Few genres benefit from the art form of film as much as the action genre does. More grounded, less explosive genres (like crime, mystery, or drama stories) sometimes work just as well in novel form or as stage plays, for example, as they would in the form of a movie. Yet while there might be some good action-heavy books out there, there’s an argument to be made that action just hits harder when it’s visual, audible, and presented on the big screen.
In celebration of what could be the most cinematic genre out there, here’s an overview of the action genre throughout the decades, and the movies that represent it best. With a mix of classics and newer films, the following is an attempt to rank some of the greatest action-packed movies of all time, with all being essential viewing for fans of the action genre.
25 ‘Fast Five’ (2011)
The Fast and Furious series has turned into a behemoth franchise at this point in time. It began in 2001 and has a 10th entry releasing in May 2023, with the series focusing on illegal street races near the beginning, and then transitioning to more spy/espionage-focused stories in later entries.
Fast Five was the point where the series made that dramatic transition, with far more explosive and over-the-top action, and less street racing than had been seen before. It was instrumental in transforming the series into one of the 21st century’s biggest action-heavy movie franchises so far, and holds up as a series high point.
24 ‘RRR’ (2022)
In a year when some people began to express a certain amount of superhero fatigue, RRR stepped up to the plate and showed the world how modern action blockbusters should work. It fictionalizes the exploits of two Indian revolutionaries (who never actually met in real life), essentially turning the pair into superheroes while showing them teaming up to take on the Crown rule in India during the early 1900s.
It has a lengthy three-hour runtime that nevertheless flies by thanks to good pacing, fantastic action, and a straightforward yet emotionally satisfying story filled with likable heroes and immensely hateable villains. It’s explosive and over-the-top in the best way possible, and was a deserving worldwide success in 2022.
23 ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)
The impact of Avengers: Endgame is only truly felt when one’s seen the majority of the MCU movies that came before it. It was technically the second-last Phase 3 film, but still served as a climax for the first three phases of the MCU as a whole, given it centered on fighting back against Thanos and reversing the damage he caused to the universe at the end of 2018’s Infinity War.
Through a time-travel narrative, it manages to revisit previous films in the series and view them from different perspectives, all before things culminate in the largest superhero battle depicted in the MCU so far. It’s a great finale, earning its huge runtime and setting a high bar that subsequent MCU movies have (so far) failed to match.
22 ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (2007)
Beginning with The Bourne Identity in 2002, the series about Jason Bourne – a CIA assassin struggling to recollect his past – proved hugely influential for the action genre. The first three movies were particularly great, and helped usher in a fresh style of action movies, focusing on grittier, more realistic fights, fast-paced editing, and often shaky camerawork.
It’s a style that certainly doesn’t always get imitated well, but the first three Bourne movies pulled it off. The best of them is likely 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, which wraps up many of the trilogy’s mysteries satisfyingly and makes for a great ending (especially considering 2012’s The Bourne Legacy and 2016’s Jason Bourne weren’t so good).
21 ‘Casino Royale’ (2006)
The James Bond series is one of the longest-running in cinema history, and it’s a vitally important one within the action genre as a whole. For as great as the campier, escapism-heavy entries could be, however, there’s a case to be made that 2006’s Casino Royale is the best of the lot.
It took some inspiration from the aforementioned Bourne movies, with a darker tone and slightly more grounded action. It’s a tough, lean, brutally effective take on James Bond, and ushered Daniel Craig into the titular role in immense style, cementing him as a star and one of the best on-screen Bonds so far.
20 ‘Face/Off’ (1997)
Face/Off is a gloriously wild movie, and easily one of the best action films of the 1990s. Who could resist a movie that sees John Travolta and Nicolas Cage as adversaries who end up swapping faces and getting wrapped up in the other’s life, all the while continuing their violent rivalry that only one can emerge from alive?
It’s also easily the best movie John Woo’s made while directing in Hollywood, with its ridiculous plot that never lets up, entertaining and funny lead performances, and action that’s as silly as it is spectacular. It takes a crazy premise and actually makes it work, becoming a classic of the action genre in the process.
