Best Action Movies On Netflix Right Now

Some of the best action movies are available to stream on Netflix, mainly because the streamer has always prioritized the acquisition of action films (the spectacle of fist fights and explosions crosses the language barrier and appeals to movie audiences all over the world). An Indonesian action movie like The Raid can find a global audience on Netflix, while box office disappointments have another chance at finding their audiences on streaming services.

Since the platform started producing and distributing its own content, Netflix has brought action-packed hidden gems from the U.S., Indonesia, and all over the world to a wider audience. The streamer’s expansive library of content also ensures that fan-favorite blockbusters that are part of beloved franchises are available for a timely rewatch too. From original Netflix exclusive action movies to thrilling licensed hits, there are plenty of riveting action films available to stream on Netflix.

15 Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)

Eddie Murphy Returns As Axel Foley

30 years after starring in Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that made Eddie Murphy a household name, the actor returns to the role for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. However, unlike the first release, which was the long-running highest-grossing R-rated comedy in history until The Hangover beat it, this film went straight to Netflix. That should do nothing to make anyone think it is not up to the task. Murphy is back in fine form as Axel Foley, while several actors from the first movie also returned.

Axel Foley is still a Detroit police detective, but after a huge mess that causes collateral damage, his chief retires to take the fall for Axel’s mistake. He then asks him to reconnect with his daughter in Los Angeles. When Axel learns his daughter’s life might be in danger, he shows up in Beverly Hills and runs afoul of the BHPD again. Over 41 million people viewed the movie in its first five days on Netflix for over 80 million hours, and critics gave it an overall positive rating, although it lives mostly on its nostalgia factor.

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14 Upgrade (2018)

A Dystopian Body Horror Movie

Upgrade is a movie that walks the line between a sci-fi dystopian film and an action flick. It also bears a strong similarity to the superhero release Venom. In Upgrade, Logan Marshall-Green stars as Grey, a mechanic living in 2046 who meets up with a client, a genius named Eron Keen, who says that he created a chip called STEM that can manage a human’s motor functions. When Grey’s self-driving car crashes, some men show up, murder his wife, and shoot Grey, resulting in him living as a quadriplegic.

When Eron offers to make him a recipient of the STEM chip, he signs the deal, and it helps him walk again. However, it also gives him superhuman speed and strength and soon begins to start to control him and make him do things he normally wouldn’t. Directed by Leigh Whannell (Saw), the movie has some incredible action scenes, especially the fight scenes when the STEM chip tasks control. The story is also smart, with sci-fi leanings to thank for that. Critics gave it an 88% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.

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13 Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)

A Female Assassin Fights To Save A Little Girl

Karen Gillan got her chance to lead her own action movie in 2021 with Gunpowder Milkshake. While she proved herself in the MCU as Nebula and the Jumanji franchise as Ruby Roundhouse, Gunpowder Milkshake allowed her to lead a female-empowered action film. Gillan is Sam, an assassin working for a nefarious corporation that runs the underworld after her mother disappeared when she was a child. However, when she kills the wrong man and ends up with a briefcase of money, she becomes the new target.

Gunpowder Milkshake also stars Chloe Coleman as Emily, a young girl whose father Sam killed and who she now protects. It has a large cast of strong female action heroes, with Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, and Angela Bassett joining Gillan to battle a criminal organization whose face is a game, Paul Giamatti. Gunpowder Milkshake is a nonstop thrill ride, and while it is mostly a bubblegum action movie, it delivers everything genre fans look for in a film.

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12 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992)

Arnold Is Back In The Terminator Sequel

The Terminator franchise has had a lot of ups and downs, but most fans agree that the first two movies are the best of the entire series. The first film is a straight-action horror release, with a Terminator trying to kill a young woman before she can give birth to the leader of a future resistance. However, the second is almost pure action, with the Terminator from the first movie arriving to protect the now-born teenage John Connor from an even more powerful Terminator who arrives to kill him.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day showed everything that fans could expect from James Cameron in the years to come, as he used every trick and tool in the book to create a movie that pushed the boundaries of special effects work at the time. It also proved to be an incredible story, with the stakes raised and everyone perfectly playing their role. Linda Hamilton helped create the strong and determined Sarah Connor fans fell in love with in this movie, while Arnold Schwarzenegger was never better.

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11 Leon: The Professional (1994)

A Teen Girl Comes To An Assassin For Protection

Luc Besson created some of the 1990s best action movies, and his masterpiece might be his 1994 release, Léon: The Professional. The film starred a very young Natalie Portman as a teenager whose parents were killed by some gang members. She went to a man in her building who she thought might be able to help and got more than she bargained for when Léon (Jean Reno) agreed to help her. Léon is an assassin who teaches young Mathilda how to shoot guns and defend herself.

He then sets out to help her get revenge against the people who killed her parents and ruined her life, only to find there were corrupt DEA agents there to make things even more difficult. Gary Oldman stars as one of the villains in a fantastic performance, and Portman shows why she became a major star when she grew up. Critics gave it a positive 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it has really grown in appreciation over the years and has become a cult classic.

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10 The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Neo Is Back In A New Matrix Adventure

The Matrix was revolutionary when it came out, and it remains one of the most beloved science fiction action movies ever made. However, its sequels were all polarizing. Some considered them brilliant sci-fi parables, while others hated them for lacking what they saw in the first release. This includes the fourth film in the series, The Matrix Resurrections, which hit theaters in 2021, 22 years after the first Matrix‘s release. The movie was a box office failure and received mixed reviews from critics.

However, there is a lot to like about the film, as people can reevaluate it now that it is on Netflix. The Matrix Resurrections shows Neo living in the Matrix again but with no memories of his battles from the past. Instead, he is a video game designer and seems to have some memories of what happened when he met Trinity again. The film has a lot of subtext, including Lana Wachowski’s feelings about fans telling filmmakers how the story should go, which is a huge plot line in this sequel.

