6 movies to watch if you love The Traitors

Reality gameshow The Traitors has been little short of a television sensation, and if you love that show’s diabolical premise, the following are six films to watch for more manipulation and betrayal.

The Traitors is fast becoming one of the most popular and successful reality shows on the planet. The first iteration of the series was titled De Verraders and launched in the Netherlands in 2021. A British version debuted on the BBC in 2022 to critical acclaim and huge viewing numbers. While there are now homegrown versions in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA.

The premise involves 22 strangers staying together in a single location, where a handful are made ‘Traitors,’ and the rest remain ‘Faithful.’ The latter must identify the former before being banished or murdered. Otherwise those traitors that remain until the end win a huge cash prize.

The result is a dramatic gameshow that’s filled with intrigue and mind-games, as traitors plot, lie, and scheme to oust their enemies and become the last contestant standing. And if the programme isn’t enough to satisfy your traitorous needs, the following are six films that should scratch a similar itch.

6 movies to watch if you love The Traitors

The films we’ve chosen might not be as much fun as The Traitors – which at its heart is a very silly show – but they do deal with similar issues and themes.

Our list includes movies about criminal masterminds, undercover cops, kids killing kids, and a real-life traitor. But we’re starting off with a deadly sleeper agent…

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

In the gameshow, the Faithful are frequently being manipulated and controlled by the Traitors, whose identities are a mystery. In The Manchurian Candidate, the protagonist is being manipulated and controlled by unseen forces – however, the end-game isn’t prize money, but rather an assassination.

Raymond Shaw is the mark, a Korean War hero who has no idea that he’s been brainwashed by Communists. When triggered, the plan is for Shaw to kill a Presidential candidate, enabling his programmers to put their nominee into office. All of which builds to a tense climax in which Shaw might unwittingly betray the country he loves.

The Usual Suspects (1995)

A police line-up backfires when the men called in decide to team up and commit a crime together. But is this all a coincidence, or is someone pulling the strings? That’s the question at the heart of The Usual Suspects.

Much like how the contestants on the BBC gameshow bicker over the identity of the Traitors, so the the characters in The Usual Suspects argue over the identity of boogeyman Keyzer Soze. Is he man or myth? Friend or enemy? Christopher McQuarrie’s ingenious script has them – and, by proxy, us – guessing until the final few reels. Then delivers one of the greatest twists in film history.

Battle Royale (2000)

Directed by Kenji Fukasaku, Battle Royale is his masterpiece, and one of the most controversial movies of this decade. Based on the 1999 novel by Koushun Takami, the story is set in a near-future Japan ruled by a totalitarian state. Where as a means of keeping people inline, the government forces High School students to fight to the death in a game called Battle Royale.

Much like The Traitors, friend turns on friend, though in Battle Royale, the murders are real. If you’re a fan of this twisted genre, Series 7: The Contenders was released a year later, and put an American spin on the set-up, with six people picked at random, given guns, and forced to hunt each other for a TV show. While The Hunger Games is the big-budget Battle Royale, and a pretty great iteration.

The Departed (2006)

This one is a no-brainer for fans of The Traitors. A Boston mob boss plants a spy in the police force. At much the same time that the police stick an undercover cop in the mob. When both operations learn what’s going on, it’s a deadly race to identify the respective rats.

The Departed is a fun gangster flick that stars Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon. It’s also the film that won Martin Scorsese his first directing Oscar. But if you want real tension, seek out Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong thriller on which it’s based.

The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)

The Stanford Prison Experiment really happened. At a Californian university – over a two-week period in August 1971 – volunteers entered a program where some were made prisoners, and others prison guards. How things played out in their fake jail is pretty disturbing.

A 2001 German movie called Das Experiment told a similar tale to chilling effect. While in 2015, a cast that includes Billy Crudup, Tye Sheridan, and Ezra Miller dramatised the real Stanford story, which resulted in guards mentally and physically abusing the prisoners in their care. Making The Stanford Prison Experiment a disturbing cautionary tale.

Bridge of Spies (2015)

It we’re talking traitors, this list needs a film about an actual traitor, so here’s Rudolf Abel, the KGB Agent at the heart of Bridge of Spies, who becomes a pawn in the US government’s efforts to get their own spy back.

Mark Rylance won an Academy Award for his nuanced and multi-layered performance as Abel. While the thoughtful script – co-written by the Coen Brothers – has much to say about the pain of sticking to your principles while betraying those around you.

For more coverage of The Traitors, head here.