Best movies like Tenth of a Second
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
"Tenth of a Second" is the account of one man's desperate attempt to fight the oppressive apartheid regime of South Africa. This political thriller centres around Michael Wilder (James Whyle), a schoolteacher and political activist, with a failing marriage. Wilder is a member of the "Organisation" which is involved in subversive activities against the state. One day, Raymond (Nicky Rebelo), a fellow member, visits Wilder and leaves him with a suitcase containing a bomb. Wilder is expected to place in a busy shopping centre. But things do not go according to plan and the consequences of his actions result in devastating effects for Wilder and his grip on reality.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 24
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: South Africa
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Tenth of a Second (1987):
Similar in 84%
An Acceptable Loss (2018)
Plot Summary:
Former top U.S. security adviser Elizabeth "Libby" Lamm is threatened by associates from her dark past including Rachel Burke a steely, commanding politician with an unwavering knack for achieving her goals. Colluding with Rachel is Adrian, an unyielding, patriotic chief of staff. Martin harbors another type of obsession with Libby in this story of betrayal and regret.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, disturbing, exciting, tense, suspense, psychological, political, action adventure
Similar in 88%
The Hole in the Fence (2021)
Plot Summary:
As every year, the Los Pinos school, a prestigious school of the confessional type, sends its students on retreat to the countryside. Under the watchful eye of teachers and priests, the children are led on the path of their physical and moral development. Through the gaze of several middle and upper class teenagers, the film shows how their upbringing affects the future of society itself.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 411
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico, Poland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Rat King (2012)
Plot Summary:
18 year old Juri is seriously addicted to online gaming, so much so he becomes isolated from his single mother and pushes his girlfriend to the brink of leaving him. He decides to quit, but is soon lured back by one of his net-mates, Niki, who - when they meet for the first time - turns out to look strikingly like Juri. Niki has a web-address tattooed on his arm and when Juri types it into his computer, he gets drawn into a curious game that grants him the username RAT KING. As the game becomes increasingly dangerous, Niki vows to help Juri get through it. But the game triggers a series of life-threatening events and pretty soon Juri realizes that he is gaming for his life.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 595
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Finland, Estonia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The Substitute (2022)
Plot Summary:
Lucio, a prestigious university professor, takes the position of substitute teacher at a high school in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, where he grew up. Through tales, novels and poetry, he tries to distract his class from the harsh reality of their everyday lives. But soon, he must step out of his professional duties when Dilan, one of his students, is threatened by a local drug kingpin.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Italy, France, Switzerland, UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Rebel (1973)
Plot Summary:
In New York in the late 60s, a politically motivated group of students plans bombings of company offices who do business with dictators in Middle American countries. But when they contact a known terrorist and bombing specialist, the FBI gets on their track.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 849
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: cult classic, independent film, cult film
Similar in 75%
Long Shadows (2008)
Plot Summary:
After two decades in prison Widmer, a former German RAF-terrorist, is released. He meets Valerie, his next door neighbour. The young woman tries to get her life back on track after she lost child custody for her little son. She shows some interest in Widmer, the two of them seem to have something in common. They discreetly enter into the secrets of their lives. Till the truth comes between them.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Lesson of the Evil: Prologue (2012)
Plot Summary:
Follows high school teacher Seiji Hasumi's background history and in the process depicts the horror inherent in daily life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 82
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Evergreen Tree (1961)
Plot Summary:
Yeong-shin (played by the Choi Eun-hee–Shin Sang-ok’s wife) and Dong-hyeok (Shin Yeong-gyun) graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of their birth. When they arrive, the pair immediately gets to work, Dong-hyeok builds a village hall and starts aiding the farmers while Yeong-shin tries to gather the children to form a school. However, the villagers at first resent and resist the pair. It is not until one child, Ok-bun, takes the inititive and and learns to read under Yeong-shin’s care that the villages trust the pair and allow their children to be taken from the fields and taught reading, writing and math.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Sons of Denmark (2019)
Plot Summary:
