International success
Following the success of the Millennium series, Rapace started an international career. Her first English-speaking role was the character of Madame Simza Heron in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, released in 2011.
Her international fame has earned her leading roles in mainstream cinema. She was cast in Ridley Scott's blockbuster hit Prometheus, where she played the leading role, a scientist named Elizabeth Shaw. She had met Scott for the first time following the release of the Millennium trilogy movies, at which point he expressed a willingness to work with her and encouraged her to improve her accent. Prometheus was released in June 2012. She did not appear in the final cut of the film's sequel Alien: Covenant (2017), but did act in a short related prologue.
In November 2012, she appeared in The Rolling Stones video-clip for the single "Doom and Gloom", shot in the studios of the Cité du Cinéma by Luc Besson in Saint-Denis. Also in the same year, she starred alongside Rachel McAdams in Brian De Palma's erotic thriller Passion, which is the English-language remake of 2010's French psychological thriller Love Crime. They both appeared in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, but did not share scenes. Rapace also appeared in Niels Arden Oplev's crime thriller Dead Man Down, alongside Isabelle Huppert and Colin Farrell.
In 2014, she appeared as Nadia in Michaël R. Roskam's thriller The Drop, alongside Tom Hardy, Matthias Schoenaerts, and James Gandolfini. In September 2014, she was the subject of the short film A Portrait of Noomi Rapace, directed by artist and designer Aitor Throup and scored by Flying Lotus. In the same year, Rapace appeared in the video for the single "Eez-eh" by Kasabian. In 2015, she starred as Raisa Demidova in Daniel Espinosa's Child 44 opposite Hardy again (her co-star in The Drop), also starring Gary Oldman, Vincent Cassel, Jason Clarke, and Joel Kinnaman.
She starred in the 2017 spy thriller Unlocked, with Michael Douglas, John Malkovich, Orlando Bloom, and Toni Collette, and the science fiction horror Rupture by Steven Shainberg. In 2017, she led the sci-fi/actioner What Happened to Monday opposite Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe. The same year, Rapace played an elf in the urban action fantasy Bright.
In 2019, Rapace starred in the action thriller film Close, released on Netflix on 18 January 2019. That same year, Rapace starred in the psychological thriller Angel of Mine, and in the television series Jack Ryan. In 2020, Rapace starred in the thriller The Secrets We Keep alongside Kinnaman again (her co-star in Child 44). In 2021, the Icelandic folk horror Lamb premiered at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, where Rapace has the leading role of Maria. Rapace's performance in the film gained significant attention and she won the Best Actress award at the 2021 Sitges Film Festival, and was nominated for the Best Actress award at the 2021 North Texas Film Critics Association. Rapace also has leading roles in the following features The Trip (2021), You Won't Be Alone (2022), and Black Crab (2022).
In May 2022, Rapace was a member of the jury of the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The following year, she appeared in the television series Django (2023), reuniting her with Schoenaerts (her co-star in The Drop). She played the lead role in the television series Constellation (2024) and also portrayed Mother Teresa in the film Mother (2025). In March 2026, she was cast in an undisclosed recurring role in the upcoming live-action adaptation series of the Assassin's Creed video game series.
