Aaron Taylor-Johnson's 96-Minute Heist Movie Is Officially HBO Max's Biggest Streaming Hit

There's something about the heist movie formula that just works. Few types of genre fare can be as generic as a heist film while, at the same time, making that very predictability part of its charm and appeal. Really, simply watching an effective heist flick hit the expected notes can be exhilarating on its own. It's why we just can't get enough of them, whether they're classics of the genre or forgotten heist movies that warrant a second look. 

This is also why any heist movie topping the streaming charts is bound to grab our attention. Such is the case with "Fuze," the David Mackenzie-directed British thriller film starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Jake "Toruk Makto" Sully himself, Sam Worthington. The movie was released in theaters domestically earlier this year to little fanfare. Yet, as is the case with most mid-to-low-budget, non-horror films these days, it's since found its audience at home.

According to FlixPatrol, "Fuze" is currently the most-streamed movie on HBO Max stateside and has easily topped the streamer's charts since being added to the platform. That's certainly welcome news to our ears, too, seeing as we here at /Film included "Fuze" on our list of the best action movies of 2026 so far.

And rightly so. A tense, engaging, and clever mix of crime flick and suspense thriller, "Fuze" follows an England-based crew of thieves as they attempt to pull off a major heist while the local authorities are preoccupied with what appears to be a newly-unearthed, unexploded bomb dating back to World War II. Between the film's bomb disposal scenes (which are straight out of "The Hurt Locker"), thrilling car chases, and assorted twists and turns, this movie's a fresh reminder of why the heist genre works so well.

There's something to be said for David Mackenzie being one of our best living mid-budget filmmakers who specializes in making old-school thrillers. Whether it's his 2016 neo-Western crime flick "Hell or High Water" (a movie that made a star out of writer Taylor Sheridan), or "Relay" (last year's excellent crime thriller starring Lily James and Riz Ahmed), Mackenzie's work recalls that of great 1970s thriller directors like Sidney Lumet and Alan J. Pakula. Basically, he knows how to cast a group of well-known names and use them as character actors, no matter how recognizable they are. He's equally great at constructing tense and tight films that keep you on the edge of your seat, all with a very manageable budget.

You can see as much with "Relay," a film that has a familiar premise — a man helps a woman when the company she has incriminating evidence on comes after her — but adds enough unfamiliar elements that it ends up feeling completely fresh (including, in that case, the prominent use of the very real relay service for the deaf). It's a thriller you've seen before, but it's told in a new way and fueled by its cast's compelling performances.

It's unfortunate that neither "Relay" nor "Fuze" really made a splash in theaters and merely came and went without much fanfare. But, as we keep seeing over and over, streaming is now doing what DVDs once did by giving movies a second chance at finding an audience (albeit in a more flawed and much less profitable fashion). "Fuze," in particular, is the kind of film that's practically made for viewers to discover on a laid-back Sunday evening, only for it to become their latest obsession.