Denmark, in the near future. One year after a major bomb attack in Copenhagen, political radicalization has intensified and ethnic tensions are increasing. As next year's parliamentary elections approach, in which nationalist leader Martin Nordahl hopes for a landslide victory, Zakaria becomes involved in a radical organization, where he befriends Ali.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Denmark
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, controversial
Similar in 76%
Ogro (1979)
Plot Summary:
At the close of 1973, Franco is still governing Spain with an iron hand. Opposition parties are forbidden; labor movements are repressed; and Basque nationalists are mercilessly hunted. The caudillo is aging, though, and the future of the régime is in question. Admiral Carrero Blanco is Franco’s natural successor. For the embattled clandestine Basque organization ETA, Carrero Blanco must die.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, Spain
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Pursuit (1972)
Plot Summary:
What begins as a routine investigation quickly escalates into a heartstopping race to save millions from certain death in this taut and gripping thriller. Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, ER) "makes an impressive directorial debut" (The Hollywood Reporter) in this deadly cat-and-mouse game in which the stakes couldn't be higher! When government agent Steven Graves (Ben Gazzara) investigates political extremist James Wright (E.G. Marshall), he uncovers a diabolical plot to blast lethal nerve gas into San Diego during the Republican Convention. What's worse, a computer hacker (Martin Sheen) has provided Wright with a psychological profile to help him outwit Graves. As Wright ingeniously eludes Graves, can Graves find a way to stop him before the ultimate nightmare begins?.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 512
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: psychotronic, suspense, adaptation directed by original author
Similar in 81%
Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971)
Plot Summary:
A new school teacher learns that the previous teacher was killed by his pupils, and he fears the same will happen to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 677
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: offbeat, independent film, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Paulina (2015)
Plot Summary:
Paulina is a young lawyer with a promising career in Buenos Aires, who chooses to go back to her home town. Her father, Fernando, is a well known judge. Against his will, Paulina decides to teach in a suburban high school as part of an inclusion program. One night, after the second week working there, she's brutally assaulted by a gang. With the disapproval of the people around her, she decides to go back to work, in the neighborhood where she was attacked, without realizing that her attackers may be even closer than she thought.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Argentina, Brazil, France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, disturbing, non-linear
Similar in 84%
One Less God (2017)
Plot Summary:
In 2008, a band of young Islamic militants from Pakistan lands in Mumbai, their primary target, the iconic Taj Mahal hotel. With Indian forces unable to regain control, for 4 days the guests must battle to survive as the terrorists seek to drive them from hiding. The harrowing events that follow will come to be known as India's 9/11 and one of the most audacious terrorist attacks in history. Yet more than a tale of monsters and men, this is a story of our shared humanity at the dark crossroads to which we have now stumbled. Inspired by true events.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 900
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Australia, Nepal
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Kalushi : The Story of Solomon Mahlangu (2016)
Plot Summary:
Solomon Mahlangu is a Mamelodi township schoolboy-hawker who, after the events of June 16th joins the military wing of the ANC to fight against the brutal oppression of the Apartheid regime and ends up becoming an icon of South Africa's liberation.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 361
Genere: Biography, Drama, Thriller
Country: South Africa
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)
Plot Summary:
A South-African preacher goes to search for his wayward son who has committed a crime in the big city.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: South Africa, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: christian film, touching, political, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 84%
Yesterday (2004)
Plot Summary:
After falling ill, Yesterday learns that she is HIV positive. With her husband in denial and young daughter to tend to, Yesterday's one goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, gloomy, masterpiece
Similar in 85%
Dangerous Ground (1997)
Plot Summary:
Vusi Madlazi returns to the South African village he left as a young boy to bury his father. He meets up with his brother Ernest, who tells him their other brother Stephen couldn't be contacted. Vusi goes to Johannesburg to find him, but at first can only find his neighbor/girlfriend, Karin, a stripper. Vusi proceeds to learn how conditions have changed since the end of apartheid, not always for the better for black men.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, South Africa
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, atmospheric, realistic, rough, serious, captivating, hood, independent film, bleak
Similar in 78%
