50 Movies Like Thief (1981) You Need to Watch Next
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
Updated June 2026
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If you loved Thief (1981) by Michael Mann, 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 Carlito's Way, New World, Donnie Brasco. 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 Thief
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 · Thriller
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 · Thriller
Donnie Brasco
1997 · Mike Newell
An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Menace II Society
1993 · Allen Hughes
A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Prisoners
2013 · Denis Villeneuve
Keller Dover is facing every parent’s worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Godfather Part III
1990 · Francis Ford Coppola
In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don, Michael Corleone seeks forgiveness for his sins while taking a young protege under his wing.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Drive
2011 · Nicolas Winding Refn
Driver is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Though he projects an icy exterior, lately he's been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene and her young
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Uncut Gems
2019 · Benny Safdie
A charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime. Howard must perform a precarious high
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Le Trou
1960 · Jacques Becker
Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Ove
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Insomnia
2002 · Christopher Nolan
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Nightmare Alley
2021 · Guillermo del Toro
An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Cop Land
1997 · James Mangold
Freddy Heflin is the sheriff of a place everyone calls “Cop Land” — a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big city police officers he’s long admired. Yet something ugly is taking place
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Memories of Murder
2003 · Bong Joon Ho
A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
High and Low
1963 · Akira Kurosawa
A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Collateral
2004 · Michael Mann
Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Dogville
2003 · Lars von Trier
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Fallen
1998 · Gregory Hoblit
Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese's style.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Client
1994 · Joel Schumacher
A street-wise kid, Mark Sway, sees the suicide of Jerome Clifford, a prominent Louisiana lawyer, whose current client is Barry 'The Blade' Muldano, a Mafia hit-man. Before Jerome shoots himself, he te
In common: Crime · Drama
Pulp Fiction
1994 · Quentin Tarantino
A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that i
In common: Crime · Thriller
Bound
1996 · Lana Wachowski
Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is imm
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Arlington Road
1999 · Mark Pellington
Bedraggled college professor Michael Faraday has been vexed — and increasingly paranoid — since his wife's accidental death in a botched FBI operation. When a seemingly all-American couple set up hous
In common: Crime · Drama
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: Crime · Drama
Nightcrawler
2014 · Dan Gilroy
When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Usual Suspects
1995 · Bryan Singer
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners int
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Widows
2018 · Steve McQueen
A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Ho
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · Jonathan Demme
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
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: Crime · Drama
Legend
2015 · Brian Helgeland
Suave, charming and volatile, Reggie Kray and his unstable twin brother Ronnie start to leave their mark on the London underworld in the 1960s. Using violence to get what they want, the siblings orche
In common: Crime · Thriller
The Untouchables
1987 · Brian De Palma
Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.
In common: Crime · Thriller
Body Heat
1981 · Lawrence Kasdan
During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.
In common: Crime · Thriller
Wrath of Man
2021 · Guy Ritchie
A cold and mysterious new security guard for a Los Angeles cash truck company surprises his co-workers when he unleashes precision skills during a heist. The crew is left wondering who he is and where
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
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
Girl in the Basement
2021 · Elisabeth Röhm
Sara is a teen girl who is looking forward to her 18th birthday to move away from her controlling father Don. But before she could even blow out the candles, Don imprisons her in the basement of their
In common: Crime · Thriller
A History of Violence
2005 · David Cronenberg
An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
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
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
Joker: Folie à Deux
2024 · Todd Phillips
While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur Fleck not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that's always been inside him.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Accountant
2016 · Gavin O'Connor
As a math savant uncooks the books for a new client, the Treasury Department closes in on his activities and the body count starts to rise.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Sleepers
1996 · Barry Levinson
Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
2019 · Vince Gilligan
In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse Pinkman must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
STRAW
2025 · Tyler Perry
What will be her last straw? A devastatingly bad day pushes a hardworking single mother to the breaking point — and into a shocking act of desperation.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
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
Shot Caller
2017 · Ric Roman Waugh
A newly-released prison gangster is forced by the leaders of his gang to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Bound by Honor
1993 · Taylor Hackford
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Counselor
2013 · Ridley Scott
A lawyer finds himself in far over his head when he attempts to get involved in drug trafficking.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
The Bank Job
2008 · Roger Donaldson
Terry is a small-time car dealer trying to leave his shady past behind and start a family. Martine is a beautiful model from Terry's old neighbourhood who knows that Terry is no angel. When Martine pr
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
Falling Down
1993 · Joel Schumacher
An ordinary man frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them.
In common: Crime · Drama · Thriller
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