7 Wrong-Place-Wrong-Time Thrillers Like Paramount+’s ‘Average Joe’
Average Joe (2023) just released its second season on Paramount+ and has given us one of the best wrong-place-wrong-time thrillers of modern television. But once you've caught up with the series about a man who finds out his deceased father stole millions from criminals, you may want to watch other projects just like it that are available on Hulu, Prime Video, and more.
Thankfully, while this subgenre isn't the most common to see, it has more than a few movies and shows that continue what Average Joe started. Some examples are prestige TV classics or award-winning films, but they all maintain the story of someone in a situation that gets worse as time goes on.
No Country for Old Men (2007) is a thriller structured through the perspective of a killer, a sheriff, and a hunter. When the latter finds a large stash of money, the killer begins to hunt him down with ruthless precision. The Coen Brothers' film is a dark look at crime and shows the dangers of going against one's better judgment and choosing greed.
The main draw of No Country for Old Men is the killer, Anton Chigurh, who is one of the best on-screen examples of a psychopath, and it shows. Through him, we understand why this film is a wrong-place-wrong-time thriller because so many lives could've been saved if the right choices were made.
Collateral (2004) is all about tension as a taxi driver picks up one more passenger before clocking out and is offered $600 for five stops. Agreeing, the driver quickly realizes his passenger is a hitman, and he's driving him to his various hits.
Tom Cruise captures a chilling visage of a murderer as Jamie Foxx plays a regular guy trying to survive the night while the police are on his tail. For as avoidable as the events of Collateral seem, what makes it work is that you always wonder if this situation could've been truly avoided.
The Night Of (2016) explores the story of a young man who, after meeting a woman, is arrested for being a possible suspect in her murder. As the story unravels, we learn that the truth is harder to reach than you'd think, and it has you hoping the lead doesn't go down for this crime just because he met the wrong person.
The Night Of explores themes involving the justice system, ethnic cultures, and the struggles to be believed when all the evidence points against you. The Night Of is a powerful drama and a masterclass in acting from all those involved, even for a wrong-place-wrong-time thriller.
Based on the film of the same name, Fargo (2014-2024) Season 1 follows a mild-mannered man named Lester Nygaard, who lives in the titular town when a mysterious hitman visits and begins to tantalize him with the idea of a life without consequence. When Nygaard embraces this and kills his wife, it unravels a chain of events that gets more chaotic with each episode.
Rather than the main character being someone who is trying to get out of his wrong-place-wrong-time situation, Nygaard explores what happens when you live without consequence and aren't afraid of it. Leaning into his dark habits, we see the dangers of listening to bad influences, and the only wrong thing that happened at the wrong time was a hitman visiting.
The Flight Attendant (2020-2022) follows a young flight attendant who wakes up in a hotel room next to a dead man. Unable to remember the past events, the series sees her trying to uncover the mystery of the dead body.
Rather than knowing what happened and why someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time, The Flight Attendant puts us in the same position as the lead, and we all have to solve the crime together. There's definitely regret over her choices in the series, but overall, it's more about discovering the truth than about surviving.
A British comedy-thriller, Boat Story (2023) is about two people who find a massive stash of cocaine and decide to sell it and pocket the money. But they quickly discover that this cocaine belonged to a dangerous mob boss while also being hunted by the police and hitmen.
Boat Story is a simple wrong-place-wrong-time thriller, but it's hard not to get caught up in the chaos of the moment. Yes, the leads should've left the drugs alone, but it's also easy money that could change their lives. As a result, the consequences are justified, but we want to see them win in the end.
A Simple Plan (1998) follows three men who find a bag of money worth millions next to a dead body following a plane crash. Though they kept the money a secret for as long as they could, their ambitions began to degrade the longer they held onto it.
Death and mistrust begin to rip the friends apart, and you begin to see why no one should have that much money. A Simple Plan isn't about outside forces hurting the protagonists, but about how sometimes your greatest enemies can be those you call friends and family.
