Subgenre Sampler

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Ted K: The Unabomber (2021): Dir. Tony Stone
Feat. Sharlto Copley; An ambient, minimalistic approach to portraying the life of notorious U.S. domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, who lives a life of quiet seclusion in…
Intelligence (TV Series) (2020): Feat. David Schwimmer, Nick Mohammed; British workplace comedy created by and starring Nick Mohammed as an inept and tactless computer analyst who is enlisted by a pompous American NSA…
Incitement (2019): Dir. Yaron Zilberman
Feat. Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Amitai Yaish, Daniella Kertesz; Tense, slow–building thriller depicting Israeli right–wing extremist Yigal Amir in the year leading up to his assassination of the…
Beirut (The Negotiator) (2018): Dir. Brad Anderson
Feat. Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Dean Norris…; Meaty old–school espionage thriller with John Hamm perfectly cast as a fixer turned business consultant in war torn Beirut, negotiating the…
Hotel Mumbai (2018): Dir. Anthony Maras
Feat. Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi…; Gripping dramatisation of the 2008 siege of Mumbai's Taj Hotel, following the staff and guests as they fight to survive the merciless attack by a…
Informer (TV Series) (2018): Dir. Jonny Campbell
Feat. Nabhaan Rizwan, Paddy Considine, Bel Powley; A complex, character–driven thriller that follows a young East Londoner who is coerced into going undercover for a counter–terrorism…
Little Drummer Girl, The (TV Mini-series) (2018): Dir. Park Chan-Wook
Feat. Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgard, Florence Pugh…; Korean master Park Chan–Wook directs this typically savvy adaptation of the novel by John le Carré that follows the life of a young English…
Stockholm (2018): Dir. Robert Budreau
Feat. Ethan Hawke, Noomi Rapace, Mark Strong; Serviceable crime thriller taking some entertaining liberties with the true story of the 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm, often…
6 Days (Six Days) (2017): Dir. Toa Fraser
Feat. Jamie Bell, Mark Strong, Abbie Cornish…; Kiwi filmmaker Toa Fraser helms this hostage thriller that faithfully recreates the siege of the Iranian Embassy in London, 1980.
London Has Fallen (2016): Dir. Babak Najafi
Feat. Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman…; Riotously stupid sequel to OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN has Gerard Butler's special agent running frantically around trying to prevent the death of various…
Patriots Day (2016): Dir. Peter Berg
Feat. Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon…; Director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg follow DEEPWATER HORIZON with another gutsy dramatisation of a tragic American event, this time the 2013…
Homeland - Season 5 (TV Series) (2015): Feat. Claire Danes, Rupert Friend, Mandy Patinkin; Further episodes from this outstanding counter–terrorist thriller of post–9/11 paranoia, with Claire Danes's riveting, high–tensile…
Made in France (2015): Dir. Nicolas Boukhrief
Feat. Malik Zidi, Dimitri Storoge, François Civil; Eerily predicting the November 2015 Paris attacks, this crime–thriller follows a journalist infiltrating a jihadist cell that plans to…
Big Game (2014): Dir. Jalmari Helander
Feat. Samuel L. Jackson, Onni Tommila, Felicity Huffman…; Bonkers actioner with Sam Jackson as the U.S. President relying on a teenager for aid after Air Force One crash lands in Finnish forest.
Camp X-Ray (2014): Dir. Peter Sattler
Feat. Kristen Stewart, Peyman Moaadi, Lane Garrison…; Kristen Stewart stars in this provocative drama about a young soldier assigned to Guantanamo Bay befriends a man who has been imprisoned there.
Green Prince, The (2014): Dir. Nadav Schirman; Absorbing account of how a son of a founding leader in the Palestinian organization, Hamas, became a spy for the Israelis.
Homeland - Season 4 (TV Series) (2014): Feat. Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Rupert Friend; Further episodes from this outstanding counter–terrorist thriller of post–9/11 paranoia, with Claire Danes's riveting, high–tensile…
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014): Dir. Kenneth Branagh
Feat. Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner…; Kenneth Branagh directs the latest big screen installment in the adventures of Tom Clancy's hero CIA agent, Jack Ryan, this time revolving around a…
Kindnapping Mr. Heineken (2014): Dir. Daniel Alfredson
Feat. Anthony Hopkins, Sam Worthington, Jim Sturgess…; Bizarre true crime flick based on the successful kidnapping of the heir to the Heineken beer empire in the 1980's.
Non-Stop (2014): Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra
Feat. Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy…; Irish badness Liam Neeson must identify a hidden terrorist on–board a long haul flight who is threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes…
Rosewater (2014): Dir. Jon Stewart
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Dimitri Leonidas…; The Daily Show's Jon Stewart makes a searing directorial debut with this true story of an Iranian–Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari who was…
Taken 3 (Tak3n) (2014): Dir. Olivier Megaton
Feat. Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace…; Third addition to the Liam Neeson action franchise has our hero accused of a murder he never committed or witnessed. More scowling and punching…
Berlin File, The (2013): Dir. Ryoo Seung-Wan
Feat. Jung-woo Ha, Gianna Jun; After an illegal arms deal in Berlin is disrupted by unknown assailants, a South Korean intelligence agent finds himself embroiled in a vast…
Captain Phillips (2013): Dir. Paul Greengrass
Feat. Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Catherine Keener; Paul Greengrass directs with exhilarating dramatic realism this gripping true account of the hijacking of a U.S. container ship by Somali pirates.
Closed Circuit (2013): Dir. John Crowley
Feat. Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Jim Broadbent…; A dangerous conflict of interest arises when two ex–lovers end up on opposite sides of a high profile terrorism trial in this probing courtroom…
Dirty Wars (2013): Dir. Rick Rowley; Chilling docu–drama follows journalist Jeremy Scahill and the trail of secrets and lies he uncovers while investigation America's covert wars.
