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Best Thriller Movies of the 1980s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
167 thriller films from the 1980s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The Shining (1980), at 8.4 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.5. Biggest split between audiences and critics: The Hitcher, 7.2 on IMDb against 32 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Shining '1980 | Horror / Thriller | 8.4 | 75% | 68 | 8.2 | Stanley Kubrick |
| 2 | Aliens '1986 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 8.4 | 93% | 84 | 8.0 | James Cameron |
| 3 | Die Hard '1988 | Action / Thriller | 8.2 | 94% | 72 | 7.8 | John McTiernan |
| 4 | Blade Runner '1982 | Sci-Fi / Drama / Thriller | 8.1 | 89% | 84 | 7.9 | Ridley Scott |
| 5 | The Terminator '1984 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 8.1 | 90% | 84 | 7.7 | James Cameron |
| 6 | Predator '1987 | Sci-Fi / Action / Thriller | 7.8 | 65% | 47 | 7.6 | John McTiernan |
| 7 | The Untouchables '1987 | Crime / Thriller | 7.8 | 83% | 79 | 7.8 | Brian De Palma |
| 8 | First Blood '1982 | Action / Thriller / Drama | 7.7 | 86% | 61 | 7.5 | Ted Kotcheff |
| 9 | Mississippi Burning '1988 | Drama / Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.8 | 79% | 65 | 7.7 | Alan Parker |
| 10 | Blue Velvet '1986 | Mystery / Thriller / Crime | 7.7 | 87% | 75 | 7.6 | David Lynch |
| 11 | Mad Max 2 '1981 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.6 | 93% | 77 | 7.4 | George Miller |
| 12 | RoboCop '1987 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.6 | 84% | 70 | 7.4 | Paul Verhoeven |
| 13 | Lethal Weapon '1987 | Action / Thriller / Crime | 7.6 | 82% | 68 | 7.3 | Richard Donner |
| 14 | The Name of the Rose '1986 | Drama / Thriller / Mystery | 7.7 | 74% | 54 | 7.5 | Jean-Jacques Annaud |
| 15 | Michael Jackson's Thriller '1983 | Horror / Musical / Thriller | 8.7 | - | - | 8.3 | John Landis |
| 16 | After Hours '1985 | Comedy / Thriller / Drama | 7.6 | 90% | 89 | 7.5 | Martin Scorsese |
| 17 | The Abyss '1989 | Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.5 | 75% | 62 | 7.4 | James Cameron |
| 18 | Midnight Run '1988 | Comedy / Crime / Thriller | 7.5 | 95% | 78 | 7.2 | Martin Brest |
| 19 | Blood Simple '1985 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.5 | 94% | 84 | 7.3 | Joel Coen |
| 20 | The Vanishing '1988 | Thriller / Mystery | 7.6 | 96% | - | 7.4 | George Sluizer |
| 21 | Blow Out '1981 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | 86 | 7.3 | Brian De Palma |
| 22 | Missing '1982 | Drama / Mystery / Thriller | 7.7 | 94% | 78 | 7.2 | Costa-Gavras |
| 23 | The Killer '1989 | Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.7 | 96% | 82 | 7.6 | John Woo |
| 24 | Body Heat '1981 | Thriller / Crime | 7.4 | 96% | 77 | 7.0 | Lawrence Kasdan |
| 25 | The Long Good Friday '1980 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.5 | 97% | 82 | 7.2 | John Mackenzie |
| 26 | Thief '1981 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.4 | 80% | 78 | 7.2 | Michael Mann |
| 27 | Lethal Weapon 2 '1989 | Action / Thriller / Crime | 7.3 | 82% | 70 | 7.1 | Richard Donner |
| 28 | Witness '1985 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.3 | 92% | 76 | 7.1 | Peter Weir |
