Club Benefits
There’s good news for Prime Video subscribers on the hunt for new thriller movies on the popular streaming service. Prime Video has added a strong handful of compelling, adrenaline-fueled watches as part of its May 2026 slate, and I’m here to pick out a trio that is worthy of any watchlist.
This week’s selections include picks starring two of the genre's most popular actors, Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington. Plus, if you appreciate Hollywood classics, there’s a Cold War thriller released in the 1960s that remains essential even more than five decades later.
Best new to Prime Video thriller movies this week
'Retribution' (2023)
Prime Video is already home to several Liam Neeson-fronted action-thrillers, including “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” and “Ice Road: Vengeance,” and now the platform’s library of exhilarating movies starring the gruff (but likeable) Northern Irishman has swelled further with the addition of “Retribution.” Was this 2023 movie a critical darling? Definitely not, but Liam Neeson movies are always viewer favorites, and this one has a pretty intriguing setup, one that feels very inspired by 1994's "Speed."
Neeson plays Matt Turner, a financier living in Berlin. Driving his kids to school, it seems like a regular morning, until Turner gets a call from an unknown number and is informed there is a bomb under his seat, a bomb that will be detonated unless he agrees to the caller’s demands. What follows is a high-speed chase through the city streets as Turner attempts to complete a series of increasingly dangerous tasks and save his family from the ticking clock.
Watch "Retribution" on Prime Video now
'The Manchurian Candidate' (1962)
![The Manchurian Candidate (1962) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Oc8LpuM5Bhs/maxresdefault.jpg)
One aspect of Prime Video I’ve always admired is the platform’s commitment to the classics. More than any of its rivals, the Amazon-owned streaming service regularly adds titans of the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the political thriller subgenre, “The Manchurian Candidate” most definitely stands alongside the greats, and it could earn a whole new set of fans now that it’s arrived on Prime Video. Leaning into the Cold War fears at the time of its release, there’s a reason it scores 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress.
Opening during the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by Soviet and Chinese forces and subjected to brainwashing techniques. After the war, the platoon returns home to the United States with Sergeant Shaw (Laurence Harvey) proclaimed a hero. Meanwhile, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) is plagued by nightmares. It soon becomes clear that a dangerous plot is afoot, and this won’t be a happy homecoming.
Watch "The Manchurian Candidate" on Prime Video now
'The Equalizer' (2014)
Here at Tom’s Guide, we’re declaring 2026 the year of Denzel Washington. My colleague, Malcolm McMillan, is marking this celebration of one of Hollywood’s finest actors by watching every single Washington movie over the course of 2026 (he's calling it Denzel Watchathon). As he's viewing them chronologically, it’ll be a while yet until he gets to 2014’s “The Equalizer,” but if you want to get ahead of the game, this vigilante action-thriller (and its 2018 sequel) has landed on Prime Video this month
In “The Equalizer," Washington plays Robert McCall, a former Marine and ex-DIA/DCS officer. Now living in Boston and working in a big-box store, he uses his lethal skills to protect the innocent and downtrodden. Spurred into action when he meets a teenage trafficking victim, he’s soon facing off against members of the Russian mafia. But this criminal group should be afraid. McCall is one action hero you really don’t want to mess with.
Watch "The Equalizer" on Prime Video now
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