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Movies like Murder by Contract

Key Features:
Contract killer, Hitman, Assassination, Moral ambiguity, Ruthlessness, Performance, Film noir, Existentialism, Psychological thriller, Minimalist, Professionalism, Isolation, Moral conflict
Tone:
serious, gritty, restrained
Target Audience:
Film noir enthusiasts, Crime thriller fans, Viewers interested in character studies, Fans of minimalist cinema
Emotional Arc:
Anticipation → Doubt

Murder by Contract

1958-12-18
Murder by Contract Poster - Find Similar Movies

Claude is a ruthless and efficient contract killer. His next target, a woman, is the most difficult.

Genres
Thriller, Crime
Cast
Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel, Michael Granger, Kathie Browne, Joseph Mell, Frances Osborne, Steven Ritch, Don Garrett
Crew
Irving Lerner, Ben Simcoe, Ben Maddow
Rating
6.7(95 votes)
Murder by ContractMurder by Contract
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I Hired a Contract Killer

After losing his job and realizing that he is alone in the world, a businessman opts to voluntarily end his life. Lacking courage, he hires a contract killer to do the job. Then, while awaiting his demise, he meets a woman and promptly falls in love.



The Killers
6.9

A hit man and his partner try to find out why their latest victim, a former race-car driver, did not try to get away.



Murder by Numbers
6.2

Tenacious homicide detective Cassie Mayweather and her still-green partner are working a murder case, attempting to profile two malevolently brilliant young men: cold, calculating killers whose dark secrets might explain their crimes.



The Killing
7.649

Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.



Killing Them Softly

Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.



The Killer
6.271

Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.



Absolution
4.564

When a contract killer (Steven Seagal) encounters a girl on the run from a dangerous mob boss (Vinnie Jones) with powerful political ties, running a human trafficking operation, he is torn between protecting the girl, and remaining loyal to the government agency that hired him.



The Killer
6.58

After a fateful miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn't personal.



Angel of Death
4.8

A career assassin becomes haunted by one of her victims following a near fatal injury to her brain. Becoming a rogue assassin settling the score with her former mob employers, chaos and power struggles ensue.



The Contract
5.72

Attempting to recover from a recent family trauma by escaping into the woods for a peaceful hiking trip, an ex-lawman and his young son stumble across a dangerous contract killer.



The Kill Room
5.9

A hitman, his boss, an art dealer and a money-laundering scheme that accidentally turns the assassin into an overnight avant-garde sensation, one that forces her to play the art world against the underworld.



Contract to Kill
4.461

Harmon is a CIA/DEA enforcer investigating Arab terrorists captured in Mexico. With his team--seductive FBI agent Zara and spy-drone pilot Sharp--he flies to Istanbul and uncovers a brutal plot: Islamic extremists plan to use Sonora drug-smuggling routes to bring deadly weapons, and leaders, into the U.S. To prevent an attack on America, Harmon must turn these two savage forces against one another before his time--and his luck--run out.



The Outside Man
6.17

A French hit man is hired by a crime family to end the life of a rival mobster, but things fall apart when the boss who hired him is killed.



Contract Killer
7.014

Financially troubled, a newbie hitman reluctantly takes the job of finding the plotted killer of a Japanese tycoon.



A Company Man
6.822

A contract killer becomes disenchanted with his line of work and spares the lives of his two latest would-be-victims. But the assassination company he works for has no intentions of letting him quit.



The Assassin
6.8

Suave antiques dealer Alfredo Martelli is picked up by the police with no justification. At the precinct, Martelli realizes what the investigation is all about-- that he is the main suspect in the killing of his wealthy ex-lover. Is he guilty, or is he just a sleaze?



Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back)

William has failed to kill himself so many times that he outsources his suicide to aging assassin Leslie. But with the contract signed and death assured within a week (or his money back), William suddenly discovers reasons to live... However Leslie is under pressure from his boss to make sure the contract is completed.



Bad Country
5.517

When Baton Rouge police detective Bud Carter busts contract killer Jesse Weiland, he convinces Jesse to become an informant and rat out the South's most powerful crime ring.



Killers
Killers(2010)
6

When an elite assassin marries a beautiful computer whiz after a whirlwind romance, he gives up the gun and settles down with his new bride. That is, until he learns that someone from his past has put a contract out on his life.



