Best movies like The Odessa File
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to The Odessa File? Contribute your insights to navigate others toward tv shows and movies you've already seen that might similarly enthrall them. Aid in enlarging the circle of people referring videos amongst each other. We encourage your engagement!
Plot Summary:
After reading the diary of an elderly Jewish man who committed suicide, freelance journalist Peter Miller begins to investigate the alleged sighting of a former SS-Captain who commanded a concentration camp during World War II. Miller eventually finds himself involved with the powerful organization of former SS members, called ODESSA, as well as with the Israeli secret service. Miller probes deeper and eventually discovers a link between the SS-Captain, ODESSA, and his own family.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, West Germany
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: political thriller, twisted, tense, atmospheric, suspenseful, political, suspense, powerful, serious, captivating
Best tv shows and movies like The Odessa File (1974):
Similar in 85%
A Dark Truth (2012)
Plot Summary:
In the jungles of Ecuador, blood taints the waters. A multinational conglomerate's unholy alliance with a bloodthirsty military regime has resulted in a massacre. Only the rebel Francisco Franco and his determined wife Mia can prove the truth. To settle a personal debt, former CIA agent Jack Begosian takes on the freelance assignment to rescue Francisco and risks everything in a brutal battle to expose the cover-up.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, exciting, realistic, spiritual, action packed, independent film, surprise ending, neo noir, suspense
Similar in 90%
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
Plot Summary:
Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman discovers a sinister and bizarre plot to rekindle the Third Reich.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, suspenseful, disturbing, intense, political, psychotronic, exciting, philosophical, depressing
Similar in 84%
The Passenger (1975)
Plot Summary:
David Locke (Jack Nicholson) is a world-weary American journalist who has been sent to cover a conflict in northern Africa, but he makes little progress with the story. When he discovers the body of a stranger who looks similar to him, Locke assumes the dead man's identity. However, he soon finds out that the man was an arms dealer, leading Locke into dangerous situations. Aided by a beautiful woman (Maria Schneider), Locke attempts to avoid both the police and criminals out to get him.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, France, Spain
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: road movie, stylized, cerebral, philosophical, existential, tense, slow cinema, psychedelic, gothic, political
Similar in 90%
Avenging Force (1986)
Plot Summary:
Martial arts expert Matt Hunter was one of the most promising operatives in Army intelligence until his parents were killed by terrorists, and he retired to the family's farm in Louisiana to take care of his 12-year-old sister Sara and their grandfather Jimmy. Larry Richards, a black man running for the Senate, is one of Matt's best friends. Larry has become the target of The Pentangle, a racist organization led by a man named Glastenbury, and Glastenbury doesn't want Larry to be elected. In an attempt on Larry's life during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, The Pentangle kills one of Larry's sons. Matt lets Larry, his wife Daisy, and his other son move to the remotely located farm so they can hide from Glastenbury and the Pentangle, but the Pentangle strikes again, setting the farmhouse on fire. Matt and Sara escape as the only survivors. Then the Pentangle kidnaps Sara, sending Matt on a mission to rescue Sara from Glastenbury and the Pentangle.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, suspense, grindhouse, perverse, independent film, realistic, fast, surprise ending
Similar in 77%
Malone (1987)
Plot Summary:
Erstwhile C.I.A. assassin Richard Malone hopes for a tranquil retirement in the placid Pacific Northwest, but what he gets is a rumble with a right-wing extremist plotting a secret revolution. Adapted from the novel "Shotgun," by William Wingate.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, serious, cult classic, neo noir, perverse, visually stunning, surprise ending, psychotronic
Similar in 89%
Scorpio (1973)
Plot Summary:
Cross is an old hand at the CIA, in charge of assassinating high-ranking foreign personalities who are an obstacle to the policies of the USA. He often teams up with Frenchman Jean Laurier, alias "Scorpio", a gifted free-lance operative. One day, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross -- and leaves him no choice but to obey. Scorpio is cold-blooded and very systematic; however, as a veteran agent, Cross knows many tricks. He can also rely upon a network of unusual personal contacts, some dating back to the troubled years preceding WWII. A lethal game of hide-and-seek is programmed, but what are the true motives of every single player?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: neo noir, political thriller, cult classic, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, suspense, tragic ending, detective
Similar in 82%
The Naked Runner (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sam Laker is an American industrialist, working in Britain, who has just been awarded an international award for industrial design. He is planning to travel to East Germany to attend a trade show and show off his invention, taking his 10 year old son with him for a holiday. Meanwhile a British Intelligence officer who served with Laker in the Second World War decides to use the opportunity of Laker's trip and his lack of an intelligence profile to coerce him into carrying out an assassination.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film, microfilm
