The 50 Best Action Movies of All Time

“Speedy” is a classic from the end of the silent film era. It follows Harold “Speedy” Swift, a clever and resourceful man who is chronically losing jobs but always finds a way to get by. He must step in and help his girlfriend’s grandfather fight off a corrupt streetcar magnate who is attempting to destroy the family horse carriage business. The movie is filled with plenty of silent film shenanigans and is considered to be the first film to show a character giving the middle finger.

“Captain Blood” is the story of an enslaved doctor and his fellow prisoners who escape captivity on a Caribbean island and become infamous pirates. The black-and-white film is based on a 1922 novel of the same name by author Rafael Sabatini. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland launched their careers starring in the film and would once again play an onscreen couple in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” in 1938.

Buster Keaton directed and starred in this 1920s action-comedy about a sea voyage gone very wrong. Keaton plays the wealthy Rollo Treadway, a man who plans a honeymoon cruise to Honolulu. When his bride-to-be rejects his marriage proposal, he decides to go on the trip alone. However, he mistakenly boards a ship headed for a warzone in an unnamed small country. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress.

Based on the true story of the Great Locomotive Chase, the film is another action-comedy starring and (co-)directed by Buster Keaton. During the American Civil War, a group of Union sympathizers commandeered a train in Georgia, driving it northward and doing as much damage as they could to the railroad. Confederate forces pursued them via foot, horse, and locomotive. The silent film was a flop when it was first released in 1926 but is now considered a classic and has been entered into the U.S. Library of Congress.

The three-part origin story of “X-Men” antihero and icon, Wolverine concludes with “Logan.” Hugh Jackman reprises his role as the gritty and cynical hero, whose mutations and scientific modifications make him nearly unkillable. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart, who plays Professor X, are tied for the Guinness World Record for “longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero,” for their appearances in the X-Men franchise and related movies.

“A Taxi Driver” is a true story based on a book written by German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter. The Korean action film follows Hinzpeter and the taxi driver he hires to help him cover the popular uprising in the Korean city of Gwangju in 1980. The Gwangju Uprising was sparked off in response to authoritarian government forces killing student protestors and became a landmark event that paved the way for democracy in South Korea.

Jet Li starred in and produced this martial arts classic set in 1930s China. Martial arts prodigy Chen Zhen returns from Japan to his home of Shanghai in 1937, when the Japanese Imperial Army controls the city. His life of martial arts is quickly drawn into the politics of the rapidly expanding World War Two. The film is highly praised for its fighting choreography and cinematography.

Lope de Aguirre is a Spanish conquistador on an expedition up the Amazon River to find El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. After disobeying orders and taking control of the group of conquistadores, Aguirre sets out on a descent into madness in the unforgiving jungle. The film was the first of five collaborations between director Werner Herzog and starring actor Klaus Kinski.

The classic anime film follows cyborg public-security agent Major Motoko Kusanagi in 2029 Japan, in a world where technology has allowed the human body to be partly or entirely replaced by mechanical parts. Human conscience (the ghost) can be transferred to an entirely new body (the shell). As the Major is thrown deeper into a convoluted plot, the film focuses on the ideas of identity, consciousness, and control in a world of rapidly advancing technology. “Ghost in the Shell” did well at release and is now considered a cult classic and landmark in animated cinema.

In the 1950s, deep in the paranoia of the Cold War, a young boy stumbles upon a massive robot alien. The two quickly become friends despite barely being able to communicate. However, the giant’s massive size, coupled with his naivety about the world around him, leads a zealous government agent to suspect his existence. The story highlights the potential destruction of innocence in the rabid quest for total safety and military superiority.

“Heroes Rising” is the second film based on the manga “My Hero Academia.” The story is set in a world where superheroes and superpowers are prevalent. Izuku Midoriya is a boy who is born without superpowers but still dreams of becoming a hero. Japan’s greatest hero decides to share his superpower with the boy and soon Izuku enrolls in a high school for heroes. In the film, Izuku and his classmates must stop the League of Villains in their quest for superiority.

