We hope you like movies that keep you on the edge of your seat, because in 2025, there were many of them. A handful of exciting thriller movies arrived in theaters and on streaming services, from whodunits that keep you guessing until the end to espionage dramas to book-to-movie adaptations of popular mystery-thriller books. So chances are, whatever keeps your adrenaline high while at the multiplex or curling up on the couch, there's something for you.
Below, we're rounding up the best thrillers of 2025. (For more recommendations of movies to watch right now, check out our round-up of the best thrillers of 2024, as well as our round-ups of the best comedy, romance, horror, and drama movies of the year.)
'Inheritance'
Release date: January 24
Starring: Phoebe Dynevor, Rhys Ifans, Ciara Baxendale, and Kersti Bryan
Why it’s worth seeing: After seeing Phoebe Dynevor lead the erotic/workplace thriller Fair Play, you should be looking forward to seeing the Bridgerton alum in an espionage movie. She leads this thriller as a young woman drawn into an international conspiracy after learning that her father was a spy.
'Presence'
Release date: January 24
Starring: Lucy Liu, Julia Fox, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Lucas Papaelias, West Mulholland, and Eddy Maday
Why it’s worth seeing: You’ve never seen a haunted house movie like this. Steven Soderbergh, known for his innovative filmmaking tactics like shooting on an iPhone, is toying with the genre by making this movie told entirely through the ghost’s (or presence’s) perspective. Through their POV, we’ll see a family become frightened upon moving into a new house.
'Companion'
Release date: January 31
Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, and Harvey Guillén
Why it’s worth seeing: Twists abound in Companion. The wickedly funny and surprising thriller, written and directed by Drew Hancock, centers around a twisted love story between a young man and his AI bot girlfriend on a weekend away that goes very wrong.
'Armand'
Release date: February 7
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Øystein Røger, and Vera Veljovic
Why it’s worth seeing: If you loved Renate Reinsve’s breakout performance in The Worst Person in the World, check out Armand, in which she’s showing a completely different role. In the Norwegian thriller, she plays the mother of a boy named Armand who gets in trouble for an incident involving himself and another boy at school. Amid public scrutiny and concern that the incident might mean something more, she begins to unravel.
'Bring Them Down'
Release date: February 7
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Christopher Abbott, Nora-Jane Noone, Paul Ready, Aaron Heffernan, Conor McNeill, Susan Lynch, and Colm Meaney
Why it’s worth seeing: With Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott leading this indie thriller and Toronto International Film Festival favorite, you can bet there will be incredible performances here. They go toe-to-toe in this Ireland-set drama about two farming families with a dark, melodramatic history, which all comes to a head when the son of one farmer (Keoghan) claims the other family’s prize rams were found dead on their property.
'The Gorge'
Release date: February 14 on Apple TV+
Starring: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu, and William Houston
Why it’s worth seeing: After her incredible turn as a bona fide action star in Furiosa, we’ll watch Anya Taylor-Joy lead any action-thriller movie. She and Miles Teller play guards holding posts on opposite sides of a mysterious gorge, which houses a secret evil. Though they don’t know what they’re protecting, they work together when it comes under threat.
'Last Breath'
Release date: February 28
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, Cliff Curtis, and Djimon Hounsou
Why it’s worth seeing: Filmmaker Alex Parkinson adapts his 2019 documentary of the same name into a feature. A survivalist thriller, it tells the harrowing yet inspiring true story of a group of deep-sea divers’s race against the clock to rescue one of their teammates stuck without heat or light hundreds of feet under the sea.
'Black Bag'
Release date: March 14
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Regé-Jean Page, Marisa Abela, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan, and Tom Burke
Why it’s worth seeing: Steven Soderbergh released not one but two acclaimed thrillers in 2025. Black Bag is an espionage thriller with a stacked cast led by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as a loving married couple and spy duo who start to face off when she’s suspected of treason. Though it's a mystery, this one is ultimately more about the lengths we go to protect the ones we love—meaning, it's sexy as hell.
'The Amateur'
Release Date: April 11
Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Adrian Martinez, Danny Sapani, and Laurence Fishburne
Why it’s worth seeing: Is 2025 the year of spy movies? It might be! This adaptation of Robert Littell’s novel of the same name stars Rami Malek as a CIA cryptographer on a one-man vengeance mission. He sets out to get to the bottom of a terrorist attack in London, which resulted in his wife’s death, when his bosses won’t act.
