The Best Revenge Movies of All Time

“Cape Fear” is a remake of the 1962 film of the same name, telling the story of a convicted rapist seeking revenge against a former public defender whom he blames for his 14-year prison term. The movie is set around the Cape Fear River in coastal North Carolina and dives into the questions of revenge, the morality of defending a guilty client of a horrendous crime, and the complexity of life in the American South.

One of two films that Zoë Lund made with director Abel Ferrara, “Ms. 45” is about a mute seamstress who sets out for revenge after she is rаped twice in one day on her way home from work. The 1981 film received poor critical reviews when it was released but is now seen as a classic of independent filmmaking.

A dark comedy and crime thriller starring several big-name actors, “Seven Psychopaths” begins with a masked vigilante killing high-ranking organized crime figures. The heroes are two small-time crooks and a writer who, by their own questionable decisions, end up drawn into the world of the vigilante and the mob. Hilarity and violence ensue.

“Dead Again” is a neo-noir romantic thriller that involves love, murder, and mystery spanning decades. It’s hard to say too much about the plot without giving it all away. It was well received by most critics at the time of its release (Roger Ebert gave it a four-star review) and continues to be a fan favorite. Several of the actors picked up various award nominations.

Based on John Grisham’s first novel — but the second of his books to be filmed after “The Client” — this is a courtroom drama about a novice lawyer in a bigoted Southern town defending a Black man who shot the racists who rаped his daughter.

In Martin Scorsese’s epic period piece, 1860s New York City comes to life filled with every type of crime, violence, and gang dynamics imaginable. The film begins with a young boy witnessing his father’s killing in a gang turf war. It skips ahead some years, and the hero (played by DiCaprio) is grown up and out for blood. The leader of the rival gang, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, now runs the entire territory and lives like a king. He doesn’t know the son of his former enemy on a mission to finish what his father started.

“Ruthless People” is a dark comedy about Sam Stone (Danny DeVito), a man who plots to kill his wife and run off with his mistress. Unfortunately for Stone, before he can put his plans into action, his wife is kidnapped by a couple seeking revenge on him. They threaten to kill her if their demands aren’t met, then realize he actually wants her dead. Stone’s mistress, meanwhile, has plans of her own.

By the seventh movie in the “Fast and Furious” series, things have evolved dramatically from the days of simple street racing and cool custom cars. The story begins with all the previous team of criminals having returned to their normal lives after receiving amnesty for their crimes. However, a special forces assassin wants revenge for past events that left his younger brother in a coma. The movie featured actor Paul Walker’s last starring role before his death.

Based on the classic 1844 novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which has been brought to the screen on numerous occasions, is the story of a young man falsely accused of treason and other crimes and thrown into an island prison off the coast of France. He escapes, acquires a massive fortune in treasure, travels to Paris as the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, and seeks revenge against those who had him imprisoned.

“Sweeney Todd” originally appeared as an 1846 “penny dreadful” and his story — Todd is a barber who gets revenge on his clients by slitting their throats and having their flesh baked into meat pies — became fodder for an urban legend. The tale was filmed in England in 1928 and 1936, but this 2007 version is a so-called slasher musical — based on the Tony-winning 1979 musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler.

‘Straw Dogs’ is a psychological thriller based on Gordon M. William’s 1969 novel, “The Siege of Trencher’s Farm.” Released the same year as several other violent films, it launched a national conversation on violence and brutality in movies. At the time of its release, it received mixed reviews and criticism but is now seen as a classic.

A retired assassin just wants to live out the rest of his days simply and peacefully. He has a nice house, a muscle car he loves, and an adorable puppy. However, when some Russian mobsters try to strong-arm him into selling his classic automobile and he says no, the mobsters make the colossal mistake of killing his dog. Wick returns to his old ways and leaves a massive pile of corpses as he seeks revenge.

“Mean Creek” is a coming-of-age psychological drama that questions the morality of getting even. A group of teenagers decides to prank a bully who has been abusing one of them by inviting him on a boating trip to celebrate a fictional birthday. They plan to trick him into stripping naked and then throwing him into the river. However, things do not go as planned and they must deal with the consequences.

