5 Best Movies Like The Runner to Watch Next

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As streaming platforms continue to flood their libraries with original films and series, action thrillers arrive at a relentless clip — and “The Runner” is one of the latest to join the pack. Led by “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot, the film also features Damian Lewis of “Homeland” and Alfred Enoch of “How to Get Away with Murder” and the Harry Potter franchise. Directed by Kevin Macdonald from a script by Mark Gibson, the 84-minute thriller follows Maia Martin, a London prosecutor whose ordinary morning spirals into a nightmare. On the day she is due in court for a case involving unseen crime boss Tommy Boyd, Maia drops her young son Noah (Rory Wilmot) at school and heads out for a jog. Moments later, a cryptic caller played by Lewis informs her that he and Boyd have kidnapped Noah. Their demand is chilling: Maia must kill a key witness in Boyd’s trial, or her son dies. With help from her colleague and romantic interest Ted (Enoch), Maia is forced to sprint across London in a desperate fight to save her child.

Despite its high-profile cast and proven filmmaker, “The Runner” has struggled to win over critics. As of this writing, the film holds a dismal 7% score on Rotten Tomatoes and has drawn sharp responses from several notable reviewers. Still, whether viewers find it gripping or frustrating, the movie taps into familiar thriller territory: high-stakes chases, abductions, impossible choices, and characters pushed to their physical and emotional limits. For anyone looking for movies that echo parts of “The Runner” — from deadly journeys to kidnapping plots and survival under pressure — these five selections are worth considering.

The first of two Stephen King adaptations on this list is Edgar Wright’s 2025 take on “The Running Man,” based on King’s 1982 novel and connected, at least by source material, to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Glen Powell stars as Ben Richards, a desperate father trying to survive in a dystopian America ruled by a sinister authoritarian entity known as the Network. Ben and his wife Sheila, played by “Sinners” standout Jayme Lawson, are struggling to secure medication for their critically ill young daughter. His situation is made even more dire because his past support for unions has effectively shut him out of most employment. With no other path forward, Ben enters the Running Man, a televised contest that promises a staggering one-billion-dollar prize. The catch is brutal: contestants must move through the city while dodging professional snipers and bloodthirsty civilians eager to take part in the violence.

Ben’s audition quickly makes an impression, largely because his raw anger and defiance unexpectedly appeal to both flashy host Bobby T, played with scene-stealing flair by Colman Domingo, and producer Daniel Killian, portrayed by Josh Brolin. Killian sweetens the deal by promising Ben that his family will be protected if he wins. But as Ben proves himself inside the game, the stakes shift again, and Killian offers him a chance to become one of the program’s ruthless “hunters.” “The Running Man” may not be flawless, but Powell brings grit and magnetism to one of King’s angriest, most resilient protagonists. Beyond the obvious similarity in titles, the film shares thematic DNA with “The Runner,” especially in its portrait of a parent forced into a deadly race by people holding all the power.

The second Stephen King adaptation here also arrived in 2025, though it channels its tension in a very different way. Directed by Francis Lawrence, best known in recent years for steering several strong entries in the Hunger Games franchise, and written by JT Mollner, “The Long Walk” stars Cooper Hoffman and future “Black Panther 3” actor David Jonsson as Ray Garraty and Peter “Pete” McVries. The two boys enter a terrifying national contest with the promise of one wish and enough money to support themselves and their families forever. Like “The Running Man,” the story unfolds in a bleak alternate America shaped by authoritarian control and widespread deprivation. But there is no sprinting here. Instead, Ray, Pete, and 48 other boys — one representing each state — must keep walking. If any participant slows below 3 miles per hour, he is shot dead. As the march continues, exhaustion, fear, injury, and despair claim most of the group, while Ray and Pete try to keep each other alive for as long as they can.

This version of “The Long Walk” is both emotionally devastating and elegantly restrained, allowing Hoffman and Jonsson to carry the story through their growing bond. Their characters begin as competitors but gradually become lifelines for each other during a death march designed to strip away hope one step at a time. Rather than focusing on the broader mechanics of its dystopian world, the film narrows in on the human toll of state-sanctioned cruelty. The result is a haunting, deeply watchable survival drama that turns every mile into an act of endurance and every loss into a wound.

