This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of Prime Video. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.
Action movies are typically among the most popular films available on DVD, VOD, and streaming services. People love to tune in, tune out, and escape while watching beautiful people doing impossible things. If you have an Amazon Prime subscription and are looking to do exactly that, its vast library contains some of the best action titles ever made, alongside its comedies, horror films, and family-friendly options. Amazon cycles films on and off of its service regularly, but these are the best action movies on Prime Video right now.
Apocalypto
Year: 2006
Runtime: 2h 17m
Director: Mel Gibson
Before he was shunned from Hollywood for being a garbage person and after he won Oscars for Braveheart, Mel Gibson directed this historical epic that has only grown in popularity in the years since its release. Casting unknown Native American and Indigenous actors, this period epic takes place in the year 1502 and tells of the journey of a hero named Jaguar Paw as his people are captured. A massive hit at the time, it’s only become a bigger one through cable airings in the years since.
*The Beekeeper
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: David Ayer
If you’re looking for a movie that knows how to use Jason Statham’s cool action persona, look no further than this unexpectedly fun action flick. The bald icon plays a former operative named Adam Clay who seeks revenge against the phone scam that led to a friend’s suicide. A morally conscious and viciously lethal killing machine is a perfect combination for Statham, and Jeremy Irons is having a lot of fun here too.
Ghost in the Shell
Year: 1996
Runtime: 1h 22m
Director: Mamoru Oshii
One of the most influential action films of all time is actually a cartoon in this 1995 sci-fi epic from Mamoru Oshii based on the manga of the same name. Set in 2029 (which is really not that far away), it’s the story of a cyborg agent hunting a mysterious hacker, but it’s influential because of what it says about fluid identity and its incredibly powerful visuals. Forget the ScarJo live-action version and just watch this one again.
*Gladiator
Year: 2000
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Russell Crowe
The first Best Picture winner of the new millennium was one of the most beloved period action films of all time. Russell Crowe gives his most iconic performance as a Roman general named Maximus, who watches his family murdered and his life destroyed by a vicious ruler named Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Forced into slavery, Maximus must become a gladiator, competing in arenas until he can achieve his ultimate revenge.
*The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Year: 1967
Runtime: 2h 58m
Director: Sergio Leone
Is this Sergio Leone’s best movie? It might be. It’s arguably his most influential, changing the landscape of the Western in ways that are still being felt a half-century later. Clint Eastwood plays “The Good,” Lee Van Cleef plays “The Bad,” and Eli Wallach plays “The Ugly.” It’s even better than you remember.
*Hard Target
Year: 1993
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: John Woo
The most underrated film in the filmography of a legendary action director, Hard Target got written off as another Jean-Claude Van Damme kick-fest when it came out over three decades ago. This movie rules, a perfect blend of JCVD’s stoic persona and Woo’s flashy style. It helps to have a scenery-chewing Lance Henriksen as the villain too.
The Indiana Jones franchise
Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Steven Spielberg
Everyone is getting cautiously excited for James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, releasing later this year. It’s the perfect time to catch up with the saga of cinema’s most beloved treasure hunter in the beloved first four (well, at least three) films in this franchise. The perfect Raiders of the Lost Ark and its three sequels are all on Prime, waiting for your marathon.
Interstellar
Year: 2014
Runtime: 2h 49m
Director: Christopher Nolan
The most underrated film from the director of The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer remains this 2014 sci-fi epic, a film that’s better if you approach it as an emotional journey instead of a physical one. Matthew McConaughey gives one of the best performances of his career as an astronaut searching for a new home for mankind, and realizing all that he left behind to do so. It’s a technical marvel with some of the most striking visuals and best sound design of Nolan’s career.
King of New York
Year: 1990
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Abel Ferrara
The amazing Abel Ferrara directed this crime epic that oozes with style. Three decades after its release, it’s still one of the most cited films of this kind of its era. One of the main reasons for that is the cast. Christopher Walken leads the way as the legendary drug lord Frank White, but the whole ensemble here is amazing, including Laurence Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, Steve Buscemi, and Giancarlo Esposito.
Layer Cake
Year: 2005
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Matthew Vaughn’s directorial debut is the film that really proved to people that Daniel Craig was smooth enough to be James Bond. Before he was 007, he was a character known only as XXXX in this story of a London criminal who is trying to get out of the drug business and having great difficulty doing so. This low-budget flick was a massive hit on the arthouse circuit because it’s clever and oh-so-stylish.
