If you are an HBO Go subscriber and you want to watch some good thrillers, this is the list for you. The list will be regularly updated as movies are added or removed from HBO Go streaming service. So whenever you are into watching thrillers on HBO, you can come back to this page.
RELATED: Best Thriller Movies on Netflix
Here is the list of best thriller movies on HBO Go (ordered by release date):
1. Witness (1985)
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Drama
Director: Peter Weir
Starring: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas
In this thriller, Harrison Ford plays a cop John Book who is investigating a murder at the train station. Young Amish boy is a witness to this murder and therefore becomes a target. Book discovers that some corrupt cops are involved and now he is a target too. To protect the boy he escorts him and his mother to a hiding place in the Amish countryside. Book and boy’s mother Rachel begin a romance which is not allowed in the Amish culture. Meanwhile, the crooked cops are after them.
The movie won two Academy Awards, for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing, and Harrison Ford was nominated for Best Actor.
2. The Usual Suspects (1995)
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak
A small-time con man Kint is one of two survivors of a massacre on a pier where 27 bodies and $91 million of drug money are found. He is now questioned about the event and through flashbacks, Kint starts to explain.
Everything began six weeks earlier when five men (the usual suspects) were arrested for a crime they did not commit. Because they were not guilty they planned revenge against the police and robbed a jewel smuggler who was escorted by the corrupt cops. Their next big heist went badly and it will be revealed later that they were being outplayed by mastermind Keyser Söze who has its own revenge against the five. The problem is that nobody knows who Keyser Söze is.
Nothing is as it seems in this movie. It is a brilliant film and one of the best of all time. It won two Academy Awards, for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Supporting Actor.
3. Jackie Brown (1997)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Directors: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda
It is the third Quentin Tarantino movie and it tells the story of middle-aged woman Jackie Brown (Pam Grier). She is a stewardess who is smuggling cash for gunrunner Ordell (Samuel Jackson). One day, after agents caught her, she is offered a choice – either help them to bring down Ordell or go to jail. Because she doesn’t want to be killed for snitching, and with the help of a bail bondsman, Jackie decides to play both sides and get something out of that.
4. The Replacement Killers (1998)
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Yun-Fat Chow, Mira Sorvino, Michael Rooker
The film is set in Los Angeles and follows a Chinese immigrant, John Lee (Chow Yun-fat), an ex-professional killer. When he refuses to take a job from a Chinatown drug-lord Mr. Wei, his family in China is suddenly in danger. He visits a document forger, Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino) to get a fake passport in order to go to China as soon as possible, but the crime lord has already predicted his move. Now the two must evade the replacement killers.
The movie is an American acting debut for Chow Yun-fat.
5. 8MM (1999)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini
A private investigator Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is hired by a wealthy widow to find out the truth about the 8mm film that she found in her husband’s safe. The video shows the slaughtering of a young girl and seems like a real deal, not an act. The investigation will lead Welles onto a very dark path.
6. The General’s Daughter (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Director: Simon West
Starring: John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe, James Cromwell
When the daughter of an Army general is found dead inside the base, two investigators Paul Brenner (John Travolta) and Sara Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe) are ordered to solve the case. They will soon realize that this is not a simple murder case. It involves the secret life of the victim, which is the result of a military coverup by her own father.
7. Identity (2003)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Director: James Mangold
Starring: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet
In this psychological slasher thriller, ten strangers are stuck together in a motel during a severe rainstorm. Soon, one by one, they mysteriously begin to die. They need to get to the bottom of this or else they will all be dead. It will turn out that they are all there together for a reason.
8. Sin City (2005)
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Directors: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Bruce Willis
With multiple storylines interweaving, the film explores the dark and corrupted city through the eyes of several tough characters. Bruce Willis stars as a cop with a bum ticker who is protecting a stripper called Nancy; Mickey Rourke is a muscular brute who is looking to avenge the death of his woman; Clive Owen stars as Dwight, who spends night defending the prostitute Gail from a tough guy Jackie Boy.
9. The Prestige (2006)
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Mystery
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson
The film follows two rival magicians in London at the end of the 19th century. They are both obsessed with each other and will stop at nothing to learn the other one’s secrets. Both are ready to risk everything just to become the greatest magicians ever.
10. No Country for Old Men (2007)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin
The movie is set in the 1980s Texas and follows a Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who has come across two million dollars among dead bodies after a drug deal gone wrong. It’s all good until a psychopathic killer Chigurh (Javier Bardem) starts to chase him, killing everyone in the way. In the meantime, Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is investigating the matter while struggling to contain violence in his once peaceful town.
The movie won four Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best Director(s), Best Supporting Actor (Bardem), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
11. Hanna (2011)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana
Hanna is a girl raised by her father, an ex-CIA operative, in the wilds of Finland. She was trained to be a perfect assassin. Sent on a mission across Europe, she needs to elude agents sent after her.
7 Best Thriller Movies on HBO According to IMDb
According to IMDb, these are 7 best thriller movies on HBO Go (from the list above):
- The Prestige (2006) – 8.5
- The Usual Suspects (1995) – 8.5
- No Country for Old Men (2007) – 8.1
- Sin City (2005) – 8.0
- Jackie Brown (1997) – 7.5
- Witness (1985) – 7.4
- Identity (2003) – 7.3
7 Best Thriller Movies on HBO According to Box Office
- No Country for Old Men (2007) – $172 million
- Sin City (2005) – $160 million
- The General’s Daughter (1999) – $150 million
- 8MM (1999) – $97 million
- Identity (2003) – $90 million
- Jackie Brown (1997) – $75 million
- Witness (1985) – $69 million