feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like The Secret Agent (2025)

If you loved The Secret Agent, the closest films we have are Neighboring Sounds (2012), Holy Spider (2022) and The Yellow Sea (2010). All three share The Secret Agent's tense and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 5 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Midnight Pulp and others, checked against today's data.

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

7.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Kleber Mendonça Filhotensecontemplativegritty
Stream it:Hulu
See it on the map

When is The Secret Agent streaming? →

If The Secret Agent hit the spot, these will too

Neighboring Sounds poster
Neighboring Sounds
2012 · dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
🍅 91%7.1thriller · drama · crime

Kleber Mendonça Filho working the same nerve twice

An independent private security firm arrives at a middle-class neighborhood in Recife, Brazil.

Feels alike?
Holy Spider poster
Holy Spider
2022 · dir. Ali Abbasi
🍅 82%7.3thriller · drama · crime

Both land tension and stillness at once

A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

Feels alike?
The Yellow Sea poster
The Yellow Sea
2010 · dir. Na Hong-jin
🍅 88%7.3drama · thriller · crime

Both are built on the same subject: police

A Korean man in China takes an assassination job in South Korea to make money and find his missing wife. But when the job is botched, he is forced to go on the run from the police and the gangsters who paid him.

Feels alike?
The Wild Goose Lake poster
The Wild Goose Lake
2019 · dir. Diao Yinan
🍅 91%6.7crime · drama · thriller

Gritty thriller in both cases

A gangster ends up making a mistake that causes every gun on both sides of the law to point at him. While on the run, he comes across a mysterious woman who might get him out of trouble or make things worse.

Feels alike?
Emily the Criminal poster
Emily the Criminal
2022 · dir. John Patton Ford
🍅 93%6.7crime · drama · thriller

Drama built on tension, twice over

Desperate for income, Emily takes a shady gig buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a charismatic middleman named Youcef. Seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills, they hatch a plan to take their business to the next level.

Feels alike?
The Silence poster
The Silence
2010 · dir. Baran bo Odar
🍅 87%7crime · thriller · drama

Contemplative crime, and it commits to that

13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.

Feels alike?
Hyena poster
Hyena
2015 · dir. Gerard Johnson
🍅 78%6.2crime · drama · thriller

Thriller with a pulse of grit, in both cases

Good policing doesn't necessarily mean doing everything by the book. But as the business of crime in London turns to favour the Albanians and Turks, how does a "good" policeman survive?

Feels alike?
The Traitor poster
The Traitor
2019 · dir. Marco Bellocchio
🍅 86%7.1drama · crime · thriller

Both lean on tension more than on drama

Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.

Feels alike?
Easy Money poster
Easy Money
2010 · dir. Daniel Espinosa
🍅 85%6.7drama · thriller · crime

Contemplative crime in both cases

When JW becomes a drug runner in order to maintain his double life, his fate becomes tied to two other men: Jorge, a fugitive on the run from both the Serbian mafia and the police, and mafia enforcer Mrado, who is on the hunt for Jorge.

Feels alike?
Good Time poster
Good Time
2017 · dir. Josh Safdie
🍅 91%7.3crime · thriller · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: life on the run

After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Connie Nikas embarks on a twisted odyssey through New York City's underworld to get his brother Nick out of jail.

Feels alike?
Suburra poster
Suburra
2015 · dir. Stefano Sollima
🍅 90%7.4crime · drama · thriller

Both lean on grit more than on thriller

A gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.

Feels alike?
36th Precinct poster
36th Precinct
2004 · dir. Olivier Marchal
🍅 100%7.1crime · drama · thriller

Drama of the same temperament

The difference: 21 years apart, and the 2000s show

In Paris, two cops are competing for the vacant job of chief of police, in the middle of the search for a gang of violent thieves. The movie is directed by Olivier Marchal, a former police officer who spent 12 years with the French police before creating this story, taken in part from real events of the 1980s.

Feels alike?

In the mood for more tense?

all tense movies →

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