The Stone Merchant (2006)
Plot Summary:
The Merchant (Harvey Keitel) is a Westerner. A merchant dealing in precious stones from Afganistan and Turkey. He's above suspicion. In truth, the "Stone Merchant" is a Christian convert into Islam. He's rich, cultured, fascinating. Leda (Jane March) is a successful woman who works as Head of the Public Relations for a big company. She's married to Alceo, a professor at the Sapienza University, specialized in the history of terrorist movements. Alceo is on a wheel chair. He lost his legs in the attack to the American Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Shahid is a terrorist. Now he's planning an attack along the English Channel. Their lives, their destinies cross in Turkey, where Leda and Alceo are on holiday. And the plot will go on to Rome and Turin till the epilogue of the attack on the ferry boat.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, UK
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, realistic, exciting, tense
Similar in 82%
American Bully (2009)
Plot Summary:
A middle-American teenage boy who is affected by 9/11, terrorism, and the war in Iraq becomes involved in an isolated high school altercation that escalates into a hate crime that shocks the entire nation.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 400
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 86%
The Shift (2020)
Plot Summary:
An Islamic terror attack at a school in Brussels.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 322
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, Belgium
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, social
Similar in 90%
Dirty War (2004)
Plot Summary:
After years of meticulous planning, a terrorist operation is reaching its final stages. The authorities have received no intelligence; they are in a race against time but don't yet know it. As the operation unfolds, we see the working lives of men and women directly affected by terrorism. Among them: a firemen worried about the increasingly dangerous conditions he and his men are expected to work under; the head of the anti-terrorist branch whose responsibility it is to protect London and a female Muslim detective brought into Scotland Yard to investigate another suspected terrorist cell. But it is too late to stop the attack.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Thriller, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, captivating, detective, bleak, realistic
Similar in 85%
American Yearbook (2004)
Plot Summary:
Will is the kid-next-door, but is relentlessly terrorized by school bullies. Then the mysterious Chance eventually convinces Will that they should get a gun and take the bullies out: pull a Columbine.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 75%
A Teacher's Obsession (2015)
Plot Summary:
A high-school English teacher becomes dangerously obsessed with a star athlete who needs academic help.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 396
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 85%
Captive (2012)
Plot Summary:
A dozen foreigners are kidnapped by a terrorist group in the Philippines.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 837
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Philippines, Germany, UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, psychological thriller, serious
Similar in 90%
My Teacher, My Obsession (2018)
Plot Summary:
Riley is struggling to make friends after transferring to a new high school where her father, Chris, is an English teacher. When she meets Kyla, they quickly becomes close friends. However, the friendship takes a strange turn when Riley learns that Kyla is obsessed with her dad. Will Kyla successfully seduce Chris and start a twisted new life with him by removing everyone in her path, or will Riley be able to save her father from Kyla’s treacherous plot before it’s too late?.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: romantic, captivating, talky, semi serious, erotic, sexy, slasher, independent film
Similar in 89%
Red Dust (2004)
Plot Summary:
Sarah Barcant, a lawyer in New York City who grew up in South Africa, returns to her childhood dwelling place to intercede for Alex Mpondo, a Black South African politician who was tortured during apartheid.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, South Africa
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, sincere, political, cult classic
Similar in 84%
Complicit (2013)
Plot Summary:
An MI5 officer's attempts to foil a possible terrorist plot are undermined by bureaucracy and moral dilemmas. Will he make the world a safer place or be complicit in making a tense situation even worse?.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 789
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, captivating, psychological, disturbing, thought provoking, gloomy
Similar in 76%
A Dry White Season (1989)
Plot Summary:
Taking place during the 1976 Soweto uprising, the story follows a white school teacher whose life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: talky, emotional, disturbing, rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, political, retro, thinking
Similar in 78%
Utoya - July 22 (2018)
Plot Summary:
The movie tells the story about a girl who has to hide and survive from terrorist Anders Breivik while looking for her little sister during the terrorist attacks in Norway on the island Utøya, July 22nd.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Norway
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, tense, captivating, suspenseful, brutal, depressing, suspense, social, sad