123 Max von Sydow Movies & TV Shows, Ranked Best to Worst

U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who has personal reasons to investigate Ashecliffe Hospital, an institution for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, is assigned the case of a strange disappearance of a woman from a locked room. As he digs deeper into the sinister operations of the asylum, he begins to lose his grasp of reality.

A girl is seemingly possessed by an entity and she starts behaving oddly, after which her mother consults various physicians, who fail to find any problem with her. Eventually, her mother feels that she might be really possessed, and she seeks the help of two Catholic priests, hoping they will be able to help her daughter.

Antonius Block, a disillusioned and exhausted knight returning from the Crusade, finds his country ravaged by the plague and is confronted by Death. However, believing that he must perform "one meaningful deed" before death, he challenges Death to a fateful game of chess that will determine his future and of those around him.

Also referred to as Wild Strawberries, the Swedish drama follows egotistical and irritable Professor Isak Borg who sets out on a car trip from Stockholm to Lund to receive his doctorate. Accompanying him is his pregnant daughter-in-law who dislikes him. As he meets a series of hitchhikers, he is forced to look into the emptiness of his life. 

A group of men rape and murder a young girl named Karin. However, the same men later ask for shelter at her father’s house, unknowingly. When he finds out about his daughter’s death, he decides to punish the men for their heinous crime.

Nattvardsgästerna is a Swedish drama film which tells the story of a small-town priest who finds himself struggling with his faith. He is unable to reconcile the idea of a loving God, with the atrocities being committed on human beings worldwide.

Based on a true story, the film revolves around Jean, who suffers a stroke and becomes paralyzed. The only part of his body he can move is his left eye. While his doctors try to make him functional, he tries to develop a way in which he can express his thoughts.

This Swedish film is about a schizophrenic young woman who is on a vacation with her family on a remote island. During this time, she experiences delusions about meeting God, who appears to her in the form of a monstrous spider. Her author father who is suffering from writer’s block attempts to use her illness in her work. Meanwhile, her brother is struggling with sexual frustration.

Jan Rosenberg and his wife Eva have left the city to avoid a civil war, and they begin to live on a rural island where they tend a farm. However, since they are living in isolation, soon their marital problems get worse.  

Three sisters Lee, Holly and Hannah, reunite after two years at a Thanksgiving party. Things take a turn when Hannah discovers that her husband is actually having an affair with her sister, Lee. 

30 years after the fall of the Empire, the First Order emerges to threaten the New Republic. Captured by dark warrior Kylo Ren, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron sends information about self-exiled Jedi Luke's location via a BB-8 robot. Scavenger Rey retrieves it, and must take it to General Leia with help from renegade stormtrooper Finn and legendary smuggler Han Solo.

Based on an eponymous book, Awakenings is the story of Dr. Malcolm Sayer and his miraculous discovery of a drug that seems to awaken patients from their catatonic state, including Leonard Lowe. But in a twist of fate, the effects of the drug are temporary leading to an altercation between Sayer, played by Robin Williams, and Lowe, portrayed by Robert De Niro.

Loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s 1954 short story, the movie is set in 2054 Washington where specialised police arrests murderers before they actually kill someone. Helping the police are three psychics or precogs who can predict these murders. John Anderton works for this special police force but when one day, he is identified as a future killer, he is forced to escape to prove his innocence.

This Swedish psychological horror film revolves around Johan, an artist who is on a vacation with Alma, his pregnant wife. However, he starts hallucinating and suffers an emotional breakdown. He starts believing that there are demons visiting him.

Vogler is a traveling magician, who, along with his assistants are persecuted by authorities in Sweden during the 19th century. They request that his troupe provide them a sample of their act, before they are allowed to perform in public. Their intention is to expose Vogler as a charlatan, but it seems that both Vogler and his crew are too clever.

After getting divorced, Andreas finds himself quite depressed and desolate. He soon meets a woman named Anna, who has lost her husband and her son due to a car crash.

When Condor, a bookish CIA analyst tasked with reading all kinds of publications from around the world, comes across an unusual thriller novel, he decides to file a report on it. Then one day he returns to the office to find all his coworkers dead. Rattled, he tries to contact the headquarters; but it results in more bloodshed and personal danger. 