London gangster Jack Carter returns to his hometown in North England after his brother is killed in a mysterious accident. Carter doesn’t buy the official story and dives into the criminal world of his old city on a quest for revenge. The film’s creators aimed to craft a more honest portrayal of the criminal underworld filled with ugly violence and subterfuge. The film was praised for its technical achievements but was criticized for its violence and the lack of remorse by its main character.

The movie that finally got the much-nominated DiCaprio his Best Actor Oscar, “The Revenant” follows fur trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass as he guides other trappers through the present-day Dakotas. The party comes under attack by an Arikara war party and most die. Those that escape stay on the run until Glass is attacked and nearly mortally wounded by a grizzly bear. His fellow trappers leave him to die. Glass recovers and sets out on a quest for revenge.

A “rock musical horror comedy,” “Phantom of the Paradise” — loosely based on French author Gaston Leroux’s early 20th century novel “The Phantom of the Opera” — follows a young songwriter who is tricked into giving up his life’s work. To get revenge he begins to terrorize the music hall of the man he feels wronged him. The movie had a poor showing at the box office but has since become a cult classic.

Carrie is a shy 16-year-old girl who is bullied at high school and tormented by a hyper-religious mother at home. After dealing with all sorts of pranks, Carrie starts to realize she has telekinetic powers. Her mother believes she’s been cursed by the devil and the kids at school pretend to take it easy on her to lure her into even more devastating humiliation — for which she gets her revenge.

“The Road to Perdition” is about getting crossed and double-crossed and still trying to get even. Tom Hanks plays a mob enforcer in Great Depression-era Illinois. The adopted child of a local mob boss, he has problems with his jealous step-brother. Some business goes bad, people get killed, and Sullivan is blamed. He must then go on the run to clear his name and get his own back.

Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) is living out of his car in Maryland when he is contacted by a police officer who tells him that the man who murdered his parents is being released from prison. Evans quickly decides to return to his hometown in Virginia to seek revenge. His actions quickly kick off a bloody series of events that leave everyone questioning when is it better to just live and let live.

“I Saw the Devil” is a Korean film about a man seeking revenge for his pregnant wife’s brutal murder. Lee Byung-hun stars as a Korean intelligence agent attempting to track down the psychopathic serial killer responsible. The detective is willing to stop at nothing to find the man, including using violence and breaking any law that stands in his way.

Based on the Andre Dubus short story “The Killing,” this indie film tells the story of a dysfunctional family as a summer in Maine comes to an end. The title refers to the part of a lobster trap known as the “bedroom,” a small compartment in which captured lobsters begin to turn on one another.

“Point Blank” is a film adaptation of the 1963 Richard Stark noir novel “The Hunter.” It tells the tale of a man double-crossed in a robbery, shot, and left for dead. Upon recovering from his wounds, he sets out to get his share of the take and kill those who wronged him.

Uma Thurman stars as a woman who survives a massacre and falls into a coma. Upon waking, she sets out on a quest to kill all those involved. Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the film, which is full of mysterious assassins, ancient martial arts masters, and over-the-top blood and gore.

Based on the comic of the same name, “The Crow” follows Eric Draven (Brandon Lee), a slain. musician who is resurrected to seek revenge on the man murdered him and his fiancé. The film received high praise, but Lee (son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee) was tragically killed in an on-set firearms accident after he had finished filming most of his scenes.

“Upgrade” is an Australian cyberpunk action film. Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) and his wife are attacked by four men after their self-driving car crashes. His wife is killed and he is left paralyzed after a bullet to the throat. An inventor friend implants him with a chip that allows him to control his once-paralyzed body, and he sets out to find the men responsible for tearing his life apart.

Two young girls disappear in Pennsylvania and police quickly arrest a suspect. However, he is soon released due to lack of evidence. The father of one of the girl’s decides to take matters into his own hands as he feels the police aren’t doing enough. The thriller is filled with twists and turns and asks when can attempts at vigilante justice just become crimes of their own.

