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The Girl Who Played with Fire poster

Movies that feel likeThe Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)

Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.

If you loved The Girl Who Played with Fire, the closest films we have are A Hard Day (2014), Pusher 3 (2005) and Marshland (2014). All three share The Girl Who Played with Fire'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 With a Friend Like Harry... (2000).

🍅 69% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Daniel Alfredsoncontemplativekinetictensegrittytwistywarm
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Hulu

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If The Girl Who Played with Fire hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

A Hard Day poster
A Hard Day
2014 · dir. Kim Seong-hun
🍅 82%★ 7.2crime · thriller · mystery

Both land momentum and tension at once

The difference: Less contemplative, more its own thing

After trying to cover up a car accident that left a man dead, a crooked homicide detective is stalked by a mysterious man claiming to have witnessed the event.

Pusher 3 poster
Pusher 3
2005 · dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
🍅 93%★ 7.3action · thriller · crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: friendship

Milo is aging, he is planning his daughter's 25th birthday, and his shipment of heroin turns out to be 10,000 pills of ecstasy. When Milo tries to sell the pills anyway, all Hell breaks loose and his only chance is to ask for help from his ex-henchman and old friend Radovan.

Marshland poster
Marshland
2014 · dir. Alberto Rodríguez
🍅 91%★ 7.2crime · mystery · thriller

Gritty where it counts, twisty underneath

The Spanish Deep South, 1980. A series of brutal murders of adolescent girls in a remote and forgotten town bring together two disparate characters – both detectives in the homicide division – to investigate the cases.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo poster
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2011 · dir. David Fincher
🍅 86%★ 7.8thriller · crime · mysteryNetflixApple TV+

Two things both keep coming back to: journalist and hacker

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigates the disappearance of a weary patriarch's niece from 40 years ago. He is aided by the pierced, tattooed, punk computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything they have ever imagined.

The Secret in Their Eyes poster
The Secret in Their Eyes
2009 · dir. Juan José Campanella
🍅 89%★ 8.2mystery · thriller · dramaHulu

Common ground: the investigation

Hoping to put to rest years of unease concerning a past case, retired criminal investigator Benjamín begins writing a novel based on the unsolved mystery of a newlywed’s rape and murder. With the help of a former colleague, judge Irene, he attempts to make sense of the past.

Drishyam poster
Drishyam
2015 · dir. Nishikant Kamat
🍅 64%★ 8.2mystery · thriller · drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

When his family stares down the barrel of criminal charges, a commoner channels his street smarts and knowledge of action films to tie the long arm of the law into an investigative Gordian knot.

Brick poster
Brick
2006 · dir. Rian Johnson
🍅 79%★ 7.1drama · mystery · crime

One thread runs through both: the investigation

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

The Girl in the Fog poster
The Girl in the Fog
2017 · dir. Donato Carrisi
🍅 75%★ 6.8mystery · thriller · crime

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

A gripping and chilling thriller that brings us to a hazy mountain village where an enigmatic detective is investigating the sudden disappearance of fifteen-year-old girl.

With a Friend Like Harry... poster
With a Friend Like Harry...
2000 · dir. Dominik Moll
🍅 96%★ 7.1drama · mystery

The same preoccupation in both: friendship

The difference: Critics rated this one higher still

While fixing up their summer cottage, Michel and his family run into a man who claims to have gone to high school with Michel.

A Walk Among the Tombstones poster
A Walk Among the Tombstones
2014 · dir. Scott Frank
🍅 68%★ 6.5crime · drama · mystery

Crime with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.

Mother poster
Mother
2009 · dir. Bong Joon Ho
🍅 96%★ 7.7crime · drama · mystery

Both lean on grit more than on mystery

A mother lives quietly with her son. One day, a girl is brutally killed, and the boy is charged with the murder. Now, it's his mother's mission to prove him innocent.

The Imposter poster
The Imposter
2012 · dir. Bart Layton
🍅 95%★ 7.4documentary · mystery · crimePrime Video

Action built on twists, twice over

The difference: Leans further into documentary

In 1994, a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later, he is found alive in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Girl Who Played with Fire’s defining feeling.