“Dangal” is a Hindi-language biographical sports movie. The true story focuses on an amateur pehlwani wrestler who trains his daughters to become some of the sport’s first female participants. The movie, which takes place mostly in India’s Haryana state, received considerable praise for its honest telling of the story. It was nominated for a range of awards around the world.

In Hong Kong, Ah Jong, a Chinese Triad hitman, plans to leave his life of crime and violence behind. However, on his last job he accidentally blinds a nightclub singer. Afterwards, he forms a relationship with her and is motivated to pay for surgery to fix her vision. To get the money, Ah Jong agrees to one final hit. The movie was not initially a success in Hong Kong but quickly gained praise from Western audiences and critics.

This bloody South Korean action thriller follows a mysterious figure as he sets off on a violent rampage when his only friend, a little girl, is kidnapped. Chae Tae-sik works at a pawn shop and mostly keeps to himself, only speaking to a young girl named So-mi. So-mi’s mother steals a large packet of heroin from a local crime lord and draws in Cha Tae-sik when she sells the bag hidden in the pawn shop. One critic said, “The Man from Nowhere is a tremendously gratifying action flick for anyone hungering for a more emotionally driven thrill ride.”

After the success of “Captain Blood,” Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland teamed up again for the classic tale of “Robin Hood.” King Richard the Lionhearted is taken captive in 1191 while returning to England from the Third Crusade. Richard’s brother, Prince John, takes over but begins to rule harshly and treat the Saxon people in the kingdom exceptionally brutally. Robin Hood, Saxon warrior and man of the people, steps up to fight Prince John’s repression in the retelling of the classic tale.

Director Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending sci-fi thriller stars Leonardo DiCaprio as “extractor” and fugitive Dominick Cobb. Extractors use experimental military technology to extract information from targets of corporate espionage. The technology allows the users and target to enter a shared lucid dream world where they can craft whatever sort of environment they want, potentially deceiving a target into divulging secrets. Cobb is offered a job that will clear his legal troubles, but he must push the technology to dangerous limits.

On March 12, 1993, 12 bombs were detonated around Mumbai, India, then known as Bombay. “Black Friday” portrays the events leadings up to the bombings and the ensuing police investigation. The Indian Hindi-language film is based on the book “Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts” by Hussain Zaidi. The attacks were carried out by a local criminal syndicate and targeted banks, the stock exchange, shopping bazaars, and hotels.

Originally titled “Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2,” this is the sequel to “Infinity War” and continues the battle between the superhero group and supervillain Thanos as the latter threatens the fate of the entire universe. With its superstar cast and dazzling special effects, this, the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is one the most expensive movies ever made — and one of the highest-grossing films of all time.

An action thriller set in Hong Kong, “Infernal Affairs” follows two police detectives — one who goes undercover to infiltrate an organized criminal syndicate and another who is secretly working for the same criminal group. Sound familiar? Martin Scorsese remade the movie as “The Departed” and won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Two sequels were made to “Infernal Affairs,” but neither were as well received as the original.

The 1964 spaghetti western was directed by Sergio Leone and stars Clint Eastwood in his first leading role. It is the first of three collaborations between Leone and Eastwood and was followed by “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” completing what would later be known as the “Dollars Trilogy.” “A Fistful of Dollars” helped to win respect and popularity for spaghetti westerns (western themed movies filmed in Europe). The film was also successfully sued for being a Western-themed remake of Japanese samurai film “Yojimbo.”

In one of the most iconic sci-fi action movies of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on the titular role of the tenacious cyborg assassin known simply as a “Terminator.” Arnold’s character has been sent back from the year 2029 to 1984, to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of an unborn child who will one day lead humanity’s resistance against an army of hostile robots. Kyle Reese, a human soldier, is also sent back in time to protect Connor, and humanity’s only hope for survival. The blockbuster hit was directed and created by James Cameron, who reportedly got the idea for the film from a fever dream.