This is the second film based on the book of the same name (the first is in Swedish). It’s the story of the unlikely duo of detective Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) as Blomkvist sets out to solve the disappearance of a woman 40 years earlier from a wealthy family in northern Sweden.

Based on James Sallis’s novel of the same name, “Drive” follows an unnamed Hollywood stuntman who also works as a getaway driver. The main character uses few words, chews toothpicks, and wears a leather jacket. He takes a job to help a love interest but it quickly goes wrong and he becomes embroiled in a complicated web of organized crime and violence.

“Sudden Fear” is a noir thriller based on a novel of the same name. Broadway playwright Myra Hudson rejects Lester Blaine as the lead for her new play. However, the two later meet on a train and end up in a romantic relationship. They soon marry, but all is not as it seems when Blaine’s mistress comes into the picture. Soon all parties are plotting murderous schemes.

Ridley Scott’s epic stars Russell Crowe as the Roman general Maximus, who returns from war to find that the emperor wants him to restore the Roman Republic. However, the emperor’s son has other plans and turns on Maximus. The general manages to escape but is eventually captured by slavers and forced to become a gladiator.

Part thriller, part black comedy, “Promising Young Woman” follows Cassie Thomas (Carey Mulligan), a medical school drop-out haunted by traumatic events from her past. She begins going to clubs and pretending to be drunk to lure in rapists and predators. She then sets out to get revenge on a man who rаped one of her friends in college and those that protected him from justice.

The second and final part of the “Kill Bill” saga reveals the backstory of Uma Thurman’s character as she continues her hunt for the assassin Bill and his associates. This time, her travels take her to Texas and Mexico. Though it moves more slowly than Vol. 1, there is plenty of blood and double-crossing — this is Tarantino, after all.

Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) and crew face off against the genetically modified Khan Noonien Singh. Khan has returned from exile and sets off to exact revenge on Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise for having banished him. He aims to acquire a powerful device to wreak havoc on planets throughout the galaxy.

Based on the 1968 Charles Portis novel of the same name, “True Grit ” — a remake of the original 1969 John Wayne version — follows an unlikely group as they hunt for an outlaw in the Wild West. Mattie Ross, a teenage farm girl, recruits lawman Reuben Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to help her bring to justice the man that killed her father. Texas State Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) joins them as they traverse the continent on their quests of justice and vengeance.

“13 Assassins” is set in 1944 Japan , as 13 men lay out a plot to assassinate Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu before he can be appointed to the powerful Shogunate Council. Lord Naritsugu is a ruthless leader who tortures, rаpes, and kills innocent civilians with impunity. His rise to the Council will surely bring civil war, and he must be stopped before it is too late.

The original “Cape Fear” film and the second rendition to make this list (see No. 50), this noir psychological thriller stars Gregory Peck as lawyer Sam Bowden, who is being stalked by rapist Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) — who spent eight years in prison after Bowden unsuccessfully defended him. Bowden flees with his family from Georgia to their houseboat in the Cape Fear region of North Carolina, but Cady follows.

“Oldboy” is a Korean thriller about a man who is imprisoned in a cell resembling a hotel room for 15 years with no idea who his captor is or why he is there. When he is finally released, he enters a complicated world of conspiracy and violence as he sets out on a quest for revenge that is complicated by a romantic interest along the way.

The 1960 Swedish Ingmar Berman classic is about rаpe and revenge in medieval Sweden. The story was adapted from a 13th-century Swedish ballad about a father whose daughter is rаped and murdered by three herdsmen — who unknowingly end up stopping for the night at the house of the girl they’ve just killed. The film touches on themes of justice, morality, revenge, and religion.

This Quentin Tarantino film presents an alternative history of World War II. In it, a group of Jewish-American soldiers infiltrates Nazi Germany during the height of the war, aiming to kill Nazi officials and even have a go at Hitler. The movie is filled with wild characters and plenty of blood, violence, and suspense as the heroes sneak around enemy territory, trying to gain information on Hitler’s whereabouts.

