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Movies that feel like Spy Game (2001)

If you loved Spy Game, the closest films we have are The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009), Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992) and Dhurandhar (2025). All three share Spy Game's kinetic and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 11 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.

On the day of his retirement, a veteran CIA agent learns that his former protégé 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.

🍅 64% Rotten Tomatoes7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Tony Scottkineticgrittytense
Stream it:Netflix
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If Spy Game hit the spot, these will too

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 poster
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
2009 · dir. Tony Scott
🍅 51%6.4crime · thriller · action

Tony Scott directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.

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

Common ground: china

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

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

Dhurandhar poster
Dhurandhar
2025 · dir. Aditya Dhar
8.3action · crime · thriller

The same two preoccupations: espionage, and terrorism

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

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

From Paris with Love poster
From Paris with Love
2010 · dir. Pierre Morel
🍅 37%6.4action · crime · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: central intelligence agency (cia)

James Reese has a good job as an ambassador's aid in France, but his real passion is a side gig—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.

Ong-Bak poster
Ong-Bak
2003 · dir. Prachya Pinkaew
🍅 85%7.1action · crime · thriller

Kinetic and gritty in the same breath

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 · dir. Alan Mak Siu-Fai
🍅 75%7.2action · thriller · crime

Tense action, and it commits to that

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.

Unstoppable poster
Unstoppable
2010 · dir. Tony Scott
🍅 87%6.8action · thriller

The same hand behind both of them: Tony Scott

The difference: Missing the grit of Spy Game

When a massive, unmanned locomotive roars out of control, the threat is more ominous than just a derailment. The train is laden with toxic chemicals, and an accident would decimate human life and cause an environmental disaster. The only hope of bringing the train to a safe stop is in the hands of veteran engineer Frank Barnes, and young conductor Will Colson, who must risk their lives to save those in the runaway's path. Inspired by true events.

Crank: High Voltage poster
Crank: High Voltage
2009 · dir. Mark Neveldine
🍅 64%6.1action · thriller · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: flashback

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.

Infernal Affairs III poster
Infernal Affairs III
2003 · dir. Andrew Lau Wai-Keung
6.8crime · drama · action

The same preoccupation in both: flashback

The difference: Not nearly as tense as Spy Game

Triad gangster turned corrupt cop Lau Kin-ming goes to dangerous lengths to avoid detection.

The Boondock Saints poster
The Boondock Saints
1999 · dir. Troy Duffy
🍅 26%7.6action · thriller · crime

Crime built on momentum, twice over

Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.

Swordfish poster
Swordfish
2001 · dir. Dominic Sena
🍅 27%6.5action · crime · thriller

One thread runs through both: terrorism

Rogue agent Gabriel Shear is determined to get his mitts on $9 billion stashed in a secret Drug Enforcement Administration account. He wants the cash to fight terrorism, but lacks the computer skills necessary to hack into the government mainframe. Enter Stanley Jobson, a n'er-do-well encryption expert who can log into anything.

Lethal Weapon 4 poster
Lethal Weapon 4
1998 · dir. Richard Donner
🍅 54%6.6action · crime · thriller

Gritty thriller in both cases

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.

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