Originally a Japanese manga series, “One Piece” has been adapted into an anime series and a multitude of films. “Stampede,” released in 2019, is the 14th film from the franchise and the only one to make this list. The franchise follows Monkey D. Luffy, a boy whose body gains the properties of rubber after eating a Devil Fruit. Luffy sets off to find a mythical treasure known as the “One Piece” and proclaim himself king of pirates. The boy and his crew encounter a range of colorful and strange characters as they navigate the seas in search of treasure.

This 1975 Indian action film follows two criminals who have been hired by a retired police officer to track down a notorious bandit. The film was originally censored by the Indian government, which mandated that several violent scenes be removed. The original director’s cut was later released in 1990. When first released in 1975, “Sholay” received largely negative reviews from critics, but its popularity quickly spread amongst audiences. It is now considered an action classic and one of the best Indian movies ever made.

A movie theater projectionist and his rival are both madly in love with a beautiful woman. Through some meddling by his opponent, the projectionist finds himself out with the girl and her father. Shortly thereafter, he falls asleep and dreams that he’s a world famous detective who’s been put on an important case by his crush’s father. Buster Keaton starred and directed this silent film classic.

“Gangs of Wasseypur” is an Indian crime epic that tells the story of the powerful coal mafia in the city of Dhanbad, India. The film spans 68 years and three generations of violence between two rival groups and was originally over five hours long. After no theater in India would play such a lengthy movie, the film was split into two parts. RoberEbert.com called the movie “one of the most ambitious gangster films ever made, and quite possibly one of the best.”

Buster Keaton makes the list again, this time as steamboat owner and captain William “Steamboat Bill” Canfield. Bill’s boat has seen better times and business isn’t great. With the return of his estranged son, he hopes to turn things around, only to find out that his son is now very different from what he expected. The film was written and produced by Keaton’s independent production team and was selected for preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress.

In feudal Japan, a disgraced former executioner for the shogun travels the land with his 3-year-old son. He seeks work doing the only thing he knows — killing people. Meanwhile, old enemies are hot on his trail seeking revenge. The violent and flashy film is filled with martial arts, dazzling feudal weaponry, and constant danger. “Baby Cart at the River Styx” is the second of six movies in the franchise. “Lone Wolf and Cub” was originally a manga.

Colin Sullivan was raised by Boston gangster Frank Costello and joins the police force to spy for his criminal mentor. Meanwhile, state trooper Billy Costigan is assigned to go undercover and infiltrate Costello’s group. Both sides soon realize they’ve been infiltrated and race to uncover the double agents. Frank Costello and Colin Sullivan were loosely based on real-life mob boss Whitey Bulger and corrupt FBI agent John Connolly.

During the Edo Period in Feudal Japan, two peasants are imprisoned and forced to dig for treasure in a ruined castle. Soon the pair manages to escape and agrees to escort a man and woman through a war-torn conflict zone. However, they don’t know that the two are actually a disgraced military leader and a princess.

The last installation in the “The Lord of the Rings” series based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Return of the King” begins with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum nearing the dark land of Mordor and their ultimate destination of Mount Doom. Meanwhile, the armies of the dark lord Sauron are rapidly advancing as they aim to crush one of the last bastions of humanity. Beautiful cinematography, an ensemble cast, colossal battles, and breathtaking scenery helped “The Return of the King” clean up at the Academy Awards. The film walked away with 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.

Another high octane ride, “Die Hard” propelled actor Bruce Willis to stardom and began one of the biggest action franchises of all time. German radical Hans Gruber and his heavily armed accomplices seize corporate tower Nakatomi Plaza in an attempt to steal millions in bearer bonds from the company vault. However, New York police detective John McClane just so happens to be trapped in the building with the criminals. Expectations for “Die Hard” were very low before its release but the movie turned out to be a massive hit.