19 ‘Police Story’ (1985)
Truth be told, many Jackie Chan movies could be considered among the best in the action genre. Few martial arts stars have committed themselves with such dedication to their craft and the stunts they do on-screen, with Chan’s earlier movies in particular having awe-inspiring (and painful-looking) stunts and fight scenes constantly.
Few offer quite as much as the original Police Story, though. It’s less comedic than most of Chan’s other Hong Kong action movies, but makes up for it with incredible action sequences, with the climactic fight in a shopping mall being a particularly staggering scene that needs to be seen to be believed.
18 ‘Bullitt’ (1968)
Few action scenes are as consistently reliable as the good old-fashioned car chase, and few action movies deliver car chases like Bullitt does. It’s one of the best-known Steve McQueen movies, and focuses on his character – a San Francisco cop – trying to find the person who killed a witness who was in his protection.
Truth be told, it’s relatively light on action until its climax, but the way it ends is more than enough to make it an all-timer within the genre. Its lengthy car chase in the final act is legendary for how well edited, paced, and shot it is, memorably using the unique layout of San Francisco to its advantage, and is a go-to example of how to make a chase scene exciting.
17 ‘Gladiator’ (2000)
Winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Gladiator was a huge commercial and critical success, and a high point in the careers of its star, Russell Crowe, and its director, Ridley Scott. Its revenge-focused story is a tale as old as time, but it’s the execution and visceral gladiator sequences that make it shine.
It’s all incredibly well-made and easy to get invested in, and also helped kick off a short-lived trend of big-budget historical action epics (like Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, and arguably even 300). Few were anywhere near as good as Gladiator, though, and as a throwback to the Hollywood epics of old, it works amazingly well.
16 ‘The Raid 2’ (2014)
Make no mistake: The Raid (2011) was a fantastic and brutal martial arts movie. It largely took place inside a single apartment complex, following a SWAT team getting trapped inside and forced to fight their way out or risk certain death. Its 2014 sequel, however, escalated things to a whole other level, and was somehow even better.
It had a larger scale and a more complex story revolving around a gang war, but made sure to keep the action frequent and consistently exciting. Like the first, sequences in it prove absolutely brutal to watch, meaning it’s likely not an action movie for all… but those who can handle some fairly grisly on-screen violence should make checking out both films a priority.
15 ‘Hard Boiled’ (1992)
While Face/Off might well be John Woo’s best American film, he also made numerous films in Hong Kong that are just as good, or arguably even better as action movies. The Killer (1989) might have the best and most emotional story of all his Hong Kong movies, but it’s 1992’s Hard Boiled that delivers the best and most explosive action.
Its simple plot about two cops taking on a large criminal gang gives plenty of excuses for huge action sequences to occur, with the largest of all taking up much of the final act. Plenty of slow motion, thousands of bullets fired, and a body count in the hundreds all make Hard Boiled one of the biggest and most exciting shoot-em-up action movies of all time.
14 ‘Enter the Dragon’ (1973)
Bruce Lee’s tragically early death meant that he only got to be the lead in a handful of films in his brief yet impactful career as a martial arts actor. Those films still manage to deliver plenty of action paired with Lee’s natural charisma, with the best of all his movies being his final completed film: Enter the Dragon.
It was released one month after he passed away, and though scenes he shot for Game of Death ended up in that 1978 film, it didn’t feel complete or as satisfying overall as Enter the Dragon. Martial arts movies don’t get much better than this, with a plot about a martial arts tournament that expands into something more, with the film serving as a perfect showcase for what made the late Bruce Lee so great.
13 ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ (2023)
As far as modern-day action franchises go, few do it better than the John Wick series does. The films may have some flaws, but they shine brighter than the vast majority of modern-day action movies, with increasingly creative fight and chase sequences throughout, and excellent stunt work that’s often presented with minimal editing or close-up shots designed to hide imperfections.
