Top 5 Movies with Smart Protagonists Who Will Blow You Away with Their Intelligence

It has been said that a high intellect is one of the sexiest qualities a person can have. Whether that's true or not, intelligence is certainly impressive – especially when it's used to achieve incredible results and do fascinating things, like the main characters in these five movies.

Escape Plan (2013, 6.7 on IMDb)

Available on: Peacock, Amazon Prime

This action thriller stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ray Breslin and Emil Rottmayer. Breslin is an ex-prosecutor who now runs a business testing the security of so-called supermax prisons by posing as a fugitive and staging escapes from the facilities. One day, he is approached by a CIA agent who offers to test the security of a top-secret prison. Breslin agrees, only to find out that it was a ruse, and now he must escape to get his real life back. Fortunately, his fellow inmate, Rottmayer, is there to help.

The Accountant (2016, 7.3 on IMDb)

Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime

In this action thriller, Ben Affleck stars as Christian Wolff, an autistic accountant who works for a variety of shady companies, cleaning up their fraudulent financial records. Using his mathematical genius, Christian finds elaborate ways to set the records straight. But with an IRS agent on his case, Christian takes on a robotics company as a client and starts digging into their records. And when he discovers a serious discrepancy in the records, people start getting hurt.

Inside Man (2006, 7.6 on IMDb)

Available on: STARZ, Amazon Prime

Starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster, this crime thriller tells the story of a Manhattan bank robbery. Owen's Dalton Russell orchestrates an elaborate heist in which the robbers take the bank's employers and patrons hostage to buy time for the robbery while the police try to negotiate the release of the captives. While Washington's Detective Keith Frazier reasons with the fugitives, Foster's Madeleine White, a notorious fixer, tries to keep the secret of the bank's founder hidden in the vaults.

The Fugitive (1993, 7.8 on IMDb)

Available on: Tubi TV, Amazon Prime

Based on the TV show of the same name, this action thriller follows Harrison Ford's Dr. Richard Kimble, a Chicago vascular surgeon wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. Sentenced to death, Kimble decides to help justice prevail and breaks out of prison. On the run from the police, he hopes he can lead them to the real killer, as they seem unable to find the crook.

Catch Me If You Can (2002, 8.1 on IMDb)

Available on: Paramount+, Amazon Prime

Adapted from Frank Abagnale Jr.'s book of the same name, this biographical comedy-drama centers on Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Abagnale, a prisoner in Marseille, France, who falls ill due to the poor quality of the food in the facility and is picked up by the FBI. Agent Carl Hanratty has been searching for Frank for years, during which time the con artist has managed to defraud millions of people by posing as a doctor, lawyer and even a pilot. But it seems the FBI sees potential in Frank.