What are the best action movies on Netflix? This list may help you find your answer.
Netflix has a huge base of action movies and sometimes you may find yourself endlessly scrolling through titles, not knowing what to watch. This is the list that you can always turn to when you want to watch action movies on Netflix. It will be regularly updated as movies are added or removed from the streaming service.
RELATED: Best Action Movies on HBO Go
Here is the list of best action movies on Netflix right now:
1. In the Line of Fire (1993)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo
Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is a Secret Service veteran agent. He is haunted by his past because he couldn’t save Kennedy. Now, thirty years later, a lunatic named Booth wants to kill the president and Frank doesn’t plan to fail at his job this time.
2. Taxi (1998)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Directors: Gérard Pirès
Starring: Samy Naceri, Frédéric Diefenthal, Marion Cotillard
Daniel is a very talented taxi driver with a heavily modified vehicle. He doesn’t care about the rules and he is constantly breaking traffic laws. When finally caught, Daniel must help the police inspector to catch German bank robbers who always run away with fast cars.
3. The Bourne Series (2002-2007)
Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller
Directors: Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum)
Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen
The Bourne film series is about a CIA assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) who is suffering from memory loss and trying to figure out who he is. The use of real stunt work instead of computer-generated imagery in action scenes is something that distinguished this action series from many others.
In The Bourne Identity (2002), the first movie of the series, Jason Bourne is found wounded by a fisherman. He can’t remember anything and he is slowly trying to rebuild memory clue by clue. Someone is not happy that he is alive and wants him dead.
The Bourne Supremacy continues with the story. Jason Bourne is living anonymously with his girlfriend, moving from city to city, trying to stay beneath the former agency’s radar since they are still after him.
In The Bourne Ultimatum, which was considered to be the best movie in the series, grossing over $440 million worldwide, Jason Bourne is one more step closer to finding out how he became an assassin.
4. Spider-Man Trilogy (2002-2007)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, Topher Grace
It is a superhero trilogy directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire which ran from 2002 to 2007.
In the first movie of the series Spider-Man (2002), a nerdy teenager Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider which gives him superhuman abilities. When his uncle Ben is murdered, he is driven to use his abilities for protecting people. The movie grossed over $820 million worldwide.
Spider-Man 2 (2004) is set two years after the events in the first movie. In this one, Spider-Man must stop a villain, Dr. Otto Octavius. The film won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Spider-Man 3 (2007) is the third and final installment in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. This time Peter Parker faces multiple enemies. It’s the highest-grossing film in the trilogy, but at the same time with the lowest IMDb score.
5. S.W.A.T. (2003)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
Director: Clark Johnson
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez
A SWAT team led by Hondo (Jackson) needs to escort a drug lord to prison. The problem is that he publicly offered $100 Million to anyone who rescues him. This will make the task almost impossible to carry out.
6. The Rundown (2003)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Director: Peter Berg
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken
The Rundown (also known as Welcome to the Jungle) is one of the best Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson movies. He plays a “retrieval expert” hired by mobster Billy Walker to bring home his son from Brazil. He needs the money to open a restaurant and get out of the bounty hunter business. The problem is that the boss’s son doesn’t want to go back. A lot of action and a lot of comedy in this one.
7. Four Brothers (2005)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Director: John Singleton
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin
When their mother is gunned down in a grocery store, four adopted brothers decide to investigate the murder. What they thought to be a random killing will turn out to be a planned execution. Brothers are now determined to find the criminals and take them down.
8. The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012)
Genre: Action, Adventure
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Heath Ledger, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway
Known as The Dark Knight Trilogy, a set of three Christopher Nolan Batman movies, is widely considered to be one of the best of all time.
Batman Begins (2005) tells the original story about Bruce Wayne. It begins with the death of his parents after which he left Gotham and eventually ended up training under the League of Shadows, with Ra’s al Ghul. The same group will turn out to be his main enemy because of their plan to wipe out Gotham city.
In the second installment, The Dark Knight (2008), Batman is up against the criminal mastermind known as Joker (Heath Ledger). The film won an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and Ledger was posthumously awarded Best Supporting Actor.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) is the third and final film in Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The story is set eight years after the events of The Dark Knight. Batman will return to Gotham with the help of Catwoman to fight Cane, his biggest nemesis yet, who has taken over the city.
Grossing over $1.084 billion, it is Nolan’s highest-grossing film.
9. 300 (2006)
Genre: Action
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham
King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans go into the Battle of Thermopylae against 300,000 Persian soldiers led by “God-King” Xerxes. They manage to block the narrow passage Thermopylae for days, preventing Persians to pass. However, Ephialtes, who was rejected from joining the Spartans, will show Xerxes a secret goat passage as his way of revenge. The story will end with an epic last stand of the finest Spartan soldiers who are aware of their fate.
