What is the iRankMovies score for Basic Instinct?

Name: Basic Instinct
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Genre: mystery, thriller
Released: 1992
Duration: 2 h 8 min
Rating: 7.1

Basic Instinct has an iRankMovies score of 61.2/100, based on a weighted combination of IMDb (×3.0), Rotten Tomatoes (×2.0), Metacritic (×1.5), and TMDb (×1.0).

Basic Instinct (1992)

A brutal murder. A brilliant killer. A cop who can't resist the danger.

Release:1992

Runtime:2h 8m

Country:United States

Director:Paul Verhoeven

Language:English

Genre

MysteryThriller

See the best mystery movies →

Keywords

Dying And DeathCaliforniaJealousySexual ObsessionPoliceSan Francisco CaliforniaSadismPsychopath

iRank61

Basic Instinct rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.1/10· 241K votes

Rotten Tomatoes56%

Metacritic43%

TMDb6.947/10· 4K votes

With 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.1/10 on IMDb and 43/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been mixed.

About Basic Instinct

Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.

Cast of Basic Instinct

Michael Douglas
as Detective Nick Curran
Sharon Stone
as Catherine Tramell
George Dzundza
as Gus
Jeanne Tripplehorn
as Dr. Beth Garner
Denis Arndt
as Lieutenant Walker
Leilani Sarelle
as Roxy
Bruce A. Young
as Andrews
Chelcie Ross
as Captain Talcott
Dorothy Malone
as Hazel Dobkins
Wayne Knight
as John Correli
Daniel von Bargen
as Lieutenant Nilsen
Stephen Tobolowsky
as Dr. Lamott

Basic Instinct facts

Budget: $49M
Box office: $352.9M
Collection: Basic Instinct Collection

Our take on Basic Instinct

Paul Verhoeven's 1992 thriller made a scandal of the murder mystery, casting a magnetic novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite as the prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally killed in a manner she had already described in her fiction. Verhoeven pushes the erotic-thriller formula to a glossy, provocative extreme, keeping guilt tantalizingly ambiguous while the investigation blurs the line between desire and danger. It's built on cat-and-mouse seduction rather than conventional whodunit clues, and its frankness remains its calling card. Viewers who enjoy stylish, adult thrillers that court controversy will be in their element; those seeking a restrained or morally tidy mystery should be warned. A defining, deliberately transgressive genre landmark.

Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026Methodology Data sources