Sometimes you want to sit down on the couch, grab a whole bucket of popcorn, and spend a couple of hours being completely and totally thrilled. Action movies are designed to get your heart rate up and keep you invested in what’s happening on-screen, creating a viewing experience that fans have loved for decades. Whether you’re into war films or hard-hitting fist fights or large scale heists, the action genre has something for everyone, it’s just about picking the right movie for you.
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With dozens of streaming services out there, it’s overwhelming to try and pick out something to watch. Don’t worry, this guide is here to help. For this article, I stuck to what Netflix had to offer, digging through all of the different action films the service currently has to offer. While there’s plenty of action on Netflix’s streaming roster worth skipping right by, there’s also quite a lot of great movies do dive into.
After looking through all that Netflix had to offer, I singled out the 15 best action films currently available on the service. They come from all kinds of different subgenres, so you shouldn’t have a tough time finding something you like, but each one should definitely scratch that action itch.
Below, you’ll find the 15 action standouts on Netflix, listed in alphabetical order.
Bad Boys (1995)
Michael Bay has made a lot of action movies over the years, but few are as purely entertaining as 1995’s Bad Boys. There’s a reason the franchise is still going strong today.
Bad Boys stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as a pair of Miami police detectives and best friends, who are tasked with protecting a witness while trying to track down evidence that went missing in a massive drug bust.
Bad Boys II, the 2003 sequel, isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, but still a fun time. It’s also available on Netflix.
Cliffhanger (1993)
More than 30 years after its original release, Cliffhanger is finally getting the reboot/sequel treatment fans have always been asking for. Fortunately, the original holds up really well and has kept everyone satisfied while they wait.
Cliffhanger stars Sylvester Stallone as a ranger in the mountains, who comes back to the wilderness after a terrible tragedy. When he and his partner — played by Michael Rooker — go to rescue a group of stranded climbers lost in a storm, they realize they’ve been set up, and are made to do the dirty work of terrorists. John Lithgow also stars as the film’s main antagonist.
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
You could argue that this film is more of a drama than an action movie, and you may be right about that, but Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods nails its wartime action scenes better than most others in the genre.
Da 5 Bloods is an essential war film, telling the story of five Black Vietnam veterans who return to the jungle decades after they left, hoping to track down a treasure that the buried all those years ago.
The outstanding cast is led by Delroy Lindo, who gives the performance of a lifetime as a veteran struggling to find his place in a changing world. Da 5 Bloods also contains one of Chadwick Boseman’s final film roles, with the late actor playing the leader of the group in the Vietnam flashbacks.
The Harder They Fall (2021)
There have been several good westerns released over the past couple of decades, but the truly great ones have been few and far between. The Harder They Fall is definitely one of the great ones.
Filmmaker Jeymes Samuel focused the film on the real-life outlaw Nat Love, who put together a gang to take out notorious criminal Rufus Black, just after the latter was freed from prison. The film boasts an all-star ensemble cast that includes Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Zazie Beetz, Danielle Deadwyler, RJ Cyler, LaKeith Stanfield, and Delroy Lindo.
Heat (1995)
Michael Mann’s 1995 heist epic is a genuine masterpiece, so much so that it served as one of the biggest influences for Christopher Nolan and The Dark Knight. Heat is undoubtedly one of the best crime thrillers of all time.
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro star in Heat as a obsessive police detective and a criminal mastermind, respectively. The film pits two of the greatest actors of a generation up against one another in a game of cat and mouse that will keep you on the edge of your seat for nearly three hours.
Heat also includes what is quite possibly the greatest line delivery in history, courtesy of Al Pacino.
Inside Man (2006)
Spike Lee may be more well-known for his chops as a director of drama and comedy, but he’s proven on multiple occasions throughout his illustrious career to be a brilliant action auteur. That’s why he’s got two movies on this list.
Inside Man is a heist thriller that stars Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster. Like Heat, it follows a detective and a criminal whose wits are equally matched. When an unpredictable negotiator arrives, however, both of them start losing control.
The Raid: Redemption (2011)
If you ask die-hard film fans where to find the best, most hard-hitting action ever put on the screen, there’s a good chance they will point you in the direction of Gareth Evans’ The Raid: Redemption. This film contains some of the wildest and most well-choreographed action sequences of all time.
The Raid has a very simple concept: a SWAT team gets stuck in a tall apartment building run by a drug lord. They have to fight their way out in order to survive. Just floors upon floors of action like you’ve never seen before. This film is a big reason why Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim are household names for die-hard action fans.
