A Glean movie guide
Adrenaline Rush: Movies to Keep You Awake
No caffeine required.
High-stakes thrillers and relentless action films designed to keep your heart racing.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Uncut Gems
A relentless, anxiety-inducing spiral through the high-stakes world of New York’s diamond district.
A charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime. Howard must perform a precarious high-wire act, balancing business, family, and encroaching adversaries on all sides in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate win.
- 02
Mad Max: Fury Road
A visual masterpiece of non-stop vehicular mayhem and practical stunts across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
- 03
Run Lola Run
A high-octane race against time fueled by a propulsive techno beat and a 20-minute deadline.
Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manni. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. She has 20 minutes to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.
- 04
The Raid: Redemption
An explosive, claustrophobic martial arts showcase that never lets up as a SWAT team fights for survival.
Deep in the heart of Jakarta's slums lies an impenetrable safe house for the world's most dangerous killers and gangsters. Until now, the run-down apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, an elite swat team is tasked with raiding the safe house in order to take down the notorious drug lord that runs it. But when a chance encounter with a spotter blows their cover and news of their assault reaches the drug lord, the building's lights are cut and all the exits blocked. Stranded on the sixth floor with no way out, the unit must fight their way through the city's worst to survive their mission. Starring Indonesian martial arts sensation Iko Uwais.
- 05
Whiplash
A visceral psychological battle between a drummer and his mentor that hits with the force of a thriller.
Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.
- 06
Good Time
A frantic, neon-soaked odyssey through the criminal underworld with a pulse-pounding electronic score.
After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Connie Nikas embarks on a twisted odyssey through New York City's underworld to get his brother Nick out of jail.
- 07
Train to Busan
A high-speed survival horror that traps passengers on a locomotive with fast-moving, relentless zombies.
When a zombie virus pushes Korea into a state of emergency, those trapped on an express train to Busan must fight for their own survival.
- 08
Speed
The ultimate ticking-clock action flick where a bus must stay above 50 mph to avoid a deadly explosion.
Tensions run high when a crazed bomber rigs a Los Angeles bus with a device that will kill everyone on board if the vehicle's speed dips below fifty miles per hour.
- 09
Green Room
A brutal, high-tension siege thriller that pits a punk band against a group of dangerous extremists.
A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing an act of violence at a skinhead bar.
- 10
Gravity
A terrifyingly immersive survival sequence in the vacuum of space that maintains tension from start to finish.
Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer, is on her first Shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The Shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone-tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness of space. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
- 11
Don't Breathe
A masterclass in suspense that turns a simple home robbery into a silent, deadly game of cat and mouse.
A group of teens break into a blind man's home thinking they'll get away with the perfect crime. They're wrong.
- 12
Cloverfield
A found-footage disaster film that captures the immediate, chaotic urgency of a monster attack in New York.
Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.