Best movies like The Defender
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The global war on terror rages on. When a government official goes missing, Lance, a man with an impressive record of service to his country, finds himself protecting the man who embodies everything he has dedicated his life to fight against.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Germany, Romania
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, exciting, realistic, suspenseful, fast
Best tv shows and movies like The Defender (2004):
Similar in 78%
The Art of War III: Retribution (2009)
Plot Summary:
When international diplomacy comes up short, extreme measures must be taken. In the newest installment of The Art of War, Agent Neil Shaw (Treach) is on a covert mission to stop North Korean terrorists from obtaining a nuclear bomb. But when the deal turns deadly, Shaw is drawn into the crossfire to save a beautiful facilitator (Sung Hi Lee) and ends up framed for murder.
IMDB Rating: 2.7
IMDB Votes: 990
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, realistic, fast
Similar in 85%
Direct Action (2004)
Plot Summary:
Frank Gannon, a veteran cop, is being hunted by his fellow police officers after they learned he has betrayed the brotherhood and exposed to the feds wide scale corruption of the LAPD. He has one day left to prove his case and survive.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, rough, serious, realistic, cult classic, fast, detective, cult film
Similar in 76%
The Russian Specialist (2005)
Plot Summary:
A Russian ex-hit man is called back to Russia for one last job. This time against his former employees, the Russian mob.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, satanic, perverse, action packed
Similar in 79%
Hidden Agenda (2001)
Plot Summary:
Former government Jason Price (Dolph Lundgren) makes people disappear for a living. But when a top lieutenant for a crime syndicate asks Price to help him drop out of sight, things take a grisly, unexpected turn. A mysterious hit man known as The Cleaner has infiltrated Price's tightly-controlled system, leaving a bloody trail behind. With the help of an enigmatic seductress posing as the mobster's chief assistant, Price methodically works through his network of associates to find out what went wrong, and is plunged headlong into a spiraling gauntlet of half-truths and full-blown lies where nobody is who they appear to be, and everyone has a deadly, hidden agenda.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, suspense, cult classic, rough, captivating, realistic, fast, neo noir
Similar in 82%
Sanctuary (1998)
Plot Summary:
Luke Kovak is part of a covert group within the CIA that works on illegal black ops involving blackmail and assassinations. When his boss orders the murder of one of the team, Luke realizes how expendable they all are and gets out (taking proof of their activities with him). He now lives as a priest until the group start to get close to tracking him down.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 741
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense
Similar in 83%
Black Dawn (2005)
Plot Summary:
Jonathan Cold returns, this time he goes Undercover to stop a group of Terrorists before they bomb Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 3.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, spiritual, fast, freeze frame
Similar in 79%
Detonator (1993)
Plot Summary:
When a renegade Russian general sends a nuclear bomb hurtling toward the Middle East aboard a hijacked train, special agents are dispatched to disarm the deadly device. Ten tons of steel and one ounce of hot plutonium are now riding roughshod through Europe. With time running out, the agents launch a desperate, bullet-packed assault on a deadly moving target piloted by a cold-blooded mercenary.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: UK, Croatia, USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: suspense, rough, serious, suspenseful, fast
Similar in 84%
Special Forces (2003)
Plot Summary:
When the crazed commander (Eli Danker) of a sadistic army in Moldavia kidnaps an American photojournalist (Daniella Deutscher) and holds her hostage, his misguided actions ignite a targeted response from Maj. Don Harding (Marshall R. Teague) and his trained squad of special forces soldiers. With help from a local schoolteacher (Scott Adkins) who's trained in martial arts, Maj. Harding readies his troops for an all-out offensive.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, serious, suspenseful, action packed, fast
Similar in 80%
The Foreigner (2003)
Plot Summary:
This story is about a freelance agent (Seagal) who is the courier of a package from France to Germany. He soon finds that many people want to get their hands on it.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA, Poland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult classic, action packed, fast
Similar in 81%
Hidden Assassin (1995)
Plot Summary:
A CIA agent gets caught up in political intrigue after he gets brought in to solve the murder of a Cuban ambassador.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, Crime
Country: Czech Republic, UK, France, Spain, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense, black comedy
Similar in 77%
Death Train (2003)
Plot Summary:
A man is supposed to guard a shipment of diamonds being sent by rail. But a man robs the train and kills the men guarding the diamonds. The robbers derail the train and hope to get away with their crime. The robbers get caught in Mexico and are sent to prison by rail. The robbers take over the prison train they are on. Will these robbers get away with their crime or will the bodyguard kill all of the robbers and reclaim the train?.