And it’s hard not to admire a series that continually gets better and more exciting with its action set pieces, culminating with the remarkable (and epic-length) John Wick: Chapter 4. If it’s the last viewers see of Wick and his adventures, it’s a great note to end on, with the final hour of the movie in particular delivering one thrilling and off-the-wall action sequence after another.
12 ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ (2018)
Alongside the John Wick series, the Mission: Impossible franchise has also done a great job at continuing to get better with pretty much every new release. Anticipation is high for what comes next, but the high point of the series at this stage is arguably the sixth film in the Tom Cruise-led franchise: 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
It doesn’t offer much new narratively, with the kind of twisty spy story fans of the series are likely familiar with, but benefits from having great action and awe-inspiring stunts. And it’s hard not to be impressed by how Cruise does increasingly crazy things in each new movie – he may be getting older, but you sure can’t tell from watching him in something like Fallout.
11 ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
The Dark Knight is the middle chapter in Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy. It’s easily the best of the three, delivering the most consistently thrilling action and the best story of the lot, with a tense crime/thriller narrative pairing perfectly well with the grand-scale superhero action.
And it does all this while having the main villain be one of Batman’s least physically imposing villains: The Joker, here played by the late and legendary Heath Ledger. The psychological torment and chaos he causes keep things moving at a non-stop pace, with unpredictable turns in the narrative making this both a great crime saga and a fantastic action/thriller.
10 ‘The Matrix’ (1999)
Movies that combine action and science-fiction rarely get more iconic than the first Matrix film from 1999. It plunges its protagonist – and the audience – into a battle for humanity, as much of the population has been enslaved in a virtual reality by machines, with only a select few people knowing the truth, and fighting to break everyone free.
The look of the film and its characters – as well as the iconic slow-motion action scenes – have all been referenced and parodied to death, but that wouldn’t have happened if The Matrix wasn’t great to begin with. Its sequels proved to be more divisive, but few can argue against the original being one of the best action movies of the last few decades.
9 ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991)
Seven years after the original film, James Cameron returned to the Terminator series with a movie that blew what came before out of the water. And that’s no easy task, considering 1984’s The Terminator was a low-budget classic… yet 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day upped the stakes and the scale considerably.
You can see where all the money in this film’s increased budget went, and all the big action sequences are still stunning enough to hold up to this day. At its core, it’s also a surprisingly heartwarming story about the bond that forms between a machine and a young boy who just so happens to be instrumental in the coming war between the human race and the all-powerful Skynet.
8 ‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)
By paying homage to old martial arts movies, samurai films, and Westerns, Quentin Tarantino made one of the best revenge movies of all time with the two-part Kill Bill. However, when it comes to action, Vol. 1 stands as the best of the two, given that that’s where most of the large-scale fight sequences occur, and the second leans heavier into the Western side of things.
The climax of Vol. 1 sees Uma Thurman’s character taking on a small army of gangsters inside a Tokyo restaurant, with the result being one of the bloodiest and most spectacular fight sequences of all time. It might be the single most violent scene in any Tarantino movie, and that’s certainly saying something.
7 ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981)
Steven Spielberg is a filmmaker who can seemingly master any genre, with Raiders of the Lost Ark being the clearest indicator of how well he can do action/adventure movies. It’s the first film to feature Indiana Jones in what’s become a long-running series, and it’s one instance where the original is still the best.
It helped make Harrison Ford even more of a star than he’d already become thanks to Star Wars, and its old-fashioned thrills and pulpy, action-packed storyline still ensure it’s a hugely enjoyable movie. Globe-trotting action/adventure movies don’t get much better than Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it’s hard to imagine another similar film ever topping it.
6 ‘First Blood’ (1982)
The Rambo series has become synonymous with excessive, over-the-top action, but its beginnings were surprisingly humble. First Blood is the first film to feature John Rambo, and it’s easily the best, with a down-to-earth story focusing on a veteran suffering from PTSD and sent on the run because of a villainous Sheriff.
It’s fairly serious stuff, especially considering the direction the series went in, but also functions well as an action/thriller movie. The body count is low, and the story is personal and grounded, but that keeps it easier to get invested in, and also ensures the action is genuinely impactful when it does come around.