'Drop'
Release date: April 11
Starring: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Jeffery Self, Gabrielle Ryan Spring, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Ed Weeks, Travis Nelson, and Reed Diamond
Why it’s worth seeing: We’ve all had our fair share of bad dates, but few may compare to what happens to Meghann Fahy’s character, Violet, in this thriller. The latest from Christopher Landon (known for helming horror hits like the Paranormal Activity and Happy Death Day movies) follows a young widowed mother trying to get back in the dating game, whose night with a pleasantly sweet charmer named Henry (Brandon Skienar) turns into a nightmare. Throughout the evening, she receives concerning texts with a series of commands, threatening to hurt her and her family if she doesn’t listen.
'Deep Cover'
Release date: June 12 on Prime Video
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, Ian McShane, Paddy Considine, Sean Bean, and Sonoya Mizuno
Why it’s worth seeing: If you’re always up for saying, “Yes, and…” when it comes to improv, tune into Deep Cover. The crime-comedy centers around a group of improv actors hired by the London police to go undercover in a sting operation.
'Echo Valley'
Release date: June 13
Starring: Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, Domhnall Gleeson, Kyle MacLachlan, Fiona Shaw, Edmund Donovan, and Rebecca Creskoff
Why it’s worth seeing: Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney are two heavyweights of their respective generations, bringing an emotional potency to this crime drama. The two play mother and daughter, with Moore’s Kate doing anything to reach Sweeney’s Kate as she struggles with a drug addiction. When Kate finds herself in trouble—arriving on her mom’s doorstep one night, covered in blood that’s not her own—the two do what they can to protect each other.
'I Know What You Did Last Summer'
Release date: July 18
Starring: Freddie Prinze Jr., Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Sarah Pidgeon, Tyriq Withers, Jonah Haur-King, Lola Tung, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, Austin Nichols, and Gabbriette
Why it’s worth seeing: The '90s classic about a group of friends being stalked by a killer after a tragic accident is the latest horror series to get the reboot treatment. Like the original, it's got a stacked cast to match—and OG stars (including Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar) even make cameo appearances.
'Honey Don't!'
Release date: August 22
Starring: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, and Talia Ryder
Why it’s worth seeing: Ethan Cohen and Tricia Cooke launched their "lesbian B-movie trilogy" in 2024 with Drive-Away Dolls, and they continued it this year with Honey Don’t!. Like the last, Margaret Qualley stars, this time playing private investigator Honey O'Donahue, who is on the case of a young woman’s death, which she believes is connected to a religious cult. Expect neo-noir vibes, an A-list cast, and a lot of laughs throughout.
'Lurker'
Release date: August 22
Starring: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Daniel Zolghadri, and Sunny Suljic
Why it’s worth seeing: Has stan culture become a little scary? Lurker seems to think so. The indie hit sees a retail employee and aspiring photographer’s (Théodore Pellerin) dream come true when he finds himself in his favorite artist’s (Archie Madekwe) inner circle.
'The Thursday Murder Club'
Release date: August 22 on Netflix
Starring: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, and Richard E. Grant
Why it’s worth seeing: Are you a fan of cozy mysteries, a.k.a. whodunits with quirky characters and notes of Agatha Christie? Well, you’ll want to turn into The Thursday Murder Club. Based on a book by popular mystery-thriller writer Richard Osman, it follows a group of true crime fiends who meet to discuss unsolved cases—and find themselves in the center of solving one when someone from their small town is murdered.
'Caught Stealing'
Release date: August 29
Starring: Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Vincent D'Onofrio, Matt Smith, and Bad Bunny
Why it’s worth seeing: Darren Aronofsky’s latest adapts Charlie Huston’s novel of the same name (with a screenplay penned by Huston). The film marks an intense turn for heartthrob Austin Butler, as he plays Henry "Hank" Thompson, a former California baseball player who descends into the criminal underground in N.Y.C.’s Lower East Side. Aronofsky famously does grit well, and the punkish, '90s-set movie sure does have some, but it also has a lot of biting humor.
'The Long Walk'
Release date: September 12
Starring: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, and Mark Hamill
Why it’s worth seeing: The next generation of must-watch actors fills out the ensemble in this adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Set in a dystopian version of the ‘70s, it follows a group of young men who must compete in a challenge in which they walk at the same pace for an extended distance for days, or they’ll be shot to death. While it may not sound like it, it’s one of the most moving and visually stunning horror-thriller movies of the year.
'American Sweatshop'
Release date: September 19
Starring: Lili Reinhart, Daniela Melchior, Joel Fry, Christiane Paul, and Tim Plester
Why it’s worth seeing: We’re all in on Lili Reinhart’s dramatic era! The Riverdale alum stars in this eerie social media thriller about a young woman whose job it is to moderate online comments. When she sees something violent, she takes it upon herself to try to solve the crime.
