Say what you want about crime in real life, but when it’s depicted in a work of fiction, it can often be exciting. Crime movies come in many shapes and sizes, but arguably the most prominent sub-genre within the broader crime genre is the gangster movie. Given these revolve around mobsters, shady individuals, or authority figures tasked with taking down such people, most gangster movies are at least somewhat thrilling just for including gangsters as characters.

But then there are other gangster movies that go one step further when it comes to providing viewers with thrills, incorporating elements of genuine thriller movies into the proceedings. The following movies all do this to some extent, being classifiable as both gangster/crime movies and thrillers, with such classic genre hybrids being ranked below from great to greatest.

13 'The Outfit' (2022)

Directed by Graham Moore

One of the most recent gangster movies is also one of the best entries into the genre in years. Graham Moore's The Outfit stars Oscar winner Mark Rylance as Leonard, an English tailor in Chicago whose main clients are a family of dangerous mobsters. Against his will, he becomes a pawn in a larger scheme and must do everything he can to survive one fateful night.

Clever and riveting, The Outfit is a gangster thriller done right. Rylance ably supports the plot, delivering one of his most nuanced and compelling performances in a role that requires him to be distant yet relatable. Unlike many other gangster movies, The Outfit isn't flashy and adopts a well-known approach. However, it is thrilling where it counts, offering a tightly built and twisting narrative that succeeds in keeping audiences engaged every step of the way.

12 'American Gangster' (2007)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott joins Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in the 2007 gangster thriller American Gangster. The film is a loose, fictionalized take on the life of mobster Frank Lucas, who built an empire by smuggling drugs into the United States using American service planes from the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, cop Richie Roberts becomes determined to bring Lucas down.

American Gangster thrives on the strength of Scott's firm hand behind the camera, Washington's tour de force, and Crowe's steady, restrained approach. Further aided by a powerful supporting turn from the late Ruby Dee, the film is a worthy and ever-entertaining ode to the classic gangster movies that built the genre into a juggernaut of American cinema. It might play fast and loose with facts and history, but American Gangster remains a tense and surprisingly intelligent take on a well-known story.

11 'Eastern Promises' (2007)

Directed by David Cronenberg

Body horror maestro David Cronenberg directs Oscar nominees Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts in the 2007 gangster thriller Eastern Promises. The premise centers on Nikolai, a dangerous but mysterious henchman tasked with subduing Anna, a Russian-British midwife who learns the Russian mafia has ties to a prostitution ring in London.

Ruthless, clinical, and violent, Eastern Promises sees Cronenberg at his most relentless, helming a story about crime, cruelty, and unexpected kindness. Mortensen is brutal in the lead role, with Watts at her most compelling. The film is provocative, savage, tight, and daring, yet profoundly humane and insightful, exploring issues of morality without ever succumbing to moralizing or simplifying. Instead, it treats every major character as a flawed yet crucial piece in an ever-evolving story.

10 'Get Carter' (1971)

Directed by Mike Hodges

Michael Caine had a mammoth acting career, finding breakout success in the 1960s and only officially retiring in 2023, at the age of 90. Given the high number of films he appeared in, some of his classics are rather underrated, but thankfully, Get Carter is one that’s generally held up as one of his best and most iconic, especially when it comes to his earlier roles.

Caine plays a methodical and skilled criminal named Jack Carter, with this gangster movie taking a turn toward the realm of revenge thriller when Carter’s brother is killed, and he stops at nothing to seek vengeance for this act. Get Carter isn’t an action movie, but it is violent, and also benefits from having a generally good pace. It’s quick enough to feel like a thriller, but not overblown in a way that risks things getting too silly. It’s a slick, quietly tense, and, in some ways, timeless British gangster flick.

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9 'Tokyo Drifter' (1966)

Directed by Seijun Suzuki

There’s an entire world of exciting yakuza movies that don’t tend to get the recognition they deserve outside Japan, with some of the best at least gaining cult status, to some extent, internationally. One of the best of these Japanese gangster movies is Tokyo Drifter, which could also qualify as one of the boldest and strangest, thanks to how hypnotic the visuals are and how striking the editing/presentation overall is.

It's more about the style than the narrative, but there is still a compelling story here, following a yakuza gang member getting targeted by an assassin, leading to a cat-and-mouse chase, all the while the gangster tries to work out who’s betrayed him and ordered the hit. Tokyo Drifter is fast and furious (hey, a little like that other movie with a similar title), and packs plenty of thrills into its tight 83-minute runtime.

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8 'The Untouchables' (1987)

Directed by Brian De Palma

You’d hope that combining the talents of Brian De Palma as a director with the leading man abilities of Kevin Costner, plus throwing in supporting turns from Sean Connery and Robert De Niro – would lead to something great. Thankfully, The Untouchables is a movie that throws all these talented people together (plus others, like David Mamet writing the screenplay and Ennio Morricone composing the score) and emerges as something genuinely great.

The Untouchables is set during the Prohibition era and is a fictionalized retelling of how the police took down Al Capone, turning the tables by fighting back with aggression against his ruthless criminal empire. It’s a gangster movie where the gangsters take a backseat, sure, but they still drive the conflict, and the film does explore, to some extent, what happens when police start to use violence almost as liberally as the criminals they’re pursuing to achieve their goals.

