“Welcome to the party, pal.” Action movies have been thrilling audiences for decades with electrifying moments where the raw power of stunts, fights, and chases reigns supreme. This list of the 100 Greatest Action Movies of All Time is a tribute to the genre’s unrelenting intensity and jaw-dropping spectacle. From skyscraper showdowns to breakneck car pursuits to choreographed mayhem, these movies are built on adrenaline and one-liners to keep you glued to the edge of your seat with every heart-stopping second
What sets these films apart is their commitment to action as the main event. Whether it’s a lone hero defying impossible odds or a team tearing through a battlefield of explosions, these movies deliver the kind of high-energy excitement that defines the genre. Get ready for a countdown of the best action cinema has to offer, where action junkies live by only one motto and that is “Get to the Choppa!!!” No wait, here it is, “For me, the action is the juice.”
These are the 100 Greatest Action Movies of All Time.
80. Ronin (1998)
It’s crazy to me that this is John Frankenheimer’s last great film. After a solid outing in the 60s and 70s with films like The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds, Grand Prix and Black Sunday I feel like his 80s and early 90s output gets lost in the sea of movies of that time. Then along comes Ronin, an action thriller straight out of the 70s, set in current day. It’s got a great car chase that rivals Bullitt and The French Connection.
The international cast is outstanding. You’ve got Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean and Bean as a group of mercenaries out to steal a metallic briefcase, with unknown contents. It’s great. You don’t even know or care what’s in the case, you just know they need to steal it. It’s truly a solid film from an all time great director. Too bad he closed his career out with Reindeer Games before he passed. Although, I gotta say that one is fun too even if it is bad.
–K. Alvarez
79. Black Hawk Down (2001)
The year 2001 brought us a host of either action-packed or just plain ol’ fun films, many of which quickly grew to the stuff of legends (think Fellowship of the Ring, Training Day, or, hell, The Mummy Returns). Among this host sits Ridley Scott’s epic Black Hawk Down, a telling of a singular 1993 battle involving Delta Operators, Army Rangers, and nearly all inhabitants of the Somali city of Mogadishu. We’ve had decades of war flicks prior to this particular one, many of them great, but few that deliver on both the grit and grime of a Vietnam film as well as the (often tragic) heroics of a WWII one. Black Hawk Down offers both while showcasing what Scott does best, bring us a tangible bit of cinema, showing us a world few of us will ever see, and trying very hard not to remind you of all this with too much technical wizardry or grander allusions than are necessary.
Understandably, the film might not be the easiest thing to watch, or even consider it an “action movie.” Watching men war with one another, die needlessly, or show the depravity humanity can devolve into when bloodlust kicks in isn’t pleasing. What makes this a great action flick are the very things that may discomfort some. There is weight to every shot fired, every stumble, every gasp of breath. There are stakes. There are men that you, hopefully, are driven to care for with a meticulous preamble before the real battle kicks off. And these stakes and this weight are backed up by pure and practical filmmaking by Scott (little more needs to be said of this; we live in the current year of cinema after all). War is a brutal action, and, as such, Black Hawk Down delivers where few have managed in the last couple of decades.
–Nokoo
78. Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003)
There are so many different great types of martial arts. Many specific to a particular region or country. And luckily, we’ve gotten many great films highlighting all of the different kinds of martial arts. The Thai discipline of Muaythai is best highlighted in Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior. The plotting and presentation of the film are pretty standard, but Tony Jaa showcasing his Muaythai skills make it all worth it. He throws slow-mo kicks, punches, and elbows to the top of the head. Director Prachya Pinkaew enjoys cutting together various angles of the same stunt to truly hammer home how dope Jaa’s work is.
–Raf Stitt
77. Independence Day (1996)
If you say the plot out loud, Independence Day should be just as absurd as Mars Attacks! After aliens invade earth and destroy all the major cities, one of the invaders telepathically communicates their plans to drain the planet of all its natural resources to the president, Bill Pullman. This, of course, happens at Area 51, where Brent Spiner is the lead scientist of a team that has been studying a crashed UFO for decades. Thankfully, we have Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith to save the day. They board an alien spacecraft to deliver a computer virus to the mothership, which takes out the protective shields on all the smaller city-destroying ships down on Earth. This paves the way for a coordinated worldwide strike that has been organized entirely through Morse Code. And finally, a hungover Randy Quaid sacrifices himself to save a bunch of people, flying a jet into one of the city-destroying ships … while yelling “Up yours!”