East, The (2013): Dir. Zal Batmanglij
Feat. Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgard, Elliot Page…; In this tense, thinking person's thriller from the writer and director behind SOUND OF MY VOICE, a covert operative attempts to infiltrate a group of…
Homeland - Season 3 (TV Series) (2013): Feat. Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Mandy Patinkin…; Further episodes from this outstanding counter–terrorist thriller of post–9/11 paranoia, with Claire Danes's riveting, high–tensile…
Night Moves (2013): Dir. Kelly Reichardt
Feat. Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard…; Three radical environmentalists look to execute the protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam, in this thriller told in the…
Olympus Has Fallen (2013): Dir. Antoine Fuqua
Feat. Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Dylan McDermott…; It's Gerard Butler to the rescue when Korean terrorists infiltrate the White House and capture POTUS in this tough talking, fast thinking action…
A Hijacking (2012): Dir. Tobias Lindholm
Feat. Mikkel Hartmann, Pilou Asbæk, Søren Malling; A Danish cargo ship is hijacked off the coast of Somalia in this gripping, intense maritime adventure that cuts out all the action heroics usually…
Act of Valour (2012): Dir. Mike McCoy, Scott Waugh; A bevy of real Navy SEALs star in this bicep–flexing action vehicle–cum–recruitment movie for the US Marine Corps. With the…
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (2012): Dir. Christopher Nolan
Feat. Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy…; Christopher Nolan directs with bombast and brilliance this long–awaited finale to the "Dark Knight" trilogy, in which Christian Bale's aging…
Cleanskin (2012): Dir. Hadi Hajaig
Feat. Sean Bean, Charlotte Rampling, Abhin Galeya; Sean Bean plays a beefed–up Secret Service Agent pursing a known suicide bomber and his terrorist cell. Seen as a grunty action vehicle from…
Gatekeepers, The (2012): Dir. Dror Moreh; Six former heads of Israel’s Shin Bet secret service agency open up about their work and the state of the Israel–Palestine divide in this…
Homeland - Season 2 (TV Series) (2012): Feat. Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Mandy Patinkin…; Further episodes from this outstanding counter–terrorist thriller of post–9/11 paranoia, with Claire Danes's riveting, high–tensile…
Reluctant Fundamentalist, The (2012): Dir. Mira Nair
Feat. Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber…; A Pakistani Princeton graduate's life in America is shattered in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in this searing adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's…
Siege (2012): Feat. Mark Mitchinson, Joel Tobeck, Kirk Torrance; Napier's recent siege crisis in which small–time cannabis grower Jan Molenaar barricaded himself in his home after shooting a Senior Constable…
Taken 2 (2012): Dir. Olivier Megaton
Feat. Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace…; Middle–aged badass Liam Neeson returns in this enjoyable, if perfunctory sequel to the bloody–minded kidnapping hit, in which his family…
Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Dir. Kathryn Bigelow
Feat. Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler…; Kathryn Bigelow (THE HURT LOCKER) directs this formidable thriller based on the CIA's decade–long manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011): Dir. Stephen Daldry
Feat. Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn…; The grief and curiosity of a nine–year–old autistic boy is explored in this tough, but tender drama set in the aftermath of the September…
Greetings to the Devil (2011): Dir. Juan Felipe Orozco
Feat. Édgar Ramírez, Ricardo Vélez, Carolina Gómez; Fast and aggressive Colombian thriller stars the charismatic Édgar Ramírez, fresh off CARLOS, as a former guerrilla forced to hunt down and kill…
Homeland - Season 1 (TV Series) (2011): Feat. Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Mandy Patinkin…; Anchored by Claire Danes's riveting, high–tensile performance, this outstanding surveillance thriller centres on the return of an Iraq war hero…
If a Tree Falls (2011): Dir. Marshall Curry; Part coming–of–age tale, part cops–and–robbers thriller, this extraordinary documentary tells the story of Daniel McGowan,…
Kidnap and Ransom (TV Series) (2011): Feat. Trevor Eve, John Hannah, Helen Baxendale; Muscular ITV hostage thriller, centred on an expert negotiator whose latest assignment comes unstuck in volatile South Africa. Carefully balances…
Policeman (2011): Dir. Nadav Lapid
Feat. Yiftach Klein; With contemporary Israel as its disquieting backdrop, this sharp and incisive account of revolutionary action, witnessed through the eyes of a…
Rebellion (2011): Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
Feat. Mathieu Kassovitz, Iabe Lapacas, Malik Zidi…; A proficient, airtight geopolitical thriller from dir. Kassovitz, who also stars as the captain of a counterterrorist division sent to New Caledonia…
Special Forces (2011): Dir. Stéphane Rybojad
Feat. Diane Kruger, Djimon Hounsou, Benoit Magimel; A kidnapped war correspondent is rescued by an elite unit of French soldiers, only to be relentlessly pursued by her Taliban captors. Grunty and…
Straw Dogs (2011): Dir. Rod Lurie
Feat. James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard…; Sam Peckinpah's controversial 1971 film is bleached, but certainly not bettered in this nasty remake that goes for broke in the violence stakes,…
24 - Season 8 (TV Series) (2010): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland; Final season of the high–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode) with Kiefer Sutherland as lead…
Carlos (Carlos the Jackal) (2010): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Édgar Ramírez, Nora von Waldstätten, Alexander Scheer; An explosive, globe–trotting biopic of Venezuelan terrorist and fugitive Ilich Ramírez Sánchez – aka Carlos the Jackal – whose exploits…
Essential Killing (2010): Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski
Feat. Vincent Gallo, Emmanuelle Seigner; Vincent Gallo plays a terrified Taliban fighter on the run from American forces in this oddly compelling chase movie, distinctive for its relentless…
Four Lions (2010): Dir. Chris Morris
Feat. Kayvan Novak, Riz Ahmed, Nigel Lindsay…; Explosive comedy of folly and idiocy that follows four would–be Jihadists as they bicker and blunder towards their intended target. Perhaps…
Green Zone (2010): Dir. Paul Greengrass
Feat. Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson…; Action ace Paul Greengrass deploys Bourne leading man Matt Damon in this frenetic, politically pointed thriller focused on the hunt for Weapons of…
Unthinkable (2010): Dir. Gregor Jordan
Feat. Samuel L. Jackson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Michael Sheen…; Troubling psychological thriller with Sheen as a terrorist suspect who won't divulge the whereabouts of rogue nuclear weapons, Jackson and Moss…
