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.
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.
Crawl
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 27m
Director: Alexandre Aja
Alexandre Aja directed this razor-sharp 2019 film about a father and daughter trapped in a basement as flood waters rise during a hurricane. Oh, and they just happen to be being hunted by alligators. A combination of disaster and monster movie tropes, Crawl is a delight from start to finish. There’s not an ounce of fat on this one.
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.
Dune
Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 35m
Director: Denis Villeneuve
The second part of this epic action tale was delayed from the holiday season of 2023 into 2024 and became a huge hit on its way to a likely Best Picture nomination. Timothée Chalamet stars in this sci-fi blockbuster from one of the most popular current directors in the world. It’s kind of half of a movie, but you can jump over to Max or rent the other half when you’re done.
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.
Goldfinger (and more 007!)
Year:Â 1965
Runtime:Â 1h 45m
Director:Â Guy Hamilton
Classic action! This may be the third James Bond film but it’s arguably the most essential of the early years, the movie that really cemented Sean Connery’s iconic portrayal of 007. Based on the 1959 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, Goldfinger also stars Honor Blackman as the wonderfully named Pussy Galore and Gert Frobe as the title character, one of Bond history’s most iconic villains. There’s a bunch more 007 just added to Prime, from Connery through Craig — far too much to list here.
*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.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Steven Spielberg
The first four titles in the franchise featuring one of the world’s most famous action heroes is finally back on Prime Video (jump over to Disney for the fifth one, if you must). Of course, the first entry, Raiders of the Lost Ark, remains the best of the bunch, but there’s some value and fun in Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade too. (And even parts of Crystal Skull. Yeah, we said it.)
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.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Year: 2001-2003
Runtime: Various
Director: Peter Jackson
The Oscar-winning franchise by Peter Jackson bounces around the streaming services with alarming regularity, now finding its way to Prime Video for an indeterminate amount of time. Watch the entire saga of Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, and the rest of the Fellowship while you can.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stargate
Year: 1994
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Roland Emmerich
Roland Emmerich’s 1994 sci-fi action film with Kurt Russell and James Spader doesn’t get enough credit for launching a massive franchise that led to multiple TV series, a web series, books, video games, comic books, and even direct-to-DVD movies. It may not be as popular as it once was, but it’s worth revisiting the original movie that started such a worldwide phenomenon.
*V For Vendetta
Year: 2006
Runtime: 2h 12m
Director: James McTeigue
This action thriller took on new life in 2020 when people started referencing its issues of social unrest during a pandemic. In this vision of the future from the Alan Moore and David Lloyd graphic novel, an anarchist named V (Hugo Weaving) teams with a woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) to inspire the world to rise up. It was underrated when it came out and plays with even more urgency almost two decades years later.
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