It shouldn’t work as a serious film. And yet, it does. I think a big part of it is the magic that happens between Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith, two polar opposite ‘90s icons. Goldblum is awkward, pretentious, and intellectual; Smith is cool, smooth and street-wise. What they have in common is a sort of magnetic quality that keeps you mesmerized while they’re on the screen, no matter what they’re doing. Putting them both into one movie almost seems unfair, really. But it’s not just them. Every character, no matter how small the part, is infused with nuance and adds layers to the story. And no matter how silly some parts of the plot, it still never fails to inspire a feeling of hope for humanity. It’s my go-to movie every year when July rolls around, and I can’t help but get choked up every time I watch it.
–R.J. Mathews
76. Blade (1998)
When Blade came out in 1998 I had no real expectations. I had some vague memories of the character from the old Tomb of Dracula comics, but no real connection or affection for the character beyond that. (I do love me some Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan Dracula comics, though.) I wasn’t expecting much, and I was blown away. It was the first time I’d seen a superhero movie that FELT like a superhero move – at least in the Marvel sense. Superman and Batman were great as well, but with DC films, and those in particular, I always felt a certain distance, a coldness. Don’t get me wrong, I loved those films – Superman in particular – but I’d grown up a Marvel fan, and I felt like Blade upped the action and the drama, gave us a hero with believable flaws and placed him in a world that was like ours, but heightened. The lights were brighter, the shadows darker.
I remember thinking, “damn, maybe we’re finally on the cusp of making some decent Marvel superhero films.” And we were. X-Men in 2000, Spider-Man in 2002 and Iron Man in 2008. Everything since then (DC films included). Would any of them have happened had Blade bombed at the box office? Maybe – Spider-Man in particular had a long gestation period – but I think it would have been harder, and budgets might have been tighter. Who knows, really, but I think of Blade as the first film of the modern Marvel cinematic era. For good or bad.
–Bob Cram
75. The Warriors (1979)
If you tried describing The Warriors to someone who’s never seen it, there’s no way you could make it sound as cool as it actually is, because the plot is ridiculous. I mean, New York City was bad in the late 70s, but The Warriors is like a comic book reimagining of what it was like during this time. But despite the silliness of the plot and costumes of the different gangs, there’s not one second of this movie that isn’t played straight. Walter Hill takes his adaption of the Sol Yurick novel as seriously as if the plot were torn from the pages of a newspaper.
From the moment the first images appear onscreen, you’re in a different world. But it’s a cohesive world, with rules. Rules the movie takes seriously. And slowly, you buy into what’s happening. And Hill never gives you a second to overthink things. He keeps his foot on the gas, and by the time you get to the end and the credits are rolling, you are wishing you could go back to that version of NYC and explore around a little more.
Unfortunately, there were no cinematic universes in the 70s, and we never got to see what happened to the Warriors or any of the other wacky street gangs. But maybe it’s better that way, because The Warriors made such an impression on the pop culture, it’s doubtful any sequel or expansion of the world would have lived up to the glorious 92 minutes we get to spend in there.
–William Dhalgren
74. Dredd (2012)
Comic book movies are a lot of things. They’re good. They’re bad. They’re boring. They’re thrilling. They’re drab. They’re colorful. Dredd is a comic book movie. It fits some of those adjectives and actively repulses others.
Released in 2012 and written (and more than likely directed) by Alex Garland, Dredd brings us The Dark Knight of a Judge Dredd adaptation. Gone is the spandex of Stallone’s 1995 adaptation and the goofy humor (both of which are firmly in the comics before anyone tries to besmirch Judge Dredd as a bad movie for such reasons) and in their place ultra violence and ultra sincerity to the point of being proper satire and still, technically, comic accurate for the purists out there.