IMDB Rating: 3.2
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, suspenseful, suspense, serious, realistic, fast, cult film
Similar in 86%
Sudden Death (1995)
Plot Summary:
International action superstar Jean Claude Van Damme teams with Powers Boothe in a Tension-packed, suspense thriller, set against the back-drop of a Stanley Cup game.Van Damme portrays a father whose daughter is suddenly taken during a championship hockey game. With the captors demanding a billion dollars by game's end, Van Damme frantically sets a plan in motion to rescue his daughter and abort an impending explosion before the final buzzer.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: suspense, intense, exciting, cliffhanger, anamorphic, cult classic, action thriller, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 78%
Hijack (1998)
Plot Summary:
A prestigious senator and the passengers on board a train are kidnapped by a militia group.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 432
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, independent film, fast
Similar in 82%
U.S. Seals (2000)
Plot Summary:
Dozens of American cargos with high valuable goods have disappeared, probably attacked by modern pirates. The United States decide to mobilize a team of expert SWAT, with Mike Bradley as leader, sending them to destroy the pirates' base, namely a deserted oil rig near Turkey. But these are cleverly waiting for them.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, bleak, serious, rough, suspenseful, action packed, independent film
Similar in 82%
Hunt to Kill (2010)
Plot Summary:
A U.S. Border Patrol agent Jim Rhodes, a tough divorcée mourning the loss of his murdered partner while struggling to raise his rebellious daughter in the mountains of Montana. But when a crew of trigger-happy fugitives takes Rhodes and his daughter hostage, a rugged wilderness will explode in all-terrain vengeance. Is there any wounded animal more dangerous than a lawman left for dead? Daniels portrays one of the villains.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, suspense, cliffhanger, cult classic, rough, realistic, independent film, fast
Similar in 83%
Cover-Up (1991)
Plot Summary:
Mike Anderson, a tough American reporter on a dangerous foreign assignment, finds his own life in jeopardy when he uncovers a deadly labyrinth of political intrigue that threatens the lives of thousands. Dispatched to investigate a mysterious and fatal attack on an overseas US naval base, Anderson, a leading investigative journalist and ex-US marine, finds himself back on familiar ground. Instinct makes him question the official CIA explanation that cites an unknown terrorist group called Black October. Alone, and armed only with his combat training and determination to uncover the truth, he sets out to expose a complex and dangerous political web.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, Israel
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: suspense, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, freeze frame
Similar in 78%
Shadow Man (2006)
Plot Summary:
An intelligence operative discovers that no one is what they seem in the shadowy world of espionage.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Romania
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, surprise ending
Similar in 83%
Silent Trigger (1996)
Plot Summary:
Waxman is a former Special Forces soldier who is now working as a heavily armed assassin for a top secret government agency. When a covert mission goes terribly wrong, Waxman and fellow assassin Clegg become that agency's prime targets.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: bloody, suspense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, surprise ending, independent film
Similar in 87%
Detention (2003)
Plot Summary:
A heroic high school teacher leads a band of students trapped in school by violent drug-runners.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspense, exciting, suspenseful, fast
Similar in 83%
Men of War (1994)
Plot Summary:
Nick Gunar is a burnt-out, jaded and hard-up former mercenary who is having a difficult time adjusting to civilian life. At the end of his rope, he is hired by the Nitro Mine Corporation to strong-arm the natives of a South China Sea island into giving up their rights to its valuable mineral resources. Nick loathes the thought of another mission, but this seemingly easy job will earn him enough money to get back with his estranged family. He recruits some of his former mercenary buddies to help him with the job. The island people refuse to give up their land and Nick decides to help them fight the greedy corporation that hired him. As greed and treachery begin to unravel, Nick's band of mercenaries choose sides.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Spain
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bloody, suspense, independent film
Similar in 82%
Most Wanted (1997)
Plot Summary:
Sgt. James Dunn, who is wrongly accused of assassination of the officer he had a row with, is saved from death row and recruited for top-secret special operations squad led by Lt. Col Grant Casey. Their mission is to neutralize criminals who had avoided conventional law enforcement methods. On his first Mission, James is made the fall guy for the assassination of the first lady and everyone is loo.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, serious, suspense, fast, surprise ending, independent film
Similar in 76%
Derailed (2002)
Plot Summary:
NATO operative Jacques Kristoff (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is summoned into action—on his birthday, no less—to track down Galina Konstantin (Laura Harring), who has stolen an extremely valuable and dangerous top-secret container from the Slovakian Government. Finding Galina doesn't take long, and Jacques must wrap up the mission by returning Galina and the contraband to his superiors by train. Things seem to be going smoothly as Jacques and Galina board the train posing as a couple, but soon all hell breaks loose.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA, Aruba
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, exciting, cult classic, rough, fast, psychotronic, freeze frame, sexy, clever
Similar in 81%
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
Plot Summary:
Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClane, finds himself for the first time on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack - unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 213000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Hungary
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, melancholic, rough, realistic, suspenseful, humorous, semi serious, action packed, predictable
Similar in 90%
Detonator II: Night Watch (1995)
Plot Summary:
UN agents Mike Graham and Sabrina Carver are sent by their director Nick Caldwell to investigate the theft of Rembrandt's painting, "The Night Watch". The trail takes them from Amsterdam to Hong Kong and involves them in not only art theft and forgery, but the high-tech schemes of Martin Schraeder and his Korean cohort Mao Yixin.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: UK, USA, Croatia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: suspense, serious, exciting, captivating, tense, realistic, suspenseful, fast, surprise ending, independent film
Similar in 77%
CIA Code Name: Alexa (1992)
Plot Summary:
A CIA operative kills a terrorist during a prison break. When a group of terrorists attempts to recover a microchip implanted in the man's body, one of them is captured and convinced by the CIA to work for them as an informer.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 794
Genere: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, surprise ending, neo noir, detective
Similar in 83%
The Marine 3: Homefront (2013)
Plot Summary:
A Marine must do whatever it takes to save his kidnapped niece and stop a terrorist attack masterminded by a radical militia group.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, cliffhanger, tense, romantic, scenic, action thriller, realistic
Similar in 82%
Chain of Command (1994)
Plot Summary:
When Merrill Ross (Michael Dudikoff) is thought to be a C.I.A. agent gone bad and teaming with some other alphabet named agency to take over the oil rich country of Qumir, he finds he's in the middle of a very explosive situation. Not knowing who he can trust, he's forced to use a process of elimination thru the chain of operatives he encounters.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 610
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: suspense, grindhouse, perverse, surprise ending, independent film, black comedy, dark comedy, campy
Similar in 83%
Submerged (2005)
Plot Summary:
Chris Kody, imprisoned member of the US military, is released from prison and reunited with his old team in order to pursue a renegade scientist. The catch, the scientist has developed mind control technology that can make even your friends into heartless killers.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Bulgaria
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: stylized, rough, serious, suspenseful, suspense, surprise ending, fast, black comedy, freeze frame, dark comedy
Similar in 83%
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Plot Summary:
When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As the national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 289000
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: exciting, political thriller, rough, serious, suspense, intense, realistic, clever, brutal, action adventure
Similar in 77%
The Point Men (2001)
Plot Summary:
Some time after their botched operation to capture a known Palestinian terrorist, a team of Israeli agents starts to get killed off one by one. Their leader must get to the bottom of things before the killer(s) plan is complete.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, France, Luxembourg, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, cult classic, surprise ending, independent film, black comedy, dark comedy, cult film