50 Movies Like Elite Squad (2007) You Need to Watch Next
In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum n
Updated June 2026
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If you loved Elite Squad (2007) by José Padilha, here are 50 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are Cradle 2 the Grave, Max Payne, The Punisher: One Last Kill. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
50 Movies Similar to Elite Squad
Cradle 2 the Grave
2003 · Andrzej Bartkowiak
Gang leader Tony pulls off a major diamond heist with his crew, but cop-turned-criminal Ling knows who has the loot and responds by kidnapping Tony's daughter and holding her for ransom. Unfortunately
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Max Payne
2008 · John Moore
A DEA agent whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy, and an assassin out to avenge her sister's death, join forces to solve a series of murders in New York City.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
The Punisher: One Last Kill
2026 · Reinaldo Marcus Green
As Frank Castle searches for meaning beyond revenge, an unexpected force pulls him back into the fight.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
A Better Tomorrow
1986 · John Woo
A reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Ambulance
2022 · Michael Bay
Decorated veteran Will Sharp, desperate for money to cover his wife's medical bills, asks for help from his adoptive brother Danny. A charismatic career criminal, Danny instead offers him a score: the
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Patriots Day
2016 · Peter Berg
In the aftermath of an unspeakable act of terror, Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders joins courageous survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the Boston Mara
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy
2018 · Yuen Woo-Ping
Following his defeat by Master Ip, Cheung Tin Chi tries to make a life with his young son in Hong Kong, waiting tables at a bar that caters to expats. But it's not long before the mix of foreigners, m
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
21 Bridges
2019 · Brian Kirk
An embattled NYPD detective, is thrust into a citywide manhunt for a pair of cop killers after uncovering a massive and unexpected conspiracy. As the night unfolds, lines become blurred on who he is p
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Contraband
2012 · Baltasar Kormákur
When his brother-in-law runs afoul of a drug lord, family man Chris Farraday turns to a skill he abandoned long ago—smuggling—to repay the debt. But the job goes wrong, and Farraday finds himself want
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Lock Up
1989 · John Flynn
Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after hi
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Scarface
1983 · Brian De Palma
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eve
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Training Day
2001 · Antoine Fuqua
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Polar
2019 · Jonas Åkerlund
When a retiring assassin realizes that he is the target of a hit, he winds up back in the game going head to head with a gang of younger, ruthless killers.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
The Shadow's Edge
2025 · Larry Yang
Macau Police brings the tracking expert police officer out of retirement to help catch a dangerous group of professional thieves.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Sin Nombre
2009 · Cary Joji Fukunaga
Sayra, a Native Honduran teenager, hungers for a better life. Her chance for one comes when she is reunited with her long-estranged father, who intends to emigrate to Mexico and then enter the United
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Jack Reacher
2012 · Christopher McQuarrie
One morning in an ordinary town, five people are shot dead in a seemingly random attack. All evidence points to a single suspect: an ex-military sniper who is quickly brought into custody. The interro
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Havoc
2025 · Gareth Evans
When a drug heist swerves lethally out of control, a jaded cop fights his way through a corrupt city's criminal underworld to save a politician's son.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Colombiana
2011 · Olivier Megaton
After witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, Cataleya Restrepo grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging i
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
The Substitute
1996 · Robert Mandel
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take dow
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Need for Speed
2014 · Scott Waugh
The film revolves around a local street-racer who partners with a rich and arrogant business associate, only to find himself framed by his colleague and sent to prison. After he gets out, he joins a N
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Rebel Ridge
2024 · Jeremy Saulnier
A former Marine confronts corruption in a small town when local law enforcement unjustly seizes the bag of cash he needs to post his cousin's bail.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
The Punisher
2004 · Jonathan Hensleigh
When undercover FBI agent Frank Castle's wife and son are slaughtered, he becomes 'the Punisher' -- a ruthless vigilante willing to go to any length to avenge his family.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
The Punisher
1989 · Mark Goldblatt
The avenging angel of Marvel Comics fame comes brilliantly to life in this searing action-adventure thriller! Dolph Lundgren stars as Frank Castle, a veteran cop who loses his entire family to a mafia
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Parker
2013 · Taylor Hackford
A thief with a unique code of professional ethics is double-crossed by his crew and left for dead. Assuming a new disguise and forming an unlikely alliance with a woman on the inside, he looks to hija
In common: Action · Crime
Four Brothers
2005 · John Singleton
Four adopted brothers return to their Detroit hometown when their mother is murdered and vow to exact revenge on the killers.
