dir. Yuen Woo-ping
7.1action · crime · thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: detective

Two detectives who are up to their necks in trouble and in each other's face, as they try to shut down a drug-trafficking scheme that could be connected with international ties to organized crime. But in the midst of their investigation, innocent immigrant dock worker Luk Wan-Ting gets caught up in the mix when he witnesses the murder of an intelligence operative and is framed for the crime.

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The Street Fighter poster
The Street Fighter
1974 · dir. Shigehiro Ozawa
6.9action · crime · thriller

Common ground in both: ransom and kidnapping

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Dirty Harry does

Takuma Tsurugi takes on the government, the police, the mafia and an international ring of kidnappers who aim to dispossess a beautiful young heiress of her millions.

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Police Story 2 poster
Police Story 2
1988 · dir. Jackie Chan
🍅 84%7.1action · crime · thriller

Common ground: the investigation

The Hong Kong super-cop must stop a group of blackmailing bombers at the same time that the villains of the first Police Story are out for revenge.

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Charley Varrick poster
Charley Varrick
1973 · dir. Don Siegel
🍅 82%7.5crime · thriller · drama

Don Siegel directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: None of the momentum Dirty Harry is built on

Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob. Charley must now come up with a plan to not only evade the police but the mob as well.

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Branded to Kill poster
Branded to Kill
1967 · dir. Seijun Suzuki
🍅 100%7.2thriller · crime · action

Both land momentum and grit at once

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

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

Both are built on the same subject: psychopath

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

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.

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The Outlaws poster
The Outlaws
2017 · dir. Kang Yun-sung
🍅 92%7.2action · crime · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: police

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

In Chinatown, law and order is turned upside down when a trio of feral Chinese gangsters arrive, start terrorizing civilians, and usurping territory. The beleaguered local gangsters team up with the police, lead by the badass loose cannon Ma Seok-do, to bring them down. Based on a true story.

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Gone in 60 Seconds poster
Gone in 60 Seconds
1974 · dir. H.B. Halicki
🍅 43%6.3action · crime · thriller

Tense action, and it commits to that

Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace and his team lead double-lives as unstoppable car thieves. When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one, a 1973 Ford Mustang, are in the bag. As Pace prepares to rip-off the fastback, codenamed "Eleanor", in Long Beach, he is unaware that his boss has tipped off the police after a business dispute.

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Police Story 3: Super Cop poster
Police Story 3: Super Cop
1992 · dir. Stanley Tong Gwai-Lai
🍅 93%7action · crime · thriller

Crime with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

A Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.

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The Killer poster
The Killer
1989 · dir. John Woo
🍅 96%7.7action · crime · drama

Both lean on grit more than on thriller

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.

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In the mood for more kinetic?

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