9/11: Blueprint for Truth (The Te Papa Lecture) (2009): Dir. Colin Hodson; Speaking at Te Papa Museum in Wellington, late 2009, American architect Richard Gage presents further evidence (or complete bullshit, depending on…
Disappearance of Alice Creed, The (2009): Dir. J Blakeson
Feat. Gemma Arterton, Eddie Marsan, Martin Compston; Nominally another addition to the flavorless torture genre, this ransom drama centred on the abduction of a millionaire's daughter by two…
Five Minutes of Heaven (2009): Dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
Feat. Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Anamaria Marinca; Northern Ireland's troubled past is tackled in a contemporary spirit of "truth and reconciliation" in this fictional drama in which James Nesbitt…
Incendiary (2009): Dir. Sharon Maguire
Feat. Ewan McGregor, Michelle Williams, Matthew MacFadyen…; Thriller set in the aftermath of a terrorist strike in London, based on the novel by Chris Cleave. Though it boasts a typically fine Michelle…
London River (2009): Dir. Rachid Bouchareb
Feat. Brenda Blethyn, Sotigui Kouyate, Francis Magee…; Quiet, meditative drama set amongst the carnage of the London bombings has two parents of different faiths searching for their lost children and…
Taking Of Pelham 123, The (2009): Dir. Tony Scott
Feat. Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzman; Flashy remake of the 70s heist movie sees John Travolta as the mastermind behind the hijack of a New York subway train, and Denzel Washington as the…
102 Minutes That Changed America (2008): Dir. Nicole Rittenmeyer, Seth Skundrick; Documentary about the September 11 attacks produced for the History Channel for the seventh anniversary of the events, telling the story using newly…
24 - Season 7 (TV Series) (2008): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland; Further episodes in this high–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode) with Kiefer Sutherland as lead…
Baader Meinhof Complex, The (2008): Dir. Uli Edel
Feat. Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek…; A big–budget, pulse–pounding account of terrorism and political protest in 1960s and 70s Germany, centred on the notorious Red Army…
Batman: The Dark Knight (2008): Dir. Christopher Nolan
Feat. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart…; Christopher Nolan’s follow–up to BATMAN BEGINS pitches Christian Bale’s Batman against Heath Ledger’s lunatic Joker, propelling this…
Body Of Lies (2008): Dir. Ridley Scott
Feat. Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Vince Colosimo…; Double–crossing political thriller starring DiCaprio as a street–savvy US intelligence operative at the beck and (phone)call of a CIA…
Cactus (2008): Dir. Jasmine Yuen Carrucan
Feat. Travis McMahon, Bryan Brown, Shane Jacobson…; Claustrophobic Aussie thriller pitting a kidnapper and his captive against each other in a battle of wills while travelling through the scorching…
Cottage, The (2008): Dir. Paul Andrew Williams
Feat. Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith; Splattery horror–comedy in the vein of SHAUN OF THE DEAD follows two mismatched brothers on a bungled kidnapping attempt of a gangster’s…
Eagle Eye (2008): Dir. D. J. Caruso
Feat. Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson…; Derivative but entertaining cyber–thriller in which a young man and single mother get framed as terrorists and find themselves unexpectedly…
Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008): Dir. Kari Skogland
Feat. Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Zegers…; Sharp docu–drama with Jim Sturgess as Irishman Martin McGartland, charged with infiltrating the IRA during the 1980s. Tense action sequences…
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008): Dir. Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Feat. Kal Penn, John Cho; Asian/Indian douchbags Harold and Kumar, in search of another high, are arrested and detained in Guantanamo Bay for trying to smuggle a bong into…
I Come with the Rain (2008): Dir. Tran Anh Hung
Feat. Josh Hartnett, Elias Koteas, Tran Nu Yen-Khe…; Dir. Tran Anh Hung revives the humid, squalored atmosphere of his acclaimed CYCLO with this stylish, heavy–handed international noir. Josh…
Julia (2008): Dir. Erick Zonca
Feat. Tilda Swinton, Saul Rubinek, Kate del Castillo; Gutsy, dynamic melodrama propelled by a full–tilt performance from Tilda Swinton as a loose cannon alcoholic who becomes embroiled in…
Last Stop 174 (2008): Dir. Bruno Barreto
Feat. Michel Gomes, Cris Vianna, Marcello Melo Junior; Adrenalised dramatisation of the infamous bus–hijacking examines the life of the troubled young hijacker. As an action film this is…
Restraint (2008): Dir. David Denneen
Feat. Teresa Palmer, Stephen Moyer, Travis Fimmel; Gripping, stripped–back thriller from across the ditch, in which an agoraphobic toff is taken hostage by a young couple on the run from the…
Shuttle (2008): Dir. Edward Anderson
Feat. Tony Curran, Peyton List, Cameron Goodman…; An airport shuttle ride turn into a nightmare for its nubile passengers in this tightly contained indie adbuction thriller from first–time…
Standard Operating Procedure (2008): Dir. Errol Morris; To see or not to see: that is the question posed by acclaimed director Errol Morris as he attempts to understand what took place inside the walls of…
Taken (2008): Dir. Pierre Morel
Feat. Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Xander Berkeley…; Retired CIA operative Liam Neeson goes COMMANDO all over Paris on a ruthless mission to save his kidnapped daughter from an Albanian prostitution…
Traitor (2008): Dir. Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Feat. Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Said Taghmaoui…; Don Cheadle stars as a Semtex racketeer selling to the highest bidder – be he CIA or Jihadist – and finds himself a pawn on the twin…
Vantage Point (2008): Dir. Peter Travis
Feat. Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Dennis Quaid…; Tipsy, time–swapping political thriller cribs liberally from RASHOMON and TV–terrorist heart–stopper 24 in congealing multiple…
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (2008): Dir. Morgan Spurlock
Feat. Morgan Spurlock; With his first baby on the way, SUPER SIZE ME’s Morgan Spurlock decides to go off in search of the world’s most wanted criminal, learning more…
24 - Season 6 (TV Series) (2007): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland; Further episodes in this high–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode) with Kiefer Sutherland as lead…
Butterfly on a Wheel (2007): Dir. Mike Barker
Feat. Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler, Maria Bello; Tantalising thriller centred on a couple whose idyllic existence is shattered when their daughter is kidnapped by a man (Brosnan) with increasingly…
