The 30 best action movies of all time

by quocanhk8 | created - 12 Sep 2014 | updated - 12 Sep 2014 | Public
 Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc
  • Instant Watch Options
  • Genres
  • Movies or TV
  • IMDb Rating
  • In Theaters
  • Release Year
  • Keywords




IMDb user rating (average) to
Number of votes to »




Reset
Release year or range to »




































































































1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

75 Metascore

A cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick

Votes: 1,173,582 | Gross: $204.84M

2. Die Hard (1988)

R | 132 min | Action, Thriller

72 Metascore

A New York City police officer tries to save his estranged wife and several others taken hostage by terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson

Votes: 945,289 | Gross: $83.01M

3. The Terminator (1984)

R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

84 Metascore

A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield

Votes: 923,848 | Gross: $38.40M

4. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

R | 169 min | Drama, War

91 Metascore

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns

Votes: 1,495,921 | Gross: $216.54M

5. The Killer (1989)

R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Drama

82 Metascore

A disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded.

Director: John Woo | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kong Chu

Votes: 51,067

6. A Better Tomorrow (1986)

Not Rated | 95 min | Action, Crime, Drama

78 Metascore

A reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.

Director: John Woo | Stars: Lung Ti, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat, Emily Chu

Votes: 25,455

7. Face/Off (1997)

R | 138 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

82 Metascore

To foil a terrorist plot, FBI agent Sean Archer assumes the identity of the criminal Castor Troy who murdered his son through facial transplant surgery, but the crook wakes up prematurely and vows revenge.

Director: John Woo | Stars: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola

Votes: 400,774 | Gross: $112.23M

8. Hard Boiled (1992)

R | 128 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

A tough-as-nails cop teams up with an undercover agent to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew.

Director: John Woo | Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan

Votes: 54,007

9. Predator (1987)

R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Horror

47 Metascore

A team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.

Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Elpidia Carrillo

Votes: 454,633 | Gross: $59.74M

10. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller

85 Metascore

Jason Bourne dodges a ruthless C.I.A. official and his Agents from a new assassination program while searching for the origins of his life as a trained killer.

Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Matt Damon, Edgar Ramírez, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles

Votes: 658,109 | Gross: $227.47M

11. The Raid: Redemption (2011)

R | 101 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

73 Metascore

A S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.

Director: Gareth Evans | Stars: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy, Donny Alamsyah

Votes: 217,007 | Gross: $4.11M

12. A Better Tomorrow II (1987)

Not Rated | 105 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A restauranteur teams up with a police officer and his ex-con brother to avenge the death of a friend's daughter.

Director: John Woo | Stars: Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat, Lung Ti, Dean Shek

Votes: 11,316

13. Equilibrium (2002)

R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

33 Metascore

In an oppressive future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system and state.

Director: Kurt Wimmer | Stars: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs

Votes: 346,931 | Gross: $1.20M

14. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

63 Metascore

Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with eccentric pirate "Captain" Jack Sparrow to save his love, the governor's daughter, from Jack's former pirate allies, who are now undead.

Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley

Votes: 1,209,984 | Gross: $305.41M

15. Dredd (2012)

R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

60 Metascore

In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.

Director: Pete Travis | Stars: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Rachel Wood

Votes: 294,237 | Gross: $13.41M

16. The Matrix (1999)

R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi

73 Metascore

When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.

Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving

Votes: 2,052,227 | Gross: $171.48M

17. Speed (1994)

R | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

78 Metascore

A young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.

Director: Jan de Bont | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton

Votes: 391,791 | Gross: $121.25M

18. Point Break (1991)

R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

59 Metascore

An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers.

Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, Lori Petty

Votes: 202,159 | Gross: $43.22M

19. The Rundown (2003)

PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

59 Metascore

A tough aspiring chef is hired to bring home a mobster's son from the Amazon but becomes involved in the fight against an oppressive town operator and the search for a legendary treasure.

Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson

Votes: 143,016 | Gross: $47.73M

20. Bad Boys (1995)

R | 119 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

41 Metascore

Two hip detectives protect a witness to a murder while investigating a case of stolen heroin from the evidence storage room from their police precinct.

Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Lisa Boyle, Michael Taliferro

Votes: 286,255 | Gross: $65.81M

21. Dirty Harry (1971)

R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

87 Metascore

When a man calling himself "the Scorpio Killer" menaces San Francisco, tough-as-nails Police Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan is assigned to track down the crazed psychopath.

Directors: Don Siegel, Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Andrew Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni

Votes: 168,249 | Gross: $35.90M

22. The French Connection (1971)

R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal.

Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco

Votes: 135,622 | Gross: $15.63M

23. Bullitt (1968)

M/PG | 114 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

81 Metascore

A nonconformist San Francisco cop is determined to find the underworld kingpin who killed the witness under his protection.

Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, Don Gordon

Votes: 75,806 | Gross: $42.30M

24. Casino Royale (2006)

PG-13 | 144 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

80 Metascore

After earning 00 status and a licence to kill, secret agent James Bond sets out on his first mission as 007. Bond must defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes game of poker at Casino Royale, Montenegro.

Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright

Votes: 694,393 | Gross: $167.45M

25. The Avengers (2012)

PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Sci-Fi

69 Metascore

Earth's mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are going to stop the mischievous Loki and his alien army from enslaving humanity.

Director: Joss Whedon | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner

Votes: 1,458,982 | Gross: $623.28M

26. The Transporter (2002)

PG-13 | 92 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

51 Metascore

Frank Martin, who "transports" packages for unknown clients, is asked to move a package that soon begins moving, and complications arise.

Directors: Louis Leterrier, Corey Yuen | Stars: Jason Statham, Shu Qi, Matt Schulze, François Berléand

Votes: 321,082 | Gross: $25.30M

27. The Expendables (2010)

R | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

45 Metascore

A CIA operative hires a team of mercenaries to eliminate a Latin dictator and a renegade CIA agent.

Director: Sylvester Stallone | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren

Votes: 364,611 | Gross: $103.07M

28. The Untouchables (1987)

R | 119 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

79 Metascore

During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Charles Martin Smith

Votes: 330,713 | Gross: $76.27M

29. Fast Five (2011)

PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

66 Metascore

Dominic Toretto and his crew of street racers plan a massive heist to buy their freedom while in the sights of a powerful Brazilian drug lord and a dangerous federal agent.

Director: Justin Lin | Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster

Votes: 407,034 | Gross: $209.84M

30. xXx (2002)

PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

48 Metascore

The US government recruits extreme sports athlete Xander Cage to infiltrate a Russian criminal ring, which is plotting the destruction of the world.

Director: Rob Cohen | Stars: Vin Diesel, Asia Argento, Marton Csokas, Samuel L. Jackson

Votes: 186,473 | Gross: $142.11M



Recently Viewed