This Man Must Die
7.361

When his young son is killed in a hit and run accident, Charles Thenier resolves to hunt down and murder the killer. By chance, Thenier makes the acquaintance of an actress, Helène Lanson, who was in the car at the time of the accident. He then meets Helène’s brother-in-law, Paul Decourt, a truly horrible individual.



Kill List
Kill List(2011)
6.2

Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.



Killing Is My Business, Honey

A hit man whose mission is to prevent the printing of a tell-all book written by a former Mafioso, falls in love with the employee who may lose her job if the book doesn't get published.



Assassin Club
5.9

In this world of contract killers, Morgan Gaines is the best of the best. When Morgan is hired to kill six people around the world, he soon discovers all the targets are also assassins unknowingly hired to kill each other.



The Virtuoso
5.887

Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when a professional assassin accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic boss.



Le Samouraï
7.763

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.



The Replacement Killers

Hired assassin John Lee is asked by Chinatown crime boss Terence Wei to murder the young son of policeman Stan Zedkov. Lee has the boy in his sights, but his conscience gets the better of him, and he spares the child's life. Afraid that Wei will take revenge on his family in China, Lee seeks out expert forger Meg Coburn to obtain the passport he needs to get out of the country, but a band of replacement killers is soon on his trail.



Requiem for a Killer
4.961

Lucretia is a killer for hire. Specialised in poisoning and passionate about opera, she'll have to fulfill a difficult contract in the heart of the Swiss alps. Posing as a singer, Lucretia will have to appear on the scene of the higly exclusive Festival d'Ermeux and try to kill one of her partners: British bariton Alexander Child. Having recently acquired a Scottish distillery, he remains the only obstacle to a strategic pipeline project with considerable economic stakes; having recently won a tough legal battle against British Oil, their last resort is to eliminate him. Complicating everything is Rico, sent by the French contra-espionage, who tries to infiltrate the orchestra and stop the plot against Alexander Child.



Brother
Brother(1997)
7.6

Danila goes to his successful brother, Victor, in Petersburg to start a new life. Unknown to Danila, Victor is a contract killer, but is in hiding after asking for too much money to assassinate a Chechen mob boss. To avoid exposure, Victor convinces Danila to kill the boss instead.



Small Town Killers
5.634

The two tradesmen Ib and Edward are tired of their lifeless marriages and dream of living the good life from the stash of money they've earned moonlighting for years. After a huge fight with their wives the two men get drunk and hire a Russian contract killer to do a hit on their spouses. But they have badly underestimated their wives, and this becomes the start of an absurd journey where Ib and Edward to their own horror end at the top of a kill list.



Branded to Kill
7.2

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.



Kill Me Again
6.051

After Faye and her psychotic boyfriend, Vince, successfully rob a mob courier, Faye decides to abscond with the loot. She heads to Reno, where she hires feckless private investigator Jack Andrews to help fake her death. He pulls the scheme off and sets up Faye with a new identity, only to have her skip out on him without paying. Jack follows her to Vegas and learns he's not the only one after her. Vince has discovered that she's still alive.



A Kind of Murder
5.358

In 1960s New York, Walter Stackhouse is a rich, successful architect and unhappily married to the beautiful but damaged Clara. His desire to be free of her feeds his obsession with Kimmel, a man suspected of brutally murdering his own wife. When Walter and Kimmel's lives become dangerously intertwined, a ruthless police detective becomes convinced he has found the murderer. But as the lines blur between innocence and intent, who, in fact, is the real killer?



Pokiri
Pokiri(2006)
7.263

Pandu is a contract killer , and will accept any contract provided the amount is right. The Police want him for questioning, while the underworld needs him to silence their opponents. No one really knows this assassin's background. It is only Pandu who knows his real identity and he has no intention of sharing it with anyone .



Dressed to Kill
7

After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing her only witness.



WΔZ
WΔZ(2007)
5.558

There is something horribly wrong with the bodies found in the dark city streets. Some are mutilated while others have the Price equation (wΔz = Cov (w,z) = βwzVz) carved into their flesh. Detective Eddie Argo and his new partner Helen Westcott unearth the meaning of the odd equation and realise each victim is being offered a gruesome choice: kill your loved ones, or be killed. Before long it becomes clear that the perpetrator has suffered a similar fate and is now coping by seeking a way to solve this philosophical dilemma.



