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The Expendables poster

Movies that feel likeThe Expendables (2010)

Barney Ross leads a band of highly skilled mercenaries including knife enthusiast Lee Christmas, a martial arts expert Yin Yang, heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar, demolitionist Toll Road, and a loose-cannon sniper Gunner Jensen. When the group is commissioned by the mysterious Mr. Church to assassinate the dictator of a small South American island, Barney and Lee visit the remote locale to scout out their opposition and discover the true nature of the conflict engulfing the city.

If you loved The Expendables, the closest films we have are Quantum of Solace (2008), The Grey (2012) and Mission: Impossible III (2006). All three share The Expendables' tense and epic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Plane (2023).

🍅 41% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Sylvester Stallonetenseepickinetic
12 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If The Expendables hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: The Expendables 2 (2012) · The Expendables 3 (2014)

Quantum of Solace poster
Quantum of Solace
2008 · dir. Marc Forster
🍅 63%★ 6.5adventure · action · thrillerPrime VideoParamount+

Globe-hopping, hard-edged action driven by a personal vendetta

The difference: A lone-wolf spy thriller, not a hired team of specialists

Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr. White, who reveals that the organization that blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

The Grey poster
The Grey
2012 · dir. Joe Carnahan
🍅 80%★ 6.7action · adventure · thrillerNetflix

A hardened crew pushed to their limits by a merciless, deadly threat

The difference: A wilderness survival fight against wolves, not a mercenary mission

After their plane crashes in Alaska, six oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.

Mission: Impossible III poster
Mission: Impossible III
2006 · dir. J.J. Abrams
🍅 73%★ 6.9adventure · action · thrillerParamount+

A dangerous mission against a ruthless enemy with global reach

The difference: A spy-gadget thriller, not grizzled mercenaries with guns and blades

Retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force, agent Ethan Hunt faces the toughest foe of his career: Owen Davian, an international broker of arms and information, who's as cunning as he is ruthless. Davian emerges to threaten Hunt and all that he holds dear – including the woman Hunt loves.

Ashfall poster
Ashfall
2019 · dir. Kim Byung-seo
🍅 70%★ 6.2action · adventure · thrillerPrime Video

Tense where it counts, epic underneath

The difference: Reviewed even better

A group of unlikely heroes from across the Korean peninsula try to save the day after a volcano erupts on the mythical and majestic Baekdu Mountain.

The Rock poster
The Rock
1996 · dir. Michael Bay
🍅 76%★ 7.4action · adventure · thrillerPeacock

A crack team of specialists storming a fortress against the odds

The difference: A hostage-island heist thriller, not a mercenary strike squad

When vengeful General Francis X. Hummel seizes control of Alcatraz Island and threatens to launch missiles loaded with deadly chemical weapons into San Francisco, only a young FBI chemical weapons expert and notorious Federal prisoner have the skills to penetrate the impregnable island fortress and take him down.

The Wolf's Call poster
The Wolf's Call
2019 · dir. Antonin Baudry
★ 6.9thriller · action · adventurePrime Video

Kinetic thriller in both cases

Shown from the perspective of a young submariner with unusually sensitive hearing and uncannily precise sound recognition. The fate of many often depends on his ability, and one time, whilst highly stressed, he makes a incorrect call which put his entire crew in mortal danger. Trying to regain the confidence of his comrades, he conducts an unauthorised investigation of an apparent plot which, it turns out, risks escalating into a nuclear apocalypse. Suddenly working under pressure with the fleet admiral, they must do whatever is necessary, even the unthinkable, to prevent a nuclear war, since a confirmed nuclear strike order cannot be countermanded.

The Three Musketeers poster
The Three Musketeers
2011 · dir. Paul W. S. Anderson
🍅 27%★ 5.7adventure · action · thrillerPrime Video

A crew of seasoned fighters, past their prime, banding together again

The difference: Swashbuckling period swordplay, not modern mercenary firepower

The hot-headed young D'Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.

The King's Man poster
The King's Man
2021 · dir. Matthew Vaughn
🍅 41%★ 6.3action · adventure · thrillerHulu

One driven operative racing to stop a plot before it's too late

The difference: A period spy-origin story, not a crew of aging mercenaries

As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them.

London Has Fallen poster
London Has Fallen
2016 · dir. Babak Najafi
🍅 28%★ 5.9action · adventure · thriller

Relentless, high-body-count action built around stopping one plot

The difference: A presidential-assassination thriller, not a hired mercenary crew

In London for the Prime Minister's funeral, Mike Banning discovers a plot to assassinate all the attending world leaders.

Anna poster
Anna
2019 · dir. Luc Besson
🍅 33%★ 6.7action · adventure · thriller

Tense adventure, and it commits to that

Beneath Anna Poliatova's striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the world's most feared government assassins.

Skyscraper poster
Skyscraper
2018 · dir. Rawson Marshall Thurber
🍅 48%★ 5.8action · thriller · adventureRent or buy

Action built on scale, twice over

Framed and on the run, a former FBI agent must save his family from a blazing fire in the world's tallest building.

Plane poster
Plane
2023 · dir. Jean-François Richet
🍅 79%★ 6.5action · adventure · thrillerRent or buy

Thriller with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

After a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in a war zone, a fearless pilot finds himself between the agendas of multiple militias planning to take the plane and its passengers hostage.

In the mood for more tense?

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The best-reviewed films that share The Expendables’ defining feeling.