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Now You See Me poster

Movies that feel likeNow You See Me (2013)

An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.

If you loved Now You See Me, the closest films we have are The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Donnie Brasco (1997) and Snowden (2016). All three share Now You See Me's tense and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008).

🍅 51% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.2 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Louis Leterriertensegrittyparanoidplayful
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If Now You See Me hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Now You See Me 2 (2016)

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

A slick operator staying one move ahead of a system out to trap him

The difference: Courtroom grind instead of spectacle — no tricks, just leverage

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.

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

Never knowing who is performing and who is telling the truth

The difference: Slow, sad and dangerous — here the cost is completely real

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

Snowden poster
Snowden
2016 · dir. Oliver Stone
🍅 61%★ 7.3drama · history · crimeNetflixStarz

Watching a nobody outwit the world's biggest surveillance machine

The difference: A sober true story — paranoia without the stage-show payoff

CIA employee Edward Snowden leaks thousands of classified documents to the press.

The Negotiator poster
The Negotiator
1998 · dir. F. Gary Gray
★ 7.3action · crime · drama

A framed expert using his own tradecraft to outplay the authorities

The difference: One tense building, no glitter — talk and standoffs do the work

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.

The Accountant² poster
The Accountant²
2025 · dir. Gavin O'Connor
🍅 75%★ 6.6mystery · crime · thrillerPrime VideoHulu

Both are built on the same subject: conspiracy

The difference: Easier on the play than Now You See Me

When an old acquaintance is murdered, Wolff is compelled to solve the case. Realizing more extreme measures are necessary, Wolff recruits his estranged and highly lethal brother, Brax, to help. In partnership with Marybeth Medina, they uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.

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

The same mix in both: tension, then grit

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

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.

The Little Things poster
The Little Things
2021 · dir. John Lee Hancock
🍅 44%★ 6.3drama · crime · thrillerRent or buy

Investigators chasing a quarry who always seems a step ahead

The difference: Grim and mournful — a slow serial-killer hunt with no showmanship

Deputy Sheriff Joe "Deke" Deacon joins forces with Sgt. Jim Baxter to search for a serial killer who's terrorizing Los Angeles. As they track the culprit, Baxter is unaware that the investigation is dredging up echoes of Deke's past, uncovering disturbing secrets that could threaten more than his case.

The French Connection poster
The French Connection
1971 · dir. William Friedkin
🍅 97%★ 7.6action · crime · thriller

Both rooted in New York City

The difference: Trades the play of Now You See Me for an angle of its own

Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.

Transporter 2 poster
Transporter 2
2005 · dir. Louis Leterrier
★ 6.3action · thriller · crime

Professional competence staged as clean, showy set pieces

The difference: Blunt action nonsense with nothing to figure out

Professional driver, and former Special Forces officer, Frank Martin is living in Miami, where he is temporarily filling in for a friend as the chauffeur for a government narcotics control policy director and his family. The young boy in the family is targeted for kidnapping, and Frank immediately becomes involved in protecting the child and exposing the kidnappers.

Marathon Man poster
Marathon Man
1976 · dir. John Schlesinger
🍅 82%★ 7.4thriller · crime · dramaParamount+

Both keep coming back to the same thing: conspiracy

The difference: Takes it somewhere less playful than Now You See Me does

A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.

Shooter poster
Shooter
2007 · dir. Antoine Fuqua
🍅 47%★ 7.2drama · action · thrillerParamount+Starz

One step ahead of the FBI while a conspiracy tightens around him

The difference: Sniper-scope grit with zero playfulness — vengeance, not showbiz

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.

Blow Out poster
Blow Out
1981 · dir. Brian De Palma
🍅 88%★ 7.4crime · mystery · thrillerPrime Video

Both lean on paranoia more than on thriller

The difference: Leans harder into mystery than Now You See Me does

While recording sound effects for a slasher flick, Jack Terry stumbles upon a real-life horror: a car careening off a bridge and into a river. Jack jumps into the water and fishes out Sally from the car, but the other passenger is already dead — a governor intending to run for president. As Jack does some investigating of his tapes, and starts a perilous romance with Sally, he enters a tangled web of conspiracy that might leave him dead.

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The best-reviewed films that share Now You See Me’s defining feeling.