Some crime thrillers spend ages setting up the story, introducing unnecessary side characters, and adding subplots that don’t do much. By the time something interesting happens, you’ve already checked your phone six times and wondered how much longer you have to sit through the torture. Fortunately, not every crime thriller needs two and a half hours to tell a good story.
The Guilty (2021)
A 911 operator tries to save a kidnapped woman over the phone
The Guilty follows Los Angeles police officer Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has been reassigned to emergency dispatch. During his overnight shift, he receives a call from Emily Lighton (Riley Keough), a woman who appears to have been kidnapped. Since Joe can’t go out and search for her himself, he has to rely on what she tells him and the information he can gather from other people.
At 91 minutes, the movie gets going almost immediately because Joe doesn’t have much time to figure out what’s happening. He has to handle other emergency calls while trying to keep Emily on the line. And every new detail she gives him adds something else to worry about. Since most of the story takes place inside the call center, the conversations have to do the work that action scenes normally would.
The Rip (2026)
A police team discovers millions in cash and starts questioning who they can trust
The Rip tells the story of Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) and Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Ben Affleck), two members of a Miami police unit who discover $20 million in cash during a raid on a stash house. As the detectives and their team count the cash, outside threats and internal suspicions make it harder for them to trust each other.
The movie really benefits from keeping the team in one sketchy situation instead of following several separate plot threads, which would have reduced the urgency of the whole situation. With a runtime of around 112 minutes, The Rip is one of the more entertaining crime stories about loyalty, greed, and the consequences of making one bad decision after another.
- Release Date
-
January 13, 2026
- Runtime
-
113 minutes
- Director
-
Joe Carnahan
-
Ben Affleck
Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne
-
Matt Damon
Lieutenant Dane Dumars
-
Steven Yeun
Detective Mike Ro
-
Teyana Taylor
Detective Numa Baptistie
Unabomber (2026)
An FBI agent hunts a criminal whose past offers clues to his actions
Unabomber tells the real-life story of gifted Harvard student Ted Kaczynski (Jacob Tremblay), who becomes involved in controversial psychological experiments led by Professor Henry Murray (Russell Crowe). The story also follows FBI agent Joanne Miller (Shailene Woodley), who is trying to find Kaczynski decades later. The two timelines give the movie different things to focus on.
Kaczynski’s early experiences offer some insight into how he became one of America’s most notorious criminals. And Miller’s investigation details the difficulties that come with tracking someone who has managed to avoid being captured for years. At around 100 minutes, the movie offers a relatively compact look at a complicated case without requiring you to commit to a movie that feels endless.
- Release Date
-
September 25, 2026
- Runtime
-
97 Minutes
- Director
-
Janus Metz
- Writers
-
Nelson Greaves, Sam Chalsen
- Producers
-
Sophie Cassidy
Cast
-
Russell Crowe
Henry Murray
-
Jacob Tremblay
Ted Kaczynski
-
Shailene Woodley
Joanne Miller
-
Annabelle Wallis
Christiana Morgan
Don’t Move (2024)
A grieving woman has to escape a killer before a paralytic drug takes effect
Don’t Move begins when Iris (Kelsey Asbille) decides to visit a forest while grieving the death of her son. She eventually meets Richard (Finn Wittrock), who is super friendly and helpful. But Richard eventually attacks Iris and injects her with a drug that paralyzes her. With her ability to move slipping away, Iris has to find a way to escape before she becomes completely helpless.
At 92 minutes, the movie establishes the danger early, so you don’t spend half the runtime waiting for Iris to realize she’s in trouble. Once the drug takes effect, even simple tasks become difficult, and she has to think carefully about how to get away from Richard. She can’t rely on being faster or stronger, which changes the way she approaches each encounter.
Animals (2026)
A kidnapping forces a mayoral candidate to make desperate choices
Animals follows wealthy Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball (Ben Affleck) and his wife Abigail (Kerry Washington), who believe their son has been kidnapped. The people responsible demand $7 million for his safe return. When their child suddenly walks through the door, Mark and Abigail realize that the kidnappers took the wrong child, but they are still responsible for getting him back.
The movie wastes little time getting into the thick of things. As Mark tries to manage the crisis without involving the police, his decisions become increasingly desperate, especially when he starts considering measures that could put his entire future at risk. Although the movie has a few story threads going at once, which gives it a 108-minute runtime, they are perfectly linked and never feel boring.
- Release Date
-
October 9, 2026
- Runtime
-
106 minutes
- Director
-
Ben Affleck
-
-
Kerry Washington
Abigail Kimball
-
Gillian Anderson
Dayle Burton
-
Crime thrillers are better when they’re shorter
A good thriller doesn’t need to drag things out
There’s nothing wrong with a long crime thriller if the story has enough material to justify the runtime. But when a movie spends too much time explaining little things that don’t matter or following characters who add very little to the story, even a promising mystery can become a chore to watch. That’s what makes these shorter thrillers a popular option.