10. Ninja Assassin (2009)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Director: James McTeigue
Starring: Rain, Rick Yune, Naomie Harris
Europol investigator Mika discovers that a group of ninja assassins is killing some politicians. Now she is being hunted by the assassins, but a mysterious ninja Raizo is protecting her. Raizo was part of the same group of ninja assassins trained by the Ozunu clan. He turned back on them because they killed a young kunoichi named Kiriko and now he seeks revenge. The two will team up in the fight against ninja assassins.
11. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Director: Patrick Tatopoulos
Starring: Rhona Mitra, Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy
This is the third movie in the Underworld franchise and also a prequel to the first movie Underworld. It’s about the origin of hundreds of years old feud between vampires and Lycans. A young Lucian will rise up to lead the werewolves against the vampire king.
12. Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller
It is the fourth installment in the Resident Evil film series and a direct sequel to Resident Evil: Extinction (2007). In a virus-infected world, Alice (Milla Jovovich) continues to search for survivors and lead them to safety, while still being on a mission to destroy Umbrella Corporation.
13. Man of Steel (2013)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon
This Superman reboot follows the main character’s origin story. Young Clark Kent will learn that he has superpowers and as he is getting older, he will discover that he is not from the Earth, but from the planet Krypton. When General Zod from Krypton comes to Earth and becomes a threat to humanity, Superman will assume the role of the protector of mankind.
14. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012-2014)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Jamie Foxx
The Amazing Spider-Man movie series is a reboot of the Spider-Man franchise with a new director and cast. This time the director is Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker. Reboot was a commercial success since both movies grossed over $700 million worldwide.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) is the fourth theatrical Spider-Man film and, as in the original Spider-Man from 2002, Peter Parker gets bitten by a genetically altered spider, acquires powers, and needs to save the city from a reptilian foe.
In the second installment of the Amazing Spider-Man movie series, New York is under siege by Oscorp and only Spider-Man can defeat him.
15. The Equalizer (2014)
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz
The movie is about a man with a mysterious past who has special skills and who uses them to help the ones victimized by criminals and corrupt cops. After he rescues a prostitute from the mafia, he needs to use all of his skills to fight the mafia’s best killers.
16. Operações Especiais (2015)
Genre: Action, Crime
Director: Tomas Portella
Starring: Cleo, Fabrício Boliveira, Thiago Martins
A group of cops was sent to one of the country’s dangerous towns to lower the crime rate. Newcomer cop Francis (Cléo Pires) must overcome her limits and prove her value among fellow men from college. It’s not long when their enforcement of law starts to annoy everyone, not just the criminals.
17. John Wick (2014) & John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Director: Chad Stahelski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane
In the first movie, John Wick (Reeves), an ex-hitman, will return from retirement not because of a contract, but because of revenge. Some gangsters broke into his home, stole his favorite car, and killed his last gift from his late wife, his puppy. Now the only thing he can think of is retribution. The gangsters will soon find out whose home they broke into, but it will be too late for them.
In the second installment of the series, John Wick is returning to the crime world to repay a debt. Soon enough, he will find out that an enormous bounty has been put on his head and some of the best killers are after the reward.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum was released in 2019 but is not available on Netflix. John Wick: Chapter 4 is scheduled for 2021.
18. Acts of Vengeance (2017)
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller
Director: Isaac Florentine
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Karl Urban, Paz Vega
Antonio Banderas plays a lawyer Frank Valera whose family is killed. First, he subjects himself to beating in a mixed martial arts ring, but when he learns the combat skill, he starts to investigate the family murders by himself. Soon he will face many thugs.
15 Best Action Movies on Netflix According to IMDb
According to IMDb, these are the 15 best action movies on Netflix (from the list above):
- The Dark Knight (2008) – 9.0
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – 8.4
- Batman Begins (2005) – 8.2
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – 8.0
- The Bourne Identity (2002) – 7.9
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004) – 7.7
- 300 (2006) – 7.6
- John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) – 7.5
- John Wick (2014) – 7.4
- Spider-Man (2002) – 7.3
- Spider-Man 2 (2004) – 7.3
- The Equalizer (2014) – 7.2
- In the Line of Fire (1993) – 7.2
- Man of Steel (2013) – 7.0
- Taxi (1998) – 7.0
15 Best Action Movies on Netflix According to Box Office
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – $1.084 billion
- The Dark Knight (2008) – $1.005 billion
- Spider-Man 3 (2007) – $895 million
- Spider-Man (2002) – $825 million
- Spider-Man 2 (2004) – $789 million
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) – $758 million
- Man of Steel (2013) – $668 million
- 300 (2006) – $456 million
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – $444 million
- Batman Begins (2005) – $373 million
- Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) – $300 million
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004) – $291 million
- The Bourne Identity (2002) – $214 million
- S.W.A.T. (2003) – $207 million
- The Equalizer (2014) – $192 million