Dark Matter (2007): Dir. Shi-Zheng Chen
Feat. Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, Liu Ye; Inspired by real events, this dramatisation of a brilliant Chinese science student's psychological downfall at an Iowan university is a mostly…
Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free or Die Hard) (2007): Dir. Len Wiseman
Feat. Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long…; Bruce Willis returns as hardass action copper John McClane, taking on a plugged–in, post–9/11 terrorist cell in this fourth addition to…
Extraordinary Rendition (2007): Dir. Jim Threapleton
Feat. Andy Serkis, Omar Berdouni, Ania Sowinski; Topical, slightly underdone small–budget political thriller tracks a forward thinking UK teacher who is abducted and brutally tortured in an…
Frontier(s) (Frontiers) (2007): Dir. Xavier Gens
Feat. Samuel Le Bihan; Bludgeoning sadistic fantasy, following in the footsteps of other French exponents of the rather unsavoury torture–porn mini–genre, this…
He Was a Quiet Man (2007): Dir. Frank A. Cappello
Feat. Christian Slater, Elisha Cuthbert, William H. Macy; With his best role in donkey's years, Christian Slater stars in this bleakly satirical drama as a frustrated loner who decides to take out his anger…
Hunting Party, The (2007): Dir. Richard Shepard
Feat. Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, James Brolin…; Action–packed serio–comic political thriller in the spirit of THREE KINGS centres on the shaggy dog story of an intrepid trio of…
Kingdom, The (2007): Dir. Peter Berg
Feat. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper…; Jamie Foxx hunts a faction of terrorists in this Middle Eastern–set actioner concerning the aftermath of a suicide bombing on American citizens…
Mark of Cain, The (2007): Dir. Marc Munden
Feat. Leo Gregory, Matthew McNulty, Gerard Kearns…; Based on real first–person accounts, this fictional British war drama explores the effects of the Iraq conflict on two young soldiers who can…
Mighty Heart, A (2007): Dir. Michael Winterbottom
Feat. Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman; Michael Winterbottom's sober, well–acted docudrama covering the 2002 abduction of Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl by Pakistani…
Nobel Son (2007): Dir. Randall Miller
Feat. Alan Rickman, Bryan Greenberg, Shawn Hatosy…; Peppy crime caper about a recent Nobel Prize winner whose son is kidnapped and ransomed for the $2 million prize money. Directed with whiz, pop,…
Postal (2007): Dir. Uwe Boll
Feat. Zack Ward, Dave Foley, J.K. Simmons…; Profoundly dim farce recounts the misadventures of hopeless layabout who conspires with his cult leader uncle to rip off an amusement park, trouble…
Rendition (2007): Dir. Gavin Hood
Feat. Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Peter Sarsgaard…; Frenetic thriller by dir. of TSOTSI concerns Witherspoon's desperate search for her husband after he goes missing on an international flight,…
Shoot on Sight (2007): Dir. Jag Mundhra
Feat. Naseeruddin Shah, Greta Scacchi, Om Puri…; Not so much hot potato as lukewarm, this political thriller bases its story on the real–life shooting of an innocent Brazilian man gunned down…
Suicide Killers (2007): Dir. Pierre Rehov; Based on interviews, this documentary examines the psychopathology of suicide bombers, with particular focus on the Israeli/Palestine conflict. The…
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007): Dir. Alex Gibney; Academy Award–winning documentary from the dir. of ENRON exposing the darker impulses of the US forces through the true story of an Afghani…
Trade (2007): Dir. Marco Kreuzpaintner
Feat. Kevin Kline, Cesar Ramos, Alicia Bachleda…; Grimy drama sees a 13–year–old–girl kidnapped by sex traffickers, prompting her older brother to set off in pursuit aided by Texas…
24 - Season 5 (TV Series) (2006): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland; Further episodes in this high–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode) with Kiefer Sutherland as lead…
9/11 Mysteries: Demolitions (2006): Dir. Sofia Shafquat; Another inflammatory conspiracy documentary on the ‘truth’ behind 9/11, this time purporting that the Twin Towers were in fact leveled by secret…
9/11: The Falling Man (2006): Dir. Henry Singer; Acclaimed documentary searches for the identity of one of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, whose desperate jump/fall from one of the Twin Towers was…
Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story (2006): Dir. Patty Kim, Chris Sheridan; This startling, blow–by–blow account of a notorious Japanese abduction reveals a staggering conspiracy at the heart of a…
Catch a Fire (2006): Dir. Phillip Noyce
Feat. Tim Robbins, Derek Luke; Sturdy, serious–minded political thriller from the steady hand of dir. Phillip Noyce, couched in the turbulence of South Africa’s Apartheid…
Children of Men (2006): Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Feat. Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor…; Clive Owen is pursued across a dystopian England of 2027 in this stimulating, pertinent sci–fi parable, rendered with stunning virtuosity by…
Civic Duty (2006): Dir. Jeff Renfroe
Feat. Peter Krause, Richard Schiff; Post–9/11 paranoia and propaganda combine to arouse the suspicions of a newly–redundant accountant (SIX FEET UNDER's Krause), who…
Deja Vu (2006): Dir. Tony Scott
Feat. Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel; More flash and bang from blockbuster teamsters Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott, here devising a series of brute action sequences around a…
Etoile Du Soldat, L' (Star of the Soldier) (2006): Dir. Christophe de Ponfilly
Feat. Sacha Bourdo, Philippe Caubere, Hanns Zischler; Maladroit war drama based on the true story of a Russian soldier captured by the Mujahedin in Afghanistan who becomes enthralled by his freedom…
Fay Grim (2006): Dir. Hal Hartley
Feat. Parker Posey, Jeff Goldblum, Thomas Jay Ryan…; This unlikely sequel to HENRY FOOL finds Parker Posey deep undercover for the CIA, dispatched to France to recover her ex–husband’s (ruffian…
Five Fingers (2006): Dir. Laurence Malkin
Feat. Ryan Phillippe, Laurence Fishburne, Colm Meaney…; Hostage drama with a few surprises up its sleeve has Dutch pianist (Phillippe) on a charity trip to Morocco who gets abducted by Moroccan terrorists…
Infinite Justice (2006): Dir. Jamil Dehlavi
Feat. Kevin Collins, Raza Jaffrey; Following in the footsteps of A MIGHTY HEART, this vigorous political thriller inspired by the Daniel Pearl case follows an investigative journalist…
Inside Man (2006): Dir. Spike Lee
Feat. Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster…; Proficient, personalised heist thriller from dir. Spike Lee (25TH HOUR) in which a smooth and cold super–crim (Owen) engineers the robbery of…
Loose Change - Second Edition (2006): Dir. Dylan Avery; Using an array of disconcerting "facts" and "expert" witnesses, this rapid–fire documentary purports to tell the 'truth' about the 9/11 attacks…