Snake cult ruler and sorcerer Thulsa Doom destroys a tribe and then orphaned Conan is sold as a slave during childhood. Later, Conan becomes a fearless warrior and after his release, he commences on a mission to avenge his parents’ death. Accompanied by beautiful Valeria and archer Subotai, he rescues King Osric’s daughter, Princess Yasimina, and confronts the evil Thulsa Doom. 

This adaption of Ronald Bass 1978 novel of the same name tells the tale of a couple—Chris and Annie—who lose their children in an accident. Their attempt to get back to their life is further shattered when Chris is killed and a brokenhearted Annie ends her life. Chris finds himself in heaven but is aghast to know that Annie is in hell and sets out save her with the help of Albert.

One year after his father's death in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 9-year-old Oskar Schell finds a mysterious key left behind by his father and embarks on a scavenger hunt through New York City to find the lock it fits. Oskar, who has Asperger syndrome, is forced to communicate with people around him and arrives at a greater understanding of life.

Kazuo, a Japanese American fisherman is accused of killing his neighbor, who is also a fisherman. Since the World War II had just passed, the trial occurs in the midst of strong anti-Japanese sentiments, but a local journalist thinks of helping Kazuo prove his innocence, although he has an agenda of his own.       

Until the End of the World is a science fiction action drama film which tells the story of Dr Farber, who has managed to create a device that allows the blind to see. This allows him to find the cure for his wife’s blindness. However, they are soon pursued by government forces.  

Bob and Doug are two unemployed brothers who are unable to find success in film-making. Later, they are offered jobs at a brewery of inspecting for mice in beer bottles. However, they soon come across a conspiracy involving the brewery that they are working at.

Robin Longstride, a skilled archer travels to Nottingham from the crusades. He falls in love with Lady Marion and creates a band of warriors to combat corruption in Nottingham. But he soon finds himself in a war against the French. His valor wins the war but the corrupt King John of England declares him an outlaw. 

In this US-Swedish psychological thriller film, a man, Salem is imprisoned in an asylum for the criminally insane for a couple of years after being convicted for a murder. Determined to get revenge from those who were responsible for his wrongful conviction and subsequent confinement in the mental institution, he breaks out of the asylum and plots a series of murder.

During the Second World War, a group of Allied prisoners agrees to play a football match against the Nazis. However, the Nazis are unaware of the fact that the prisoners want to use it as a way to escape from their captivity.

Flash Gordon is a sci-fi adventure film, which revolves around a football player and his friends, who travel to the planet Mongo. They eventually have to fight a tyrant named Ming the Merciless, who plans to test the Earth with unnatural disaster. 

The Greatest Story Ever Told is a historical drama film which revolves around the life and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, presented in two parts.  

The story focuses on the relationship between a Swedish housewife, Karin Vergerus—who lives with her husband and children in a Swedish village—and David Kovac—a foreign archeologist and a Jewish survivor. They meet at a hospital and very quickly develop a relationship; but because of his mental scars, their journey is not as pleasant as it could have been. 

In a distant future, the Emperor gives noble Duke Leto Atreides control of desert planet Arrakis, the only source of extremely valuable spice melange required for interstellar travel. However, realizing that the hidden agenda was to destroy his house in a clash with their archenemies—the Harkonnens—Leto's son, Paul, organizes an uprising with the native Fremens.

This horror drama film tells the story of a mother who is quite possessive of her son, due to the fact that she had lost all twelve of her previous children. When her son starts dating an attractive teacher, she tries her best to stop this from happening.

Alex Gardner is a psychic who uses his abilities mostly for personal benefits, which includes gambling and womanizing. He is hired by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States, as the latter is having nightmares of nuclear war.

After a failed attempt on Ambassador Han’s life, Hong Kong Chief Inspector Lee and LAPD detective Carter together fly to Paris to safeguard a French woman who has vital information about Chinese Triads. As the lethal syndicate Triads strike to stop them from reaching the information, Lee continues to fight even after recognizing one of the Triads as his childhood friend.

When a mysterious new shop opens in a quiet Maine town, the citizens are taken in by its owner, Leland Gaunt, and his articles of desire. In return, Gaunt asks for a small amount and a prank on another resident. This slowly snowballs into violence, unrests and deaths. As Sheriff Alan Pangborn realizes Gaunt’s manipulations, he sets out to hunt the devil.

