Movies Like Ends and Means

If you liked Ends and Means (2025), a drama and thriller movie directed by Karly Kato Bang and Salvador Carrasco, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Brothers Under Fire (2026)
★ 5.9/10Also thriller and drama
Captain Jordan Wright's squadron on leave for a wedding in Mexico encounters a murderous cartel. As Jordan tries to lead survivors to safety, war erupts between his squad and the cartel, forcing him into a battle to…
2
Traffic (2000)
★ 7.1/10Also thriller and drama
An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated…
3
Get the Gringo (2012)
★ 6.6/10Also thriller and drama
A career criminal nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a 9-year-old boy.
4
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
★ 6.5/10Also thriller and drama
After fighting his demons for decades, John Rambo now lives in peace on his family ranch in Arizona, but his rest is interrupted when Gabriela, the granddaughter of his housekeeper María, disappears after crossing the…
5
The Marksman (2021)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and thriller
Jim Hanson’s quiet life is suddenly disturbed by two people crossing the US/Mexico border – a woman and her young son – desperate to flee a Mexican cartel. After a shootout leaves the mother dead, Jim becomes the boy’s…
6
Breaking In (2018)
★ 6/10Also thriller
Shaun Russell takes her son and daughter on a weekend getaway to her late father's secluded, high-tech vacation home in the countryside. The family soon gets an unwelcome surprise when four men break into the house to…
7
The Truth About Emanuel (2013)
★ 6/10Also drama and thriller
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
8
The Get Out (2026)
★ 6.1/10Also thriller
A nightclub owner is on the verge of leaving his dangerous past behind for retirement with his girlfriend. When masked gunmen rob him and he finds himself squeezed by ruthless cartels, a mysterious newcomer arrives…
9
Borderline (1980)
★ 6/10Also drama
Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds…
10
Icefall (2025)
★ 6.6/10Also thriller
A young Indigenous game warden arrests an infamous poacher only to discover that the poacher knows the location of a plane carrying millions of dollars that has crashed in a frozen lake. When a group of criminals and…
11
The Enforcer (2022)
★ 7/10Also drama
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to…
12
Border Hunters (2025)
★ 6.1/10Also thriller
After his police officer brother is killed by a drug dealer who flees to the protection of his cartel-connected uncle in Mexico, an American man with a diverse law enforcement/military background goes south of the…
13
Hunting Grounds (2025)
★ 6.9/10Also thriller
Desperate to find refuge for her children, Chloe Marvino runs away from her Mafia tied husband, and finds shelter in a cabin with a recluse drifter named Jake. But as her husband's henchmen draw closer to her, it turns…
14
Mexicali (2026)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
15
Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
★ 6.3/10Also thriller
To protect an 8-year-old girl, a dangerous assassin reunites with her mother and her lethal associates to take down a ruthless crime syndicate and its army of henchmen.
16
Touch of Evil (1958)
★ 7.7/10Also thriller and drama
A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.
17
Cry Macho (2021)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder takes a job from an ex-boss to bring the man's young son home from Mexico.
18
Rogue Agent (2022)
★ 6.3/10Also thriller and drama
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
19
A Dry White Season (1989)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and thriller
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
20
Dead Man Down (2013)
★ 6.2/10Also thriller and drama
In New York City, a crime lord's right-hand man is seduced by a woman seeking retribution.