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Best Crime Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of crime cinema — measured across 58,767 indexed frames from 746 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Crime films over-index on handgun, fedora and suit jacket — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

    Richard DonnerDP Andrzej BartkowiakIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    In the combustible action franchise's final installment, maverick detectives Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh square off against Asian mobster Wah Sing Ku, who's up to his neck in slave trading and counterfeit currency. With help from gumshoe Leo Getz and smart-aleck rookie cop Lee Butters, Riggs and Murtaugh aim to take down Ku and his gang.

  2. 2

    Reservoir Dogs (1992)

    Quentin TarantinoDP Andrzej SekulaIMDb 8.3TMDB 8.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    Six thugs, who are strangers to each other, are hired by a crime boss, Joe Cabot, to carry out a diamond robbery. Right at the outset, they are given false names with the intention that they won't get too close and will concentrate on the job instead. They are completely sure that the robbery is going to be a success. But, when the police show up right at the time and the site of the robbery, panic spreads amongst the group members, and two of them are killed in the subsequent shootout, along with a few policemen and civilians. When the remaining people assemble at the premeditated rendezvous point (a warehouse), they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop.

  3. 3

    No Sudden Move (2021)

    Steven SoderberghDP Steven SoderberghIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    A group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances and have to work together to uncover what's really going on when their simple job goes completely sideways.

  4. 4

    Get Carter (2000)

    Stephen KayDP Mauro FioreIMDb 5.2TMDB 5.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Years ago, Jack Carter left his Seattle home to become a Las Vegas mob casino financial enforcer. He returns for the funeral of his brother Richard "Richie" after a car crash during a storm, atypical of the careful house-father. Talking to the widow, daughter Doreen, and enigmatic Geraldine, Jack suspects it was murder. Cliff Brumby, whose club Richie ran, is financially linked to porn and prostitution baron Cyrus Paice, who claims to be just a front-man for ITC tycoon Jeremy Kinnear. Someone hired goon Thorpey to make Jack return to Las Vegas. Jack's partner Con McCarty is restless, apparently about their boss Les Fletcher, whose wife had an affair with Jack. Someone breaks into Richie's home, looking for a crucial CD.

  5. 5

    The French Connection (1971)

    William FriedkinDP Owen RoizmanIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    William Friedkin's gritty police drama portrays two tough New York City cops trying to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France. An interesting contrast is established between 'Popeye' Doyle, a short-tempered alcoholic bigot who is nevertheless a hard-working and dedicated police officer, and his nemesis Alain Charnier, a suave and urbane gentleman who is nevertheless a criminal and one of the largest drug suppliers of pure heroin to North America. During the surveillance and eventual bust, Friedkin provides one of the most gripping and memorable car chase sequences ever filmed.

  6. 6

    L.A. Confidential (1997)

    Curtis HansonDP Dante SpinottiIMDb 8.2TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    1950's Los Angeles is the seedy backdrop for this intricate noir-ish tale of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style: Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out; Bud White, ready to break the rules to seek justice, but barely able to keep his raging violence under control; and Jack Vincennes, always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley and White down the one-way path to find the truth behind the dark world of L.A. crime.

  7. 7

    Se7en (1995)

    David FincherDP Darius KhondjiIMDb 8.6TMDB 8.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Taking place in a nameless city, Se7en follows the story of two homicide detectives tracking down a sadistic serial killer who chooses his victims according to the seven deadly sins. Brad Pitt stars as Detective David Mills, a hopeful but naive rookie who finds himself partnered with veteran Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman). Together they trace the killer's every step, witnessing the aftermath of his horrific crimes one by one as the victims pile up in rapid succession, all the while moving closer to a gruesome fate neither of them could have predicted.

  8. 8

    Bonnie And Clyde (1967)

    Arthur PennDP Burnett GuffeyIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    1934. Young adults Bonnie Parker, a waitress, and Clyde Barrow, a criminal just released from prison, are immediately attracted to what the other represents for their life when they meet by chance in West Dallas, Texas. Bonnie is fascinated with Clyde's criminal past, and his matter-of-factness and bravado in talking about it. Clyde sees in Bonnie someone sympathetic to his goals. Although attracted to each other physically, a sexual relationship between the two has obstacles. They decide to join forces to embark on a life of crime, holding up whatever establishments, primarily banks, to make money and to have fun. They don't plan on hurting anyone or killing despite wielding loaded guns. They amass a small gang of willing accomplices, including C.W. Moss, a mechanic to fix whatever cars they steal which is important especially for their getaways, and Buck Barrow, one of Clyde's older brothers. The only reluctant tag-along is Buck's nervous wife, Blanche Barrow, a preacher's daughter. The gang's life changes after the first fatal shot is fired. After that, their willingness to shoot to kill increases to protect themselves and their livelihood. Their notoriety precedes them, so much so that no matter what one's opinion is of them, most want to have some association to the Barrow gang, to help them, to be spoken in the same breath as them, or to capture and or kill them. Of the many people they encounter in their crime spree, the one who may have the most profound effect on their lives is Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer, who seeks retribution.

  9. 9

    Rush Hour 3 (2007)

    Brett RatnerDP J. Michael MuroIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Almost three years after their last adventure in Rush Hour 2 (2001), Carter is now working as a Los Angeles traffic officer, while his friend and ace Hong Kong Police inspector, Lee, escorts the Chinese Ambassador, Han, to the World Criminal Court, to disclose crucial information about the Triads. However, after a botched assassination attempt, the mismatched duo will find themselves in picturesque Paris, struggling to retrieve a precious list of names, as the murderous crime syndicate's henchmen try their best to stop them. Once more, Lee and Carter must fight their way through dangerous gangsters; however, this time, the past has come back to haunt Lee. Will the boys get the job done once and for all?

  10. 10

    Hard Eight (1996)

    Paul Thomas AndersonDP Robert ElswitIMDb 7.1TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    John has lost all his money. He sits outside a diner in the desert when Sydney happens along, buys him coffee, then takes him to Reno and shows him how to get a free room without losing much money. Under Sydney's fatherly tutelage, John becomes a successful small-time professional gambler, and all is well, until he falls for Clementine, a cocktail waitress and sometimes hooker.

What crime films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a crime frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — handgun is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • handgun3.1×
  • fedora2.3×
  • suit jacket1.9×
  • necktie1.8×
  • tie1.8×
  • leather jacket1.8×
  • steering wheel1.8×
  • asphalt1.7×

How crime films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate crime from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 84%eye levelvs 69% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Polytechnique (2009) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 58,767 frames from 746 films carrying the crime label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/crime

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used