'One Battle After Another'
Release date: September 26
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Alana Haim, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, and Benicio del Toro
Why it’s worth seeing: If there's a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie with an all-star cast, you see it. One Battle After Another marked his biggest-budgeted film to date—and he delivered. Loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, it focuses on underground revolutionaries known as the French 75, who are determined to fight fascism, no matter what it takes. Years after a pair of fighters in love (Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor) were pulled apart, DiCaprio's character Bob Ferguson is drawn back in once their daughter (Chase Ifiniti) is kidnapped by a former adversary (Sean Penn). The action is riveting, it's full of witty humor, and it feels like the blockbuster for our times.
'After the Hunt'
Release date: October 10
Starring: Ayo Edebiri, Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny
Why it’s worth seeing: As usual, Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers) curated a stellar cast to tackle a tense, timely subject matter in a stylish form. In After the Hunt, issues of morality and questionable past decisions arise for a college professor played by Julia Roberts when a student (Ayo Edebiri) comes forward with sexual misconduct allegations against another one of her teachers (Andrew Garfield).
'The Mastermind'
Release date: October 17
Starring: Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim, Hope Davis, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, and Bill Camp
Why it’s worth seeing: Kelly Reichardt is one of the best filmmakers working today, and her latest is an inspired heist film that can’t be missed. Josh O'Connor plays a suburban family man in the early '70s who assembles a plan to steal a series of paintings from his local Massachusetts art museum.
'Bugonia'
Release date: October 24
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone, Aidan Delbis, and Stavros Halkias
Why it’s worth seeing: Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos are back at it. For their fourth collaboration, they remade the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!. The plot follows two conspiracy theorists (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) who kidnap the CEO of a major company (Stone), convinced that she’s an alien. Put on your tin foil hats and lock in because you’ll be guessing what’s true and what’s not until the very end.
'A House of Dynamite'
Release date: October 24 on Netflix
Starring: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Jonah Hauer-King, Moses Ingram, Greta Lee, and Jason Clarke
Why it’s worth seeing: Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow is essentially the queen of political thrillers. The cast is full of powerhouses who play a team of government agents trying to determine who was behind a single missile launched at the U.S.
'Die, My Love'
Release date: November 7
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte
Why it’s worth seeing: Acclaimed auteur Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here, We Need to Talk About Kevin) tag-teams with Jennifer Lawrence, who’s also on as a producer, to adapt a novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz. It follows a woman who slowly falls into psychosis after the birth of her firstborn and struggles to return to her writing. Lawrence gives a career-best performance, never holding back and giving a heart-wrenching portrayal of a woman unraveling.
'The Running Man'
Release date: November 7
Starring: Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Emilia Jones, Michael Cera, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Colman Domingo, and Josh Brolin
Why it’s worth seeing: Edgar Wright and Glen Powell team up to re-adapt the Stephen King novel of the same name, which was previously made in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The dystopian film follows contestants on a reality show where they’re chased by “Hunters” out for blood.
'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery'
Release date: November 26 in theaters and December 12 on Netflix
Starring: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church
Why it’s worth watching: Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig are at it again. The British star slips back into his New Orleans drawl as Benoit Blanc in the third movie in the Knives Out franchise—this one being a god-fearing, unholy case about the murder of a monsignor. The detective travels to Upstate New York to help investigate, where, of course, he meets a cast of kooky characters.
'The Housemaid'
Release date: December 25
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar, and Michele Morrone
Why it’s worth seeing: Sydney Sweeney’s become a bit of a scream queen over her career, and she'll be tapping into that in this adaptation of Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel of the same name. In it, she becomes the housemaid to a seemingly sweet, affluent couple (Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar), only to find out they have some dark secrets behind closed doors.
'Marty Supreme'
Release date: December 25
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Fran Drescher
Why it’s worth seeing: Did you know ping-pong can be thrilling? Well, that’s essentially an understatement in the world of Marty Supreme. Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Time) helms this movie—which we’re calling an instantly iconic American epic—about Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), a young man living in a post-WWII N.Y.C. who’s determined to be the best table tennis player in the world. To get there, he’ll do whatever it takes, sending him on an unrelenting, wild journey—bringing a frenetic side out of Chalamet. From the dark humor to the ‘80s-inspired score by frequent Safdie collaborator Daniel Lopatin and a career-making performance by Odessa A’zion, no minute goes wasted, and you’ll be locked in like Marty playing a game of ping-pong the entire way through.
