42 Movies Like Léon: The Professional (1994) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View Léon: The Professional details →Luc Besson's 1994 thriller centers on Léon, a solitary New York hitman prized for his cold efficiency, whose insulated life collapses when a corrupt DEA agent slaughters the family next door. He reluctantly takes in Mathilda, the twelve-year-old survivor, and as she absorbs the trade she turns her thoughts toward revenge. Working across action, crime and drama, the film draws its charge from an unlikely bond between a childlike killer and a hardened child. It's stylish and violent but grounded in tenderness and unease rather than spectacle, so it suits viewers who like their crime films character-driven and morally uncomfortable. Not for those seeking a straightforward or comfortable watch.
If you loved Léon: The Professional (1994) by Luc Besson, here are 42 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 Scarface, Training Day, Polar. 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.
The Best Movies Similar to Léon: The Professional
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with Léon: The Professional in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
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
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
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
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
Carlito's Way
1993 · Brian De Palma
Free after years in prison, Carlito Brigante intends to give up his criminal ways, but it's not long before the ex-con is sucked back into the New York City underworld.
In common: Crime · Drama
New World
2013 · Park Hoon-jung
An undercover cop has his loyalties tested when the boss of the corporate gang he's spent years infiltrating dies.
In common: Crime · Drama
Payback
1999 · Brian Helgeland
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months a
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Thief
1981 · Michael Mann
Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a ho
In common: Crime · Drama
City of God
2002 · Fernando Meirelles
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighbo
In common: 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
Boyz n the Hood
1991 · John Singleton
In the middle of the Los Angeles ghetto, drugs, robberies and shootings dominate everyday life. During these times, Furious tries to raise his son Tre to be a decent person. Tre's friends, on the othe
In common: Crime · Drama
Rounders
1998 · John Dahl
Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best fri
In common: Crime · Drama
Elite Squad
2007 · José Padilha
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
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
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
Once Upon a Time in America
1984 · Sergio Leone
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
In common: Crime · Drama
Taxi Driver
1976 · Martin Scorsese
Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the f
In common: Crime · Drama
American Gangster
2007 · Ridley Scott
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina, who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, be
In common: Crime · Drama
A Bronx Tale
1993 · Robert De Niro
Set in the Bronx during the tumultuous 1960s, an adolescent boy is torn between his honest, working-class father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss. Complicating matters is the youngster's growi
In common: Crime · Drama
Gangs of New York
2002 · Martin Scorsese
In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigran
In common: Crime · Drama
Public Enemies
2009 · Michael Mann
Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate
In common: Crime · Drama
The Godfather
1972 · Francis Ford Coppola
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his y
In common: Crime · Drama
GoodFellas
1990 · Martin Scorsese
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conw
In common: Crime · Drama
The Irishman
2019 · Martin Scorsese
Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chi
In common: 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
New Police Story
2004 · Benny Chan Muk-Sing
Sent into a drunken tailspin when his entire unit is killed by a gang of thrill-seeking punks, disgraced Hong Kong police inspector Wing needs help from his new rookie partner, with a troubled past of
In common: Action · Crime · Drama
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
2011 · Quentin Tarantino
A former assassin, known simply as The Bride, wakes from a coma four years after her jealous ex-lover Bill attempts to murder her on her wedding day. Fueled by an insatiable desire for revenge, she vo
In common: Action · Crime
Sicario
2015 · Denis Villeneuve
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
In common: Action · Crime
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
2018 · Stefano Sollima
Agent Matt Graver teams up with operative Alejandro Gillick to prevent Mexican drug cartels from smuggling terrorists across the United States border.
In common: Action · Crime
True Romance
1993 · Tony Scott
Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.
In common: Action · Crime
The Nice Guys
2016 · Shane Black
A private eye investigates the apparent suicide of a fading porn star in 1970s Los Angeles and uncovers a conspiracy.
In common: Action · Crime
The Way of the Dragon
1972 · Bruce Lee
After a Chinese restaurant in Rome is threatened by the mafia, who will stop at nothing to acquire the property, the owner recruits a family friend in Hong Kong, kung fu expert Tang Lung, to help them
In common: Action · Crime
Seven Psychopaths
2012 · Martin McDonagh
A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.
In common: Crime
The Equalizer
2014 · Antoine Fuqua
McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangster
In common: Action · Crime
The Gentlemen
2020 · Guy Ritchie
American expat Mickey Pearson has built a highly profitable marijuana empire in London. When word gets out that he’s looking to cash out of the business forever it triggers plots, schemes, bribery and
In common: Action · Crime
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
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 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
Popular series
Breaking Bad
2008 · Michelle MacLaren
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
2023 · Kazutaka Yamanaka
After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s m
Avatar: The Last Airbender
2005 · Michael Dante DiMartino
In a war-torn world of elemental magic, a young boy reawakens to undertake a dangerous mystic quest to fulfill his destiny as the Avatar, and bring peace to the world.
