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Movies that feel like The Negotiator (1998)

If you loved The Negotiator, the closest films we have are The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008), Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) and John Q (2002). All three share The Negotiator's contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 10 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.

The police try to arrest expert hostage negotiator Danny Roman, who insists he's being framed for his partner's murder in what he believes is an elaborate conspiracy. Thinking there's evidence in the Internal Affairs offices that might clear him, he takes everyone in the office hostage and demands that another well-known negotiator be brought in to handle the situation and secretly investigate the conspiracy.

7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. F. Gary Graykineticgrittycontemplativetenseparanoid

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If The Negotiator hit the spot, these will too

The Baader Meinhof Complex poster
The Baader Meinhof Complex
2008 · dir. Uli Edel
🍅 85%7.3action · crime · drama

One thread runs through both: hostage-taking

The difference: Leans harder into history than The Negotiator does

When German police viciously quell a protest against the shah of Iran, popular journalist Ulrike Meinhof rebels against her dishonest marriage, walks away from her children and joins radical anarchist Andreas Baader. Together with Baader's girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin, they form the violent Red Faction Army, and together perpetrate a slew of terrorist attacks as a way of disrupting the fabric of what they see as an increasingly fascist state.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit poster
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
2014 · dir. Kenneth Branagh
🍅 55%6.2action · drama · thriller

The same two preoccupations: corruption, and murder

The difference: Missing the grit of The Negotiator

Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.

John Q poster
John Q
2002 · dir. Nick Cassavetes
🍅 26%7.1drama · thriller · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: chicago, illinois

John Quincy Archibald is a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. Therefore, he decides to take a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the donor's list.

Enemy of the State poster
Enemy of the State
1998 · dir. Tony Scott
🍅 71%7.3action · drama · thriller

Common ground: murder

When the videotape of the murder of a congressman unknowingly ends up in the hands of labor lawyer and dedicated family man Robert Clayton Dean, he is framed for the murder. With the help of the mysterious Brill, Dean attempts to throw the NSA off his trail and prove his innocence.

Gone Baby Gone poster
Gone Baby Gone
2007 · dir. Ben Affleck
🍅 94%7.6crime · drama · mystery

Common ground in both: police and conspiracy

The difference: Sits closer to mystery than The Negotiator does

When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

Law Abiding Citizen poster
Law Abiding Citizen
2009 · dir. F. Gary Gray
🍅 26%7.4drama · crime · thriller

F. Gary Gray directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

The Parallax View poster
The Parallax View
1974 · dir. Alan J. Pakula
🍅 87%7.1crime · drama · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: corruption

The difference: Made in the 1970s, in a different era of the craft

An ambitious reporter gets in trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.

Shooter poster
Shooter
2007 · dir. Antoine Fuqua
🍅 47%7.2drama · action · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: conspiracy

A top Marine sniper, Bob Lee Swagger, leaves the military after a mission goes horribly awry and disappears, living in seclusion. He is coaxed back into service after a high-profile government official convinces him to help thwart a plot to kill the President of the United States. Ultimately double-crossed and framed for the attempt, Swagger becomes the target of a nationwide manhunt. He goes on the run to track the real killer and find out who exactly set him up, and why, eventually seeking revenge against some of the most powerful and corrupt leaders in the free world.

Infernal Affairs II poster
Infernal Affairs II
2003 · dir. Alan Mak Siu-Fai
🍅 75%7.2action · thriller · crime

One thread runs through both: police

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.

Donnie Brasco poster
Donnie Brasco
1997 · dir. Mike Newell
🍅 88%7.7crime · drama · thriller

Gritty where it counts, contemplative underneath

An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.

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

Kinetic and tense in the same breath

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.

The Lincoln Lawyer poster
The Lincoln Lawyer
2011 · dir. Brad Furman
🍅 83%7.3crime · drama · thriller

Crime with a pulse of paranoia, in both cases

Mick Haller is a charismatic defense attorney who does business out of his Lincoln Continental sedan. Mick spends most of his time defending petty crooks and other bottom-feeders, so it comes as quite a surprise when he lands the case of a lifetime: defending a Beverly Hills playboy who is accused of attempted murder. However, what Mick initially thinks is an open-and-shut case with a big monetary reward develops into something more sinister.

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