| 29 | The Lost Boys '1987 | Horror / Comedy / Thriller | 7.2 | 75% | 63 | 7.1 | Joel Schumacher |
| 30 | They Live '1988 | Sci-Fi / Action / Thriller | 7.2 | 86% | 55 | 7.3 | John Carpenter |
| 31 | The Professional '1981 | Action / Thriller | 7.4 | - | - | 7.2 | Georges Lautner |
| 32 | Escape from New York '1981 | Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi | 7.1 | 70% | 76 | 7.0 | John Carpenter |
| 33 | Manhunter '1986 | Crime / Horror / Thriller | 7.2 | 82% | 75 | 7.0 | Michael Mann |
| 34 | The Inquisitor '1981 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.6 | - | - | 7.5 | Claude Miller |
| 35 | WarGames '1983 | Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 7.1 | 93% | 77 | 7.1 | John Badham |
| 36 | To Live and Die in L.A. '1985 | Crime / Thriller / Action | 7.3 | 89% | 81 | 7.1 | William Friedkin |
| 37 | The Hitcher '1986 | Horror / Action / Thriller | 7.2 | 63% | 32 | 7.0 | Robert Harmon |
| 38 | The Dead Zone '1983 | Thriller / Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.1 | 89% | 69 | 7.0 | David Cronenberg |
| 39 | Dead Ringers '1988 | Thriller / Horror | 7.2 | 86% | 86 | 7.1 | David Cronenberg |
| 40 | Southern Comfort '1981 | Thriller / Action | 7.1 | 81% | 63 | 6.8 | Walter Hill |
| 41 | No Way Out '1987 | Thriller / Drama | 7.1 | 92% | 77 | 6.9 | Roger Donaldson |
| 42 | Evil Under the Sun '1982 | Thriller / Crime / Mystery / Drama | 7.1 | 86% | 61 | 6.9 | Guy Hamilton |
| 43 | Dressed to Kill '1980 | Thriller / Mystery / Horror | 7.0 | 84% | 74 | 6.9 | Brian De Palma |
| 44 | Bad Boys '1983 | Crime / Drama / Thriller | 7.2 | 89% | 53 | 7.0 | Rick Rosenthal |
| 45 | Nineteen Eighty-Four '1984 | Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller | 7.0 | 76% | 67 | 6.8 | Michael Radford |
| 46 | Mona Lisa '1986 | Crime / Drama / Romance / Thriller | 7.3 | 98% | 85 | 6.9 | Neil Jordan |
| 47 | Runaway Train '1985 | Action / Thriller / Drama | 7.2 | 84% | 67 | 6.9 | Andrei Konchalovsky |
| 48 | House of Games '1987 | Crime / Thriller / Drama | 7.2 | 94% | 78 | 6.8 | David Mamet |
| 49 | Tenebre '1982 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 7.0 | 83% | 83 | 6.8 | Dario Argento |
| 50 | Santa Sangre '1989 | Horror / Drama / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | - | 7.2 | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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All movies of the 1980s
Thriller in other decades
Thriller of the 1930s Thriller of the 1940s Thriller of the 1950s Thriller of the 1960s Thriller of the 1970s Thriller of the 1990s Thriller of the 2000s Thriller of the 2010s Thriller of the 2020s
Other genres in the 1980s
Action of the 1980s Animation of the 1980s Comedy of the 1980s Crime of the 1980s Drama of the 1980s Fantasy of the 1980s Horror of the 1980s Mystery of the 1980s Romance of the 1980s Sci-Fi of the 1980s War of the 1980s
Directors on this list
Stanley Kubrick James Cameron John McTiernan Ridley Scott Brian De Palma Alan Parker David Lynch George Miller Paul Verhoeven Richard Donner Jean-Jacques Annaud John Landis
Actors on this list
Jack Nicholson Sigourney Weaver Bruce Willis Alan Rickman Harrison Ford Rutger Hauer Arnold Schwarzenegger Carl Weathers Kevin Costner Sean Connery Sylvester Stallone Richard Crenna