The 10 Best Action Films of the 2020s So Far, Ranked
Ryan Heffernan is a Senior Writer at Collider. Storytelling has been one of his interests since an early age, with his appreciation for film and television becoming a particular interest of his during his teenage years.
This passion saw Ryan graduate from the University of Canberra in 2020 with an Honours Degree in Film Production. In the years since, he has found freelance work as a videographer and editor in the Canberra region while also becoming entrenched in the city's film-making community.
In addition to cinema and writing, Ryan's other major interest is sport, with him having a particular love for Australian Rules football, Formula 1, and cricket. He also has casual interests in reading, gaming, and history.
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As the epitome of blockbuster exhilaration, action is something of an evergreen movie genre, a mainstay of box office success that captures both the absorbing fun and awe-inspiring spectacle of the cinematic experience. That being said, the first half of the 2020s has been a particularly strong era for action movies, with a clear return to practical filmmaking, meticulous stuntwork, and focused storytelling all being qualities that have seen the genre soar in recent years.
Unsurprisingly, Hollywood has been at the forefront of action excellence across the decade so far, but it hasn’t been exclusive. In addition to some of the biggest blockbusters America has ever produced, the greatest action movies of the 2020s thus far also include everything from Scandinavian revenge thrillers to Japanese monster movies, thus highlighting the global appeal of action excess and the booming landscape of cinematic brilliance around the world.
10 'John Wick Chapter 4' (2023)
Whereas many enduring action movie franchises fans enjoy today are either relics of decades long past or adapted from source material like comic books or video games, the John Wick series belongs distinctly to modern cinema. While 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4 isn’t the peak of the saga, it is a worthy successor to what came before it with its endeavor to elevate the trademark action spectacle while broadening the franchise’s story world, making for one of the most absorbing hits the genre has seen in recent years.
The 169-minute epic follows John Wick (Keanu Reeves) as he embarks on a globe-trotting conquest to take down the High Table, an international ring of master assassins that has put a price on his head. While Lionsgate have greenlit a fifth John Wick movie, John Wick: Chapter 4 gives its titular hero a rousing and rewarding send-off, one that marries strong emotional plot beats with the franchise’s penchant for balletic, heavily stylized, and crystal-clear action brilliance.
9 'Sisu' (2022)
Despite originating from Finland and not being afforded even a fraction of the budget of many of its American counterparts, Sisu has found a major foothold in pop-culture, becoming a modern cult classic through its unbridled appetite for action carnage. Set towards the end of WWII, it follows a Finnish commando-turned-prospector who sets out for revenge against an SS battalion trying to kill him and steal his gold.
With a brisk runtime of 91 minutes, Sisu plays things fast and loose, propelling viewers into a cheerfully violent spectacle of bombastic, unrelenting chaos that revels in the simple joy of seeing a one-man-army decimate a squadron of evil Nazi soldiers. Its eye for violent demises is as creative as it is extreme, resulting in an action flick of bravura and catharsis that has the capacity to enthrall genre purists and casual action fans alike.
8 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' (2024)
In 2015, the Mad Max saga roared back to life with Mad Max: Fury Road, an infectious action spectacle defined by its relentless bravado and technical perfection. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga offers an exceptional expansion on the story, one that boldly shifts its tone as it explores the backstory of Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she finds herself stuck in the middle of a war between two tyrannical warlords while trying to return to her home, the Green Place of Many Mothers.
George Miller’s direction is razor-sharp, not only finding a perfect synergy between high-octane vehicular combat and the story’s tragic undertones, but diving deep into how the post-apocalyptic wasteland functions from an economic and political standpoint, and doing so in a way that fuels the story and brings nuance to the franchise’s past entries. Also thriving with its marriage of practical action and CGI, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a triumph of action cinema in the 2020s.
7 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One' (2023)
For years, even as advancements in CGI and digital filmmaking have become a driving force of action cinema, the Mission: Impossible franchise has stood triumphant as a testament to the visceral thrill of practical stunts. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is perhaps the film series’ finest achievement in this regard, with such sequences as the hand-cuffed chase through Rome and the breathtaking motorbike cliff jump scene highlighting the heart-stopping allure of action cinema at its most daring and ambitious.
However, Dead Reckoning Part One isn’t merely a procession of great stunts, but a brilliantly assembled, rapid-fire adventure that invests heavily in its character dynamics and the thematic timeliness of its villain as it follows Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF in their efforts to stand against a powerful A.I. device and those who would try to use it for self-gain. It delivers 163 minutes of energized fun and arresting action suspense that stands tall among the best action films Hollywood has produced in recent years.