Out of the Blue (Aramoana) (2006): Dir. Robert Sarkies
Feat. Karl Urban, Matthew Sunderland, Simon Ferry…; A moving, uncomfortably harrowing account of New Zealand’s worst mass murder, bringing the trauma of 1990’s Aramoana massacre to the screen with…
Road to Guantanamo, The (2006): Dir. Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross; A searing, politically pertinent docu–drama from the prolific Michael Winterbottom (w/ co–dir. Whitecross), reenacting with…
Secret History of 9/11, The (2006): Dir. Terrence McKenna; A serious–minded Canadian television documentary which details the lead–up to the 9/11 attacks on the NYC World Trade Centre, including…
Unit, The (TV Series) (2006): Dir. David Mamet, various
Feat. Dennis Haysbert, Scott Foley, Robert Patrick…; The brainchild of David Mamet, this riveting black–ops suspenser serialises the daring assignments of a covert special forces team who, under…
United 93 (2006): Dir. Paul Greengrass; Intensely affecting recreation of the fated last flight of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11th 2001, where passengers successfully rose up…
Unknown (2006): Dir. Simon Brand
Feat. Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Bridget Moynahan…; Unbelievably twisty, indie hostage thriller in the tradition of RESERVOIR DOGS and The USUAL SUSPECTS. Five men awake bloody and beaten in a…
World Trade Center (2006): Dir. Oliver Stone
Feat. Nicolas Cage, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal…; Powerful and gripping rendering of the plight of two NYC cops who became trapped in the rubble of the collapsing World Trade Center in the 9/11…
24 - Season 4 (TV Series) (2005): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland, Elisha Cuthbert; Further episodes in this high–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode) with Kiefer Sutherland as lead…
Al Qaeda (2005): Alarming documentary investigating different facets of high–profile terrorist cell Al–Qaeda. Divided into three parts; Al–Qaeda…
Hidden (Cache) (2005): Dir. Michael Haneke
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Benichou…; A disquieting modern thriller that pulls no punches, depositing a climate of terrorism and fear onto the lives of two French professionals and their…
Hostage (2005): Dir. Florent Emilio Siri
Feat. Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Jonathan Tucker…; Bruce Willis negotiates familiar territory as a SWAT agent drawn into a messy siege in a high–security mansion, where three white–trash…
Munich (2005): Dir. Steven Spielberg
Feat. Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz…; Compelling, if occasionally muddily–overearnest thriller based around the aftermath of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich…
National Geographic - Inside 9/11 (2005): Cogent, well–considered, and remarkably balanced overview of the key events before, during and after September 11’s infamous terror…
One Last Dance (2005): Dir. Max Makowski
Feat. Francis Ng, Harvey Keitel, Ti Lung; Subdued low–budget Singaporean actioner in which an assassin (Ng) on his final assignment must take out a group of kidnappers who have snatched…
Paradise Now (2005): Dir. Hany Abu-Assad
Feat. Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal; This extraordinarily brave film shadows the martyrdom of two Palestinian friends recruited by an extremist group to perpetrate a suicide bombing in…
Red Eye (2005): Dir. Wes Craven
Feat. Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox; Dir. Wes Craven whittles a lean, claustrophobic thriller around the plight of a woman (McAdams), menaced onboard of short–haul plane flight by…
Secuestro Express (2005): Dir. Jonathan Jakubowicz
Feat. Mia Maestro, Ruben Blades; Venezuela comes off second best in this exploitative thriller peddling the country's professional kidnapping trade, where a couple of wealthy young…
Sorry, Haters (2005): Dir. Jeff Stanzler
Feat. Robin Wright, Abdellatif Kechiche, Elodie Bouchez…; The after–effects of September 11 act as a racially–charged backdrop to this low–budget thriller set on the mean streets of New…
War Within, The (2005): Dir. Joseph Castelo
Feat. Ayad Akhtar; A powerful anatomy of a suicide–bomber in the making, this unsettling thriller is notable for looking through the eyes of an immigrant to the…
24 - Season 3 (TV Series) (2004): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland; Further episodes in this high–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode) with Kiefer Sutherland as lead…
Cellular (2004): Dir. David R Ellis
Feat. Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham…; Interesting abduction thriller leads with a premise that has flaky beachbum Evans rung on his cellphone with a chilling message from a kidnap victim…
Clearing, The (2004): Dir. Pieter Jan Brugge
Feat. Robert Redford, Willem Dafoe, Helen Mirren…; An unusually flavoured and structured kidnapping thriller, in which wealthy entrepeneur Redford is abducted by a polite, former–employee…
Death in Gaza (2004): Dir. James Miller; A powerful, if not devastating, study of two children and a teenager growing up in the fractious and perilous Gaza Strip, where attacks by Israel and…
Dirty War (2004): Dir. Daniel Percival; A BBC dramatisation which proposes how, in the post–9/11 world, a large–scale terrorist attack might be unleashed on London using 'dirty…
Edukators, The (The Educators) (2004): Dir. Hans Weingartner
Feat. Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg; A compulsive slice of German youth angst about rebels struggling with their cause, this arthouse smash–hit concerns a trio of youthful…
Grid, The (Mini-series) (2004): Dir. Mikael Salomon
Feat. Dylan McDermott, Julianne Margulies, Bernard Hill…; Solid and swiftly moving mini–series in which members of multiple security and intelligence agencies (CIA, FBI, M16, M15, NSC...) attempt to…
Man on Fire (2004): Dir. Tony Scott
Feat. Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken, Radha Mitchell…; A hard–eyed revenge thriller which sees an alcoholic bodyguard (Washington) losing a 11–yr old girl he's assigned to protect in Mexico…
Omagh (2004): Dir. Peter Travis
Feat. Gerard McSorley, Michele Forbes, Brenda Fricker; Powerfully affecting docudrama revisits the deadliest act of terrorism in Northern Ireland history and its grievous aftermath, focusing on a…
Power of Nightmares, The (2004): Dir. Adam Curtis; Another provocative documentary from dir. Curtis, this time out he examines how political parties have created and used fears in order to maintain…
President Versus David Hicks, The (2004): Dir. Curtis Levy; Timely, if 'difficult' documentary which follows the efforts of the father of 'Australian Taliban' fighter David Hicks, to free his son from US…
Spartan (2004): Dir. David Mamet