The Hitman
5.4

After surviving an attempt on his life by his former partner, officer Cliff Garrett (Norris) exacts revenge on those who wronged him by going undercover as a hit man. He works to gain the reputation and trust needed in order to be accepted by the burgeoning Seattle-area criminal underworld, but it is all done in order to take it down from within.



Assassin(s)
6.232

Old professional killer Wagner seeks someone to teach what he knows as long as he is already dying, and he chooses Max, young and passionless thief to be his successor.



Killer Joe
6.53

A cop who moonlights as a hit man agrees to kill the hated mother of a desperate drug dealer in exchange for a tumble with the young man's virginal sister.



The Killer
7.6

Mob assassin Jeffrey is no ordinary hired gun; the best in his business, he views his chosen profession as a calling rather than simply a job. So, when beautiful nightclub chanteuse Jennie is blinded in the crossfire of his most recent hit, Jeffrey chooses to retire after one last job to pay for his unintended victim's sight-restoring operation. But when Jeffrey is double-crossed, he reluctantly joins forces with a rogue policeman to make things right.



The Human Contract
4.4

A free-spirited woman leads a businessman down a path of reckless abandon.



The Sniper
6.6

Eddie Miller struggles with his hatred of women, he's especially bothered by seeing women with their lovers. He starts a killing spree as a sniper by shooting women from far distances. In an attempt to get caught, he writes an anonymous letter to the police begging them to stop him.



Shadowboxer
5.033

Mikey and Rose are professional assassins. They are also lovers, and once upon a time Rose also knew Mikey's father. During an elaborate hit job for a malicious gangster, Rose fails to kill the main target, the gangster's pregnant girlfriend. Instead, she delivers her baby and convinces Mikey to help her protect them both. As Rose weakens from cancer, Mikey becomes breadwinner for this unusual family. But tranquility will not last.



Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.



Kill for Me
5.701

Rent’s a bitch. And that is why, six months after her best friend went missing, Amanda finally gives in to getting another roommate, Hailey. The two college students turn out to have something in common, however: abusive men. For Hailey, it’s her dad. For Amanda, it’s a stalkery ex-boyfriend. But problems can be solved and, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. In other words, Kill for Me, I kill for you.



Romeo Is Bleeding
6.3

A corrupt cop gets in over his head when he tries to assassinate a beautiful Russian hit-woman.



Assassins
Assassins(1995)
6.5

Assassin Robert Rath arrives at a funeral to kill a prominent mobster, only to witness a rival hired gun complete the job for him -- with grisly results. Horrified by the murder of innocent bystanders, Rath decides to take one last job and then return to civilian life. But finding his way out of the world of contract killing grows ever more dangerous as Rath falls for his female target and becomes a marked man himself.



Miss Nobody
5.186

A mild-mannered secretary discovers that she has a talent for murder as she ascends the corporate ladder.



Louise-Michel
6.125

In this radical and endearing black comedy, a group of retrenched female factory workers decide to pool their compensation money… and hire a hit man to liquidate their boss.



Collateral
7.235

Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.



The Assignment
5.517

Ace assassin Frank Kitchen is double crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of rogue surgeon known as The Doctor who turns him into a woman. The hitman, now a hitwoman, sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie who also has secrets.



The Detective
6.4

A private detective is drawn into a complex murder mystery when he is hired to track down a missing young woman.



The Conformist
7.6

A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.



Simon Killer
5.787

A recent college graduate flees to Paris after a break-up, where his involvement with a prostitute begins to reveal a potentially dark recent past.



American Gigolo
6.2

Julian makes a lucrative living as an escort to older women in the Los Angeles area. He begins a relationship with Michelle, a local politician's wife, without expecting any pay. One of his clients is murdered and Detective Sunday begins pumping him for details on his different clients, something he is reluctant to do considering the nature of his work. Julian begins to suspect he's being framed. Meanwhile Michelle begins to fall in love with him.



Stiletto
Stiletto(2008)
4.697

The seemingly random killings of an assassin puzzle her former lover, a wealthy Greek crime boss whose organization is jeopardized by his love for her, and the detective following her rising body count



Kill Boksoon
6.849

At work, she's a renowned assassin. At home, she's a single mom to a teenage daughter. Killing? That's easy. It's parenting that's the hard part.



Reasonable Doubt
5.8

When up-and-coming District Attorney Mitch Brockden commits a fatal hit-and-run, he feels compelled to throw the case against the accused criminal who was found with the body and blamed for the crime. Following the trial, Mitch's worst fears come true when he realizes that he acquitted a guilty man, and he soon finds himself on the hunt for the killer before more victims pile up.