The Raid 2 is also streaming on Netflix. It’s not quite as good as the first but it’s much better than most other action films you could watch.
Road House (1989)
If the kind of action you’re looking for is some good old fashioned fist-fighting, look no further than 1989’s Road House.
Patrick Swayze stars in Road House as a bouncer from the Big Apple, who gets hired to move to to Mississippi and attempt to bring order to a rowdy bar. Of course, nothing is quite as simple as it seems. In addition to Swayze, Road House also stars Sam Elliott in one of his most unforgettable film roles.
Director Doug Liman is currently working on a remake of the original film, this time with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role.
RRR (2022)
Last year, RRR hit audiences like a freight train when it made its way to theaters here in the United States. Few knew what to expect from the new SS Rajamouli film, but word of mouth quickly turned it into one of the must-see theatrical experiences of the entire year.
One of the biggest films in Indian history, RRR is a bombastic action epic about a pair of iconic freedom fighters in an English-controlled India. This is a movie where each and every scene is cranked up to 11, delivering the biggest and wildest action around every corner. “Massive” doesn’t even begin to cover it. And just when you think you know what you’re in for, RRR flips and script and delivers an electric dance sequence that you’ll probably rewind more than once. The song in that scene — “Naatu Naatu” — actually went on to win Best Original Song at the Academy Awards.
Skyfall (2012)
Daniel Craig had an incredible run as iconic spy James Bond, with at least three of his five films considered by many fans to be among the franchise’s best. One of those films is 2012’s Skyfall, from director Sam Mendes.
Part of what makes Craig’s Bond stand out amongst the rest of the franchise leads is that his character routinely finds himself in the middle of some brutal action. He gets beaten, bloodied, and bruised throughout all five of his films, but some of the best fights can be found in Skyfall. Javier Bardem’s Silva provides a wonderful counter to Craig’s 007, and the two meet in the third act for a very memorable showdown.
Spider-Man Trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007)
Okay, so this is a bit of a cheat. There are actually 17 movies on this list because I’m lumping all of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films together, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.
Raimi and star Tobey Maguire redefined superhero filmmaking for a generation with their action-packed, yet incredibly thoughtful exploration of Peter Parker. All three of these films have fantastic action sequences, though the best of the bunch is probably the train fight with Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
Rarely does a sequel to a massive hit end up even better than the original. James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s second go-round with the Terminator is absolutely one of those situations.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day may be the greatest action sequel in history. Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick make up a dynamite core cast and Cameron delivers some of the best work of his stellar career. This time, Schwarzenegger’s cyborg is sent to protect Sarah Conner and her son, facing off against and even deadlier model of machine in the process.
Triple Frontier (2019)
Triple Frontier didn’t get nearly the attention it deserved when Netflix released it back in 2019. If this would’ve been a normal movie, with a theatrical rollout and a physical home release, there’s a good chance we’d be talking about it a lot differently today. This movie has a lot to give, and it got unceremoniously buried by Netflix’s constantly shifting algorithms.
The all-star cast of Triple Frontier includes Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal. The five men star as former special forces operatives who band together for a final job, robbing a drug kingpin in South America.
J.C. Chandor’s war/heist film is one that will stick with you long after you watch it, and I hope it finds a way to stick around in the conversation for years to come.
The Woman King (2022)
Unlike Triple Frontier, The Woman King did get its chance to make a lasting impression in theaters, and it did just that. The film was both a critical and commercial succession, eventually cementing itself in several awards conversations.
Gina Prince-Bythewood (whose The Old Guard is an honorable mention for this list) directs the hell out of this movie, bringing to life some of the very best action we saw on screen in 2022. Viola Davis stars as the leader of an all-woman army in a powerful African kingdom. The film is based on real events from The Kingdom of Dahomey, and the warriors who inspired Marvels powerful Dora Milaje characters.
World War Z (2013)
At a time when The Walking Dead depicted zombies as slow and methodical creatures, World War Z set out to remind folks that the fictional undead were even more terrifying than we were giving them credit for.
Based on the novel by Max Brooks, World War Z stars Brad Pitt as a former United Nations employee that trots around the globe trying to contain an enormous zombie outbreak. This film made zombies, faster and more powerful than many of us had seen before, trading in the intimacy of other zombie titles for horror on a global scale.
The scene with thousands of zombies climbing over one another to scale a tall wall is one that will keep you thinking for quite a while.
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