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.
*American Sniper
Year: 2015
Runtime: 2h 12m
Director: Clint Eastwood
Eastwood’s last massive hit, this drama/war film was one of the most successful flicks of the 2010s, making over half a billion dollars worldwide and elevating Bradley Cooper into a true box-office star. The sometimes-director plays Chris Kyle, a man who became a U.S. Navy SEAL after the 1998 embassy bombings. Yes, it is jingoistic, but it’s also undeniably well-made.
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.
Battle Royale
Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 54m
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
A wildly influential action movie that inspired, among others, Quentin Tarantino and The Hunger Games, this Japanese flick is the story of a group of junior high kids who are dropped on an island and forced to fight to the death to get off it. It rules, and it’s not often available on streaming, so check it out while you can.
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.
*The Creator
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 13m
Director: Gareth Edwards
Yes, the script here gets a little clunky and cribs a bit too much from other sci-fi films, but history is going to come around to this one for one reason: It looks stunning. It’s not just the blend of tactile cinematography and cutting-edge special effects, it’s the kind of visual language that’s almost always missing from Hollywood blockbusters. This one will find an audience in the future. Trust me. Get on the bandwagon early.
Die Hard
Year: 1988
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: John McTiernan
Finally! Streamers have a habit of dropping parts of the Bruce Willis series but never the whole thing, until now! Watch from the masterful original through the abysmal A Good Day to Die Hard in one sitting, only on Prime Video. The original is still the masterpiece, a film that truly rewrote the rules for the genre, shifting it more to everyman characters like Willis and away from muscular stars like Sly and Ah-nuld. It’s held up perfectly, as entertaining today as when it came out.
*Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 8m
Director: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
It didn’t do much at the box office but this fantasy/action/comedy has already become a cult hit, growing a fan base on DVD and streaming services. It seeks to recreate that camaraderie that has made D&D such a hit for generations now, with sharp, funny performances from Chris Pine, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant.
*Edge of Tomorrow
Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director: Doug Liman
Also known as Live Die Repeat, this is one of the best video game movies even if it’s not technically a video game movie. But think about it. It’s about a guy (Tom Cruise) who respawns every time he dies, taking what he learned from the previous attempt to try and defeat an alien race. That’s kind of how video games work. This movie rules, partially because it also includes a fantastic Emily Blunt supporting performance.
*The Fall Guy
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: David Leitch
Why can’t people just have fun at the movies anymore? This movie bombed at the theaters, but it’s already found a bit of life on digital and streaming, first as a Peacock exclusive and now breaking out to the competition. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt star in a clever, funny homage to the men and women who put their bodies in jeopardy for our entertainment.
*Fast Color
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Julia Hart
The wonderful Julia Hart co-wrote and directed this very unusual superhero origin story that plays like the more character-driven answer to the blockbuster worlds of things like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The great Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Ruth, a young woman who seems to have lost control over her life and the very unique nature of her being. As she’s being hunted by men in black, she finds her way home and back into the sphere of her mother and daughter. What unfolds is a story of empowerment, a truly female-driven narrative about generations of strength and an origin story for an unforgettable hero.
*The Grey
Year: 2012
Runtime: 1h 49m
Director: Joe Carnahan
One of the best films in that transition period from “Liam Neeson, Serious Actor” to “Liam Neeson, Action Dude” was this 2011 survival thriller about a group of men who go down in a plane crash in the snowy mountains of Alaska. As if surviving the conditions and each other isn’t bad enough, they have to deal with packs of grey wolves looking for dinner. This is a smart thriller with one of Neeson’s best late-career performances in any genre.
Hardcore Henry
Year: 2016
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Ilya Naishuler
Have you ever wanted to see a movie that replicated the feel of playing a first-person shooter video game? Then Hardcore Henry is the one for you. The plot doesn’t really matter—there’s something about experiments and lost memories and whatever—as this is all an exercise in style. Writer/director Ilya Naishuller straps viewers into the perspective of his increasingly powerful hero and then unleashes him on enemies who want to stop him. At its peak, it’s got some adrenalin-pumping lunacy that’s admirable.
*Heat
Year: 1995
Runtime: 2h 50m
Director: Michael Mann
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino star in one of the best movies of the ‘90s, a stunning cat-and-mouse game between a career criminal and a workaholic cop. The book release of Heat 2 in 2022 brought a lot of people back to this movie, one that has held up remarkably well over the nearly three decades since it was released. It’s a masterpiece.
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.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 43m
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
One of the best blockbusters of 2023 became a cautionary tale when it failed to perform to sky-high box office expectations what with Barbenheimer dominating multiplexes. It’s a shame because this is a banger of an action movie, another great installment in one of the most consistently entertaining genre franchises ever. It has finally made its streaming debut on Prime Video, a year after its theatrical release, and with plenty of time to catch up before part two.
Monkey Man
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Dev Patel
A passion project for the Oscar-nominated actor, this action flick sometimes feels like a hybrid of every action movie that made him fall in love with the genre, all at the same time. Clearly inspired by the brutal efficiency of the John Wick franchise, Monkey Man is about a fighter who trains to get vengeance on the people who destroyed his life. It’s a bit clunky, but plays well at home, where action movies usually do even better than in theaters.
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.
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.
The Thomas Crown Affair
Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: John McTiernan
Pierce Brosnan gave his best non-Bond performance in this stellar remake of the 1968 film of the same name. Stepping into the shoes of Steve McQueen is no easy feat but Brosnan does so with style as Thomas Crown, a billionaire art thief who falls for the insurance investigator chasing him, played by the wonderful Rene Russo.
*The Wave
Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Roar Uthaug
Disaster movies aren’t the exclusive property of American filmmakers! Norway can make ‘em too! This is one of the best disaster movies of the 2010s, the story of an avalanche in Norway that leads to an 80-metre wave that rolls through the region around it, causing havoc.
If you subscribe to a service through our links, Vulture may earn an affiliate commission.