“Safety Last!” is a silent film about a guy just trying to make it in the big city. Harold (played by Harold Lloyd) leaves his girlfriend and mother behind and takes up a job as a sales clerk in the metropolis. However, to survive in the taxing environment he constantly must pull dangerous stunts, one of which leads to him hanging from a building’s giant clock. The iconic clock scene is considered a classic image of early filmmaking and has been reproduced and referenced in numerous other works.

Set in the 1930s, “White Heat” is a crime noir film that follows Arthur “Cody” Jarrett (James Cagney), a psychopathic criminal with a mild Oedipus Complex. Cody leads a gang of cutthroats who specialize in robbery and often leave behind a pile of bodies. Cody must navigate lawmen constantly trying to unwind his criminal network and criminals seeking to kill him for his riches. Empire Magazine called it a “magnificent examination of the criminal mind and Cagney’s finest moment.”

A Viking youth named Hiccup lives on a remote island that’s often attacked by dragons, and his tribe traditionally slays the mythical beasts. Hiccup captures a dragon with the aim of killing it but has a change of heart and instead befriends the creature, giving it the name Toothless. The boy must keep the dragon a secret while coming of age as a Viking warrior. Two more films were made in the franchise and a television series on Cartoon Network.

The film portrays the true story of the Ford Motor Company’s attempt to defeat Italian motor racing team Scuderia Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France. Ferrari had long been a powerhouse in the sport and appeared basically unbeatable. American car designer and ex-racer Carroll Shelby, along with British driver Ken Miles, set out to create a car capable of competing and winning. The Wall Street Journal called it “a new and emotionally complex model of an old-fashioned audience-pleaser, with wonderful performances by Christian Bale and Matt Damon and a resonant soul to go with its smarts.”

The animated fantasy tale is set sometime in the Muromachi period (1330s-1570s CE) in Japan. Ashitaka, a prince of the Emishi ethnic group, struggles to balance the relationship between forest gods and humans who are rapidly consuming scarce natural resources. When Ashitaka is cursed by a demon he must travel far from home to cure himself before the curse consumes him. The film was written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and received massive commercial success and critical praise.

Several years after the events of the first “Terminator,” human boy John Connor must fight for survival as a new cyborg has been sent back in time to make sure he doesn’t live to see the year 2029. John has been trained since birth as a resistance fighter in the coming war with the machines and is destined to play a crucial role. The original killer cyborg, still played by Schwarzenegger, is also back as a nearly unkillable death machine. However, this time he has been reprogrammed to help the humans. The film was another massive box office success.

“Yojimbo,” directed by Akira Kurosawa, follows a samurai without a master, known as a ronin, as he becomes entangled in a struggle between two crime lords. Set in 1860s Japan, the ronin plays the crime lords off one another to help the townspeople caught up in the violence. Empire Magazine said “Yojimbo is intimate to the point of claustrophobia. Its wit is wry, its characters flawed and its world-view uncompromisingly cynical.” It is widely considered one of the best action films and samurai movies ever made.

Aging Japanese warlord Hidetora Ichimonji decides to divide his kingdom among his three sons. However, the power sharing agreement rapidly deteriorates as his sons vie for more than just a third of the kingdom. “Ran” is loosely based on a combination of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and legends about Japanese warlord Mori Motonari. Empire Magazine called it “perfectly paced and beautifully directed with some simply superb acting.”

In the sequel to mega-hit “Alien,” Sigourney Weaver is back as Lieutenant Ellen Ripley and once again must deal with some of the most vicious extraterrestrial beings ever imagined. The creatures lay eggs in humans that burst out through their chest when ready to hatch, their blood is one of the strongest acids in existence and they have a dozen ways to kill a human. In the first film, there was just a single alien, but this time they’ve multiplied. One critic called it “perhaps the greatest exemplar of science-fiction, action, and horror faultlessly blended together into one film.”

