Suspenseful Thrillers to End Your Summer With a Bang

Nothing makes summer more fun or memorable than a smart movie with a thrilling plot.

In past summers, these four movies thrilled audiences by mixing inventive storytelling with breathtaking action. Add them to your to-watch list before the season's over.

Atomic Blonde

When David Leitch’s Atomic Blonde opened in theaters in July of 2017, Charlize Theron proved to be “without a doubt one of the greatest action stars of today,” according to the Independent. Leitch explains to Screenrant, “We set out to do something with a female protagonist who we didn’t have to make any excuses for.” Sent to Berlin in the last days of the Berlin Wall, British agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) fights her way through double agents, crumbling alliances, and a city falling apart with a ferocity and flair never seen before. Newsday wrote, “It’s the wildest, grittiest action film in years; a retro-cool nostalgia trip; and a fresh blast of originality in a summer of stultified Hollywood franchises.”

Watch Atomic Blonde on Apple TV or Amazon now!

Closed Circuit

When John Crowley’s Closed Circuit opened in August of 2013, it provided audiences with “a smarter-than-usual conspiracy yarn—a late-summer counter-programmer for those who prefer brain stimulation to having their eyeballs and eardrums pummeled,” wrote Variety. In a ripped-from-the-headlines story, Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall play lawyers in a world where the state is permitted absolute surveillance, but a defendant in a possible terrorist attack is tried in complete secrecy. “With its chilling sense of menace and mounting tension, Closed Circuit is captivating and particularly unnerving,” reviewed USA Today. Indeed, as Movie Mezzanine notes, “the real star of the film is the camera, forever peering at the actors from across streets, around corners, behind windows, and through gates.”

Watch Closed Circuit on Apple TV or Amazon!

The Debt

John Madden’s The Debt opened in August of 2011, giving the end of summer a thriller “as bloody as it is brainy,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, and Marton Csokas play the younger selves of Helen Mirren, Ciarán Hinds, and Tom Wilkinson in this thriller that crosses back and forth over borders and eras. In 1965, Mossad agent Rachel Singer (Chastain) was assigned to capture a Nazi war criminal hiding in East Berlin. In 1997, Singer (Mirren) must grapple with the truth of what really happened nearly 30 years before. Filled with breakneck action and plot twists, the film’s “dark, moody, complex exploration of guilt and identity taps into a rich vein of moral ambiguity,” writes the AV Club.

Watch The Debt now on Apple TV or Amazon!

The Constant Gardener

Released in August of 2005, Fernando Meirelles’ The Constant Gardener was described by USA Today as “a taut and gripping thriller that dazzles the eyes and engages the brain in a way that few recent films have come close to approaching.” Adapted from John le Carré’s thriller, the film is a moving love story about a career diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) who is attempting to discover the truth about the murder of his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz in an Oscar®-winning performance). It’s set against a backdrop of multinational corporations, African politics, and greedy bureaucrats. Riveting as a summer thriller, the film “is likely to linger in your mind and may even trouble your conscience,” writes The New York Times.

Watch The Constant Gardener now on Apple TV or Amazon!