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7 'White Heat' (1949)

Directed by Raoul Walsh

White Heat is undoubtedly one of the best gangster movies released during Hollywood’s Golden Age, and also among the final ones, serving as a powerful last hurrah for this style of crime film. It follows James Cagney at his biggest and most magnetic, playing a relentless criminal who wastes no time following a prison break, reassembling his gang and planning a complex heist.

It’s not a spoiler to say that the heist doesn’t go perfectly to plan, with White Heat then mining plenty of excitement and suspense from exploring the consequences of things not working out the way Cagney’s character hoped they would. It moves incredibly fast for a crime movie of its age, and everything builds up to an unforgettable and iconic finale that elevates an already very good gangster movie into the realm of greatness.

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6 'The Long Good Friday' (1980)

Directed by John Mackenzie

Saying the words “British gangster movie” will often conjure up images of the crime movies directed by Guy Ritchie, but going back a few years before he began making movies does reveal some gangster classics that were likely influential in the development of his style. Case in point, The Long Good Friday, which blends dark comedy, thrills, suspense, and an exceedingly unlucky main character into one tense and entertaining film.

The Long Good Friday cemented Bob Hoskins as more than just a character actor, as he largely carries the movie, playing an ambitious gangster in London who wants to branch out and become at least somewhat legit, even though the universe seems to have other plans for him. It’s a unique gangster film and one that holds up extremely well more than four decades on from its initial release.

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5 'Le Samouraï' (1967)

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

Le Samouraï is another unique type of gangster movie, taking place in a shady criminal underworld where many criminals hide their true intentions, and the protagonist, a doomed hitman, doesn’t know who to trust. The movie follows him as he’s targeted by both the law and rival gangsters, the former trying to capture and imprison him and the latter stopping at nothing to kill him outright.

It’s an arthouse crime movie, in a way, with the thriller elements understated, thanks to the slow-burn nature of the storytelling. But Le Samouraï never feels boring, because it’s always precise and controlled, not to mention exceptionally stylish. And, when all else fails, the film's also got a lot of Alain Delon, given he plays the lead role, and it’s not a bold claim or anything to say that he’s easy on the eyes.

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4 'Infernal Affairs' (2002)

Directed by Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, Alan Mak

As far as gangster movies made outside the U.S. go, few are better than Infernal Affairs. Its premise is an airtight one, seeing not just one character go undercover, but two. First, there’s a detective who goes undercover to infiltrate a dangerous group of gangsters, and then there’s a criminal from that group who himself manages to infiltrate the police force.

So begins a psychologically dizzying fight between these two people who’re hiding their true identities, though the first thing either needs to do, of course, is uncover the identity of the other before confronting him. This all makes Infernal Affairs work as a fantastically gripping exploration of two opposing sides – the police and a criminal gang – at odds with each other because of the law, as well as a thrilling/tense battle of wits between two men who’ve both placed themselves in great danger.

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3 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Reservoir Dogs is an explosive film, both for the content featured and for the fact that it propelled Quentin Tarantino to fame, establishing him as a writer/director to be reckoned with. It’s a unique and admirably grounded take on the heist genre, following a group of gangsters who try to pull off a jewelry store robbery, only for things to spiral out of control.

This leads to certain members being viewed suspiciously, given it seems likely the heist only went wrong because someone in the group was actually an undercover cop. Reservoir Dogs plays around with chronology, and does so in a way that makes things more intense and surprising, rather than less. It’s an energetic movie that’s never boring, even for a second, and honestly, crime movies don’t get much tighter or more ferocious.

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2 'Gangs of Wasseypur' (2012)

Directed by Anurag Kashyap

Both parts of Gangs of Wasseypur are long, exceeding 2.5 hours, so watching the duology as a single film means having to find a bit over five hours to spare. That might sound like a big ask, but this epic movie is worth the time, because it tells an ambitious story filled with twisted and compelling characters that’s also truly unpredictable, said narrative spanning decades and following three different generations wrapped up in a violent gang war.

It's also hard to classify Gangs of Wasseypur when it comes to genre, seeing as it crosses over into so many throughout its lengthy runtime. It’s naturally a gangster film, and it also has a great deal of action, dark comedy, and enough tense sequences to make it often feel like a thriller. It’s daring and bold to a fault, in almost too many ways to count, and is one of the most exciting gangster epics ever made.

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1 'The Departed' (2006)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese’s legacy shouldn’t be exclusively tied to the crime/gangster genres, because his body of work is more diverse than many give it credit for. That being said, some of his best and most famous movies have involved a look at life in the mob, usually with a dramatic and/or darkly comedic edge. Thrillers by Scorsese are a little less common, but The Departed is one of his best and most thrilling… not to mention, it’s also a gangster movie.

Plot-wise, The Departed has the same premise as Infernal Affairs, being a remake of that aforementioned 2002 film. The pacing’s a little different, as is the ending, and there are a few more fleshed-out side characters, too, but both films work for largely the same reasons. The Departed is similarly nail-biting, functioning as both a great crime movie and an excellent thriller, and is about as good as gangster-thriller movies can get.

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