“Lady Snowblood,” originally a manga series. was an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” films. It follows Yuki, a woman seeking vengeance against three people who rаped her mother and killed her father and brother. Yuki has been trained since childhood to exact revenge on the men who destroyed her family.

Quentin Tarantino is big on revenge, apparently. “Django Unchained” is another of his revisionist history films, inspired by a 1966 spaghetti Western called “Django”. The story follows Dr. Schultz, a bounty-hunter, and Django, a freed slave. The two travel across the American South and West searching for bounties and Django’s long lost love.

“Fury Road” is the fourth “Mad Max” film and the first after a 30-year hiatus. The reboot of the franchise stars Tom Hardy as a tough-as-nails mercenary and Charlize Theron as an enforcer for a local warlord. The two become an unlikely team in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where water and gasoline are in very short supply. They race across the desert as the warlord’s henchmen chase them on all manner of motorized monstrosities.

“The Night of the Hunter” is based on a book of the same name inspired by the true story of a man who murdered five people in 1932. Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) — a self-appointed preacher who justifies his killing as doing “God’s work” — travels through West Virginia, marrying women and then killing them for their money. During his spree, he winds up in jail for stealing a car, and there he meets a man who stole $10,000 in a bank robbery. The robber is executed and when Powell gets out of jail he sets off to find the man’s family and locate the stolen money.

“The Great Silence” is a spaghetti Western that follows a mute gunslinger as he fights with a group of outlaws and a vengeful widow against a team of bounty hunters. The film is set in Utah during a severe winter, where most of the townsfolk resort to stealing to survive. A rich local banker calls in the bounty hunters to stop the thievery and take control of the town.

“Let the Right One In” is a Swedish romantic horror film that follows a bullied 12-year old boy named Oskar. Oskar lives in the suburbs of Stockholm and spends a lot of time plotting violent revenge against those who have bullied him. Soon a strange girl moves in next door and they form a friendship of sorts. However, she’s not what she seems.

“The Handmaiden” is an erotic psychological thriller from South Korea. The film is the work of Park Chan-wook, who also directed “Oldboy” (see No. 12). The story is based on the 2002 novel “Fingersmith,” set in Victorian Britain, but the film has been transplanted to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. A con man plans to marry a rich heiress and then have her committed to an asylum, leaving him with her fortune. He hires a pickpocket to infiltrate the household as a maid, hoping she will influence the heiress to marry him.

“Unforgiven” cleaned up at the Academy Awards, winning four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, for Clint Eastwood. Eastwood stars as Will Munny, a former outlaw who is dragged away from his tranquil farming life for one last mission. The movie begins with two cowboys slashing a prostitute’s face. The local sheriff makes the cowboys turn over some horses to the brothel owner as punishment. However, the prostitute and her associates are far from satisfied with this outcome and put a $1,000 bounty on the offenders’ heads.

A psychological thriller, “Memento” follows a man looking for vengeance against the mysterious person or persons who murdered his wife during an attack that almost killed him too and left with anterograde amnesia — the inability to form new memories. Every 15 minutes, then, he forgets everything that’s happened since the attack. In order to track the killer, he tattoos clues and information on his body and uses Polaroid photos to help him navigate the past.

“The Princess Bride” saw modest success at the box office but has since become a cherished classic. This goofy and enchanting story follows a farmhand named Westley and a woman named Buttercup who fall in love. Westley runs off to seek his fortune in order to marry Buttercup, but disappears. Years later, the Princess is betrothed to the local prince but kidnapped by men who want revenge against him. A cast of wild and wacky characters populates the world as the two heroes face danger in their quest to live happily ever after.

Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western masterpiece follows the interwoven stories of land wars connected to the building of a new railroad and a quest for vengeance against a wanted killer in a wayward desert outpost town. A mysterious gunslinging figure arrives on the scene as things start to heat up. The film was originally a flop at the box office, after studio executives cut 21 minutes out of the original for its U.S. release. Luckily, it has been restored to its original length and is now considered an absolute classic.