In common: Action · Crime
Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey
2018 · Jim Donovan
On the night she plans on taking her own life, 17-year-old 'Lisa McVey' is kidnapped and finds herself fighting to stay alive and is raped. She manages to talk her attacker into releasing her, but whe
In common: Crime · Drama
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
2019 · Joe Berlinger
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
In common: Crime · Drama
The Hate U Give
2018 · George Tillman Jr.
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two ver
In common: Crime · Drama
Cool Hand Luke
1967 · Stuart Rosenberg
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admi
In common: Crime · Drama
Cherry
2021 · Joe Russo
Cherry drifts from college dropout to army medic in Iraq—anchored only by his one true love, Emily. But after returning from the war with PTSD, his life spirals into drugs and crime as he struggles to
In common: Crime · Drama
Freedom Writers
2007 · Richard LaGravenese
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.
In common: Crime · Drama
Top Gun: Maverick
2022 · Joseph Kosinski
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TO
In common: Action · Drama
Warrior
2011 · Gavin O'Connor
The youngest son of an alcoholic former boxer returns home, where he's trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament – a path that puts the fighter on a collision course wit
In common: Action · Drama
Sound of Freedom
2023 · Alejandro Monteverde
The story of Tim Ballard, a former US government agent, who quits his job in order to devote his life to rescuing children from global sex traffickers.
In common: Action · Drama
Deepwater Horizon
2016 · Peter Berg
A story set on the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded during April 2010 and created the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
In common: Action · Drama
Bāhubali: The Beginning
2015 · S. S. Rajamouli
The young Shivudu is left as a foundling in a small village by his mother. By the time he’s grown up, it has become apparent that he possesses exceptional gifts. He meets the beautiful warrior princes
In common: Action · Drama
Catch Me If You Can
2002 · Steven Spielberg
A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his
In common: Crime · Drama
The Outsiders
1983 · Francis Ford Coppola
In 1960s Tulsa, class divisions ignite a violent rivalry between the working-class Greasers and the privileged Socs. When a deadly encounter forces two Greasers, Ponyboy and Johnny, to flee, their str
In common: Crime · Drama
21
2008 · Robert Luketic
Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot affo
In common: Crime · Drama
The Unforgivable
2021 · Nora Fingscheidt
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
In common: Crime · Drama
Requiem for a Dream
2000 · Darren Aronofsky
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
In common: Crime · Drama
Death Wish
1974 · Michael Winner
After his wife is murdered by street punks, a pacifistic New York City architect becomes a one-man vigilante squad, prowling the streets for would-be muggers after dark.
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Logan Lucky
2017 · Steven Soderbergh
Trying to reverse a family curse, brothers Jimmy and Clyde Logan set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
In common: Action · Crime
Léon: The Professional
1994 · Luc Besson
Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective "cleaner". But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Heat
1995 · Michael Mann
Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and r
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
The 13th Warrior
1999 · John McTiernan
A Muslim ambassador exiled from his homeland joins a group of Vikings, initially offended by their behavior but growing to respect them. As they travel together, they learn of a legendary evil closing
In common: Action · Crime
El Infierno
2010 · Luis Estrada
After being deported back to Mexico, a man has no choice but to join the vicious drug cartel that has corrupted his hometown in order to survive.
In common: Action · Crime
Batman Begins
2005 · Christopher Nolan
Driven by tragedy, billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to uncovering and defeating the corruption that plagues his home, Gotham City. Unable to work within the system, he instead creates a new
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Undisputed
2002 · Walter Hill
Monroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. Iceman Chambers is the heavyweight champion, who lo
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
F9
2021 · Justin Lin
Dominic Toretto and his crew battle the most skilled assassin and high-performance driver they've ever encountered: his forsaken brother.
In common: Action · Crime