The 32 Greatest Action Movies of the 2010s

Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow.
(Image credit: Warner Bros Pictures)

The 2010s just might be the deca🐼de to beat when it comes to having the best action movies. History will decide if the action films of the '00s will be mentioned in the same breath as classics of the '80s, though given the butt-kicking quality of the movies, you could certainly make the case.

Despite the rise of superhero movies in the late '00s, the action flicks of the '10s ar♌e not all tights and flights—and even then, there are more than a few superhero films that are legitimately great actioners. There were elaborate car chases (through city streets and wastelands alike), alien invasions, shadowy professional assassins, martial arts throwdowns, and a whole lot of Tom Cruise that all made for big thr𒉰ills on the big screen throughout the decade.

Strap in,𒈔 because these are the 32 greatest action movies of the 2010s.

32. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

(Image credit: Warner Bros Pictures)

Year: 2011
Director: Guy Ritchie

Guy Ritchie's 2009 take on Sherlock Holmes offered a new spin on the classic detective, reima😼gining him as a butt-kicking action star in addition to a cunning intellect. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law reprised their roles as Holmes and Watson for the sequel, which has Sherlock facing off wit﷽h his greatest nemesis, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), as he tries to instigate a world war. Naturally, this version of Moriarty can also do slow-motion martial arts, too.

31. The Equalizer

Denzel Washington in The Equalizer

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Year: 2014
Director: Antoine Fuqua

For an actor with such a big filmography, Denzel Washington really doesn't do franchises or sequels. The big expectation is The Equalizer, as Washington has starred in three films about Robert McCall, a former marine and retired DIA officer who starts dishing out vigilante jꦫusticꩵe. The 2014 movie that kicked off the trilogy is an extremely solid action thriller, and there's something innately watchable about an actor with Washington's talents using his wits (and plenty of violence) to punish those who have it coming, like the members of the Russian mafia he targets because of their teenage trafficking.

29. 21 Jump Street

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Year: 2012
Director: Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Undoubtedly one of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best comedies of the '10s, the f🎶ilm reboot of the late-'80s TV show about undercover cops in high school is also one of the decade's great action films because it's a spot-on parody of the genre's tropes and cliches. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as police officers who must return to high school in order to find the source of a new drug—and some of the funniest jokes in this extremely meta comedy come from how much times have changed since they actually matriculated. The sequel, 22 Jump Street, was released two years later, and it's also incredible.

28. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

(Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)

Year: 2015
Director: Guy Ritchie

Henry Cavill and A🦋rmie Hammer star as a pair of agents from the CIA and KGB, respectively, who must put aside their (many) differences and overcome the literal and metaphorical Berlin Wall between them ꦅin order to stop a larger global plot that could bring ruin to America and the Soviet Union. A reboot of an old '60s TV series, Guy Ritchie's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is overflowing with style and charisma, plus some thrilling fights and chases. It's a shame that it didn't enjoy enough success at the box office to launch a franchise.

27. The Hunger Games

Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games

(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Year: 2012
Director: Gary Ross

The first installment of the movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins' dystopian YA book series is about as unflinching in its depiction of t🍌he titular duel to the death as a PG-13 movie could hope to be. Although not overly bloody or gory, The Hunger Games is very focused on making the violence and trauma of the games come through, and it goes through great lengths to show how it is all affecting the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence). There are action movies where the fighting is fun to watch; it deliberately isn't the main attraction in this movie—admirably so.

26. Fury

Brad Pitt in Fury

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Year: 2014
Director: David Ayer

Brad Pitt leads this extremely tense and stressful World War II movie about the crew of a M4 Sherman tank who are fighting the Nazis as the Allies make their final invasion of Germany. The tanks in Fury are metal monsters, at once huge machines of destruction and claustrophobic metal coffins. A duel between our heroes' tank and an even larger, better-armored German tank is one of the film's highlights, as you'll find yourself holding your breath as the turret agonizingly turns an⛎d gets ready to fire—mere inches will det♔ermine whether they're all about to get obliterated or not.

25. Train to Busan

Train to Busan

(Image credit: Next Entertainment World)

Year: 2016
Director: Yeon Sang-ho

An instant entry in the canon of the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best zombie movies, the Korean film Train to Busan has plenty of thrilling action to go with its undead horror. A workaholic father (Gong Yoo) and his young daughter (Kim Su-an) attempt to take high-speed rail from Seoul to Busan, only for a zombie outbreak to occur just as the train is leaving the station—and there's one infected person aboard. Before too long, the entire train is overrun by hordes of the undead, which charge and crawl over one anoꦿther as they try to get the ever-dwindling surviving passengers. It's scary, at times deeply sad, and it will have your adrenaline surging.

24. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The throne room fight from Star Wars: The Last Jedi

(Image credit: Disney)

Year: 2017
Director: Rian Johnson

Episode VIII, the middle installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, is a derisive film for a number of reasons, but it's hard to deny just how great most of the action is. The fight in Supreme Leader Snoke's throne room, which has Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) fighting alongside one another in a crimson-red, expertly choreographed lightsaber dance, is perhaps the most visually stunning sequence in the whole 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Wars timeline. The Holdo Maneuver may have opened up a can of worms about how hyperspace works, but it's so jaw-droppingly cooওl in the moment that it's totally worth it.