Typically masterclasses in tension, the best thrillers can rivet us to the screen and keep us at the edge of our seats for the film’s entire duration. They allow us to experience the dance between fear, recklessness, and expectation, all without putting us in danger ourselves. If you’re looking for a movie that will have your hair standing on end for your next movie night, we’ve got you covered. These genuinely great thrillers not only span everything from Cold War Berlin to present-day small-town USA, but they’re also all included with your Amazon Prime Video to stream for free.
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5) Atomic Blonde
Charlize Theron and Deadpool 2 director David Leitch make for a formidable team in this slick, smart, and action-packed spy thriller. Theron stars as undercover MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton, who is sent to Berlin to investigate the murder of a colleague and recover a list of double agents before catastrophe strikes. Set against the cold, sleek lines of Berlin and with cinematography to die for, Atomic Blonde delivers both on heady spy intrigue and on impressive fight sequences that are as intricate as they are bold and bloody. Theron seems practically born to play the part of Broughton. Not only is she an action star in her own right, she tailors her performance to let us see just enough behind her dispassionate MI6 mask so we believe there’s a real human in there, but not enough to spoil the film’s twist ending.
4) Shutter Island
In Shutter Island, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, one of a pair of U.S. Marshals assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane in 1954. Yet as Daniels’s investigation unfolds on the inhospitable, disconcerting island, the man finds himself unraveling just like the patient he was sent to recover. DiCaprio excels at mapping his character’s decline, and Shutter Island marks another wildly successful team-up of director Martin Scorsese and DiCaprio. Together, they create an effectively creepy and gripping thriller with a twist that is a tragic gut-punch to the viewer.
3) Heat
The fact that De Niro and Pacino share the screen is enough alone to watch Heat. The seminal crime thriller pits Pacino’s police lieutenant Vincent Hanna against De Niro’s career criminal Neil McCauley when a slip-up from McCauley’s team allows Hanna to jump on their trail. Even so, McCauley and his crew plot one last massive “retirement” score while Hanna’s department closes in on them, resulting in an endlessly engaging game of cat-and-mouse. What makes Heat a classic is that Pacino and De Niro’s characters are two sides of the same coin, equally matched and pitted against each other. Not to mention that iconic, tension-filled scene in the diner where the two legends only make each other’s performances better. The bar is certainly set for the highly anticipated Heat sequel that’s been in the works for some time now.
2) Promising Young Woman
In Promising Young Woman, writer/director Emerald Fennell deftly explores and exploits the trappings of femininity to make a breathtaking statement about power between the sexes. Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie, a woman who plays drunk, lets “nice guys” take her home, only to suddenly sober up and confront them about their behavior when they try to have sex with her. Thanks to a flawless Mulligan, Cassie’s switch is just as startling for the viewer as it is for the men, and the quest for vengeance fueling her behavior not only makes for razor-sharp social commentary, but also a compelling and heart-stopping revenge thriller.
1) No Country for Old Men
Widely considered to be one of the Coen Brothers’ best films, No Country for Old Men tells the story of the violence and mayhem that welder Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) unleashes when he decides to keep the two million dollars he finds in the remains of a drug exchange gone wrong instead of reporting it to authorities. In doing so, Moss puts psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) on his trail. Bardem is grotesquely dazzling as Chigurh, a role which won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and the film itself is a finely tuned powder keg of tension. It’s no wonder that like Bardem, the Coens won Best Directing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2008.
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