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9 Spenser Confidential (2020)

Mark Wahlberg As Robert B. Parker’s Iconic PI

In 2020, Mark Wahlberg starred in the Netflix original action movie Spenser Confidential. This film is based on the Robert B. Parker novel series about a Boston PI named Spenser, which was previously adapted as a TV series called Spenser For Hire. Wahlberg takes on the role of Spenser, who is in jail when the movie starts for beating up a corrupt cop. After he gets out of jail, he wants to stay out of the police’s business but soon finds himself sucked back in when he realizes the corruption runs deeper than he thought.

Winston Duke co-stars as Spenser’s best friend, Hawk, although this movie plays out as an origin story, and their relationship is only getting started here. The reviews were mostly negative, with critics pointing out the mostly generic storyline. However, thanks to Wahlberg’s likable Spenser and the film delivering the action beats that fans love, it ended up as a huge success, with 85 million households watching it in its first six weeks. There is a sequel in the works for the streaming service.

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8 The Equalizer 3 (2023)

Starring Denzel Washington

Thanks to the success of the first two movies in the series, director Antione Fuqua and actor Denzel Washington had a chance to reunite for a third film in The Equalizer franchise. In this movie, Robert McCall kills a gangster in Italy and ends up shot and injured.

He ends up nursed back to health in a small village, but his peaceful life is shaken up when a new gangster shows up and threatens the people who took him in. The Equalizer 3 ending also leaves things open for another movie if the studios want to go in that direction.

7 The Old Guard (2020)

Starring Charlize Theron

Based on the comic books of the same name, The Old Guard presents Netflix viewers with a group of seemingly immortal warriors who have lived for centuries. Their job is to set out to stop certain things from happening, which are fated to prevent great tragedies in the future. The movie starts with them in action and sets up a story where a wealthy individual learns of their existence and sets out to capture them and steal their power for himself.

Charlize Theron is on top form, and the rest of the cast makes this one of Netflix’s best original action movies. It was also a streaming success and Netflix greenlit a sequel with The Old Guard 2 coming soon with some big-time additions to the cast, including Uma Thurmann and Henry Golding.

Starring Chris Hemsworth

When it comes to non-stop action movies, it doesn’t get much more adrenaline pumping than the Netflix original Extraction. Chris Hemsworth stars as Tyler Rake, a former Australian military officer who has turned to mercenary operations. He is hired to save a young man kidnapped and held for ransom. From that point on, the movie never slows down.

In what might be a record for a single action star in a movie, Tyler Rake kills 80 people in the first Extraction movie. The movie picked up above-average reviews and had enough people streaming it that it picked up a sequel – even though the ending of the first movie made this look impossible. The second movie picked up even more positive reviews and a third movie is now in the works.

5 Triple Frontier (2019)

Starring BenAffleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, & More

A band of brotherly Delta Force soldiers reunites to rob a South American crime lord in Triple Frontier. When they overload their helicopter with the score, the crew is stranded in the jungle and has to trek their stolen cash across hostile territory. With an all-star cast including Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, and Pedro Pascal, Triple Frontier is a modern, action-packed take on the timeless themes of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Much like Humphrey Bogart’s Fred Dobbs, Triple Frontier’s ex-Special Forces operatives are brought down by their own greed. The spoils of their heist are weighing them down, holding them back, and bringing them closer to death.

4 Bullet Train (2022)

Starring Brad Pitt

Bullet Train, directed by John Wick co-director David Leitch, is an action-packed thrill ride set almost entirely on a speeding Shinkansen. Brad Pitt stars in Bullet Train as an unlikely assassin whose mission intertwines with several other hitmen and women. The film’s confined setting is a playground for inventive action sequences that are as much about wit and timing as they are about explosive violence.

The colorful, quirky characters bring a unique brand of dark humor to the frenetic fight scenes, and the choreography is both brutal and balletic, indicative of Leitch’s background in stuntwork.

3 The Harder They Fall (2021)

Starring Idris Elba, Lakeith Stanfield, & More

In the decades that the Western genre has been around, its films have been populated with predominantly white actors. Westerns typically ignore Black cowboys, who make up approximately 25% of all cowboys in the American West (via Smithsonian Magazine). However, The Harder They Fall finally puts those underrepresented cowboys in the spotlight.

Its star-studded ensemble includes Idris Elba, Regina King, and LaKeith Stanfield, all playing characters based on real people in The Harder They Fall cast. The movie is brought to life by eye-popping visuals, inventive action sequences, and a gloriously anachronistic musical score composed by director Jeymes Samuel.

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2 The Night Comes For Us (2018)

Starring Joe Taslim

Timo Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes for Us is one of the most gloriously violent action films ever made. Joe Taslim stars as Ito, a mob enforcer who betrays his boss to save a little girl from a mafia-led massacre. Ito and his friends combine forces to protect the girl when every goon from the Six Seas Triad and every crooked cop on its payroll come after her.

There’s no line that The Night Comes for Us won’t cross – even the kid gets in on the killing at one point – as it attempts to keep audiences firmly at the edge of their seat for two electrifying hours.

1 RRR (2022)

Starring N.T. Rama Rao Jr & Ram Charan

One of the biggest surprise hits of 2022, S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR revolves around fictionalized versions of the Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao, Jr.), and their battle against the British Raj.

RRR has mind-blowing set-pieces, such as the hand-to-hand combat with a bloodthirsty tiger and a brutal fight between one man and a hundreds-strong crowd. The film is just over three hours long, but it doesn’t feel like it. There’s so much bombastic action in this movie, not a second of its 182 minutes is wasted.