Rotten Tomatoes' 140 Essential Action Movies

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Welcome to our guide to the most Essential Action Movies! Where everyone enters…and only 140 leave. Which sounds like a lot, but when you’re considering thousands of action movies, it’s only the most thrilling, the most exciting, the most brutal, and the influential who make the cut!

Action is a wide-open genre and term, and we endeavoured to include something from every era, style, and movement of action movies. We have the classics (Die Hard, The French Connection), modern fan favourites (Hardcore Henry, John Wick), superhero blockbusters (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and plenty from the macho ’80s (Commando, First Blood). Not to mention some action genre crossovers: sci-fi (Equilibrium), horror (They Live), and, of course, comedy (Beverly Hills Cop).

Internationally, we reach as far as Hong Kong (Police Story, Hard-Boiled), Australia (The Road Warrior), England (Kingsman: The Secret Service), France (La Femme Nikita), Indonesia (The Raid: Redemption), Korea (The Villainess), and beyond.

These are the action movies whose influence can be seen in the films that followed. They spawned franchises, pushed back against time, defined and even expanded the genre. These are the badass movies that make audiences feel cooler from having seen them. In the interest of keeping the Essential Movies as tight and pure as possible, we excluded the genres of war, sports, Western, and samurai. Otherwise, a movie’s Tomatometer score was not a factor, so long as the plot was kicked forward in a hail of bullets, car chases, fist fights, and martial arts wizardry.

Now, it’s time to pound faces and popcorn, with the 140 Essential Action Movies to watch now!

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  1. 140 new

    Running Scared

    1986, in 0 top lists Check
  2. 139 new

    Equilibrium

    2002, in 0 top lists Check
  3. 138 new

    Ying xiong

    2002 — a.k.a. Hero, in 6 top lists Check
  4. 137 new

    Road House

    1989, in 3 top lists Check
  5. 136 new

    Unstoppable

    2010, in 0 top lists Check
  6. 135 new

    Shaft

    1971, in 10 top lists Check
  7. 134 new

    Aknyeo

    2017 — a.k.a. The Villainess, in 1 top list
    Check
  8. 133 new

    Highlander

    1986, in 2 top lists Check
  9. 132 new

    Die Hard 2

    1990, in 3 top lists Check
  10. 131 new

    National Treasure

    2004, in 3 top lists Check
  11. 130 new

    Tom yum goong

    2005 — a.k.a. The Protector, in 0 top lists Check
  12. 129 new

    Revenge

    2017, in 1 top list
    Check
  13. 128 new

    El mariachi

    1992, in 4 top lists Check
  14. 127 new

    Xia nü

    1971 — a.k.a. A Touch of Zen, in 15 top lists Check
  15. 126 new

    Top Gun

    1986, in 8 top lists Check
  16. 125 new

    Con Air

    1997, in 3 top lists Check
  17. 124 new

    The Expendables 2

    2012, in 1 top list Check
  18. 123 new

    The Mummy

    1999, in 4 top lists Check
  19. 122 new

    Mr. & Mrs. Smith

    2005, in 3 top lists Check
  20. 121 new

    Rush Hour

    1998, in 3 top lists Check
  21. 120 new

    The Equalizer

    2014, in 1 top list Check
  22. 119 new

    Captain America: Civil War

    2016, in 2 top lists Check
  23. 118 new

    Air Force One

    1997, in 2 top lists Check
  24. 117 new

    Bloodsport

    1988, in 1 top list Check
  25. 116 new

    Blade

    1998, in 2 top lists Check
  26. 115 new

    Bad Boys

    1995, in 2 top lists Check
  27. 114 new

    Die Hard: With a Vengeance

    1995 — a.k.a. Die Hard with a Vengeance, in 4 top lists Check
  28. 113 new

    The Running Man

    1987, in 1 top list Check
  29. 112 new

    Code of Silence

    1985, in 1 top list Check
  30. 111 new

    Shoot 'Em Up

    2007, in 0 top lists Check
  31. 110 new

    Crank

    2006, in 0 top lists Check
  32. 109 new

    Machete

    2010, in 1 top list Check
  33. 108 new

    Drive

    2011, in 8 top lists Check
  34. 107 new

    Batman

    1989, in 9 top lists Check
  35. 106 new

    Under Siege

    1992, in 2 top lists Check
  36. 105 new

    Independence Day

    1996, in 8 top lists Check
  37. 104 new

    Bullitt

    1968, in 11 top lists Check
  38. 103 new

    Wanted

    2008, in 2 top lists Check
  39. 102 new

    Superman

    1978, in 11 top lists Check
  40. 101 new

    Ronin

    1998, in 1 top list Check
  41. 100 new

    They Live

    1988, in 7 top lists Check
  42. 99 new

    Cliffhanger

    1993, in 3 top lists Check
  43. 98 new

    The Avengers

    2012, in 7 top lists Check
  44. 97 new

    Hot Fuzz

    2007, in 5 top lists Check
  45. 96 new

    The Warriors

    1979, in 8 top lists Check
  46. 95 new

    Starship Troopers

    1997, in 9 top lists Check
  47. 94 new

    Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora é Outro

    2010 — a.k.a. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, in 1 top list Check
  48. 93 new

    Point Break

    1991, in 9 top lists Check
  49. 92 new

    The Long Kiss Goodnight

    1996, in 2 top lists Check
  50. 91 new

    The Guest

    2014, in 0 top lists Check
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Last updated on Jan 7, 2024; source