You can go back about 100 years and still find movies that are honestly pretty exciting, like The General, which is mind-blowing for 1926, and also kind of mind-blowing for 2026, really. The 20th century was a good time to be thrilled at the movies, if that was your thing, what with Alfred Hitchcock doing his thing, action movies really taking off, as a genre, post-Seven Samurai, and then cinema getting more exciting and risk-taking in nature from the late 1960s onwards.
Below, though, is a focus on thrillers made after the year 2000. The 21st century’s most exciting thrillers might not have come out yet, because there are still 70+ years of the century to go, but for now, these are about as good as things get. Also, the focus here is on thrillers, or movies that are primarily thrillers with a few other genres (like action, horror, or crime) potentially thrown in for good measure. It’s not the same as saying these are the best thrillers of the 21st century so far, nor is it like saying they’re the most exciting movies of any genre made/released after 2000 so far.
10
‘Grindhouse’ (2007)
Could be cheating a bit, seeing as Grindhouse is sort of two movies, but that was the whole gimmick, with Planet Terror and Death Proof indeed being an intentional double feature, at least originally. They’re now far easier to watch apart from one another, and on their own, there are longer cuts, but both movies are at their fastest and most relentless when you watch them as originally intended.
Planet Terror has a bit more by way of excitement, and a lot more as far as over-the-top violence is concerned, but Death Proof still has some jaw-dropping sequences, and the climactic car chase trumps just about anything found in Planet Terror (might well be even better than all the Grindhouse fake trailers, too). Taking everything together, it’s a homage to grindhouse cinema and exploitation movies that is almost too good of a homage; it kind of elevates this whole strange and schlocky sub-genre.
9
‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ (2022)
They called a movie “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” That’s pretty cool/daring. Technically, there was a book with more or less that title beforehand (How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire), but that was a non-fiction book, and How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the film, was more inspired by some of the ideas explored in that book, not really being a straight adaptation or anything.
The movie itself is no-nonsense, like its title. There’s a group of environmental activists, and they enact a plan to blow up a pipeline as a form of extreme environmental justice. It was about timely and continually significant things, but sort of came and went, or got otherwise forgotten about. That’s a little unfair, because How to Blow Up a Pipeline has a lot to offer as a thriller, and even if you’re not in love with what it’s putting down thematically, it could still prove to be a compelling watch as an interesting spin (of sorts) on the heist genre.
8
‘Wild Tales’ (2014)
One more underrated or potentially lesser-known thriller, Wild Tales is, like How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a very honestly titled movie. You know what you’re in for, in other words: some tales that are wild. It’s an anthology movie as well, and the segments are linked tonally because they’re all darkly funny and kind of uncomfortable to watch, in one way or another.
If you’re the kind of person who really liked, say, the first season of Breaking Bad, or wanted to see something like that show but on fast-forward, and a few times over, then Wild Tales is for you. Each segment has a bad situation that spirals out of control in continually tense and ultimately rapid ways, and the film gets away with effectively telling the same joke over and over again because it’s a very funny joke, and it doesn’t really get old, at least for the two hours the film goes on for.
7
‘One Battle After Another’ (2025)
One Battle After Another is a very recent film, at least at the time of writing, though it feels like it has a pretty good chance of enduring as something well-liked and remembered going forward. Most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s other movies live on and hold up well, proving memorable for enough people to keep his name a recognizable one. It might be too bold a claim to say One Battle After Another will definitely be a classic, but maybe. It could happen.
It feels very much of its time, like a quintessential movie about the 2020s made while the 2020s are still ongoing, and functioning like a less mean-spirited Eddington (which is also very good; just going for a very different thing). One Battle After Another is chaotic but also very effectively helmed and executed, with the contrast between the gonzo plot (and eccentric characters) and the precise filmmaking proving genuinely exciting to watch. That it’s also very funny and occasionally moving on top of always being thrilling makes it all even better.
6
‘Fast Five’ (2011)
People might dismiss Fast Five because it’s a Fast and Furious movie, and yes, some of them are very ridiculous, and sure, Fast Five is even pretty ridiculous at points. It’s the right kind of ridiculous, though. It pushes things just far enough and also satisfies surprisingly well as a heist movie, marking the point in the series where it kind of went, “Yeah, we’re not going to do as much racing stuff anymore.”
