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Spy Game poster

Movies that feel likeSpy Game (2001)

On the day of his retirement, a veteran CIA agent learns that his former protégé has been arrested in China, is sentenced to die the next morning in Beijing, and that the CIA is considering letting that happen to avoid an international scandal.

If you loved Spy Game, the closest films we have are Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992), Ong-Bak (2003) and Infernal Affairs II (2003). All three share Spy Game's kinetic and gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Dhurandhar (2025).

🍅 64% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Tony Scottkineticgrittytense
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If Spy Game hit the spot, these will too

Police Story 3: Super Cop poster
Police Story 3: Super Cop
1992 · dir. Stanley Tong Gwai-Lai
🍅 93%★ 7action · crime · thriller

Common ground: china

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

A Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.

Ong-Bak poster
Ong-Bak
2003 · dir. Prachya Pinkaew
🍅 85%★ 7.2action · crime · thrillerPrime Video

Kinetic and gritty in the same breath

When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.

Infernal Affairs II poster
Infernal Affairs II
2003 · dir. Alan Mak Siu-Fai
🍅 75%★ 7.2action · thriller · crimeMax

Tense action, and it commits to that

In this prequel to the original, a bloody power struggle among the Triads coincides with the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, setting up the events of the first film.

The Boondock Saints poster
The Boondock Saints
1999 · dir. Troy Duffy
🍅 26%★ 7.6action · thriller · crimePrime VideoHulu

Crime built on momentum, twice over

Tired of the crime overrunning the streets of Boston, Irish Catholic twin brothers Conner and Murphy are inspired by their faith to cleanse their hometown of evil with their own brand of zealous vigilante justice. As they hunt down and kill one notorious gangster after another, they become controversial folk heroes in the community. But Paul Smecker, an eccentric FBI agent, is fast closing in on their blood-soaked trail.

Crank: High Voltage poster
Crank: High Voltage
2009 · dir. Mark Neveldine
🍅 64%★ 6.1action · thriller · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: flashback

Chelios faces a Chinese mobster who has stolen his nearly indestructible heart and replaced it with a battery-powered ticker that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.

Dhurandhar poster
Dhurandhar
2025 · dir. Aditya Dhar
★ 8.2action · crime · thrillerNetflix

The same two preoccupations: espionage, and terrorism

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

In the early 2000s, an undercover operative infiltrates Karachi's underworld, breaking into its inner circle to dismantle a violent nexus from within.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 poster
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
2009 · dir. Tony Scott
🍅 51%★ 6.4crime · thriller · action

Tony Scott directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.

Swordfish poster
Swordfish
2001 · dir. Dominic Sena
🍅 27%★ 6.5action · crime · thriller

Both are built on the same subject: terrorism

Rogue agent Gabriel Shear is determined to get his mitts on $9 billion stashed in a secret Drug Enforcement Administration account. He wants the cash to fight terrorism, but lacks the computer skills necessary to hack into the government mainframe. Enter Stanley Jobson, a n'er-do-well encryption expert who can log into anything.

From Paris with Love poster
From Paris with Love
2010 · dir. Pierre Morel
🍅 37%★ 6.4action · crime · thriller

Thriller with a pulse of grit, in both cases

James Reese has a good job as an ambassador's aid in France, but his real passion is a side gig—working in a minor role in the CIA. He would love to be a full-fledged agent and can't believe his luck when he lands an assignment with Charlie Wax. Trigger-happy Charlie soon has James crying for his desk job, but when he learns that the same guys they're trying to catch are after him, James realises that Charlie may be his only hope of survival.

Lethal Weapon 4 poster
Lethal Weapon 4
1998 · dir. Richard Donner
🍅 54%★ 6.6action · crime · thriller

Tense action in both cases

With personal crises and age weighing in on them, LAPD officers Riggs and Murtaugh must contend with a deadly Chinese crime lord trying to get his brother out of prison.

S.W.A.T. poster
S.W.A.T.
2003 · dir. Clark Johnson
🍅 48%★ 6.1action · thriller · crime

Both lean on momentum more than on crime

Hondo Harrelson recruits Jim Street to join an elite unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. Together they seek out more members, including tough Deke Kay and single mom Chris Sanchez. The team's first big assignment is to escort crime boss Alex Montel to prison. It seems routine, but when Montel offers a huge reward to anyone who can break him free, criminals of various stripes step up for the prize.

Cold Eyes poster
Cold Eyes
2013 · dir. Kim Byung-seo
★ 7.1crime · action · thriller

Thriller built on grit, twice over

Ha Yoon-ju becomes the newest member of a unit within the Korean Police Forces Special Crime Department that specializes in surveillance activities on high-profile criminals. She teams up with Hwang Sang-jun, the veteran leader of the unit, and tries to track down James who is the cold-hearted leader of an armed criminal organization.

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