3 bone-chilling Paramount+ thrillers to watch this weekend (August 28-30)

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek Published Aug 29, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades. Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear. Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade. An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren. Sign in to your How-To Geek account Sometimes you want to laugh, sometimes you want to cry, and sometimes you want a movie so intense that you grip the arm of your couch so hard you nearly rip the upholstery off. If the Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Song Yadong UFC fight on Saturday isn't the kind of thrill you're after, these three thriller movies on Paramount+ might do the trick. On the adrenaline tap, we've got a classic spy film that strung its star over a vault floor by a cable and launched a massive franchise; an alien invasion sci-fi thriller with the same star, but as a dad fighting to keep his family alive; and a 1992 murder thriller that notoriously challenged the MPAA. 3 Mission: Impossible Your mission, should you choose to accept it... Tom Cruise may have hit Mach speed in Top Gun, but it was his first appearance as Ethan Hunt in the kickoff to the monster action-thriller franchise Mission: Impossible that set him on the path to becoming one of the greatest action stars of all time. The 1996 blockbuster directed by Brian De Palma (The Untouchables, Scarface) adapted the classic 1966 CBS spy series rather than doing a full reboot, continuing the saga of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). The story begins after a mission in Prague goes wrong and its main agent, Ethan Hunt (Cruise), is suspected of being a mole. Fighting to clear his name and get to the bottom of what happened, Ethan goes underground and recruits a pair of blacklisted agents, including Luther Stickell (Pulp Fiction's Ving Rhames) and Krieger (The Professional's Jean Reno). The first of the new franchise that has exploded into eight blockbuster films, it took Bruce Geller's original to new all-time heights, giving us much-parodied iconic scenes like Hunt being lowered into a vault on a single cable and floating above the pressure-sensitive floor. Mission: Impossible Release Date May 22, 1996 Cast Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė, Valentina Yakunina, Marek Vašut, Nathan Osgood, John McLaughlin, Rolf Saxon, Karel Dobrý, Andreas Wisniewski, David Shaeffer, Rudolf Pechan, Gaston Šubert, Ricco Ross, Bob Friend, Annabel Mullion, Garrick Hagon, Jiřina Třebická, Mark Houghton Runtime 110 minutes Director Brian De Palma Writers David Koepp, Robert Towne Producers Paula Wagner Sequel(s) Mission: Impossible 2, Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Mission: Impossible 8 Franchise(s) Mission: Impossible Main Genre Action Budget $80 million Studio(s) Paramount Pictures, Cruise/Wagner Productions Distributor(s) Paramount Pictures Executive Producer(s) Paul Hitchcock 2 War of the Worlds H.G. Wells' classic, reimagined by Spielberg and Cruise While it didn't quite cause the same level of mass hysteria as Orson Welles' infamous 1938 radio broadcast that had real Americans thinking they were really being invaded, Steven Spielberg's blistering telling of H.G. Wells' sci-fi story, War of the Worlds, did stun audiences, to the tune of three Oscar noms. The 2005 popcorn spectacular, of course, looked to Cruise for his action chops and ability to also anchor a film's emotional core. He plays Ray Ferrier, a divorced everyman crane operator living in New Jersey, whose two kids, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin), are visiting for the weekend. Suddenly, a massive lightning storm activates mysterious pods buried beneath the pavement in the neighborhood, perhaps for a very long time. Suddenly, enormous, three-legged "tripod" alien machines emerge and start vaporizing everyone and everything. The rest of the film is pure mayhem, terror, and survival, as Ray tries to keep his kids alive. Tim Robbins also appears in a brilliant turn as unhinged survivalist Ogilvy, who Ray and Rachel hide out with in his basement. War of The Worlds Release Date June 29, 2005 Cast Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Tim Robbins, Justin Chatwin, Rick Gonzalez, Yul Vazquez, Lenny Venito Runtime 116 Minutes Director Steven Spielberg Writers Josh Friedman, David Koepp, H.G. Wells Main Genre Science Fiction Story By H.G. Wells Studio(s) Amblin Entertainment, DreamWorks Pictures Distributor(s) Paramount Pictures 1 Basic Instinct You'll never look at an ice pick, or an interrogation scene, the same When Basic Instinct hit theaters in 1992, it was the movie that everyone was gossiping about around the water cooler. It arrived dripping in controversy—there were protests over its portrayal of a bisexual murderer; director Paul Verhoeven had to cut nearly 40 seconds to get it from its NC-17 rating to a friendlier R; and whispers swirled about a certain interrogation scene with its star, Sharon Stone. All that said, Basic Instinct defined the erotic thriller and would go on to spawn countless imitators and parodies. So what's it about? San Francisco detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is investigating the ice pick murder of a retired rock star. The prime suspect is his girlfriend, the gorgeous, manipulative crime novelist Catherine Tramell (Stone), whose book depicts the exact details of the murder. Verhoeven handles the direction like a Hitchcock film—with creative camera movements, fast dolly zooms, and lots of tight facial close-ups—as Catherine uses her brash, sexy confidence to run circles around the police (that interrogation scene is just the beginning). But it's the number she does on Nick, as she seduces him, causing him to cross every ethical line imaginable. Basic Instinct Release Date March 20, 1992 Cast Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Denis Arndt, Leilani Sarelle, Bruce A. Young, Chelcie Ross, Dorothy Malone, Wayne Knight, Daniel von Bargen, Stephen Tobolowsky, Benjamin Mouton, Jack McGee, Bill Cable, Stephen Rowe, Mitch Pileggi, Mary Pat Gleason, Freda Foh Shen, William Duff-Griffin, James Rebhorn, David Wells, Bradford English, Mary Ann Rodgers, Adilah Barnes Runtime 128 minutes Director Paul Verhoeven Writers Joe Eszterhas Producers Alan Marshall Main Genre Thriller Cinematographer Jan de Bont Producer Alan Marshall, Mario Kassar Production Company Carolco Pictures, Le Studio Canal+ Executive Producer(s) Mario Kassar Save the ice pick for last Pour something stiff and nerve-settling, pop some corn, and enjoy the ride with one of these great thrillers. And if you're a Netflix user, we have a roundup of the best thrillers for it, too. But if you want something completely different, check out How-To Geek's streaming section for all the goods. Subscription with ads Yes, $8/month Simultaneous streams 3 Live TV Select live sports (NFL on CBS & UEFA Champions League) Price Starting at $8/month or $60/year