No Name on the Bullet

When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.



Assassination Games
6.303

Brazil is a contract killer, willing to take any job if the price is right. Flint left the assassin game when a ruthless drug dealer’s brutal attack left his wife in a coma. When a contract is put out on the same coldblooded drug dealer, both Brazil and Flint want him dead – one for the money, the other for revenge. With crooked Interpol agents and vicious members of the criminal underworld hot on their trail, these two assassins reluctantly join forces to quickly take out their target before they themselves are terminated.



Cop
Cop(1988)
6.2

An obsessive, insubordinate homicide cop is convinced a serial killer is loose in the Hollywood area and disobeys orders in order to catch him.



The Killer's Game
6.4

When top hitman Joe Flood is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he decides to take matters into his own hands – by taking a hit out on himself. But when the very hitmen he hired also target his ex-girlfriend, he must fend off an army of assassin colleagues and win back the love of his life before it's too late.



Odd Job
Odd Job(2016)
6.1

An unemployed factory worker takes a job as a hit man to make ends meet.



The Last Seduction
6.765

A devious femme fatale steals her husband’s drug money and hides out in a small town where she meets the perfect dupe for her next scheme.



The Detective
5.9

Police detective Joe Leland investigates the murder of a gay man.



First Kill
5.671

A police chief tries to solve a kidnapping that involves a bank robber holding a young boy hostage.



Killshot
Killshot(2008)
5.8

Beautiful Carmen Colson and her ironworker husband Wayne are placed in the Federal Witness Protection program after witnessing an "incident". Thinking they are at last safe, they are targeted by an experienced hit man and a psychopathic young upstart killer.



Killer
Killer(1997)
7.605

An innocent cab driver is mistaken for a contract killer and imprisoned. Soon, he is sprung by a mob boss who needs a "killer" for a few more jobs.



The Blue Gardenia
6.5

Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.



Killer of Men
7.236

A man lurks the night alleys, killing people at random, he feels nothing, no emotion, and no pain; when he meets a graceful widow he must confront what it means to be human.



Basic Instinct
6.927

Catherine, a novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite, becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered -- a crime she had described in her latest story.



Room of Death
6.214

While on a joyride with the headlights turned off, two men hit and kill another man carrying a satchel full of money. The two men decide to take the money and throw the body into a pond and bury the money in a coal hill. The next morning the police discover the body of a kidnapped 12-year blind girl, Melody, in a warehouse near the site of the hit-and-run. They determine that the kidnapper saw the girl's father bringing the ransom to him and also witnessed the hit-and-run and the men stealing the ransom.



Blood Simple
7.251

The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.



Hollywood Homicide
5.2

Joe Gavilan and his new partner K. C. Calden, are detectives on the beat in Tinseltown. Neither one of them really wants to be a cop, Gavilan moonlights as a real estate broker, and Calden is an aspiring actor moonlighting as a yoga instructor. When the two are assigned a big case they must work out whether they want to solve the case or follow their hearts.



Tightrope
Tightrope(1984)
6.1

Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer whose victims are young and pretty women. The murders are getting personal when the killer chooses victims who are acquaintances of Block. Even his daughters are threatened.



One Night in Bangkok

A hit man named Kai flies into Bangkok, gets a gun, and orders a cab. He offers a professional female driver big money to be his all-night driver. But when she realizes Kai is committing brutal murders at each stop, it's too late to walk away. Meanwhile, an offbeat police detective races to decode the string of slayings before more blood is spilled.



Marlowe
Marlowe(2023)
5.726

Private detective Philip Marlowe becomes embroiled in an investigation involving a wealthy Californian family after a beautiful blonde hires him to track down her former lover.



Bullet to the Head
5.631

After watching their respective partners die, a cop and a hitman form an alliance in order to bring down their common enemy.



The Big Heat
7.7

After the suspicious suicide of a fellow cop, tough homicide detective Dave Bannion takes the law into his own hands when he sets out to smash a vicious crime syndicate.



Busting
Busting(1974)
6.167

Defying orders to lay-off the case, two Los Angeles vice-squad cops go after a local mobster and use unorthodox methods to achieve results.



