There are only a handful of thrillers available on Paramount+ at the moment, which is surprising considering the number of films that Paramount has produced over the decades.
The saving grace of Paramount+’s somewhat paltry selection is that it has some of the greatest thrillers ever made.
From the ’70s to the present, Paramount’s top thrillers outshine almost everything else its streaming rivals have to offer.
To narrow things down, the Watch With Us team has selected the seven great thrillers to watch on Paramount+. These thrillers are the best of the best.
‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
Joel and Ethan Coen outdid themselves with their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy‘s No Country for Old Men, and they took home the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for their efforts. Javier Bardem also won Best Supporting Actor for his turn as mob hit man Anton Chigurh, one of the most terrifying cinematic villains of the 21st century.
Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) doesn’t know what he’s in for when he finds a suitcase full of money after a drug deal gone bad. The criminals want that money back, and Chigurh has been sent to retrieve it, no matter how many people he has to kill along the way. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is forced to deal with the violence that Moss and Chigurh leave in their wake, and it’s more than enough to break a man’s spirit.
No Country for Old Men is streaming on Paramount+.
‘The Untouchables’ (1987)
Director Brian De Palma and screenwriter David Mamet may have taken a lot of liberties with the real story of Eliot Ness and Al Capone, but who can complain when The Untouchables is so wildly entertaining? A young Kevin Costner stars as Ness, a crusading Bureau of Prohibition agent who struggles to take down the criminal empire of Al Capone (Robert De Niro).
The late Sean Connery won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as Jimmy Malone, a veteran police officer who helps Ness recruit honest cops to help them turn the tide against Capone. George Stone (Andy García) and Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) join their crusade, but all of them have underestimated just how far the corruption has set in among Chicago’s cops and the extent of Capone’s ability to hurt them for daring to cross him.
The Untouchables is streaming on Paramount+.
‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ (1999)
Matt Damon was still early in his career when he was cast as Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Despite the name of the movie, Tom’s only real talents lie in deception and in ingratiating himself among the rich and powerful. Tom even manages to convince Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn) to send him to Europe to retrieve his wealthy and wayward son, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law).
Although Dickie has a beautiful American girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), it’s Dickie himself who catches Tom’s eye. And let’s just say that Tom isn’t the kind of man who accepts rejection well. Instead, Tom lines up the con of a lifetime, but it’s going to take a lot to convince everyone that he’s Dickie, especially when dealing with the people who know the truth.
The Talented Mr. Ripley is streaming on Paramount+.
‘Chinatown’ (1974)
Jack Nicholson was already a star before Chinatown, but this film helped cement him as a Hollywood icon. Nicholson portrays private investigator J. J. “Jake” Gittes as he takes on a simple case from Evelyn Cross-Mulwray (Diane Ladd) to spy on her husband, Hollis I. Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling).
When Hollis ends up murdered and disgraced, the real Evelyn Cross-Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) angrily berates Jake before reluctantly hiring him to investigate her husband’s death. That leads him to encounter Evelyn’s rich and powerful father, Noah Cross (John Huston), as well as a deadly conspiracy that goes further than Jake can imagine.
Chinatown is streaming on Paramount+.
‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987)
Glenn Close‘s Alex Forrest will not be ignored in Fatal Attraction, which is perhaps the most famous erotic thriller from the ’80s. Alex and her colleague, Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas), have a torrid, yet brief affair together. Alex knew ahead of time that Dan is married to Beth (Anne Archer), and that they have a daughter named Ellen (Ellen Hamilton Latzen). Yet she’s still taken aback when Dan cuts off their affair to stay with his family.
Alex doesn’t take rejection well, and she graduates from an annoyance to someone who is truly dangerous. There’s nothing that Alex wouldn’t do to be with the man she loves, and she’s even willing to kill if that’s what it takes for her to be happy.
Fatal Attractions is streaming on Paramount+.
‘Changing Lanes’ (2002)
Lawyer Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) are strangers to each other in Changing Lanes, but a minor traffic accident changes the course of both of their lives. Gavin left Doyle stranded on the side of the road, which means that he arrives too late to stop the court from awarding his estranged wife, Valerie Gipson (Kim Staunton), from getting full custody of their kids.
However, Gavin accidentally left behind an important legal file at the scene of the accident, which Doyle now has in his possession. That leads to an escalating series of events as both Doyle and Gavin try to get revenge on each other. In the process, they may wind up destroying themselves.
Changing Lanes is streaming on Paramount+.
‘Basic Instinct’ (1992)
Over three decades ago, Basic Instinct took erotic thrillers to another level with Sharon Stone‘s showstopping turn as Catherine Tramell. She’s a successful crime novelist and also the prime suspect in the death of her rock star boyfriend. Catherine not only seems guilty as hell, but she also appears to delight in teasing the police about their inability to catch her.
SFPD Police Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) makes several bad decisions while working on this case. First, he allows Catherine to seduce him while he was already having an affair with his psychologist, Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn). But Nick’s potentially fatal mistake may be letting Catherine get close enough to either destroy his personal life or to kill him.
Basic Instinct is streaming on Paramount+.
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