The appeal of the thriller movie is quite simple and universal: In its platonic form, it scratches a particular itch and satisfies our collective urge for action and suspense in a way that frankly no other genre can. No generation of moviegoers has ever grown tired of shelling out for new titles that will get their blood pumping, grab them by the throat, and knock their collective socks off with unexpected twists and turns.
Everyone loves to settle down after a long week to watch a good thriller, but it’s hard to pin down what exactly falls under its vast umbrella. Though by no means an exhaustive list, we’re looking back into the history of genre to find the best and most enjoyable the genre has to offer, from over-the-top, no-holds-barred shoot-’em-ups to slow-burn psychological thrill rides, that will get your adrenaline juices pumping and keep you coming back over for more. So read on and enjoy the ride.
1. Speed (1994)
Everything that made 1990s American cinema such a fertile ground for full-octane action thrills is cranked up to eleven in this unabashedly silly but compulsively fun Keanu Reeves star vehicle by “Twister” director Jan de Bont.
If you have 116 minutes to spare, we suggest you sit down, get comfortable, and remember to leave your brains and any sense of logic at the door to properly get a kick out of watching Reeves’ LAPD cop and Sandra Bullock’s put-upon driver put the pedal to the metal to keep a city bus from slowing down below 50 mph, or else die trying. Dry characters, stilted line deliveries, and Michael Bay-esque conceit notwithstanding, “Speed” more than makes up for it all with razor-sharp execution and the exact right amount of tension and ’90s cheese to keep you engaged and perhaps make you whoop and holler at the screen.
Have we mentioned Dennis Hopper at his most gloriously unhinged hams it up and sucks up all the oxygen in the room in every single scene he’s in as the eccentric extortionist-bomber Howard Payne? It may not be anyone’s idea of high art, but “Speed” is the platonic ideal of the sort of schlocky, deeply unserious thrill ride you can simply turn off your mind and unwind to after a hard day’s work.
2. No Country for Old Men (2007)
There’s no need to remind any film buff who somehow hasn’t seen this Best Picture-winning Cormac McCarthy adaptation by the Coen brothers that they’re legitimately missing out on one of this century’s most memorable performances in Javier Bardem’s hired hitman Anton Chigurh — a sociopath serial killer and unstoppable force of nature who raises hell in his path of carnage through 1980s West Texas to retrieve $2 million in stolen loot from a Vietnam vet (Josh Brolin).
There’s absolutely nothing wrong if you gravitate more towards the directing duo’s lighter fare, but there’s a particular strand of hardcore Coen fan that tends to snarkily toss aside “No Country for Old Men” as the sort of career pivot towards respectable prestige-filmmaking that came out of left turn from the modern kings of screwball comedy. Whatever. It may not have reached near-Lebowski levels of movie quotability and cult status in pop culture, but from a pure entertainment standpoint, a case for this fatalistic neo-western as the Coen’s best can certainly be made.
Sure, it’s a gnarly, mean, and foreboding film that drives a stake through the heart of post-9/11 America, but it’s also consistently engaging, full of memorable one-liners, and way funnier than people give it credit for. For crying out loud, just look at Bardem’s bowl cut!
3. North by Northwest (1959)
Alfred Hitchcock has a problem only a handful of directors in cinema history are lucky to have, which is to yield such an abundance of stone-cold classics to your name that for someone to single out just one as the clear-cut best of the lot frankly boils down to personal preference.
It’s a tough call whether to go with “Vertigo”, “Rear Window” or even “Rope”, all of which routinely crop up on lists of this ilk, but newbies currently working their way through Hitchcock’s vast back catalog couldn’t possibly ask for a more approachable, erotically charged, and unabashedly fun 136-minute appetizer than this 1958 proto-James Bond espionage nail-biter.
In his fourth and final collaboration with the Master of Suspense, Cary Grant sets the screen aflame and pushes his unflappable on-screen persona to the breaking point as Roger O. Thornhill, a Madison Avenue ad executive who gets more than he bargained for after being mistaken for a spy and dragged into a cross-country manhunt involving foreign agents, U.N. diplomats, and prehistorian Mexican sculptures. As the scheming, two-timing femme fatale Eve Kendall, Eva Marie Saint makes a great scene partner for Grant.
4. Mission: Impossible (1996)
In an ongoing franchise that’s steadily gotten bigger, bolder, and more expensive while pushing its seemingly straight-forward conceit many steps further with each subsequent entry, it’s tempting to name “Fallout”, “Ghost Protocol” or any other high-flying sequels as the apex of the Mission: Impossible movies. But almost 30 years later after Brian De Palma got the ball rolling in 1996, the first installment still holds up today as the purest distillation of the source material’s pulpy serialized TV roots as well as the most rewarding to rewatch once you complete your full series binge.
In the role that would become the turning point in his career and confirm his nascent status as America’s premiere action hero, Tom Cruise comes out swinging in his first outing as Ethan Hunt, a government spy agent who must go rogue to stay alive after being framed and hanged out to dry following a botched mission that wipes out his entire team — all while the real mole stays hidden in plain sight within his agency’s ranks.
Packed wall-to-wall with standout set pieces, shocking twists, and now-iconic moments — none better or as frequently spoofed across media as the CIA’s vault scene — “Mission Impossible” set a new standard for mainstream blockbusters that’s rarely been topped since. Oh, and it gets in and out in 110 minutes, almost a full hour shorter than “Dead Reckoning”.
5. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Closing shots don’t get much more iconic than the brilliant rug-pull moment bookending this 1974 film, a high-water mark for the New Hollywood Wave not to be mistaken with its serviceable but much inferior Denzel Washington-led 2009 remake, about a seasoned transit cop (the ever-charismatic Walter Matthau) in a race against time to track down four hijackers holding the passengers of a New York subway car in return for a $1 million ransom.
An everlasting case study of how to blend edge-of-your-seat thrills with sly humor and slowly ratchet up the tension until it practically seeps from every frame, “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” has aged like fine wine and continues to wield a crucial influence on modern urban thrillers, from Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (which aped the color-coded nicknames for its cohort of crooks) to the Safdies’ “Good Time”. For a 1970s film, Joseph Sargent’s masterpiece feels astoundingly contemporary and well-oiled, but it also endures as a time capsule that recreates a vision of grimy, pre-Giuliani New York completely foreign to someone just passing by the five boroughs today.