Who doesn’t love to watch thrillers on HBO Max? You, always in the quest of searching for the unknown, (second) guessing who could be behind that door, or who/what could be moving there in the shadows, obviously love thrillers.
Some humans (including myself) have always had a dreadful passion for and about violence and casualty; thriller happens to be their favorite genre. It’s understandable why. Thrillers provide exposure to dangerous situations (in the safety of a controlled environment). The twists and turns of the story make you compulsively follow through. Nothing beats the adrenaline rush provided by thrillers.
They keep you on the edge of your seat, guessing what will happen next. Right when you’ve figured out the entire plot, the ending hits you like a punch to the gut. The whole of it leaves you uncomfortable in your seat long after the credits have rolled.
But you like the experience, right?
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Here Are The Top 10 Thrillers On HBO Max | You Can’t Miss These!
So, to honor your fascination for thrillers, I’ve compiled a list of top 10 thrillers on HBO Max. I hope this list will satiate your urge to be acquainted with cold-blooded murders. Stop trying to imagine danger in your own house and watch these instead!
1# Promising Young Woman (2020)
Directed by Emerald Fennel, Promising Young Woman narrates the story of Cassie on her tryst to seek vengeance. It looks at the thriller genre using a much-needed female lens. Her best friend Nina was s*xually assaulted by their med school classmates. Due to the lack of justice for the crime against her, Nina took her own life.
Traumatized by her best friend’s death, Cassie tries to create justice. She leaves med school and starts working in a coffee shop. Besides that, she feigns getting drunk, unable to protect herself in front of men. When they try to benefit from her state, she confronts them.
When she gets to know that one of the people involved in the assault is getting married, she decides to seek revenge. She goes behind all the people involved in her best friend’s assault and gets them to admit their roles.
The film bagged Best Original Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards.
- Running Time: 113 minutes
- Cast: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham
- IMDb: 7.1/10
2# Memento
Memento is narrated through the unreliable perspective of a man, Leonard, suffering from a rare and untreatable form of memory loss. In the film, we follow him on his journey to track down the man who s*xually assaulted and murdered his wife.
The journey becomes difficult owing to Leonardo’s condition. Because of it, he’s unable to remember events that happened just fifteen minutes prior or where’s he going and why. He gets all the relevant information about his wife’s murder so that he doesn’t forget.
The movie has two timelines going simultaneously that braid and converge. One of them goes in black-and-white and the other in color.
- Running Time: 1h 53 m
- Cast: Guy Pearce, Carrie- Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
- IMDb: 8.5/10
3# Argo
Argo is a historical drama thriller film based on a 1999 book by the same name. It revolves around an American rescue mission. Iranian Islamists take sixty-six United States Embassy workers in Tehran as hostages. It is in retaliation for US President Jimmy Carter’s actions.
However, six out of those sixty-six refugees manage to escape. The escaped refugees find shelter in the Canadian Ambassador’s home. In a race against time, the US government put Tony Mendez to rescue them. Mendez puts together a plan.
He decides to pose himself as a Hollywood producer shooting a sci-fi film in Tehran and make the refugees act as his film crew. The film bagged seven nominations at the 85th Academy Awards and won three.
- Running Time: 2h
- Cast: Ben Affleck, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston
- IMDb: 7.7/10
4# Gravity (2013)
Gravity is an American science fiction thriller film. It pursues Dr. Ryan Stone on her first-ever space mission and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky on his last before retirement. The Space Shuttle Explorer was going to service the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
During a routine spacewalk, the duo is informed about a quickly- exploding cloud of space debris unknowingly caused by the Russians. They order the Explorer crew to return to Earth immediately. However, the communication with Mission Control is lost shortly after. The communication satellites are destroyed leaving the crew stranded in space.
After the disaster, they are stuck by the realization that the only way they can go back home is by venturing further into space. Gravity was the highest-grossing film of 2013. Ten nominations in the 86t Academy Awards were among the various awards it bagged.