Feat. Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy…; An expert 'special ops' agent (Kilmer) is sucked headfirst into a wild, yet plausible conspiracy involving the kidnapping of the US president's…
24 - Season 2 (TV Series) (2003): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland; Further episodes in this high–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode) with Kiefer Sutherland as lead…
Basque Ball (2003): Dir. Julio Medem; A dizzying documentary journey through the history and politics of the troubled Basque region of northern Spain, which for centuries has been…
Battle Royale II: Requiem (Battle Royale 2) (2003): Dir. Fukasaku Kinji, Fukasaku Kenta
Feat. Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ai Maeda, Shugo Oshinari; Bolder and bloodier sequel that introduces 9/11–style terrorist topicality into its violent, 'last teen standing' scenario, with overt…
Blind Flight (2003): Dir. John Furse
Feat. Ian Hart, Linus Roache; True story of the 4–year kidnapping in 80s Lebanon of Irishman Brian Keenan and Englishman John McCarthy, given an affecting depth by its…
Card Player, The (Cartaio, Il) (2003): Dir. Dario Argento
Feat. Stefania Rocca, Liam Cunningham, Silvio Muccino; Dario Argento, Master of 'Giallo' Cinema, strives to update his style of acutely crafted horror to a contemporary plot involving a policewoman…
Good Morning, Night (2003): Dir. Marco Bellocchio; A dramatisation of events surrounding the kidnapping and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 by The Red Brigades, as seen through the…
Holy War, Inc. (2003): National Geographic's TV 'special' on Osama Bin Laden and his 'al–Qaeda' organisation, that presents a straight–forward account till…
My House in Umbria (2003): Dir. Richard Loncraine
Feat. Maggie Smith, Chris Cooper, Giancarlo Giannini…; Maggie Smith centres this superior telemovie, playing an ex–pat romance novelist whose life in Italy is disturbed when she is caught up in a…
Tears of the Sun (2003): Dir. Antoine Fuqua
Feat. Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Cole Hauser…; Bruce Willis leads the charge in a 'Special Ops' mission in war–ravaged Nigeria. Assigned to rescue a UN doctor (Belluci!) he and his squad…
24 - Season 1 (TV Series) (2002): Feat. Kiefer Sutherland, Leslie Hope, Dennis Haysbert…; High–concept TV thriller, covering 24 hours of real time events (an hour per episode), with Kiefer Sutherland as lead special agent of a…
7 Days in September (2002): Dir. Steven Rosenbaum; A collage of images and events shot during the events of September 11th 2001, this is actually one of the most impressive filmic memorials made thus…
Bus 174 (2002): Dir. José Padilha; A riveting analysis of an incident in Rio de Janeiro in June 2000 in which a lone, desperate gunman held hostage the passengers of a bus, while the…
Dancer Upstairs, The (2002): Dir. John Malkovich
Feat. Javier Bardem; John Malkovich debuts as a director with this slow–burn police thriller played out in the humid atmosphere of an unamed South American…
John Q (2002): Dir. Nick Cassavetes
Feat. Denzel Washington, Ray Liotta, Robert Duvall…; Denzel Washington plays a cash–strapped pillar–of–decency who can’t afford his son’s heart–transplant in the mercenary US…
Sum of All Fears, The (2002): Dir. Phillip Alden Anderson
Feat. Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall; A nightmarish post–9/11 thriller from Tom Clancy, with Ben Affleck taking the place of Harrison Ford as CIA–man Jack Ryan, here hunting…
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002): Dir. Park Chan-Wook
Feat. Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Doona Bae; Incredibly bleak suspenser witnesses the disastrous efforts of a deaf–mute man and his girlfriend (who is on the fringes of a terrorist cell)…
Weather Underground, The (2002): Dir. Sam Green, Bill Siegel; A stimulating, incisive look back at the angry workings of "The Weathermen", a radical splinter faction of the protest movement who were responsible…
Collateral Damage (2001): Dir. Andrew Davis
Feat. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elias Koteas, Cliff Curtis; Overtaken by the events of September 11, 2001, (the cinema release was delayed 6 months) this terrorist thriller has…
Don't Say a Word (2001): Dir. Gary Fleder
Feat. Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Jennifer Esposito…; “Threatened–family” thriller, with psychiatrist Michael Douglas rising to the challenge – outwit the kidnappers of his daughter, who…
Way of the Gun (2001): Dir. Christopher McQuarrie
Feat. Benicio Del Toro, Ryan Phillippe, Juliette Lewis…; A kidnap–chase down Mexico way, featuring “live–by–the–gun” crims Benicio Del Toro, Ryan Phillipe and abductee…
John Pilger's No Middle Ground in the Middle East (Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq; Palenstine is Still the Issue; Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror) (2000-2003): Dir. John Pilger, Alan Lowery
Feat. John Pilger; Three of journalist John Pilger’s most recent and cogent illustrations of the plight of the Middle East, with Iraq, foreign policy, Israel and…
One Day in September (2000): Dir. Kevin MacDonald; Compelling reconstruction of events surrounding the terrorist siege that took centre–stage at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, where eleven…
Proof of Life (2000): Dir. Taylor Hackford
Feat. Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, David Morse; South American ransom thriller with Meg Ryan seeking to extricate her rich husband (David Morse) from the jungle, and Russell Crowe as the…
Rules of Engagement (2000): Dir. William Friedkin
Feat. Samuel L. Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Guy Pearce…; Colonel Samuel L. Jackson interprets the 'rules' when the US Embassy in Yemen is attacked by terrorists. But after the smoke has cleared 83…
Unit One (TV Series) (Rejseholdet) (2000-2004): Feat. Mads Mikkelsen; CONTRABAND TITLE. Series 1 to 4 are not legally available for sale, rent or trade in New Zealand unless submitted for approval to the NZ Office of…
Suicide Kings (1999): Dir. Peter O'Fallon
Feat. Christopher Walken, Denis Leary; Post–PULP FICTION black–comedy, that does better than most in juggling a crime setting, a mystery and various comical dialogues, with a…
Assignment, The (1998): Dir. Christian Duguay
Feat. Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley; International espionage flick that revels in the skillful, old–fashioned flourishes of an elaborate terrorist caper. Tourist Aidan Quinn gets…
Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1998): Dir. Johan Grimonprez; An exploration into the history of airline hijacking, from media spectacle in the 1960's to the present terrorist mainstay. Shot before the 9/11,…
Judas Kiss (1998): Dir. Sebastian Guitierrez
Feat. Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Carla Gugino…; Kidnapping–gone–wrong thriller that trades off the curious casting of Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman as the American cops in pursuit.…
