Television series

Gidseltagningen

Name: Gidseltagningen
Genre: Thriller
Released: 2017
Cast: Jakob Oftebro, Johannes Lassen, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Paprika Steen, Alba August

A metro train hijacking in Copenhagen traps fifteen strangers with an unknown militant group making escalating demands. This Danish thriller trades bombast for claustrophobia, unfolding in real time across a week that fractures both hostages and nation. It's taut, morally complicated, and genuinely unsettling—less about action heroics than the psychology of ordinary people under impossible pressure.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a tense ticking-clock thriller where the pressure falls on ordinary people and on the officials trying to outthink whoever is holding them, with the politics as sharp as the danger.

Skip it if you find sustained dread wearing rather than gripping, since sixteen hour-long episodes keep that pressure on for a long haul.

What it asks of you: Sixteen hour-long episodes with a clock that rarely eases, and it wants steady attention, because the story keeps widening across the city and its institutions.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Tunnel2013

A Channel crossing under siege creates similar real-time tension and political brinkmanship. Both trap you in a confined space where every decision compounds. The slow-motion catastrophe will grip you.

But British procedurals can feel mannered, and this one unfolds deliberately. If you need constant plot momentum, the pacing may frustrate.

Hostages2013

Israeli thriller where a surgeon's family becomes leverage in a kidnapper's revenge plot. Same pressure-cooker logic: ordinary people discovering what they'll do when everything's at stake. Relentlessly clever.

But Runs four seasons and stretches its premise. The later arcs lose the tight focus that makes the first so devastating.

The Terror2018

Trapped, desperate people facing unknown threat with command structure crumbling. Same arctic moral despair, though this swaps urban crisis for historical survival horror. Atmospheric and crushing.

But Heavy on dread, light on relief. If you watch thrillers to feel clever, this one makes you feel hunted instead.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Gidseltagningen

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Deepwater2005

Both are Danish examinations of how crisis strips away civility and reveals the flaws in ordinary people who thought themselves decent. Quieter than most thrillers, more interested in moral damage than spectacle.

Danish film about a man trapped on an oil rig during a crisis, isolated and compromised by his own past. Shares Gidseltagningen's fixation on ordinary people discovering what they're capable of under extreme pressure, but trades urban confinement for technological isolation. A meditation on complicity and survival.

But Slow, bleak, and deliberately unsensational. It's a character study masquerading as a thriller, which means plot is never the point.

Killing Ground2017

Australian home-invasion film that mirrors the hostage structure: strangers forced together, stakes climbing, everyone's capacity for violence tested. Brutal and unsentimental about ordinary people.

But Much more explicitly violent and unpleasant. It's a film that doesn't let you look away or feel safe.

The Negotiator1998

Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey locked in psychological warfare. While more action-adjacent than Gidseltagningen, it captures the same cat-and-mouse intensity and the weight of lives hanging on words.

But A product of late-90s thriller formula. It's entertaining rather than genuinely unsettling, which may feel slight by comparison.

Locke2014

Tom Hardy alone in a car for ninety minutes, unraveling a life through phone calls. Proves confinement and consequence can sustain a film entirely through character and stakes. Hypnotic and claustrophobic.

But Wilfully minimalist. One location, one actor, no action. If you need external incident, this will test your patience.

Four Rooms1995

Confined space, escalating absurdity, people pushed past breaking point. It's a comedy where tension still matters. Light-hearted in register but structurally similar in how it traps and tests.

But Deliberately silly, which distances it from real stakes. If you're looking for emotional weight, the tone will undercut it.

The Invisible Guest2017

Spanish thriller with interlocking POVs and a locked-room mystery. Shares Gidseltagningen's sense that every perspective contains secrets, and the truth keeps shifting. Ingeniously plotted.

But Twist-heavy to the point of contrivance. Some revelations feel engineered rather than earned.

Don't Breathe2016

Burglars trapped in a blind man's home. Reverses victim and aggressor, making moral judgment impossible. Claustrophobic sound design and a premise that keeps complicating itself.

But More horror-thriller than procedural. If you want psychological realism, the escalation tips into exploitation.

A Prophet2009

Both refuse to separate victims from perpetrators neatly. Everyone in confinement—hostage or militant, inmate or guard—becomes complicit in the system keeping them trapped.

French film following a young man's rise to power inside prison. Like Gidseltagningen, it watches how confined populations create hierarchies and how people are corrupted by circumstance rather than nature. Mesmerizing study of adaptation and complicity.

But Subtitled, long, and unsentimental. Prison survival isn't exactly escapist, and the violence is matter-of-fact rather than thrilling.

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Both use confinement—whether physical (the train) or geographical (occupied territory)—to ask how ordinary people respond when normal rules collapse and everyone becomes suspect.

British soldier abandoned in Belfast during the Troubles. Unlike typical hostage thrillers, this is a chase through hostile territory with no clear ally or enemy. Captures the same moral disorientation: who deserves your trust when survival is the only currency?

But Handheld, claustrophobic cinematography in urban spaces. If you prefer clarity and wide shots, the visual style will feel deliberately obscuring.