Hunkered under that iconic helmet this go-around is Karl Urban in a role that has quickly shifted into cult status. Dispatching justice and scowling every frame in which he does so, Urban’s Judge Dredd, the super cop of the not-so-far future, harkens to a more pure action hero. He has a moral code, an extreme one, and the proficiency with which to enforce it. The lean film surrounding our hero also harkens back to a more pure bit of action cinema, one not bogged down by extended universes or convoluted premises. Scumbags are somewhere doing scumbag things and one man is there to stop it all. Stopping all the scumbaggery happens to be a visual treat, a psychedelic bit of bloody euphoria that still puts your TV setup to work.
The shame of it is that Dredd, relatively cheap to produce, never got a sequel where so many movies of the day got one too many. The cult for this one lives on and there is news of a series in the works, but as with all things: be careful what you wish for.
–Nokoo
73. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Loosely adapting the Civil War storyline by Mark Millar from the comics, the third Captain America movie pitted the fan-favorite Avengers against one another, using the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron as a catalyst for the MCU’s version of the Superhuman Registration Act: The Sokovia Accords. With Iron Man and Captain America on opposing sides, we saw each hero draft their own team, with the two sides coming to blows in the most ambitious and entertaining setpiece Marvel Studios had ever attempted at the time. However, the highlight of Civil War will always be that final fight between Stark and Cap. The “I’m sorry Tony, but he’s my friend” / “So was I” exchange, I mean, c’mon, just drive the stake deeper into my heart, Marvel! With plenty of action to go around (and the MCU debut of Spider-Man), Captain America: Civil War is more worthy of its place on this list.
–Marmaduke Karlston
72. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)
For a time, Kingsman was right behind Back to the Future as my second-favorite movie of all time. I mean, I absolutely loved what Matthew Vaughn brought to the screen here, from Taron Egerton’s star-making performance to Colin Firth playing against type as the gentleman spy who taught us that “manners maketh man.” Of course, those who have seen The Secret Service will know that this movie is on this list for one amazing reason: the church scene, where Valentine first tests his violence-inducing signal, leading to one of the greatest action scenes ever put to film, as we watched Firth’s Harry Hart dispose of an entire churchfull of racists in an array of ways. When the last body had dropped, one thing was clear: we had just witnessed the birth of a new action franchise.
–Marmaduke Karlston
71. Starship Troopers (1997)
Aliens, explosions, Denise Richards, and brainless entertainment are what will draw you to Starship Troopers. What’s not to like? The scathing political satire, comedy, and gripping action will keep you coming back. The story follows a group of young soldiers enlisted to fight in the ‘bug war’. It starts off as a kooky high school drama with love triangles and other standard tropes. But once the troops go to war, it’s all-out action, with lots of great (and gory) fighting, along with some fun characters to invest in. If you’ve never seen Starship Troopers or haven’t watched it in a long time, a viewing comes highly recommended.
–Lee McCutcheon
70. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
Imagine Jason Bourne with a holiday twist (and he’s also a hot mom), and I give you The Long Kiss Goodnight. A 90s action-thriller with plenty of dark humor and punch starring Geena Davis as a sweet, small-town mom and schoolteacher who has lost all memory of her past. As Christmas approaches, strange flashes of her old life begin to surface, leading her and a low-rent private eye, Mitch (Samuel L. Jackson), on a relentless journey to uncover her true identity. Soon, Samantha learns she’s not just any suburban mom—she’s a highly trained government assassin with a high kill count and a bad attitude. If you are looking to add to your action-packed holiday fun, The Long Kiss Goodnight is a fun and underrated addition.
–Vincent Kane
69. The Blade (1995)
The Blade is a radical reimagining of the classic 1967 Shaw Brothers film One-Armed Swordsman. Gritty, chaotic, and deeply stylized, The Blade breaks away from the elegance and romanticism of traditional wuxia cinema, offering instead a visceral experience that leaves the viewer feeling like they just got physically and emotionally wrecked. It’s one of the boldest martial arts films of the 1990s and remains a cult classic among genre aficionados. If your knowledge of the genre begins and ends with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you aren’t ready for the insane and brutal choreography on display.
