Clint Eastwood & Michael Connelly’s 110-Minute Thriller Adaptation Is Soaring Up Streaming Charts

Published Sep 29, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT

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A 110-minute mystery thriller from the early 2000s is getting a surprising second life on streaming. The movie, which brought together one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars and one of the biggest names in crime fiction, has climbed into Netflix's worldwide Top 10 more than two decades after its original release. Its renewed popularity comes as older movies continue to find new audiences on streaming, where viewers can easily discover titles that may have slipped out of the spotlight after their theatrical runs.

Blood Work, the 2002 "forgotten Bosch prequel" thriller starring and directed by Clint Eastwood and based on Michael Connelly's novel of the same name. The movie runs 110 minutes and follows retired FBI profiler Terry McCaleb, who is recovering from a heart transplant when he is pulled back into an investigation after discovering a connection between his new heart and an unsolved murder. The movie is also credited as Clint Eastwood's final lawman role and last action movie.

Blood Work Is Drawing In The Masses On Netflix

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Blood Work has climbed to No. 8 on Netflix's worldwide movie chart for Sept. 28. It was even higher the previous day, when it ranked No. 7 on the same chart, despite garnering a reputation as one of Eastwood's worst roles.

The movie's current Netflix run isn't its first appearance on streaming charts. Blood Work has also appeared on Netflix's Top 10 charts in several countries during September, including Canada, where it spent multiple days in the Top 10 before dropping out of the chart.

That makes its latest worldwide showing notable for a movie that originally arrived in theaters in 2002. Blood Work was directed by Eastwood, who also plays Terry McCaleb, with Jeff Daniels, Anjelica Huston, Wanda De Jesus, Tina Lifford, and Dylan Walsh among the supporting cast.

The Underrated Thriller Brought Eastwood & Connelly Together For A Twisty Thriller

Image via MovieStillsDB

Blood Work was adapted from Connelly's crime novel, which introduced Terry McCaleb as a former FBI agent forced into early retirement after a heart condition. In the movie, McCaleb receives a heart transplant and later learns that the donor was the victim of an unsolved murder. The discovery gives him a personal reason to return to investigative work.

The mystery becomes more complicated when McCaleb realizes the murder may be connected to a serial killer he had been pursuing before his heart attack. That puts the retired profiler back on a case that is closely tied to his own past while he attempts to identify the person responsible.

Connelly's involvement also gives the movie a direct connection to one of the most recognizable crime novelists of the past several decades. His original Blood Work novel won both the Anthony Award and Macavity Award for Best Novel in 1998, before Eastwood brought the story to the big screen four years later.

The movie was not a major theatrical success when it was released, but its current Netflix performance offers a very different chapter for Eastwood's thriller. More than 20 years later, Blood Work is once again finding an audience, this time among Netflix viewers searching for an older mystery to watch.