The film that transformed Liam Neeson into one of cinema’s most unlikely late-career action icons also makes a natural companion to “The Runner.” Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen and directed by Pierre Morel, “Taken” stars Neeson as Bryan Mills, a retired CIA operative and former Green Beret trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter Kim, played by Maggie Grace. At the time, Neeson was still more closely associated with prestige roles in films like “Schindler’s List” and villainous turns such as Ra’s al Ghul in “Batman Begins,” but “Taken” reintroduced him as a formidable action lead with a now-famous “particular set of skills.” In the film, Bryan’s relationship with Kim is strained; she lives with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and Lenore’s wealthy new husband Stuart (Xander Berkeley). When Kim asks to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), Lenore approves, while Bryan hesitates before reluctantly agreeing. Once in France, the girls meet a young man named Peter (Nicholas Giraud), who leads them to what he claims is the home of Amanda’s cousins.

Peter is not a good guy, though, and when Amanda reveals in passing that her cousins are away in Spain on vacation, he takes advantage of the situation and abducts both girls. During that famous phone call to Bryan where he promises to find and kill the kidnappers, Bryan is told “good luck,” but as it turns out, he doesn’t need it … and he successfully finds Kim on the precipice of becoming a legitimate human trafficking victim, mowing down bad guys along the way. “Taken” is such a stone-cold classic that it ended up spawning its own franchise with its own sprawling narrative and timeline, and that’s partly because Neeson is so good as an action star — but it’s also because every parent knows they’d do all of that and more in the same situation.

Back in the 1950s, there was a television program called “The United States Steel Hour” that functioned as an anthology and produced hour-long standalone dramas, one of which was called “Fearful Decision” and aired in 1954. Two years later, a movie adapted from the episode titled “Ransom!” (yes, with the exclamation point) released with Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, and Leslie Nielsen, and 40 years after that, we got the 1996 version, “Ransom,” directed by Ron Howard. so what’s the story here?

Howard casts Mel Gibson as airline owner and millionaire Tom Mullen, who’s busy with his wife Kate (Rene Russo) one day when their son Sean (Brawley Nolte) is kidnapped by a group of criminals that includes their caterer Maris Connors (Lili Taylor), tech whiz Miles Roberts (Evan Handler), and brothers Clark and Cubby Barnes (Liev Schreiber and Donnie Wahlberg) … all of whom work for the corrupt New York City police officer Jimmy Shaker (Gary Sinise). Tom immediately contacts authorities and, with the help of FBI special agent Lonnie Hawkins (the incomparable Delroy Lindo), tries to track Sean down despite the $2 million ransom request, and the journey is frightening and intense from that point on.

“Ransom” isn’t exactly the most original or acclaimed movie around, but it’s definitely a spiritual predecessor to “The Runner” and boasts a pretty stacked cast to boot. If you want a good old-fashioned 1990s thriller, give “Ransom” a shot. Just be prepared for all of this movie’s twists and turns; it goes to some pretty wild places across its two-hour run time.

If you like, say, “Ransom” or “Taken” but you’re hoping for the political bent of “The Runner,” the 1995 thriller “Nick of Time” will probably be perfect for you. Penned by Patrick Sheane Duncan and directed by John Badham, “Nick of Time” centers around Gene Watson (Johnny Depp), a regular accountant accompanying his daughter Lynn (Courtney Chase) to Union Station in Los Angeles before a trip. After Gene shoos away a guy hassling Lynn, criminals known only as Mr. Smith and Ms. Jones (Christopher Walken and Roma Maffia) tell the father and daughter that they’re with the authorities and need to speak to them. After shoving the two into a van, the real gambit is revealed: Smith and Jones tell Gene that they need him to kill California governor Eleanor Grant (Marsha Mason), or they’ll kill Lynn in a matter of hours.

Despite the fact that Gene keeps trying to figure out how to tell people about what’s going on, he’s able to get into one of Grant’s events at the Bonaventure Hotel with little issue … only to discover that many members of Grant’s staff are part of the plot to kill her. Like “Ransom,” “Nick of Time” is a pretty boilerplate and quite heightened 1990s thriller that, alongside Depp, Walken, and Maffia, features Charles S. Dutton, Gloria Reuben, and Yul Vasquez in supporting roles, but it’s also a solid predecessor to “The Runner.”

As for “The Runner” itself, it’s streaming on Amazon Prime Video now.