- Running Time: 91 minutes
- Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris
- IMDb: 7.7/10
5# The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Identity is an action-thriller film adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s novel The Bourne Identity. It revolves around the story of a man, Jason Bourne, who, near death, is found by an Italian fisherman with two gun wounds. Jason is suffering from Psychogenic Amnesia. So, he cannot remember who he is or what he is doing there. However, his extraordinary talents in fighting and linguistic skills point toward a dangerous past.
He desperately attempts to discover his identity whilst being in the middle of a conspiracy within the CIA. Jason is lethally pursued by them.
- Running Time: 1h 59m
- Cast: Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Franka Potente
- IMDb: 7.9/10
6# Stoker
Stoker narrates the story of India Stoker, whose entire world comes crashing down after losing her father in a horrible car crash. She is left alone with a void in her heart and a mother she doesn’t get along with. All this further adds to her emotional turmoil.
However, out of nowhere appears her father’s friend, Charlie, an uncle she never knew existed. Charlie moves in with India and her mother. He wins over lonely India and her emotionally fragile mother. India thinks that her uncle, closest to her father’s bloodline, will finally fill the void in her heart.
But soon finds out that this charming man has some ulterior motives. Yet instead of feeling alarmed, she finds herself becoming increasingly infatuated with him.
- Running Time: 1h 39 min
- Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Matthew
- IMDb: 6.8/10
7# House At The End Of The Street (2012)
House At The End Of The Street follows a newly divorced mother and her teenage daughter as they move to a small upscale suburb searching for a fresh start.
They are oblivious to the gruesome happenings of the house at the end of the street. They later told about the double homicide that happened in that house by the neighbors. A thirteen-year-old named Carrie Anne murdered her parents and ran away.
Even though her mother disapproves, Elissa starts a relationship with Carrie Anne’s older brother Ryan, who lives in the same house, and is the only survivor of the homicide. The closer Elissa and Ryan get, the deeper she is pulled into a dangerous mystery.
- Running Time: 1h 41m
- Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Elisabeth Shue
- IMDb: 5.5/10
8# Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Dirty Pretty Things is a 2002 British social thriller film. Filmed in documentary style, it follows the lives of two immigrants living in London.
One of them, Owke, is an undocumented migrant from Nigeria. He works as a cab driver and as a hotel attendant by night during the day. He shares a small apartment with another undocumented emigrant, Senay.
During one night shift, Okwe is asked to come up to one of the hotel rooms. There, he finds a prost*tute standing by a clogged toilet. Owke finds a human heart inside it. The night’s happenings lead him to uncover the dark side of his employer and the city. He can’t wait to get back home. The question remains how.
- Running Time: 97 minutes
- Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou, Sergi Lopez
- IMDb: 7.3/10
9# Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Twelve Monkeys is a Sci-fi thriller movie that follows James Cole’s time travel from 2035 to 1996. While being in prison in the 2030s, James is rounded up for a time travel mission. He’s supposed to travel back in time and gather information about a virus contaminating the majority of the world’s population.
The information will help scientists develop a cure for the same. An Army of The Twelve Monkeys is supposed to be the root of the epidemic. However, traveling to and fro in time comes with its consequences, James learns the message over a few time-travel-mishaps, i.e., the hard way.
- Running Time: 2h 9m
- Cast: Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe
- IMDb: 8.0/10
10# North by Northwest (1959)
North by Northwest is an American spy thriller film. It tells the tale of Roger O. Thornhill, an innocent man, mistaken to be someone he is not. Therefore, he is mercilessly hunted all over the United States by agents of a mysterious organization.
Thornhill meets the equally beautiful and mysterious Eve Kendall on his cross-country journey. The members of the secret organization chase Thornhill to avert him from being a hurdle in their plan. They want to smuggle microfilm out of the country. The microfilm contains confidential government secrets.
In 1995, United States National Film Registry selected North by Northwest for preservation.
- Running Time: 136 minutes
- Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
- IMDb: 8.3/10
Final Words
Now that I’ve walked you through a list of thrillers on HBO Max, you must make sure to watch them! Watch these movies with your family and friends, you may need extra help unraveling the mysteries in some of the movies!