Negotiator, The (1998): Dir. F. Gary Gray
Feat. Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, J.T. Walsh; A touch angry after being framed for corruption, Samuel L. Jackson kidnaps the responsible party and squares off against the formidable eyeballs of…
Siege, The (1998): Dir. Edward Zwick
Feat. Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Bening; In a standoff of virtue versus guts, Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis deal with an Islamic terrorist assault on New York City in the best way they…
Terrorist, The (1998): Dir. Santosh Sivan
Feat. Ayesha Dharkar; Discovered and championed by the actor John Malkovich, this intensely concentrated thriller depicts the hardening and training of 19–yr old…
Air Force One (1997): Dir. Wolfgang Petersen
Feat. Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman; Patriot tripe of the first order in which the private plane of the US president is infiltrated and held to ransom by Russkie terrorists. Without…
Con Air (1997): Dir. Simon West
Feat. Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich…; The prison genre meets the airborne thriller(!) but invigorated no end by super–slick production and direction and the ever–dependable…
Metro (1997): Dir. Thomas Carter
Feat. Eddie Murphy, Michael Wincott; Wisecracking hostage negotiator Eddie Murphy has the smile wiped off his face when his girlfriend is taken hostage by psychopath Michael Wincott.…
Peacemaker, The (1997): Dir. Mimi Leder
Feat. George Clooney, Nicole Kidman; Russkie terrorism triggers special forces Colonel George Clooney and nuclear–expert Nicole Kidman into hairs–breadth world–saving…
Executive Decision (1996): Dir. Stuart Baird
Feat. Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal; Middle Eastern terrorists hi–jack a Jumbo and bring aboard a lethal nerve–gas capable of wiping out small nations. For a sure recipe for…
Prisoner of the Mountains (1996): Dir. Sergei Bodrov
Feat. Oleg Menshikov, Sergei Bodrov Jr, Susanna Mekhraliyeva…; A Tolstoy fable is here seamlessly transposed to the Chechean conflict, with two Russian soldiers apprehended by a Chechean village elder who hopes…
Ransom (1996): Dir. Ron Howard
Feat. Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise…; Kidnappers post a nasty ultimatum to airline mogul Mel Gibson, who didn't get to where he is today by responding kindly to threats. Hi–gloss…
Turbulence (1996): Dir. Robert Butler
Feat. Ray Liotta, Lauren Holly; Parachutes on! A 747 hijacked by hypermaniac serial–killer Ray Liotta is heading into an electrical storm! No prizes for guessing if they make…
Bullet to Beijing (1995): Dir. George Mihalka
Feat. Michael Caine, Jason Connery, Mia Sara…; Fourth outing for Michael Caine as the dog–eared spy Harry Palmer, sent to Moscow, this time to recover a stolen 'Doomsday'–style…
Fall Time (1995): Dir. Paul Warner
Feat. Mickey Rourke, Stephen Baldwin; A prank backfires for three teenagers who interrupt the plans of hardened gangsters. The innocence lost of '50s America is disturbingly mirrored as…
Blown Away (1994): Dir. Stephen Hopkins
Feat. Tommy Lee Jones, Jeff Bridges; A psychotic terrorist is determined to test the skills of a bomb disposal expert to the limit. Action presides over logic but it's an exciting entry…
Drop Zone (1994): Dir. John Badham
Feat. Wesley Snipes, Gary Busey; Wesley Snipes is a numbered passenger again in trying to crack a skydiving terrorist gang led by Gary Busey. Not much grey matter to be found…
Passenger 57 (1993): Dir. Kevin Hooks
Feat. Wesley Snipes, Bruce Payne, Tom Sizemore; Wesley Snipes has a number and is not a free man when his trans–Atlantic flight is interrupted by a bastard with an English accent and an…
Undercover Blues (1993): Dir. Herbert Ross
Feat. Kathleen Turner, Dennis Quaid; Kathleen Turner and Dennis Quaid star in this farcical thriller as husband–and–wife Private I's, forced to combat international…
Flight of the Innocent (1992): Dir. Carlo Carlei
Feat. Manuel Colao, Federico Pacifici, Sal Borgese; A swirling steady–cam follows the chase of a young boy across Northern Italy after his family are slaughtered by a kidnapping ring. Thriller is…
Autobus (1991): Dir. Eric Rochant
Feat. Yvan Attal, Kristin Scott Thomas; A desperate, attention–seeking young man (Yvan Attal – superb) hijacks a school bus, taking its two adults and little passengers hostage.…
Hors La Vie (Life on Hold) (1991): Dir. Maroun Bagdadi
Feat. Hippolyte Girardot, Rafic Ali Ahmad, Nidal Ashkov…; A fictionalised depiction of a freelance photographer's ten months in Shi'ite custody. Charged with political anger but unsensationalist and…
Toy Soldiers (1991): Dir. Daniel Petrie Jnr.
Feat. Sean Astin, Wil Wheaton, Keith Coogan; An elite boarding school comes under siege from the son of an extradited Columbian drug king. Shamelessly well executed.
Catchfire (1990): Dir. Alan Smithee
Feat. Dennis Hopper, Jodie Foster; An engaging oddity directed by Dennis Hopper under a pseudonym, after producers cut the film from its original 3hr length. Hopper himself plays a…
Die Hard 2 (1990): Dir. Renny Harlin
Feat. Bruce Willis; Another difficult Christmas for cop Bruce Willis when he is stranded at a Washington Airport. No, it couldn't be...more terrorists?!
Hidden Agenda (1990): Dir. Ken Loach
Feat. Brian Cox, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif…; Perhaps dir. Loach’s most genre–based film, this political thriller about sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s involves…
Emma's Shadow (1989): Dir. Soeren Jacobsen
Feat. Line Kruse, Borje Ahlstedt, Erik Wedersoe; 12–year–old Emma, feeling that her affluent parents would care more for her if she were missing, fakes her own kidnapping, and discovers…
Die Hard (1988): Dir. John McTiernan
Feat. Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman…; Star–making role for Bruce Willis as an ordinary cop who runs into international terrorism at the top of a skyscraper on Christmas Eve. …
Judgement in Berlin (1988): Dir. Leo Penn
Feat. Martin Sheen, Sean Penn, Sam Wanamaker…; Stolid courtroom drama about the trial of an man who hijacked an airplane in order to flee East Germany for the West, Martin Sheen plays the American…
Patty Hearst (1988): Dir. Paul Schrader
Feat. Natasha Richardson, William Forsythe, Ving Rhames…; Intense depiction of Patty Hearst's kidnapping, confinement and brain–washing by 'urban guerillas' the SLA, from that specialist in American…
Prayer for the Dying (1987): Dir. Mike Hodges
Feat. Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins, Alan Bates…; Adaptation of Jack Higgins' novel in which Mickey Rourke plays a retired IRA hitman who is enticed into one final killing, with disasterous…
Wanted Dead or Alive (1987): Dir. Gary Sherman
Feat. Rutger Hauer, Gene Simmons, Robert Guillaume; Hauer stars as a bounty hunter coming to grips with Middle Eastern terrorism. Explicitly violent, with a knock–out finale.