Similar in 76%
The Fourth Protocol (1987)
Plot Summary:
Plan Aurora, led by Kim Philby is a plan that breaches the top-secret Fourth Protocol and turns the fears that shaped it into a living nightmare. A crack Soviet agent, placed under cover in a quiet English country town, begins to assemble a nuclear bomb, whilst MI5 agent John Preston attempts to prevent it's detonation.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, suspenseful, intense, serious, political, philosophical, political thriller, cult classic, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Good German (2006)
Plot Summary:
An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: black and white, neo noir, atmospheric, suspenseful, serious, realistic, period piece, clever, stylized, political
Similar in 83%
The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Plot Summary:
The host of an investigative news show is convinced by the CIA that the friends he has invited to a weekend in the country are engaged in a conspiracy that threatens national security in this adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, tense, exciting, serious, realistic, political thriller, suspense, captivating, neo noir, political
Similar in 78%
Apt Pupil (1998)
Plot Summary:
Neighborhood boy Todd Bowden discovers that an old man living on his block named Arthur Denker is nazi war criminal. Bowden confronts Denker and offers him a deal: Bowden will not go to the authorities if Denker tells him stories of the concentration camps in WWII.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, France, Canada
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, disturbing, suspense, serious, scary, psychological thriller, sincere, spiritual, epic
Similar in 89%
Spooks: The Greater Good (2015)
Plot Summary:
During a handover to the head of counter-terrorism of MI5, Harry Pearce, a terrorist escapes custody. When Harry disappears soon after, his protégé is tasked with finding out what happened as an impending attack on London looms, and eventually uncovers a deadly conspiracy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, serious, suspenseful, suspense, action thriller, action adventure, fast, surprise ending, neo noir
Similar in 86%
Out of Reach (2004)
Plot Summary:
Vietnam veteran Billy Ray Lancing, a former CSA agent who now works on a wildlife refuge in Northern Alaska, has been exchanging letters in a pen-pal relationship with Irina Morawska, a 13-year-old orphaned girl in Poland that he's helping out financially. When the letters suddenly stop coming, Billy heads to Poland to figure out why -- only to discover that the orphanage that Irina was staying in, which is financed by honest -- and unsuspecting -- good-intentioned Samaritans, is a cover for a human trafficking network.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA, Poland
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, realistic, suspense, tense, captivating, spiritual, action packed, surprise ending, neo noir
Similar in 87%
The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
Plot Summary:
The Cassandra Crossing is an all-star disaster spectacular telling of the terrifying odyssey of 1000 doomed passengers trapped aboard a plague-infested train. A terrorist infected with a deadly virus boards the Stockholm to Geneva Express and exposes all aboard to the disease. Colonel Mackenzie (Burt Lancaster) is called in to handle the situation and finds Dr. Chamberlain (Richard Harris) who is on board the train. Mackenzie decides to re-route the train to the Cassandra Crossing where it will plunge into oblivion. But passengers miraculously begin to recover and Chamberlain must race against time to disconnect the cars.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspense, tense, intense, rough, serious, entertaining, retro, suspenseful, surprise ending
Similar in 83%
The China Syndrome (1979)
Plot Summary:
A modern nightmare nearly becomes reality in this tension-filled story about an "incident" at a nuclear power plant. Jane Fonda stars as Kimberly Wells, an ambitious TV reporter covering a story on energy sources, who is present at the nuclear plant when a startling accident occurs that nearly causes the meltdown of the reactor. A newsreel cameraman accompanying Wells (Michael Douglas) captures the incident on film but the television station won't air the footage. Though the plant's corporate heads are quick to deny the possibility of any real danger, Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon), the plant's veteran engineer, discovers faulty equipment at the plant. Attempting to tell others about his findings, an attempt is made on his life. In desperation, he forcibly takes control of the power plant and invites the media to hear his ceremony. But the corporation is determined to stop him in a taut and shocking climax!.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, suspense, tense, political, psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, neo noir, political thriller
Similar in 90%
The Jackal (1997)
Plot Summary:
Hired by a powerful member of the Russian mafia to avenge an FBI sting that left his brother dead, the perfectionist Jackal proves an elusive target for the men charged with the task of bringing him down: a deputy FBI boss and a former IRA terrorist.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 123000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, serious, realistic, clever, intense, cult classic, action thriller, psychological, political
Similar in 90%
The Pelican Brief (1993)
Plot Summary:
Two Supreme Court Justices have been assassinated. One lone law student has stumbled upon the truth. An investigative journalist wants her story. Everybody else wants her dead.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 94000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, suspenseful, political thriller, political, clever, exciting, intense, realistic, serious