Ong Bak
Year: 2005
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
In 2003, action movie fans were looking for the next Jackie Chan or Jet Li and they found a martial arts superstar in Tony Jaa, who had his breakout film in Ong-Bak, the story of a Muay Thai master in a small village in Thailand who ventures to retrieve the stolen head of an ancient statue for his people. The film was a hit, producing two sequels, also both on Prime Video.
Red
Year: 2010
Runtime: 1h 51m
Director: Robert Schwentke
Based on the DC comic series of the same name, this 2010 action flick was such a hit that it produced a 2013 sequel (that didn’t quite work). Why were people attracted to it? Most likely the A-list cast, which united Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and many more in a flick about a former black-ops agent who has to get the gang back together to stop an assassin.
*Reservoir Dogs
Year: 1992
Runtime: 1h 39m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Maybe you’ve heard of it? One of the only Quentin Tarantino flicks on Prime Video right now is his first effort, a movie that announced a major new talent as much as any debut of the ‘90s. Remarkably, unlike a lot of ‘80s and ‘90s debuts, Reservoir Dogs works just as well today. It would arguably be an even bigger hit if it came out in 2024. That’s how much QT influenced the form for three decades and counting after its release.
Run Lola Run
Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 19m
Director: Tom Tykwer
It’s the 25th anniversary of one of the most successful foreign films of its era, a breakneck thriller about a woman named Lola (the great Franka Potente), who has to get money to save her boyfriend’s life. It won the Audience Award at Sundance on its way to a release that made Potente a star and introduced the world to a new kind of kinetic, real-time filmmaking.
*The Running Man
Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
One of Ah-nuld’s best ’80s action movies is this loose adaptation of a novel by Stephen King (under the name Richard Bachman). The action star plays a contestant on a game show that uses convicts as victims of professional killers. Ahead of its time in the way it would address growing bloodlust on television and our national obsession with reality TV, this one holds up.
Sicario
Year: 2015
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Denis Villeneuve has become one of the biggest directors in the world on the back of beloved films like Blade Runner 2049 and Dune, but Sicario was really his breakthrough, a thriller about an FBI agent (Emily Blunt) who gets drawn into the war between the U.S. government and the Mexican drug cartels. Benicio Del Toro gives one of the best performances of his career here.
Skyfall
Year: 2012
Runtime: 2h 17m
Director: Sam Mendes
One of the best James Bond movies ever made is now the centerpiece of the 5-movie arc of Daniel Craig. The actor plays 007, of course, fighting against Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva this time around in a story that touches on the very legacy of the big screen superspy. Consistently riveting, and beautifully shot by Roger Deakins, this is top tier Bond.
*Spy Game
Year: 2001
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: Tony Scott
Tony Scott rules! One of the action director’s best films is this thriller that matched handsome movie star icons of different generations in Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The younger actor plays an asset arrested by the People’s Liberation Army and set for execution unless Redford’s case officer can save the day. Of course, there’s more going on than meets the eye in this clever espionage flick that seems overdue for a reappreciation.
Stagecoach
Year: 1939
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: John Ford
It won’t play the same as modern action movies, but this could be the gateway to classic Westerns for someone in your family. Give them the gift of a flick that really changed the genre, in no small part because it really introduced the world to a young man named John Wayne. Based on a 1937 short story by Dudley Nichols, this is the tale of a group of strangers on a stagecoach as it travels through Apache territory. It has influenced too many action films since to count them all.
Super 8
Year: 2011
Runtime: 1h 51m
Director: J.J. Abrams
J.J. Abrams wrote and directed this loving homage to the Steven Spielberg films of the ‘80s that he loved as a child. Long before Stranger Things, there was another group of kids in smalltown America who stumbled onto something out of this world when a train derailed in their town. An early wonderful performance from Elle Fanning helps anchor this one.
Thief
Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 58m
Director: Michael Mann
The legendary James Caan passed away in 2022, leading people to discuss his best performances. Thief should be on any list in that conversation, as Michael Mann perfectly distilled Caan’s blend of charm and world-weariness in the title role of Frank, a jewel thief who wants to leave the illegal side of his life but struggles to do so. It’s such a smart, character-driven neo-noir—possibly even Mann’s masterpiece.
Wonder Woman
Year: 2017
Runtime: 2h 15m
Director: Patty Jenkins
A major chapter of the DC Universe has ended, which means we can assess what worked best. This is undeniably near the top of the list. Take the recent DCU drop to Prime to go back and check out the phenomenal and best non-Batman film in the modern DC Universe. Gal Gadot stars in the title role and really anchors what’s an old-fashioned adventure film, one that owes as much to serial action flicks of the ‘40s and ‘50s as it does to movies with Batman and Superman.
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