What sets this film apart from others in the genre is the fact that it feels like an anti-action movie. Rather than glorifying combat, The Blade dwells on its consequences: mutilation, madness, and alienation. The choreography is grounded and brutal, often eschewing wide, elegant shots for claustrophobic, kinetic ones. This approach reflects Tsui Hark’s broader deconstruction of wuxia mythology, interrogating the very ideals of heroism and masculinity that defined earlier eras of the genre. What Sam Peckinpah did for the Western with The Wild Bunch, Hark is doing for action with The Blade. While not a commercial hit on its release, The Blade has grown in stature over the years. Its bleak, postmodern aesthetic would influence later martial arts films and even directors outside Asia, who admired its willingness to subvert genre expectations.
–Sailor Monsoon
68. Blade Runner (1982)
I don’t even remember when or where I first saw Blade Runner, but I remember distinctly the moment it laid hold of me. It’s Los Angeles, 2019. Some kind of flying car zooms over a city that seems endless, with flames bursting into the sky. A massive, ziggurat-like skyscraper looms into view… Yeah, that’s the opening scene. It had me right then, with the Vangelis soundtrack lending it all an odd, almost casual feel. Just another day in the future, where replicants hate being asked about turtles on their backs and broken detectives eat noodles in the neon, neo-noir night. Where genetic engineers make living toys and super soldiers question their planned obsolescence. It didn’t pander, it didn’t explain, it raised all sorts of uncomfortable questions about what it means to be human and it made me wish the bad guy hadn’t died. It was the greatest science-fiction movie I’d ever seen. It may still be.
–Bob Cram
67. Police Story (1985)
I was introduced to Police Story by my friend and (at the time) co-worker Christopher Mills, sometime in the early 90s. He was flabbergasted that I hadn’t seen a Jackie Chan movie before, and set about correcting this obvious defect in my film habits. I started out affecting a certain world-weary boredom, but by the time the first action set piece got going – a set of stunts featuring a car chase through a hillside shanty town – I was sold. I think I may have asked him to rewind, so I could watch it again. Jackie and his Stunt Team turned every fight into a thrill ride, every chase into a rollercoaster. All of it in camera, with no cutaways. That’s Jackie holding on to a bus using an umbrella. That’s him again jumping off a fifth story balcony and riding all the way down a lighting pole. His Stunt Teams is just as enthusiastic and gung-ho, matching him stunt for stunt (and injury for injury). They broke so much glass during the final scenes in a shopping mall that the production started calling the movie Glass Story. Stick around for the credits, where you get to see just how dangerous and painful the stunts were.
As amazing as all the stunt work is – and I’m telling you, it’s AMAZING – the movie is also just plain fun. Jackie knew he’d never pull off the serious, center of the whirlwind sort of personality that Bruce Lee has. Instead of standing there and waving his fingers in a “come on” gesture, Jackie is stumbling through the action, just trying to survive. He’s always defending, rarely attacking, and most fight scenes are a master class in physical comedy as well as choreography. At a time when most movie action heroes were physically imposing bad-asses with flat expressions and one-liners in the place of personalities, Jackie Chan is an everyman goofball of a hero. It just so happens that he’s a goofball with incredible martial arts skills.
Jackie has since gone on to become a beloved world-wide movie star, and he’s been in a ton of different kinds of films. Police Story will always be my favorite, however, because it’s the first one I ever saw. I’ll never forget how awe inspiring and funny the film was. And still is.
–Bob Cram
66. 13 Assassins (2010)
There have been dozens upon dozens of Seven Samurai knock-offs, but leave it to the insane genius behind Audition and Ichi the Killer to make the best one. Technically a remake of a 1963 film of the same name, Miike’s hyper-violent samurai action flick is clearly inspired by Kurosawa’s masterpiece. The first half is a deliberately paced drama that brings all the characters together and sets up the stakes, but once all the talky talk is over, it’s a non-stop action thrill ride. The last 45 minutes of this film are about as good as action films get. The scope of the last battle is truly ambitious. The fight scenes are expertly choreographed, and the pace is unrelenting. It’s a huge set piece made up of smaller set pieces that are all amazing. The fact that Miike directs at least 2 films a year is insane. For anyone else, this would be their crowning achievement, but for Miike, it’s just another film.
