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Movies that feel like S.W.A.T. (2003)

If you loved S.W.A.T., the closest films we have are Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), The Raid (2012) and Ong-Bak (2003). All three share S.W.A.T.'s kinetic and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 12 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.

Hondo Harrelson recruits Jim Street to join an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. Together they seek out more members, including tough Deke Kay and single mom Chris Sanchez. The team's first big assignment is to escort crime boss Alex Montel to prison. It seems routine, but when Montel offers a huge reward to anyone who can break him free, criminals of various stripes step up for the prize.

πŸ… 48% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 6.1 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Clark Johnsonkinetictensegritty

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If S.W.A.T. hit the spot, these will too

Lethal Weapon 4 poster
Lethal Weapon 4
1998 Β· dir. Richard Donner
πŸ… 54%β˜… 6.6action Β· crime Β· thriller

Both rooted in Los Angeles

With personal crises and age weighing in on them, LAPD officers Riggs and Murtaugh must contend with a deadly Chinese crime lord trying to get his brother out of prison.

The Raid poster
The Raid
2012 Β· dir. Gareth Evans
πŸ… 87%β˜… 7.6action Β· thriller Β· crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: s.w.a.t.

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

Deep in the heart of Jakarta's slums lies an impenetrable safe house for the world's most dangerous killers and gangsters. Until now, the run-down apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, an elite swat team is tasked with raiding the safe house in order to take down the notorious drug lord that runs it. But when a chance encounter with a spotter blows their cover and news of their assault reaches the drug lord, the building's lights are cut and all the exits blocked. Stranded on the sixth floor with no way out, the unit must fight their way through the city's worst to survive their mission. Starring Indonesian martial arts sensation Iko Uwais.

Ong-Bak poster
Ong-Bak
2003 Β· dir. Prachya Pinkaew
πŸ… 85%β˜… 7.1action Β· crime Β· thriller

Both land momentum and tension at once

When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.

Infernal Affairs II poster
Infernal Affairs II
2003 Β· dir. Alan Mak Siu-Fai
πŸ… 75%β˜… 7.2action Β· thriller Β· crime

Both lean on grit more than on action

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.

Spy Game poster
Spy Game
2001 Β· dir. Tony Scott
πŸ… 64%β˜… 7.1action Β· crime Β· thriller

Thriller built on momentum, twice over

On the day of his retirement, a veteran CIA agent learns that his former protΓ©gΓ© has been arrested in China, is sentenced to die the next morning in Beijing, and that the CIA is considering letting that happen to avoid an international scandal.

From Paris with Love poster
From Paris with Love
2010 Β· dir. Pierre Morel
πŸ… 37%β˜… 6.4action Β· crime Β· thriller

Tense crime in both cases

James Reese has a good job as an ambassador's aid in France, but his real passion is a side gigβ€”working in a minor role in the CIA. He would love to be a full-fledged agent and can't believe his luck when he lands an assignment with Charlie Wax. Trigger-happy Charlie soon has James crying for his desk job, but when he learns that the same guys they're trying to catch are after him, James realises that Charlie may be his only hope of survival.

Crank: High Voltage poster
Crank: High Voltage
2009 Β· dir. Mark Neveldine
πŸ… 64%β˜… 6.1action Β· thriller Β· crime

Gritty action, and it commits to that

Chelios faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.

Ninja: Shadow of a Tear poster
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
2013 Β· dir. Isaac Florentine
πŸ… 100%β˜… 6.1action Β· crime Β· thriller

Thriller with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

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.

Transporter 2 poster
Transporter 2
2005 Β· dir. Louis Leterrier
β˜… 6.3action Β· thriller Β· crime

Crime built on tension, twice over

Professional driver, and former Special Forces officer, Frank Martin is living in Miami, where he is temporarily filling in for a friend as the chauffeur for a government narcotics control policy director and his family. The young boy in the family is targeted for kidnapping, and Frank immediately becomes involved in protecting the child and exposing the kidnappers.

Hard Target poster
Hard Target
1993 Β· dir. John Woo
πŸ… 63%β˜… 6.2action Β· thriller Β· crime

Gritty action in both cases

When a woman's father goes missing, she enlists a local to aid in her search. The pair soon discover that her father has died at the hands of a wealthy sportsman who hunts homeless men as a form of recreation.

Point Break poster
Point Break
1991 Β· dir. Kathryn Bigelow
πŸ… 68%β˜… 7.3action Β· thriller Β· crime

The same thriller instincts

In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.

Safe poster
Safe
2012 Β· dir. Boaz Yakin
πŸ… 59%β˜… 6.5action Β· crime Β· thriller

Both know what they want from crime

After a former elite agent rescues a 12-year-old Chinese girl who's been abducted, they find themselves in the middle of a standoff between Triads, the Russian Mafia and high-level corrupt New York City politicians and police.

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The best-reviewed films that share S.W.A.T.’s defining feeling.