6 'RRR' (2022)
One of the defining spectacles cinema has been treated to this decade, RRR shattered national barriers to become a global sensation, with its genre-blending bravura and enthusing maximalist approach presenting 187 minutes of unbridled fun. Set in a pre-independent India, it follows two legendary revolutionaries who join forces to stand in defiance of the British colonialists in the 1920s.
A feast of unrestrained entertainment, RRR incorporates everything from lively musical numbers to buddy-comedy, but it is most at home as a pulsating, infectiously over-the-top dose of action awe. Its sense of heightened reality carnage plays beautifully into the film’s loose historical basis, allowing it to embrace an air of mythic grandeur that, in its glorious lack of inhibitions, presents a stunning departure from the self-serious dramatic edge many modern action movies display that made for a refreshing, energizing highlight of the genre in the 2020s.
Collider Exclusive · Action Franchise Quiz What Action Series Would You Thrive In? Wick · Fast · Mission · Die Hard
Four franchises. Four completely different ideas of what a hero is: the assassin with a code, the family that never leaves anyone behind, the man who does his own stunts, and the guy who simply refuses to die. Only one of them runs on your particular brand of trouble. Eight questions will tell you which one you would survive.
🐕Wick
🏁Fast
🧨Mission
🎄Die Hard
01
How does a room know you've walked into it? Every action hero arrives differently. Some of them arrive before they arrive.
02
It turns physical. What does your fighting actually look like? Choreography is character. Yours says something about you.
03
Who is standing beside you when it starts? Some franchises are built on a team. Others are built on one person walking in alone.
04
It has gone badly wrong. What keeps you upright? Act two exists to find out what you're actually made of.
05
There's a vehicle. What are you driving, and how? No action franchise has ever survived without a car chase. This one is yours.
06
How do you feel about the people giving the orders? There is always an institution. There is rarely a good one.
07
Underneath all of it, what are you actually doing this for? The stunts are the reason people come. This is the reason they stay.
08
When the credits roll, what do people say about you? Every franchise is really an argument about what makes someone worth watching.
Casting Has Been Completed Your Franchise Is…
Four action series. One of them is built around exactly the way you handle pressure, people, and a room that has just gone very quiet. Here is where you would survive the trilogy, and probably headline it.
John Wick
You are precision with a grudge. You don't posture, you don't escalate, and you don't warn anybody twice. That is exactly why the people who know you are so careful never to be the reason you start.
- The Wick films run on discipline: an underworld with actual etiquette, a hero who honours every rule of it, and a world that unravels the instant someone breaks one against him.
- You share that quality. You are extraordinarily reasonable right up to the line, and then completely immovable past it.
- Focus, commitment and sheer will. You'd be the one carrying grief through three sequels and turning it into technique rather than noise.
- People wouldn't call you dangerous. They'd say your name quietly and let that do the work.
Fast & Furious
You understand the thing the whole franchise is secretly about: the cars are spectacular, but the crew is the point. You collect people, you keep them, and you'd drive through a building for any one of them.
- This series went from street racing to orbit without ever changing its actual subject, because loyalty scales and plot doesn't have to.
- You have the same instinct. You build a family out of whoever turns up, and then you defend it past the point of reason.
- You'd thrive here because the franchise rewards exactly your strengths: warmth, nerve, an absolute refusal to leave anyone behind, and a relaxed relationship with physics.
- The mission can wait. The barbecue cannot.
Mission: Impossible
You over-prepare and then take the dangerous part yourself anyway. It looks like control, but it's really responsibility. You have never worked out how to ask somebody else to carry the risk.
- This is the franchise of the plan that collapses on schedule: the team, the mask, the rooftop, and the one person sprinting flat out because sprinting is all that's left.
- You share that refusal to accept an outcome. Told the odds, you treat them as an administrative error.
- You'd thrive here because these films reward competence and loyalty in equal measure. The mission matters, but nobody on the team gets left on the wrong side of a door.
- Some people delegate the cliff. You have never once been that person.
Die Hard
You are not the most trained person in the building, the best equipped, or the one anybody would have picked. You are simply the one still standing at the end, which turns out to be the only qualification that matters.
- Die Hard invented the modern action hero by making him mortal: outgunned, out-planned, bleeding, and extremely funny about it.
- You share that stubbornness. Adversity doesn't make you noble, it makes you sarcastic, and then it makes you unstoppable.
- You'd thrive here because these films reward improvisation and nerve over preparation, and you've never had the luxury of preparing anyway.
- You didn't want any of this. You just declined to be the person who let it happen.
