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Outbreak poster

Movies that feel likeOutbreak (1995)

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.

If you loved Outbreak, the closest films we have are Air Force One (1997), Run Lola Run (1998) and Don (2006). All three share Outbreak'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 Haywire (2011).

🍅 59% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Wolfgang Petersenkineticcontemplativetense
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If Outbreak hit the spot, these will too

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

Wolfgang Petersen directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than Outbreak does

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.

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

Kinetic and contemplative in the same breath

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

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.

Don poster
Don
2006 · dir. Farhan Akhtar
★ 7.2action · drama · thrillerNetflix

Both lean on tension more than on action

DCP DeSilva sees a way to bring to justice the feared head of a criminal empire by recruiting a man named Vijay, who looks exactly like the crime boss. The ruse works too well, and soon Vijay finds his life in danger when DeSilva, the only one who knows his true identity, dies.

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

Thriller built on momentum, twice over

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.

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

Tense drama, and it commits to that

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!

Haywire poster
Haywire
2011 · dir. Steven Soderbergh
🍅 80%★ 5.8action · thriller

Action with a pulse of momentum, in both cases

A black ops soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and left for dead.

The Perfect Storm poster
The Perfect Storm
2000 · dir. Wolfgang Petersen
★ 6.5drama · adventure · action

The same hand behind both of them: Wolfgang Petersen

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than Outbreak does

In October 1991, a confluence of weather conditions combined to form a killer storm in the North Atlantic. Caught in the storm was the sword-fishing boat Andrea Gail.

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

Tense thriller in both cases

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

Merantau poster
Merantau
2009 · dir. Gareth Evans
★ 6.7action · drama · thriller

Contemplative drama in both cases

In Minangkabau, West Sumatera, Yuda a skilled practitioner of Silat Harimau is in the final preparations to begin his "Merantau" a century's old rites-of-passage to be carried out by the community's young men that will see him leave the comforts of his idyllic farming village and make a name for himself in the bustling city of Jakarta.

Metro poster
Metro
2013 · dir. Anton Megerdichev
★ 6.4action · thrillerPrime Video

Cut from the same action cloth

Terror strikes the underground train system in Moscow in the form of a flood from a collapsed tunnel. The film follows a diverse group of Moscow citizens who find themselves trapped in the city’s underground rail network, their train derailed and virtually crushed after an aging tunnel collapses. Amongst this band of survivors is softly spoken surgeon Andrey (Sergei Puskepalis), whose wife is having an affair with the conceited businessman Vlad (Anatoly Beliy). Fate brings these two men together on the same doomed train, but there is little time to resolve their differences, as the tunnel begins to quickly fill with water, forcing them to work together with the others and find a way back to the surface.

Snitch poster
Snitch
2013 · dir. Ric Roman Waugh
🍅 57%★ 6.4action · drama · thriller

From the 2010s, and it lands the same way

Construction company owner John Matthews learns that his estranged son, Jason, has been arrested for drug trafficking. Facing an unjust prison sentence for a first time offender courtesy of mandatory minimum sentence laws, Jason has nothing to offer for leniency in good conscience. Desperately, John convinces the DEA and the opportunistic DA Joanne Keeghan to let him go undercover to help make arrests big enough to free his son in return. With the unwitting help of an ex-con employee, John enters the narcotics underworld where every move could be his last in an operation that will demand all his resources, wits and courage to survive.

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

Both play thriller straight

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.

In the mood for more kinetic?

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