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Movies that feel like Thunderball (1965)

If you loved Thunderball, the closest films we have are Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025), The Wolf's Call (2019) and Pathaan (2023). All three share Thunderball's epic and kinetic feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 11 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu and others, checked against today's data.

A criminal organization has obtained two nuclear bombs and are asking for a 100 million pound ransom in the form of diamonds in seven days or they will use the weapons. The secret service sends James Bond to the Bahamas to once again save the world.

πŸ… 85% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 6.9 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Terence Youngepickinetictense

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If Thunderball hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Dr. No (1962) Β· From Russia with Love (1963) Β· Goldfinger (1964) Β· You Only Live Twice (1967) Β· On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) Β· Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning poster
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
2025 Β· dir. Christopher McQuarrie
πŸ… 80%β˜… 7.1action Β· thriller Β· adventure

Both are working the same pair: spy, nuclear missile

The difference: 60 years apart, and the 2020s show

Ethan Hunt and team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity β€” which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe β€” with the world's governments and a mysterious ghost from Hunt's past on their trail. Joined by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever.

Feels alike?
The Wolf's Call poster
The Wolf's Call
2019 Β· dir. Antonin Baudry
β˜… 6.9thriller Β· action Β· adventure

Common ground: nuclear missile

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.

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Pathaan poster
Pathaan
2023 Β· dir. Siddharth Anand
πŸ… 85%β˜… 5.8action Β· adventure Β· thriller

Both are built on the same subject: spy

A soldier caught by enemies and presumed dead comes back to complete his mission, accompanied by old companions and foes.

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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One poster
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
2023 Β· dir. Christopher McQuarrie
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.6action Β· adventure Β· thriller

The same preoccupation in both: secret agent

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the world's fate at stake and dark forces from Ethan's past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan must consider that nothing can matter more than his missionβ€”not even the lives of those he cares about most.

Feels alike?
Anna poster
Anna
2019 Β· dir. Luc Besson
πŸ… 33%β˜… 6.7action Β· adventure Β· thriller

The same city underneath both: Paris

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

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.

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Mission: Impossible poster
Mission: Impossible
1996 Β· dir. Brian De Palma
πŸ… 66%β˜… 7.2adventure Β· action Β· thriller

Epic where it counts, kinetic underneath

When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.

Feels alike?
Come Drink with Me poster
Come Drink with Me
1966 Β· dir. King Hu
πŸ… 100%β˜… 6.9action Β· adventure

Adventure built on scale, twice over

The difference: Missing the tension of Thunderball

Golden Sparrow is a fighter-for-hire who has been contracted by the local government to retrieve the governor's kidnapped son. Holding him is a group of rebels who are demanding that their leader be released from prison in return for the captured son. After a brief encounter with the gang at a local restaurant, Golden Sparrow is joined by an inebriated wanderer Drunken Cat who aids her in her mission.

Feels alike?
Runaway Train poster
Runaway Train
1985 Β· dir. Andrei Konchalovsky
πŸ… 84%β˜… 7.2action Β· thriller Β· drama

Action with a pulse of tension, in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to drama than Thunderball does

A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a brutal prison in the middle of winter only to find themselves on an out-of-control train with a female railway worker while being pursued by the vengeful head of security.

Feels alike?
True Lies poster
True Lies
1994 Β· dir. James Cameron
πŸ… 77%β˜… 7.3action Β· thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: florida

A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife might be having an affair with a used car salesman while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.

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Sorcerer poster
Sorcerer
1977 Β· dir. William Friedkin
πŸ… 84%β˜… 7.7thriller Β· adventure

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

Four men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (which is so old that it is dripping unstable nitroglycerin) across dangerous jungle terrain.

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The King's Man poster
The King's Man
2021 Β· dir. Matthew Vaughn
πŸ… 41%β˜… 6.3action Β· adventure Β· thriller

Both lean on momentum more than on adventure

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.

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Ashfall poster
Ashfall
2019 Β· dir. Kim Byung-seo
πŸ… 70%β˜… 6.2action Β· adventure Β· thriller

Epic action in both cases

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.

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In the mood for more epic?

all epic movies β†’

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