Last Updated: February 7th
Nothing gets your blood pumping like a good action movie, and whether you prefer CGI-filled spectacles, meticulously-crafted fight sequences, or just a bunch of things going “Boom!” Netflix’s film library has got you covered. Here are the 20 best action movies on Netflix streaming right now, so grab some popcorn and enjoy.
1. The Dark Knight (2008)
Run Time: 152 min | IMDb: 9.0/10
The second film in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is undoubtedly its best. Not only does Christian Bale fully immerse himself in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, playing the tortured-billionaire-turned-vigilante with a singular conviction, the film also boasts Heath Ledger’s Joker, a maniacal villain worthy of sharing the screen with our hero. The film marks one of Ledger’s final roles before his death, but it’s a viscerally gripping portrait of a man burdened by past trauma and driven by his madness for chaos and destruction. Sure, we’re all rooting for Batman to win, but we can’t deny the fun in seeing Ledger blow sh*t up for two-plus hours.
2. Casino Royale (2006)
Run Time: 144 min | IMDb: 8/10
Casino Royale marks Daniel Craig’s first James Bond entry, but he plays the suave MI6 agent like he’s been doing it for decades. The film gives fans of the spy franchise a soft reset, as we’re introduced to the new Bond when he sets off on his first mission as 007. Bond’s tasked with catching a private banker funding terrorist operations by beating him in a high-stakes game of poker in Montenegro, and he’s joined by Vesper Lynd (a terrific Eva Green), an MI6 accountant with a secret that threatens to derail the mission and may cost Bond his life.
3. The Harder They Fall (2021)
Run Time: 130 min | IMDb: 6.2/10
Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Regina King, Zazie Beetz, and LaKeith Stanfield star in this slick, stylish Western from relative newcomer Jeymes Samuel. Majors plays a vengeful outlaw who decides to track down his longtime enemy (Elba) when he learns he’s been busted out of prison. The two men assemble their respective gangs for a dusty, lawless cat-and-mouse game set to a soundtrack from Jay-Z.
4. The Town (2010)
Run Time: 125 min | IMDb: 7.5/10
Ben Affleck writes, directs, and stars in this gritty heist film set in his hometown of Boston. Affleck plays Doug, a master thief planning his greatest, and last heist who becomes distracted by a romantic relationship with a bank manager he met on his last job (Rebecca Hall). As Doug and his crew orchestrate a heist involving Red Sox stadium, a dogged FBI agent played by Jon Hamm closes in.
5. Blade Runner (1982)
Run Time: 117 min | IMDb: 8.1/10
Ridley Scott’s wildly inventive sci-fi series has spawned a sequel or two, but the original film is still a ridiculously fun watch. That’s because Harrison Ford is at the top of his game playing burnt-out cop Rick Deckard, a guy recruited to hunt down replicas in a noir-like future — L.A., 2019. Scott obviously had a better imagination than tech could keep up with because there are bioengineered humanoids and spinners (flying cars) and high-tech polygraph tests, but it’s Ford’s inner struggle and the insane action sequences that really fuel the film.
6. Extraction (2020)
Run Time: 116 min | IMDb: 6.8/10
Chris Hemsworth gets back in the action with this Russo brothers-produced crime flick about a black market mercenary who accepts a deadly mission that throws him into the chaotic underworld of weapons dealers and drug traffickers. Hemsworth’s antihero type doesn’t mind doing bad sh*t for good money, but when he sells his skills to an imprisoned international crime lord who tasks him with rescuing his kidnapped son, the job quickly spirals into a life-threatening race against the clock. There’s a reason we dubbed this movie a “smorgasbord of pure ass-kicking” guys. Trust us, the fight sequences are insane.
7. 300 (2006)
Run Time: 117 min | IMDb: 7.7/10
Zack Snyder’s visionary war epic is filled with shirtless hunks and stylistic action sequences done in a way we haven’t seen on film before. The film follows Gerard Butler’s character, a Spartan king named Leonidas, as he leads 300 brave soldiers to fight the Persian Empire hoping to destroy his homeland. Most of the film details the unforgiving violence these warriors have grown up around, with young boys being literally thrown to the wolves to test their toughness before being invited to join the legendary Spartan army. Snyder makes sure to get every blood-spatter and knife-plunge on screen, usually in saturated frames and slo-mo sequences.
8. Mr. Right (2015)
Run Time: 95 min | IMDb: 6.3/10
You’ve probably never heard of this rom-com starring Anna Kendrick and Sam Rockwell, which is a damn shame because the two have great chemistry on screen and the plot’s just quirky enough to feel refreshingly different from anything else on this list. Kendrick plays Martha, a woman reeling from a bad break-up and searching for direction in her life who meets Rockwell’s Francis, a hitman who targets his own employers and is on the run from a nasty government agent (and excellent Tim Roth). There’s a ton of action, more than you’d expect for a romantic comedy, and both Kendrick and Rockwell kick some serious ass. It’s weird, but in a fun way, ya know?
9. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Run Time: 115 min | IMDb: 8/10
Who was Matt Damon before he was Jason Bourne? We’re really not sure. The actor reprised his leading man role in the third film of the action series, playing a psychogenic amnesiac still searching for clues about his true identity and his involvement in a secret assassin program. Of course, in this film, he’s also on the run from another group of similarly-trained killers. The Bourne series’ storyline isn’t revolutionary – Damon does a bunch of stunts but doesn’t feel any closer to figuring things out by the end of the film – but it’s his character’s daredevil antics and genetically-enhanced abilities to kick ass that are the real draw here.