Similar in 80%
Enigma (1982)
Plot Summary:
Five highly-trained KGB agents are sent to the west to assassinate several Soviet dissidents. In order to stop the diabolical plot, an American agent must infiltrate Soviet intelligence and obtain information from a Russian computer.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, intense, serious, realistic, political, political thriller, independent film, exciting, romantic, atmospheric
Similar in 85%
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Plot Summary:
British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the cold war during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, black and white, suspense, grim, clever, bleak, realistic, talky, political thriller, retro
Similar in 88%
Black Book (2006)
Plot Summary:
In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 80000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Netherlands, Germany, UK, Belgium
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: tense, erotic, psychological, realistic, dramatic, political, suspense, breathtaking, emotional, intense
Similar in 76%
Marathon Man (1976)
Plot Summary:
A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 69000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, suspenseful, atmospheric, intense, serious, disturbing, dark, political thriller, grim
Similar in 90%
The Statement (2003)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in France in the 1990s, the French were defeated by the Germans early in World War II, an armistice was signed in 1940 which effectively split France into a German occupied part in the North and a semi-independent part in the south which became known as Vichy France. In reality the Vichy government was a puppet regime controlled by the Germans. Part of the agreement was that the Vichy Government would assist with the 'cleansing' of Jews from France. The Vichy government formed a police force called the Milice, who worked with the Germans.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, France, UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: tense, suspenseful, political, intense, serious, cult classic, bleak, realistic, psychological, brutal
Similar in 89%
Black Sunday (1977)
Plot Summary:
An Israeli anti-terrorist agent must stop a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a plot to commit a terrorist plot at the Super Bowl.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Adventure, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: political thriller, suspense, political, exciting, suspenseful, neo noir, psychological thriller, meta, cult classic, surprise ending
Similar in 84%
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
Similar in 89%
The Debt (2010)
Plot Summary:
Rachel Singer is a former Mossad agent who tried to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal – the Surgeon of Birkenau – in a secret Israeli mission that ended with his death on the streets of East Berlin. Now, 30 years later, a man claiming to be the doctor has surfaced, and Rachel must return to Eastern Europe to uncover the truth. Overwhelmed by haunting memories of her younger self and her two fellow agents, the still-celebrated heroine must relive the trauma of those events and confront the debt she has incurred.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 71000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Hungary, Israel
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, psychological, tense, exciting, talky, realistic, serious, psychological thriller, political
Similar in 80%
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
Plot Summary:
Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 137000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Russia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspenseful, serious, intense, suspense, entertaining, action adventure, action thriller, clever, political thriller
Similar in 76%
Topaz (1969)
Plot Summary:
A French intelligence agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis, and then back to France to break up an international Russian spy ring.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, suspenseful, psychological, political thriller, enigmatic, psychological thriller, exciting, retro, art house
Similar in 86%
The Ipcress File (1965)
Plot Summary:
This espionage thriller represents a landmark in spy movies introducing the sly, dry intelligence agent Harry Palmer. The story, centers on Palmer's investigation into British Intelligence security. He's soon enmeshed in a world of double-dealing, kidnap and murder and finds a traitor is operating at the heart of the secret service. Will the mysterious 'Ipcress File' reveal who the traitor is?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspenseful, suspense, exciting, tense, enigmatic, clever, realistic, cynical, retro
Similar in 76%
Body of Lies (2008)
Plot Summary:
The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 237000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: clever, political, exciting, tense, realistic, political thriller, serious, suspense, entertaining, enigmatic
Similar in 77%
Syriana (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Middle Eastern oil industry is the backdrop of this tense drama, which weaves together numerous story lines. Bennett Holiday is an American lawyer in charge of facilitating a dubious merger of oil companies, while Bryan Woodman, a Switzerland-based energy analyst, experiences both personal tragedy and opportunity during a visit with Arabian royalty. Meanwhile, veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes uncovers an assassination plot with unsettling origins.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 133000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: political thriller, suspense, cerebral, political, tense, realistic, intense, thought provoking, serious, disturbing