The 20 Best Action Movies on Amazon Prime Video

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.

Face/Off

Year: 1997
Runtime: 2h 18m
Director: John Woo

There are rumors that a remake of this John Woo classic is on the horizon, so you owe it to yourself to go back and see the very high standard that project will have to meet. This is one of the best action movies of the ‘90s, a wonderfully staged blockbuster by one of the genre’s best filmmakers. And John Travolta and Nicolas Cage were near the peaks of their screen charismas as an FBI agent and terrorist who end up, well, switching faces. It’s a blast.

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: 1965
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: 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.

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.

*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.)

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.

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.

*Point Break

Year: 1991
Runtime: 1h 56m
Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Whether one considers it a guilty pleasure or a legitimately great action movie, everyone kind of likes Point Break. It’s hard not to, in no small part due to the charisma of stars Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, who plays an undercover FBI agent trying to break up a ring of surfing bank robbers. Kathryn Bigelow is one of our best action director,s even if this one is a bit cheesier than her best work.

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.

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.

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.

Annnnnd: Action!

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