10. Outside The Wire (2021)
Run Time: 114 min | IMDb: 5.2/10
Anthony Mackie plays an android officer on a secret mission to stop a nuclear attack in this futuristic military drama. Mackie’s Leo represents a new breed of super-soldier, a governmental experiment meant to save human lives, but when he’s paired up with an inexperienced drone pilot who doesn’t trust his kind, the two have a lot more to worry about than just enemy militia and armed terrorists.
11. Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Run Time: 154 min | IMDb: 6.9/10
Any Spike Lee joint is worth a watch, but this genre-bending thriller about a group of black Vietnam War vets returning to the battlefield decades later feels especially timely. That’s because Lee manages to shed light on a little-known part of our shared history: the way our country treated Black soldiers returning from the war, but he also raises the stakes with a subplot that includes a buried treasure hunt and a heartwrenching mission to retrieve the remains of a fallen comrade. The cast, which includes Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman, is brilliant, the story is gripping, and there’s enough slow-building action to keep you on edge.
12. Troy (2004)
Run Time: 303 min | IMDb: 7.2/10
This Eric Bana and Brad Pitt starring epic reinvents an infamous Greek tale. The Battle of Troy began because some spoiled-ass dude (Orlando Bloom in this one) decided to run away with another man’s wife. Helen of Troy was supposedly the most gorgeous woman to ever exist, but let’s be real, men will jump at any excuse to fight in leather skirts with swords. The story’s a bit meh, but watching Pitt slash his way through enemies and take on Bana in an emotionally-charged showdown makes it worth it.
13. Ip Man (2008)
Run Time: 106 min | IMDb: 8/10
In a town filled with aspiring martial artists, the best of the best is Ip Man, a father and husband who just wants to keep his quiet way of life even in the midst of the Japanese occupation of China. In discovering that sometimes fighting is the only way to keep the peace, Ip inspires many by taking a stand during war-torn times. As a subtle reflection on war mixed with a healthy dose of fast-paced, mesmerizing combat, Ip Man is actually based on the real life of Yip Man, the grand master who trained Bruce Lee.
14. Rush (2013)
Run Time: 123 min | IMDb: 8.1/10
Ron Howard doesn’t get enough credit for crafting this truly thrilling high-speed biopic about one of the most infamous rivalries in Formula One history. The racing scenes alone are heart-pounding, but the true story behind the back-and-forth on the track is even more interesting. Chris Hemsworth plays James Hunt, a British pro who enjoys his wild-partying lifestyle. Daniel Bruhl plays Niki Lauda, a brilliant and calculated driver who challenges him on the course and off. It’s high-octane drama at its finest.
15. The Old Guard (2020)
Run Time: 125 min | IMDb: 6.7/10
Charlize Theron leads the cast of this inventive take on the traditional comic book movie. She plays an ancient, immortal warrior named Andy who leads a group of mercenaries that have been operating in the shadows for centuries. When the head of a Big Pharma company learns of their existence, he tries to weaponize their ability to cheat death, which causes big problems for the group and its newest member, a former Marine questioning her unique gifts.
16. Looper (2012)
Run Time: 119 min | IMDb: 7.4/10
Rian Johnson directs this time-traveling thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. JGL plays Joe, a hitman hired by a crime syndicate that exists in the future. The mob sends victims to the past where Joe murder them. The only problem? His next target is himself, an older version anyway played by Willis, that the mob wants him to kill in order to “close the loop.” Instead, both Joes work together to bring down the man in charge known as The Rainmaker by searching for his younger self in JGL Joe’s timeline. It’s a bit of a mind f*ck but the action is top-notch.
17. Triple Frontier (2019)
Run Time: 125 min | IMDb: 6.5/10
Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal play a group a former special ops bros who reunite to take down an infamous cartel kingpin and steal his profits in the process. Isaac and Affleck look to be the leaders of the team, two men fed up with risking their necks for a country that doesn’t look after them once they’re back on home soil, and Isaac’s A Most Violent Year director J.C. Chandor is at the helm, which means a couple of plot twists and some high stakes action are in store.
18. I Am Legend (2007)
Run Time: 101 min | IMDb: 7.2/10
Will Smith stars in this post-apocalyptic action flick, playing Robert Neville, the sole survivor living in New York City after a terrible plague wipes out most of humanity, and turns some into zombie-like monsters driven to hunt humans at night. The first half of the movie is fairly quiet as we see Neville go about his daily routine, hunting stag on the streets of NYC and doing experiments in his lab, but once he has a run-in with the creatures inhabiting the city’s sewers — and a couple of unexpected visitors arrive on his doorstep — the action really ramps up.
19. Thunder Force (2021)
Run Time: 106 min | IMDb: 4.4/10
Melissa McCarthy is the queen of physical comedy and she throws all of her weight into this role, playing a woman who accidentally injects herself with a serum that grants her super-strength. She partners with Octavia Spencer, who plays a scientist, and her former friend, as the two take on a new crop of super villains — hopefully without making an even bigger mess of things.
20. Leon: The Professional (1994)
Run Time: 110 min | IMDb: 8.5/10
A very young Natalie Portman steals pretty much every scene she’s in, in this Luc Besson action movie about a professional hitman and the child he accidentally adopts. Jean Reno plays Leon, the assassin in question who takes in Mathilda (Portman) when her family is murdered. He slowly teaches her the tricks of his trade but some even more amoral men soon come looking for them.
Recent Changes Through May 2021
Added: Looper, Leon The Professional, Troy, 300, The Town, The Bourne Ultimatum, Blade Runner, The Harder They Fall
Removed: Saving Private Ryan, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Platoon, Snowpiercer, Total Recall, Midnight Special, Defiance, Hardcore Henry