5 'Godzilla Minus One' (2023)
Like the aforementioned Sisu, Godzilla Minus One is another international action masterpiece that presents a stunning spectacle on a much smaller budget than many of its competitors in the genre. Coming from Japan, the 2023 monster movie returns to the roots of the Godzilla franchise, realizing its titular terror as a thematic parable about the devastation of war with a mind towards national grief, resilience and rebuilding, and the lingering trauma of nuclear attacks.
Set in the aftermath of WWII, it unfolds as a gigantic monster emerges from the sea and unleashes a reign of destruction on Tokyo, forcing the people of Japan to rally together against the unprecedented threat while a disgraced kamikaze pilot sees his opportunity for redemption. A faultless marriage of piercing human drama and awe-inspiring visual effects, Godzilla Minus One presents a profoundly enthusing viewing experiences as well as one of the more thoughtful action films of the 21st century at large.
4 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' (2023)
It is no secret that superhero storytelling has defined blockbuster cinema for much of the 21st century, a trend that has continued well into the 2020s with such beloved releases as Superman, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. However, the genre’s magnum opus of the decade thus far comes in the form of the animated sensation Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which brilliantly combines its enrapturing visual display with strong storytelling instincts, rich sci-fi ideas, and vibrant action sequences that could only be achieved via animation.
The sequel to 2018’s equally magnificent Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it follows Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he is whisked across the multi-verse and meets a multidimensional community of Spider-People while pursuing The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), an unstable, energy-absorbing villain with the potential to end all existence. With the effervescent clashing of different art styles complimenting the action-packed, reality-jumping story to perfection, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a treat of superhero cinema as well as one of the most enthusiastic and creative action flicks in recent decades.
3 'Dune: Part Two' (2024)
As a stunning sci-fi epic, an engrossing character-driven drama, and one of the most visually sublime action triumphs cinema has ever seen, it is easy to see why Dune: Part Two has become such a phenomenon of modern cinema. Surpassing its predecessor, the exemplary sequel completes Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” following Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he presents himself as a prophesied leader of the Fremen of Arrakis while seeking revenge against those who betrayed his house.
It is a picture of propound enormity, one that exists as much more than just an action flick, but when the opportunity to embrace action spectacle arises, it seizes it with both hands. From sweeping ambushes to brutal hand-to-hand combat, Dune: Part Two captures a sense of grandeur and grit in its most intense sequences thanks to Greig Fraser’s typically astonishing cinematography and Richard King’s immersive sound design. The film’s propulsive pacing only adds to its magnetic action allure, making for one of the most iconic cinematic releases of the 21st century so far.
2 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' (2022)
Another pop-culture sensation that thrives at delivering awe-inspiring action while serving as a genre-meshing masterpiece—with everything from absurdist comedy to empathetic drama and even high-concept sci-fi featuring prominently—Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the defining films of the 2020s so far of any genre. Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Quan Wang, a dejected Chinese immigrant managing a struggling laundromat who finds herself at the center of a multiverse-spanning adventure in which she must connect with different versions of herself from parallel worlds to combat a force that wants to destroy all existence.
It extracts so much from its characters and its comedy to thrive as a deeply resonant exploration of family, regret, and kindness as a strength, but it is undeniable that so much of its strength comes from its action magnificence. Mixing delightful slapstick lunacy with martial arts mayhem, Everything Everywhere All at Once is an adrenaline-pumping stroke of genius that finds gravitas in its practical filmmaking and its ability to blend its action with a deep emotional core.
1 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)
Everything from bold new franchises to genre-meshing masterpieces have defined action excellence in 2020s cinema so far, but in terms of sheer mastery of the genre, it is always difficult to look beyond a dose of nostalgic ‘80s excess. A gripping legacy sequel, Top Gun: Maverick sees Tom Cruise return as Maverick, following the aging ace as he is tasked with training a new crop of U.S. Navy pilots to carry out a near-impossible assignment, or ordeal that becomes increasingly difficult as clashes with “Rooser” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his former wingman.
Exceptionally well written to produce so many intense and rewarding action sequences, Top Gun: Maverick soars as an immersive and emotionally gratifying action romp beautifully complimented by its breathtaking practical approach. Shooting the actors inside the cockpits of actual F/A-18 Hornets being flown by US Navy pilots imbues the action sequences with a visceral force that viewers feel with every fiber of their being, be it the procession of rigorous training sessions or the death-defying mission itself. A perfect combination of craft and corniness, Top Gun: Maverick epitomizes action cinema at its most infectious and triumphant, and it remains one of the greatest cinema experiences of the decade so far.
Top Gun: Maverick
9 10
- Release Date
- May 27, 2022
- Runtime
- 131 minutes
- Director
- Joseph Kosinski
- Writers
- Christopher McQuarrie, Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Peter Craig, Justin Marks
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