Best Action Movies of All Time IMDb 7+

Looking for a best action movies to watch?  We have read hundreds and hundreds of reviews and spent many hours watching movies to bring you a list of the best 18 action films of all time, from McTiernan’s Die Hard to Tarantino’s Kill Bill, we cover it all.

 

 

Best Action Movies List

 

18. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

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IMDb 7.6 / Release Date: 1981

Trailer / Director: George Miller

Its 18^th in our list of Best action movies; The second movie in the trilogy, this is the best of the three with a bigger budget than the original Fury Road.  It stars Mel Gibson as a former officer of the Main Force Patrol just trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic version of Australia.

17. Predator

IMDb 7.8 / Release Date: 1987

Trailer / Director: John McTiernan

Its 17^th in our list of Best action movies; This 1987 movie has a massive fan base.  Starring Arnold Schwarenegger, Carl Weathers and Jean Claude Van Damme as the Predator, it tells the story of an elite group of American soldiers who find themselves battling a sometimes invisible, killer alien warrior while attempting a mission in Central America.  Terrible sequels aside, this is a great movie.

16. The Bourne Identity

IMDb 7.9 / Release Date: 2002

Trailer / Director: Doug Liman

Its 16^th in our list of Best action movies; This 2002 adaption of a Robert Ludlum novel hit the theatres to a success that nobody saw coming.  Starring Matt Damon as an agent whose has had his memories erased, the film grossed $214 million and spawned two sequels back to back and now has a parallel track of films going with Jeremy Renner.

15. The Terminator

IMDb 8.0 / Release Date: 1984

Trailer  / Director: Doug Liman

Its 15^th in our list of Best action movies; An android from the future who just keeps coming and coming and coming with a mission to kill the future leader of the human side of the war against the machines clashes with a soldier also sent back in time to protect his mother.  With a budget of $6.4 million, this film spawned several sequels and a host of bad robot imitators.

14. Kill Bill

IMDb 8.1 / Release Date: 2003

Trailer / Director: Quentin Tarantino

Its 14^th in our list of Best action movies; Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill two-parter stars Uma Thurman as The Bride, a former hitwoman bent on revenge, goes on a raw quest to kill her former lover and all of her former colleagues.

13. Mad Max: Fury Road

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IMDb 8.1 / Release Date: 2015

Trailer / Director: George Miller

Its 13^th in our list of Best action movies; This is one of the best action movies ever made, starring Charlize Theron as a woman who rebels against a tyrant in a postapocalyptic Australia to flee home in the company of Max, a group of female prisoners and a psycho worshipper of the tyrant.

12. Die Hard

Its 12^th in our list of Best action movies; John McTiernan directed this 1988 American action movie starring Bruce Willis as NYPD officer John McClane, who takes on Hans Gruber (played by Alan Rickman) and his group of organized criminals in an LA heist at the top of a skyscraper.  This is classic American action at its fastest and wittiest. Yippie-ki-ay!

IMDb 8.2 / Release Date: 1998

Trailer / Director: John McTiernan

11. The Dark Knight Rises

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IMDb 8.2 / Release Date: 2012

Trailer / Director: Christopher Nolan Movies

Its 11^th in our list of Best action movies; In the Dark Knight Rises, Christian Bale as Batman is forced out of exile and with the help of Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), returns to save Gotham City from Bane, a guerrilla terrorist.

10. Indiana Jones and the Raider of the Lost Ark

IMDb 8.5 / Release Date: 1981

Trailer / Director: Steven Spielberg

Its 10^th in our list of Best action movies; Harrison Ford stars as Indiana Jones in this 1981 action movie about an archaeologist who takes on the Nazis armed with a whip to be the first to find and retrieve the Ark of the Convenant.  What more does an action movie need but a relic, some Nazis, Harrison Ford, $388.9 million in box office revenues and three sequels?

9. Alien

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IMDb 8.5 / Release Date: 1979

Trailer / Director: Ridley Scott

Its 9^th in our list of Best action movies; Ridley Scott had a hard act to follow after Star Wars hit theatres in 1977 but he scored with Alien – a story about seven astronauts in an unspecified time in the future who wake up early to find that a parasitic alien has boarded their spacecraft with them.  Starring Sigourney Weaver, this action/horror flick is a true American classic.

8. Dangal

IMDb 8.5 / Release Date: 2016

Trailer / Director: Nitesh Tiwari

Its 8^th in our list of Best action movies; Dangal is an Indian action movie starring Aamir Khan as a former wrestler, Mahavir Phogat and his two daughters, who he’s trained to be wrestlers and their struggle to overcome their society’s oppression to win glory at the Commonwealth Games.

7. Gladiator

IMDb 8.5 / Release Date: 2000

Trailer / Director: Ridley Scott

Its 7^th in our list of Best action movies; After a dry decade for Ridley Scott he hit the theatres with a genre that hasn’t been popular since the 1960s to turn Gladiator into an Oscar winning, box office hit that has been the subject of several imitators.  The story of Maximus from general to slave to gladiator made huge names for Joaquin Pheonix and Russell Crowe.

6. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

IMDb 8.5 / Release Date: 1991

Trailer / Director: James Cameron

Its 6^th in our list of Best action movies; James Cameron had another hit with Terminator 2, with an impressive for its time and impressive now metal robot who is also a shape-shifter that can walk through walls, killing machine.  This is the last of Cameron’s Terminators and certainly one of the best action movies of all time.

5. The Matrix

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IMDb 8.7 / Release Date: 1999

Trailer / Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski

Its 5^th in our list of Best action movies; This 1999 movie about a computer programmer (Keanu Reeves) who discovers that the world he thinks he knows is an illusion shared by many and enforced by the powerful has become a cult hit.  Many movie goers saw the film again and again and began internet threads to share their fan theories about the flick.

4. Avengers: Infinity War

IMDb 8.7 / Release Date: 2018

Trailer / Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Its 4^th in our list of Best action movies; The Marvel action film starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Chris Evans is the 3rd in the Avengers series (Part II is due out next year).  It sees the Avengers trying to defeat Thanos before he can take out not only Earth, but the universe in one of the most popular action movies of the 21^st century.

3. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

IMDb 8.8 / Release Date: 1980

Trailer / Director: Irvin Kershner

Its 3^th in our list of Best action movies; In the wildly popular Episode V of the Star Wars series, Luke Skywalker finally discovers his heritage, trains to become a Jedi with Master Yoda while his friends are pursued by Vader’s forces and finally, takes the old man out.  Arguably the best of the Star Wars movies and a win for George Lucas.

2. Inception

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IMDb 8.8 / Release Date: 2010

Trailer / Director: Christopher Nolan Movies

Its 2^th in our list of Best action movies; One of the highest-rated movies by fans and IMDB alike, this is the story of a thief who, after being caught stealing corporate secrets after hacking dream-sharing technology, has to plant an idea into a CEO’s mind.

1. The Dark Knight

IMDb 9.0 /Release Date: 2008

Trailer / Director: Christopher Nolan Movies

Its 1^th in our list of Best action movies; Starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight pits Batman against Ledger’s eerily stunning portrayal of the Joker in a race to prevent the evil from destroying Gotham.  The film is action packed, dark, and worth seeing over and over again.

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There you have it, our top 18, let us know if you agree with our list and what we missed!

 

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