Overview
A gripping journey into the dark underbelly of the drug war, where morality blurs and trust is a luxury.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Graphic
- foreboding
- paranoid
- austere
- serious movie night
- crime thriller marathon
What critics said
Critics broadly praised Sicario as a taut, atmospheric thriller elevated by outstanding performances and serious attention to the moral complexity of the drug war.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Kate discovers that the covert CIA-led operation routinely operates outside legal boundaries while claiming to combat cartel power.
The Phoenix, El Paso, and Juárez locations are presented through severe tension, darkness, and looming cartel violence.
Kate receives fragmented information and remains deliberately excluded from the team’s true motives and methods.
The plot focuses on FBI, CIA, and cartel operations across the United States-Mexico border.
Films like Sicario, and why
Zero Dark Thirty
shares a morally ambiguous counterinsurgency thriller structure, institutional violence, and psychologically oppressive atmosphere
Traffic
shares a hard-edged crime thriller style, procedural tension, and corruption within covert operations
No Country for Old Men
shares borderland criminality, bleak moral ambiguity, and escalating violence with an austere visual approach
Apocalypse Now
shares warlike treatment of state violence, compromised institutions, and descent into a lawless conflict zone
Movie Details
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
- Release Date
- 2015-09-17
- Runtime
- 122 min
- Rating
- 7.4 / 10 (9913)
Cast
- Emily Blunt
- Benicio del Toro
- Josh Brolin
- Victor Garber
- Jon Bernthal
- Daniel Kaluuya
- Jeffrey Donovan
- Raoul Max Trujillo
- Julio Cesar Cedillo
- Hank Rogerson
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Spectrum On Demand
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Sicario about?
- An idealistic FBI agent enters a covert cartel operation where the line between justice and vengeance steadily disappears.
- What is Sicario like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Sicario as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Sicario violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Sicario as graphic.
- What did critics think of Sicario?
- Critics broadly praised Sicario as a taut, atmospheric thriller elevated by outstanding performances and serious attention to the moral complexity of the drug war.
- Which films are like Sicario?
- Films with a similar feel include Zero Dark Thirty, Traffic, No Country for Old Men, and Apocalypse Now.
- How long is Sicario?
- Sicario runs 122 minutes.
- Where can I watch Sicario?
- In United States, Sicario streams on HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max.