–Sailor Monsoon
65. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
Having avenged his wife’s passing in the first film, John Wick is once again trying to return to a quiet life. However, an old enemy shows up at his doorstep with something he cannot refuse: a marker, a blood pact promising he would fulfill whatever is asked of him. His refusal is immediate, and so are the consequences. John Wick: Chapter 2 is not a typical sequel, but rather serves as a setup and jumping off point for the franchise as a whole. While this film doesn’t have the emotional core of the first movie, it more than makes up for it in world-building and incredible action scenes. The mirror fight scene is absolutely jaw-dropping, using clever camera angles to shoot a stunning fight scene with no cameramen in sight in the numerous reflections. The ending too is magnificent, setting up a third movie that feels earned and not just another title in a string of releases.
–Valerie Morreale
64. Oldboy (2003)
I was spoiled about Oldboy pretty early on, and I avoided watching the film for the longest time as a result. I was ready to dismiss it as simply exploitation cinema, a film violent and transgressive for its own sake. That does the film a major disservice. Yes, it’s violent and transgressive, but it’s so much more than that. It’s Oedipus by way of John Woo (or, more accurately, by way of Park Chan-wook). It’s a morality play with hammers. It’s a classic tragedy with live octopi. I think you should watch Oldboy at least twice. The first time through the visceral nature of the film is overwhelming, and you may be left with only memories of brutality and misery. Watching it again you’ll be able to appreciate the emotion of the film, as operatic as it is at times. You may even pick up on mythological touches that Park Chan-wook has peppered throughout the film. Or you may just watch that scene in the hallway and go “holy shit.”
–Bob Cram
63. The Bourne Identity (2002)
The concept is killer. The star power is undeniable. The shooting and editing of the action sequences inspired about a decade of cheap imitations. But the tight shot shaky camera quick edit style of capturing action sequences here isn’t just a gimmick to be replicated across the board. It’s integral to the understanding of the story. There’s an inherent frantic energy in The Bourne Identity surrounding Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne and his amnesia. It’s an incredibly fun ride going on the journey of self-rediscovery with him.
–Raf Stitt
62. Casino Royale (2006)
James Bond is a fixture of my childhood, a regular feature on weekend afternoons on cable. I never took any of the Bond movies seriously, and they never really asked me to. (Except for Timothy Dalton, and I never really enjoyed those films.) The suave, debonair and oh-so British super-spy was a live-action cartoon for me – enjoyable, no doubt, but not something I could ever take seriously. Whatever else you can say about the (admittedly uneven) series of Bond films starring Daniel Craig, they DO want you to take 007 seriously. Or at least as seriously as any action movie character. Especially in this, his first outing.
Craig’s version of Bond is rough around the edges, flawed, and almost casually brutal. When he wears a tuxedo it just feels wrong, like putting a costume on an attack dog. In the effort to return the character to its roots in the Flemming novels the filmmakers could easily have turned James Bond into an emotionless killing machine, a British reflection of the ’80s American action hero. Luckily Craig is a much better actor than that and leavens the casual violence with an emotional core. As enjoyable as the film is as a whole, the scene I remember most clearly is the one in which James comforts a shaken Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in the shower, sitting down in the water fully dressed, his enormous frame dwarfing the shivering woman. Craig made you believe this beast, more charismatic than handsome, had a heart in there somewhere. And made you believe it could be broken.
–Bob Cram
61. Demolition Man (1993)
Demolition Man is a testosterone-fueled romp of over-the-top thrills, razor-sharp satire, and pure ‘90s bravado as Sylvester Stallone stars as a rogue cop thawed out from cryo-prison in a dystopian 2032. He must hunt the unhinged psychopathic killer played by Wesley Snipes, who delivers in one of his greatest roles.
What makes Demolition Man stand tall among action classics is its secret weapon — the brain beneath the brawn. It attacks and downright predicts the future from corporate control (hello, Taco Bell monopoly) to societal sanitization and political correctness, all while Stallone and Snipes chew the scenery like it’s their last meal. Their chemistry is electric while adding Sandra Bullock’s plucky self as the perfect foil, and you’ve got a movie that’s as funny as it is action-packed. Although we still haven’t figured out what the three seashells do.
–Vincent Kane
100-81 | 60-41
What are some of your favorite action movies? Maybe they will show up later in the list!