If you want racing, you’ve got the first three… kind of. The second is a bit different, and the fourth is sort of like the fifth, but not as good; like a prelude to the fifth. Okay, maybe racing is less important than you might think. But action! Fast Five has good action, and it’s so well-paced, working as a crime/thriller film on top of being an action movie. It’s super entertaining, too, and remains perhaps the high point of the entire series (one that’s gone on for quite a while post-2011).
5
‘Gravity’ (2013)
It’s tempting to call Gravity a science fiction movie, and maybe it is from a certain point of view, but also, it’s not really something that depicts a space-set story that feels futuristic or too outside the realm of what could really happen in space. That’s not to say every science fiction movie needs to be set in the future, but those that go to space do usually feature some kind of travel or journeying beyond what was possible at the time the film was made (you can also set something a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away).
In Gravity, there are three people not too far out in space, then disaster strikes, and there’s a desperate mission to somehow get back down to Earth.
Gravity is perhaps more of a thriller, or like a disaster movie set in space, and with a very small cast, rather than a massive and star-studded one with countless background extras generated with special effects or something. In Gravity, there are three people not too far out in space, then disaster strikes, and there’s a desperate mission to somehow get back down to Earth. You could highlight a few moments as unrealistic, maybe, but in the moment, Gravity feels effectively tense and surprisingly believable, or at least believable enough to be nerve-wracking for the better part of an hour and a half.
4
‘Uncut Gems’ (2019)
Not everyone is wired to find Uncut Gems exciting, because some people do find it exhausting, and it’s really not a universally loved movie. But you can understand why, even if you love it, surely? It’s just one of the most anxiety-inducing things ever, pretty much being the new benchmark. Shiva Baby? It’s Uncut Gems but at a wake. Marty Supreme? It’s Uncut Gems, but with table tennis. That kind of thing.
The Marty Supreme comparison makes a particularly large amount of success, seeing as one of the Safdie brothers directed it. Both were behind Uncut Gems, so maybe, like, double the anxiety. It’s just about a guy hustling and ruining his life, as well as the lives of others, all in pursuit of a high that’ll probably never come. You’ll find it thrilling and anxiety-inducing, or frustrating and anxiety-inducing. One or the other. There doesn’t really seem to be anything in between.
3
‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009)
Almost being an epic movie, having enough characters and scope for it, at least, is Inglourious Basterds, which would also have to be the most thrilling movie Quentin Tarantino has made in the 21st century so far. Kill Bill, especially Vol. 1, provides some stiff competition, but it’s a bit harder to classify that one as a thriller, compared to Inglourious Basterds.
And yes, you might argue that Inglourious Basterds is more of a war movie than a thriller, yet there is a strong focus on keeping things thrilling, intense, exciting, and all those other similar adjectives. Inglourious Basterds is genuinely relentless on that front, or those fronts, and it’s a sign of good thrill-heavy filmmaking that you can rewatch this movie multiple times and still get a little shifty/nervous in your seat once it comes time for certain sequences to roll around.
2
‘The Departed’ (2006)
The Departed potentially belongs in the same camp as Uncut Gems, in terms of being a little more anxiety-inducing than it is exciting in, like, a more traditionally entertaining way, but you can feel a bit of both, in any event. It’s a film about two people from opposite sides of the law infiltrating the other’s group (one a criminal going into the police force, and the other a cop going undercover to infiltrate a gang), and then they both try to out the other.
It keeps a level of suspense high throughout, as does Infernal Affairs, which The Departed is a remake of. The Departed just keeps things chaotic and moving forward for even longer, so maybe it’s better? If only just. Both are great. Also, The Departed finally got Martin Scorsese a win for Best Director at the Oscars, so that was undeniably great to see.
1
‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ (2018)
By some kind of miracle, the sixth Mission: Impossible movie is the best of the bunch. There are eight in total. The seventh was a fairly good follow-up. Before then, you’ve got people who feel different things about the first three, but with #4, the action got really big, and then the stunts and fights went further in #5, and then in #6, a peak was basically reached.
Movies #4, #5, and #6 make for one hell of an informal trilogy and, watching them that way, you get to end things off with the best of them: Mission: Impossible – Fallout. That’s not saying much about the plot here or anything, but what do you need? It’s what you’d expect, just told a little more effectively and with more feeling than most Mission: Impossible movies, and then the action (the good stuff; what you’re here for) is better and even more mind-blowing than ever. This is, to put it bluntly, the thriller/action film to beat, going forward, as the 21st century keeps marching onward.