Little Drummer Girl (1984): Dir. George Roy Hill
Feat. Diane Keaton, Klaus Kinski; Diane Keaton excels in this politically even handed labyrinthine terrorist thriller. The screenplay was adapted with the assistance of John Le Carre…
Corrupt (a.k.a Copkiller; Order Of Death; L'assassino Dei Poliziotti) (1983): Dir. Roberto Faenza
Feat. Harvey Keitel, John Lydon, Nicole Garcia…; Surprisingly intense thriller has Harvey Keitel playing a dodgy NYC detective taunted by disturbed youth John Lydon (formerly 'Johnny Rotten' of the…
Exposed (1983): Dir. James Toback
Feat. Nastassja Kinski, Harvey Keitel, Rudolph Nureyev…; Typically unrestrained effort from cult director Toback has Nastassja Kinski in fine form as a midwestern girl seeking fame in New York CIty. If…
Night Hawks (1981): Dir. Bruce Malmuth
Feat. Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer…; Two undercover NYC cops are faced with the unenviable task of tracking down Europe's number one terrorist in this underrated 80's action flick.…
Smash Palace (1981): Dir. Roger Donaldson
Feat. Bruno Lawrence, Grier Robson; One of local cinema's finest hours is this rural tale of a brusque auto–mechanic (Bruno Lawrence) whose estrangement from his family leads him…
Octagon, The (1980): Dir. Eric Karson
Feat. Chuck Norris, Karen Carlson, Lee Van Cleef…; Economical Chuck Norris martial arts adventure focusing on a retired karate champion recruited to take out a group of Central American terrorists he…
Third Generation, The (Die Dritte Generation) (1979): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Hanna Schygulla, Margit Carstensen, Eddie Constantine…; A scathing black comedy about terrorism, one of the final films of German provocateur Rainer Werner Fassbinder. A hilariously indiscriminate plot…
Sandbaggers, The (TV Series) (1978): Feat. Roy Marsden, Alan MacNaughtan; The Sandbaggers is a nickname for the Special Section of the British SIS – a team of special agents deployed undercover in hostile situations…
Black Sunday (1977): Dir. John Frankenheimer
Feat. Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller…; A suspenseful, violent terrorist thriller based on Thomas Harris' fictional novel about the pro–Palestinian "Black September" group who…
Cassandra Crossing, The (1977): Dir. George P. Cosmatos
Feat. Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Ava Gardner…; A few too many disasters – train crashes, plagues, terrorists etc. – make for an overcooked yet still entertaining actioner. An…
Fight For Your Life (1977): Dir. Robert A. Endelson
Feat. William Sanderson, Robert Judd; A racist hillbilly and two sadistic jail–breakers terrorize a black minister and his family, who eventually fight back and take bloody…
Golden Rendezvous (1977): Dir. Ashley Lazarus
Feat. Richard Harris, John Vernon, Gordon Jackson…; Richard Harris dodges bullets in this daffy thriller about a luxury cruise liner held to ransom by terrorists. This early UNDER SIEGE provided plenty…
21 Hours at Munich (1976): Dir. William A. Graham
Feat. William Holden, Shirley Knight, Franco Nero…; Teledrama depiction of the infamous events at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where the terrorist group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes…
Sky Riders (1976): Dir. Douglas Hickox
Feat. James Coburn, Susannah York, Robert Culp; Absurd political–terrorism romp with a tough–as–nails James Coburn commandeering hang–gliders in a daring attempt to rescue…
Bullet Train, The (1975): Dir. Jun'ya Sato
Feat. Ken Takakura, Sonny Chiba; Unstoppable, no–holds–barred action vehicle finds Sonny Chiba steering a passenger train rigged with a bomb to explode if its speed drops…
Lost Honor of Katherina Blum, The (1975): Dir. Volker Schlondorff
Feat. Angela Winkler, Jurgen Prochnow; Taken from the novel by Heinrich Boll, this reproach to the powers–that–be in mid–70s West Germany portrays the hardheaded…
Murder On Flight 502 (1975): Dir. George McCowan
Feat. Robert Stack, Farrah Fawcett, Fernando Lamas…; A cheesy yet effective '70s disaster flick that terrified viewers when it first aired as an American TV movie. A passenger is murdered on board a…
Rosebud (1975): Dir. Otto Preminger
Feat. Peter O'Toole, Richard Attenborough, Peter Lawford…; Preminger's penultimate film is sadly a mess. Members of the Palestinian Liberation Army kidnap five heiresses in order to bring attention to their…
Terrorists, The (Ransom) (1974): Dir. Caspar Wrede
Feat. Sean Connery, Ian McShane, Jeffry Wickham; Improbable thriller with Connery as a Norwegian colonel charged with liberating a plane full of hostages in the "country" of Scandinavia.
Candy Snatchers, The (1973): Dir. Guerdon Trueblood
Feat. Tiffany Bolling, Ben Piazza; An unheralded gem of the 70's exploitation 'golden age', this subversive yet taut and surprisingly controlled abduction thriller concerns the brutal…
State of Siege (1972): Dir. Costa-Gavras
Feat. Yves Montand, Renato Salvatori, Maurice Teynac; Influenced by the rise to power of Uruguay's 1970s dictatorship, Costa–Gavras's gritty drama follows the kidnapping and interrogation of U.S.…
Straw Dogs (1971): Dir. Sam Peckinpah
Feat. Dustin Hoffman, Susan George; With dir. Sam Peckinpah in top form, this powerful study of male territorial instincts pushed out the boundaries of movie violence in the…
Targets (1967): Dir. Peter Bogdanovich
Feat. Boris Karloff, Peter Bogdanovich; The influential first feature from a young Peter Bogdanovich, that effectively contrasts the story of a retiring horror actor (played by Boris…
High and Low (1963): Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Feat. Toshiro Mifune; Adapted from a crime–novel by Ed McBain, this kidnapping–thriller is a central work in dir. Kurosawa’s series of film noirs, combining…
Little Soldier, The (Petit soldat, Le) (1963): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Feat. Anna Karina, Michel Subor; Unheralded Godard sidebar has Michel Subor attempting to assassinate an Algerian sympathizer – if he can resist the charms of left–winger…

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