The comic-inspired animation style, unconventional plot and interesting characters make “Into the Spider-Verse” the top-rated “Spider-Man” film out there. Miles Morales is a teenager growing up in a New York City where Spider-Man already exists and is constantly saving the city and world from danger. However, he’s bitten by a mysterious spider, himself, as experimental science opens portals between parallel superhero universes. A critic at the Atlantic said, “the latest entry in a fully saturated genre that somehow, through sheer creative gumption, does something new.”

“Star Wars” rocked the world to its core and has become one of the biggest cultural sensations in modern history. The first film introduced an imaginative and colorful science fiction world filled with strange creatures, advanced technology, and a battle between good and evil. “A New Hope” pushes the imagination and visual effects of the time to their limit in a film that still dazzles today.

Archaeologist and explorer Indiana Jones is on a mission to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant before it falls into the hands of Nazi Germany. To beat the Nazis, he must traverse treacherous ancient temples, decode mysterious messages, and defeat evil with his iconic whip and pistol. The soundtrack to the film, including the memorable theme song, was created by legendary composer John Williams. The movie won five Academy Awards in 1982 and spawned several sequels.

The first movie in what would become one of the biggest film franchises of all time, “The Fellowship of the Ring” sets up the epic adventure through the land to destroy the One Ring and defeat evil. Audiences are introduced to a range of characters played by an ensemble cast that would go on to become massive stars. Fantasy world Middle Earth comes to life thanks to incredible set construction and beautiful cinematography shot in New Zealand.

Another film directed by Akira Kurosawa, “Sanjuro” is the sequel to “Yojimbo.” The film’s script was based on an unrelated novel but was adapted to include the lead character from “Yojimbo.” The familiar ronin from the first film once again steps in to help those he feels are experiencing injustice from higher powers. When he learns a group of samurai has lodged a complaint of corruption against a local lord, he begins to advise them on how to navigate the situation with much bloodshed to follow.

The second installment in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy is the highest ranked of the three. After getting off to a difficult start, Frodo, Sam, and their questionable guide, Gollum, continue on their own towards the dark realm of Mordor while war begins to spread throughout the land of Middle Earth. A massive undertaking in set design went into the film including the construction of the fortress Helm’s Deep. One critic called it “A brilliantly conceived adventure that has the capacity to take your breath away.”

Luke Skywalker returns in his quest to defeat the evil Galactic Empire and free the galaxy from its tyrannical grasp. Darth Vader’s plans were set back after the events of the first film but nonetheless he continues his mission to crush the rebels trying to overthrow the empire. “The Empire Strikes Back” is another thrilling ride through a truly spectacular cinematic world. Its characters and effects hold up today along with an amazing score from composer John Williams.

“The Dark Knight” set the bar exceptionally high for superhero movies and, so far, hasn’t been surpassed. The grim superhero adventure is filled with darkness and violence as Batman seeks to keep the city of Gotham safe while dealing with his own demons. Heath Ledger delivered an astounding performance as psychopathic villain The Joker. The movie crafts a sinister and shady city, overrun with crime, where only a vigilante can bring the worst offenders to justice.

Set between 1619 and 1630 in Japan, “Hara-Kiri” follows a samurai who requests to commit ritual suiсide and explains the events that led him to his decision. The samurai classic weaves a complicated tale of loyalty, duty, violence and conflict. It is considered one of the greatest samurai films ever made and is heralded for its dialogue, cinematography and rising tension. The New Yorker said, “the film has a steady, hypnotic momentum; the director, Masaki Kobayashi, wrings as much drama out of facial twitches as he does out of sword fights.”

Considered the greatest action movie ever made, “Seven Samurai” follows seven ronin who are hired to protect a village from bandits. Akira Kurosawa co-wrote and directed the film that is considered the best of his very illustrious career. It has been one of the most influential films of all-time, and several others on this list and beyond have used some of its cinematic and story-telling elements. A critic at The Guardian said, “the glorious vigor and strength of this film is presented with such theatrical relish and flair: its energy flashes out of the screen like a sword.”