The Big Hit
5.9

Affable hit man Melvin Smiley is constantly being scammed by his cutthroat colleagues in the life-ending business. So, when he and his fellow assassins kidnap the daughter of an electronics mogul, it's naturally Melvin who takes the fall when their prime score turns sour. That's because the girl is the goddaughter of the gang's ruthless crime boss. But, even while dodging bullets, Melvin has to keep his real job secret from his unsuspecting fiancée, Pam.



Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead

Five different criminals face imminent death after botching a job quite badly.



Catch.44
Catch.44(2011)
5.064

The lives of three female assassins take a sudden turn when their charming boss lures them into one last job. They soon find themselves thrust into a bizarre situation involving a psychotic hit man, a grizzled trucker and a delusional line cook.



The Enforcer
7.068

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 save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.



Boarding Gate
5

A beautiful woman, Sandra, seduces a wealthy businessman, Miles Rennburg. Little does he realise that she has been sent to kill him at the behest of her boyfriend/crime partner, Lester. Controlling all this is Sue, Lester's wife.



The Postman Always Rings Twice

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.



The American
5.968

Dispatched to a small Italian town to await further orders, assassin Jack embarks on a double life that may be more relaxing than is good for him.



The Big Knife
6

Movie star Charlie Castle draws the ire of Hollywood producer Stanley Hoff when he refuses to sign a new seven-year contract. Castle is sick of the low quality of the studio's films and wants to start a new life. While his estranged wife supports him in the decision, Castle's talent agent urges him to reconsider. When Castle continues to be uncooperative, Hoff resorts to blackmail in order to get his way.



A Thousand Billion Dollars

A young journalist uncovers an assassination disguised as a suicide, linked to an American multinational seeking to dominate French industries. Determined to expose the truth, he races against time to gather evidence before more lives—and his own—are at stake.



Elephant White
4.96

An assassin is hired by a businessman to avenge the murder of his daughter by white slave traders in Thailand.



You Kill Me
6.1

While drying out on the West Coast, an alcoholic hit man befriends a tart-tongued woman who might just come in handy when it's time for him to return to Buffalo and settle some old scores.



Thérèse Raquin
6.593

Star-crossed lovers Thérèse and Laurent think they've gotten away with murder after Thérèse's weakling husband "falls" from a speeding train. But when forced to contend with a blackmailer's demands and the mute accusations of Thérèse's mother-in-law, it's only a matter of time before the law, their passion or blind chance trips them up.



Gigli
Gigli(2003)
4.1

Gigli is ordered to kidnap the psychologically challenged younger brother of a powerful federal prosecutor. When plans go awry, Gigli's boss sends in Ricki, a gorgeous free-spirited female gangster who has her own set of orders to assist with the kidnapping. But Gigli begins falling for the decidedly unavailable Ricki, which could be a hazard to his occupation.



The Killing Room
5.7

Four volunteers sign up for what initially appears to be a typical paid research study, only to discover that they've unwittingly become involved with a classified government program that was said to have been terminated nearly two decades ago.



Alex Cross
5.14

Alex Cross, a genius homicide detective/psychologist is trying to clean up the mean streets of Detroit while keeping his family out of the line of fire. As he mulls over accepting a job with the FBI, he is told that a friend has been murdered and he vows to track down the killer. Soon, he and his team are forced to match wits with a psychotic contract killer, who displays a disturbing commitment towards seeing his job through.



The Boston Strangler

Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story, the film follows the investigators path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.



Coldblooded
6.2

Cosmo, an affectless mob bookie who lives in the basement of a retirement home, is promoted to hitman. He learns his new trade from Steve, a seasoned killer. He falls in love with a yoga teacher, Jasmine, and must figure out a way to leave the mob so they can be together.



Winter Kills
5.81

The younger brother of an assassinated US President is led down a rabbit hole of conspiracies and dead ends after learning of a man claiming to be the real shooter.



The Surprise
6.8

An eccentric multimillionaire signs an agreement to have his life ended. While selecting his coffin he meets a young woman who has signed up for the same arrangement. Trouble ensues when the couple falls in love and wishes to get out of the contract.



Hotel Inferno
4.8

Contract killer Frank Zimosa has been hired for a ridiculously lucrative mission by the rich and powerful Jorge Mistrandia. The objective: kill a couple of people hiding in one of his European hotels. What would look like one of the simplest jobs Frank has ever had is about to turn into a living nightmare. He will soon realize he's nothing more than prey for Mistrandia and his army of mutated henchmen that have been hiding in the hotel along with an ancient and unstoppable horror.

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