Liam Neeson’s late-career reinvention saw him headline several movies like The Commuter, and we’ve got ten more action thrillers in the same vein for you to check out.
Jaume Collet-Serra’s energetic action thriller stars Neeson as a train passenger unwillingly dragged into a conspiracy plot during his daily travels.
Relentless, pulse-pounding, and never anything less than entertaining, the genre boasts plenty of hidden classics and underrated gems that are well worth checking out.
10 Gripping Thriller Movies Like The Commuter
1. Non-Stop (2014)
Not all movies like The Commuter have to star Liam Neeson and be directed by Jaume-Collet Serra, but this high-altitude thriller isn’t a bad place to start.
Essentially the same concept but in a plane, an air marshal needs to find a killer on a commercial flight after getting a mysterious text demanding a ransom, or a passenger will die every 20 minutes.
The plot might stretch the limits of plausibility, but Non-Stop is a taut and contained thriller that makes the most of both Neeson’s talents and the high concept pitch.
2. Run All Night (2015)
The fourth teaming of Neeson and Collet-Serra heads into a much grittier territory in the tale of an ex-hitman on the run with his estranged son with the mob hot on their tails.
The leading man is as reliable as ever in a street-level action thriller boosted by a talented ensemble cast that also features Joel Kinnaman, Vincent D’Onofrio, Common, Boyd Holbrook, and Ed Harris.
Any self-respecting movies like The Commuter should live up to their title and then some, and Run All Night certainly does just that, keeping the pace up from the first minute to the very last.
3. Jack Reacher (2012)
Liam Neeson didn’t exclusively corner the market on gritty mid-budget action thrillers, and Tom Cruise made a welcome entrance into the genre with Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher.
The title hero is an ex-Army investigator drafted in to assist with a murder case, but finds himself drawn into a much larger conspiracy.
Cruise is as reliable as ever in the lead, giving Jack Reacher a much harder edge than we usually see from his characters, and the bone-crunching fights and car chases are refreshingly old-fashioned.
4. The Equalizer (2014)
Denzel Washington has made many movies like The Commuter over the course of his career, but the success of his first outing as marine-turned-vigilante Robert McCall led to the actor’s first-ever sequel.
As one of the most watchable and entertaining stars in the business, Washington commands the screen in Antoine Fuqua’s stylish and violent action-packed thriller.
You know exactly what you’re going to get from Denzel Washington in these kinds of movies, and on that front, The Equalizer definitely doesn’t disappoint.
5. Taken (2008)
Movies like The Commuter don’t come much more obvious than Taken, the high-octane actioner that saw Liam Neeson on a quest for revenge against his daughter’s kidnappers.
Throat-punching his way across Paris like a man possessed to find his daughter, Pierre Morel’s smash hit would go on to spawn two sequels and a short-lived TV series based on the strength of Neeson’s performance.
The sort of slick and polished action movie that production company EuropaCorp built their reputation on, Taken launched Neeson to a glorious Indian summer as Hollywood’s latest action hero.
6. Nick of Time (1995)
John Badham’s pulpy political thriller sees an accountant blackmailed into assassinating a politician in exchange for the safety of his kidnapped daughter.
Nick of Time is ideal for those actively seeking out movies like The Commuter, because the plots share many similarities so if you like one, then you’ll definitely like the other.
Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken make for an engaging hero and villain combination, and the two acclaimed actors play off against each other just as well as you’d expect.
7. A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
Not all of Liam Neeson’s movies like The Commuter lean heavily into the action element, and Scott Frank’s modern noir about an unlicensed P.I. tracking a gang of murderous thieves definitely falls into that category.
A Walk Among the Tombstones is much more reliant on Neeson’s acting abilities than his skill with a weapon, and the movie turns out all the better for it by focusing on the narrative over the shootouts and fist-fights.
Slower-paced than the actor’s usual output in the genre and more complex and ambitious as a result, A Walk Among the Tombstones lets the story breathe as it unravels over the course of the movie.
8. Unstoppable (2010)
Two men attempt to stop a runaway freight train in Tony Scott’s Unstoppable, a simple concept that lent a sense of dynamism and urgency by the filmmaker’s signature frenetic visuals.
Denzel Washington and Chris Pine head up the two-hander by lending the archetypal veteran/rookie story a sheen of star-power and charisma in a non-stop action thriller that makes the most of every single one of its 98 minutes.
Before there was Liam Neeson and Jaume-Collet Serra, there was Denzel Washington and Tony Scott, with Unstoppable singing from the songbook that countless movies like The Commuter would go on to pick up.
9. Unknown (2011)
The first collaboration between director Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson sees a professor wake up from a brief coma to discover nobody recognizes him, forcing him to prove his identity.
If you want movies like The Commuter but prefer more of a mystery angle, then Unknown should be added to your list, as the plot twists and turns towards a third act loaded with shocking revelations.
Solid performances from the cast elevate the material above the clear B-movie origins in a thriller that lets Neeson do what he does best as the genre’s grizzled and charismatic leading light.
10. Source Code (2011)
Duncan Jones followed up the acclaimed Moon with an altogether different sort of sci-fi, with Jake Gyllenhaal starring as a man sent into a time loop to try and find a train bomber to prevent a similar attack.
Smarter than your average sci-fi thriller with the sort of wholly original pitch that you don’t find too often these days, Source Code grabs your attention from the very first scene and never lets go.
If you’re in the mood for movies like The Commuter with some sci-fi thrown in for good measure, you can’t go wrong with Source Code.