A retired cop with insomnia teams up with a young detective to find a serial killer who has begun his killing spree again, after a period of seventeen years.

Based on the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball, this film tells the story of a SPECTRE Agent, who has stolen two nuclear warheads. It is up to the British spy James Bond to find them before they are detonated. 

A film based on the novel The Algonquin Project by Frederick Nolan, Brass Target revolves around the historical event of Gen. George S. Patton's German automobile crash. Even though the crash was initially believed to be an accident, the film suggests that it was a conspiracy. 

The Mistress is a Swedish film which tells the story of a young woman who falls for a married man, leading to complicated situations.  

Black Palm Trees is a comedy drama film which tells the story of a young woman, who has been searching for a sailor named Colett, who had once saved her life from drowning. Her search eventually leads her to a small port in Rio de Janeiro.    

Jonathan Corliss murders Dorothy, his secret girlfriend, after she tells him that she is pregnant, and stages the murder as suicide. He then moves to New York, where he tries to win over her twin sister Ellen. However, Ellen is not convinced that her sister’s death was a suicide, and therefore, she decides to investigate the matter herself.

After the Second World War begins, Liviu, a Romanian count, along with his wife come to live on an uninhabited tropical island, where they hope to escape the war as well as their past. They bring with them all kinds of provisions along with their servants, to live a life of comfort. However, things take a turn when their friends arrive on the island uninvited.

This science-fiction action adventure comedy film takes us to a dystopian future where water has become very scarce. The film tells the story of a group of space pirates who get caught after stealing ice from a spaceship. They are sold to a princess who is looking for her father, who might have found a planet with plenty of water.

In the future, with humanity in chaos and the Earth in decay, Joseph Dredd and other Judges, act as the police office, judge, jury, and executioner to keep order. When Dredd is framed for murder by former judge Rico and Griffin, he must wage a war to clear his name and uncover conspiracies. 

Disguised as an Air Force colonel, a Soviet spy creeps in the U.S Embassy in Beirut to murder a Russian defector, who is taking refuge at the embassy.

Hit Man is an action adventure crime drama thriller film which revolves around an undercover mercenary and his contact in the police who discover that a group of heroin smugglers is also transporting smuggled uranium. They plan to use the uranium to manufacture nuclear arms, which they plan to sell to terrorist groups.

Hurricane is a romantic adventure film which tells the story of a desperate love affair, between a Navy captain’s daughter and a young native. As tensions begin to boil, as her father is against their love, disaster strikes in the form of a big hurricane. 

A marketing executive continues to be ruled by greed until he is declared complicit in the death of a girl who goes under the knife to be skinny. The incident leads him to turn customers against major brands in post-Communist Russia.

Exorcist II: The Heretic is a supernatural horror film which tells the story of a teen girl who was once possessed by a demon. Four years later, she finds that the demon may still be lurking within her. Meanwhile, a priest is investigating the strange death of the girl’s exorcist. 

The Gaul is an epic historical drama film which tells the story of a Gallic chieftain, from his childhood to his struggle to save Gaul by uniting all tribes of his region, and raising an army on his own, in order to throw Julius Caesar out.

Charles is a retired person who lives in a small room in the house of his lover, a rich widow. However, when the latter decides to break off the relationship, Charles finds himself on the street with his dog.     

Europa is a drama thriller film which takes us to the time after the end of the Second World War. A young idealistic American of German descent tries to help the German people, and takes up a railway job in Germany. However, he soon gets involved in a terrorist conspiracy.

Despite saving New York City from demigod Gozer earlier, the Ghostbusters were forced to disband following myriads of property damage lawsuits. They come out of retirement to again help Dana Barrett after her son becomes the target of a demonic plot threatening the entire city, but they must first fight against the law and the government.

While returning home from war, a soldier meets a stranger who offers to purchase his violin. However, the stranger is none other than the devil himself.

Lawrence Talbot, who moved to America following a childhood trauma, returns to his estranged father's estate in England after learning that his brother is missing. He is soon bitten and cursed by a werewolf and is worried about the safety of Ben's fiancée Gwen, while an investigating inspector suspects his past mental instability for the recent killings.