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First Blood poster

Movies that feel likeFirst Blood (1982)

When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

If you loved First Blood, the closest films we have are The Warriors (1979), The Fugitive (1993) and True Lies (1994). All three share First Blood's kinetic and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Run Lola Run (1998).

🍅 86% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ted Kotcheffkinetictensecontemplative
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If First Blood hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) · Rambo III (1988) · Rambo (2008) · Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

The Warriors poster
The Warriors
1979 · dir. Walter Hill
🍅 88%★ 7.5action · thrillerNetflix

The same mix in both: momentum, then tension

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than First Blood does

Prominent gang leader Cyrus calls a meeting of New York's gangs to set aside their turf wars and take over the city. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus' death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors' trail.

The Fugitive poster
The Fugitive
1993 · dir. Andrew Davis
🍅 96%★ 7.8action · thriller · drama

One innocent man hunted through unforgiving terrain by relentless law

The difference: Kimble outsmarts his pursuers rather than out-fighting them

Wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to death, Richard Kimble escapes from the law in an attempt to find the real killer and clear his name.

True Lies poster
True Lies
1994 · dir. James Cameron
🍅 77%★ 7.3action · thrillerHulu

An unstoppable one-man army mowing through impossible odds

The difference: Played for laughs and marital farce — zero of Rambo's wounds

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.

Die Hard: With a Vengeance poster
Die Hard: With a Vengeance
1995 · dir. John McTiernan
🍅 60%★ 7.6action · thrillerHulu

One exhausted man dragged through an escalating gauntlet

The difference: Wisecracking buddy energy — the trauma never sticks

New York detective John McClane is back and kicking bad-guy butt in the third installment of this action-packed series, which finds him teaming with civilian Zeus Carver to prevent the loss of innocent lives. McClane thought he'd seen it all, until a genius named Simon engages McClane, his new "partner" -- and his beloved city -- in a deadly game that demands their concentration.

The Hunt for Red October poster
The Hunt for Red October
1990 · dir. John McTiernan
🍅 88%★ 7.5action · thriller

Action built on momentum, twice over

A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius. The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. Lone CIA analyst Jack Ryan has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it - because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find Ramius, too. The hunt is on!

Air Force One poster
Air Force One
1997 · dir. Wolfgang Petersen
🍅 78%★ 6.6action · thriller

Common ground: vietnam veteran

When Russian neo-nationalists hijack Air Force One, the world's most secure and extraordinary aircraft, the President is faced with a nearly impossible decision to give in to terrorist demands or sacrifice not only the country's dignity, but the lives of his wife and daughter.

Thunderbolt poster
Thunderbolt
1995 · dir. Gordon Chan
★ 6.3action · thriller

A skilled loner strong-armed into a fight he didn't pick

The difference: Racing-stunt spectacle without the psychic scars

In order to release his kidnapped sister, sports car mechanic, Chan Foh To, has to defeat a super-criminal street racer.

Speed poster
Speed
1994 · dir. Jan de Bont
🍅 95%★ 7.3action · thrillerNetflix

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

Tensions run high when a crazed bomber rigs a Los Angeles bus with a device that will kill everyone on board if the vehicle's speed dips below fifty miles per hour.

Run Lola Run poster
Run Lola Run
1998 · dir. Tom Tykwer
🍅 93%★ 7.6action · drama · thrillerHulu

Pure forward motion — one desperate run where every second counts

The difference: A playful Berlin experiment in structure, not a survival ordeal

Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.

Diamonds Are Forever poster
Diamonds Are Forever
1971 · dir. Guy Hamilton
🍅 64%★ 6.5action · thrillerPrime Video

Kinetic drama, and it commits to that

Diamonds are stolen only to be sold again in the international market. James Bond infiltrates a smuggling mission to find out who's guilty. The mission takes him to Las Vegas where Bond meets his archenemy Blofeld.

Outbreak poster
Outbreak
1995 · dir. Wolfgang Petersen
🍅 59%★ 6.6action · drama · thriller

Contemplative action in both cases

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

A deadly airborne virus finds its way into the USA and starts killing off people at an epidemic rate. Col. Sam Daniels' job is to stop the virus spreading from a small town, which must be quarantined, and to prevent an over reaction by the White House.

Body of Lies poster
Body of Lies
2008 · dir. Ridley Scott
🍅 55%★ 7action · drama · thriller

A capable man ground down by institutions that use and discard him

The difference: Spy-game sprawl across the Middle East — no lone stand in the woods

The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.

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