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Facing El Chapo poster

Movies that feel likeFacing El Chapo (2026)

Two Mexican officers must survive the final hours of their shift after crossing a ruthless cartel boss.

If you loved Facing El Chapo, the closest films we have are The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (2019), Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024) and The Roundup: No Way Out (2023). All three share Facing El Chapo's gritty and kinetic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Plagues of Breslau (2018).

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If Facing El Chapo hit the spot, these will too

The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil poster
The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil
2019 · dir. Lee Won-tae
🍅 97%★ 7action · crime · thrillerPrime VideoPeacock

Common ground: a true story

After barely surviving a brutal attack by a sadistic serial killer, crime boss Jang Dong-su is left humiliated. Determined to catch the killer known as K, he forms an uneasy alliance with Jung Tae-seok, a relentless and incorruptible detective who often disrupts his illegal business. However, while Jang Dong-su wants K dead, Jung Tae-suk is determined to bring him to justice. With a deal in place—whoever finds K first will decide his fate—the hunt begins, blurring the lines between crime and law.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In poster
🍅 90%★ 6.9action · crime · thrillerPrime Video

Gritty and kinetic in the same breath

In 1980s Hong Kong, troubled youth Chan Lok-kwun, a mainland refugee, struggles to survive in the Kowloon Walled City by joining underground fights. Betrayed by crime boss Mr. Big while trying to buy a fake ID, he steals drugs from him and seeks refuge in the Walled City, where he encounters Cyclone, a compassionate yet authoritative crime lord.

The Roundup: No Way Out poster
The Roundup: No Way Out
2023 · dir. Lee Sang-yong
🍅 100%★ 6.6action · crime · thrillerPrime VideoHulu

Crime built on tension, twice over

Detective Ma Seok-do changes his affiliation from the Geumcheon Police Station to the Metropolitan Investigation Team, in order to eradicate Japanese gangsters who enter Korea to commit heinous crimes.

KILL poster
KILL
2024 · dir. Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
🍅 90%★ 7.4action · crime · thrillerHulu

Both lean on grit more than on action

When an army commando finds out his true love is engaged against her will, he boards a New Dehli-bound train in a daring quest to derail the arranged marriage. But when a gang of knife-wielding thieves begin to terrorize innocent passengers on his train, the commando takes them on, one by one.

Dhurandhar poster
Dhurandhar
2025 · dir. Aditya Dhar
★ 8.2action · crime · thrillerNetflix

Kinetic thriller, and it commits to that

In the early 2000s, an undercover operative infiltrates Karachi's underworld, breaking into its inner circle to dismantle a violent nexus from within.

The Plagues of Breslau poster
The Plagues of Breslau
2018 · dir. Patryk Vega
🍅 83%★ 6crime · action · thrillerNetflix

Tense crime in both cases

Every day at 6 pm a serial killer kills another person. Police officer Helena Rus thinks the killings are done by one man only and decides to reveal the killer's identity by getting back in 18th century history of the city.

Cold Eyes poster
Cold Eyes
2013 · dir. Kim Byung-seo
★ 7.1crime · action · thriller

Action with a pulse of grit, in both cases

Ha Yoon-ju becomes the newest member of a unit within the Korean Police Forces Special Crime Department that specializes in surveillance activities on high-profile criminals. She teams up with Hwang Sang-jun, the veteran leader of the unit, and tries to track down James who is the cold-hearted leader of an armed criminal organization.

Ninja: Shadow of a Tear poster
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
2013 · dir. Isaac Florentine
🍅 100%★ 6.2action · crime · thrillerPrime Video

Another one that scratches it

Fight everyone and trust no one: it's the code of survival practiced by martial-arts master Casey Bowman after his life of domestic bliss is shattered by a savage act of violence. Vowing revenge, the fearless American stealthily tracks the killer from Osaka to Bangkok to Rangoon with the help of a wise and crafty sensei. His only clues: a series of victims whose necks bear the distinctive mark of strangulation by barbed wire. Fighting to avenge as well as to survive, Casey must sharpen his razor-like responses and take his battle skills to the next level, even using deep meditation to fake his own death. His target: the sinister drug lord Goro, who is flooding the streets with deadly meth cooked at his remote jungle factory. To prepare for his ultimate confrontation, Casey must finally become an invisible warrior worthy of the name Ninja. But just when his prey is cornered, an unexpected twist shows Casey that his battle is only beginning: he truly can trust no one.

Kill Boksoon poster
Kill Boksoon
2023 · dir. Byun Sung-hyun
🍅 79%★ 6.6action · drama · thrillerNetflix

Tense crime, and it commits to that

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Facing El Chapo does

At work, she's a renowned assassin. At home, she's a single mom to a teenage daughter. Killing? That's easy. It's parenting that's the hard part.

Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 poster
Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1
2012 · dir. Anurag Kashyap
🍅 91%★ 8.2action · thriller · crime

Both know what they want from action

In 1970s India, Sardar Khan vows to take revenge on the man who killed his father decades earlier.

Ballerina poster
Ballerina
2025 · dir. Len Wiseman
★ 6.8action · thriller · crimeMaxStarz

Both are thriller through and through

Taking place during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Eve Macarro begins her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma.

Infernal Affairs II poster
Infernal Affairs II
2003 · dir. Andrew Lau Wai-Keung
🍅 75%★ 7.2action · thriller · crimeMax

The crime is handled with the same confidence

The difference: Made in the 2000s, in a different era of the craft

In this prequel to the original, a bloody power struggle among the Triads coincides with the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, setting up the events of the first film.

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