From blockbusters to low-budget productions, from Hollywood movies to foreign films, Netflix has something for every kind of action junkie. Here are 10 good action and adventure movies you can stream right now on Netflix.
Update, 3/14/23: We’ve reviewed our guide and confirmed these are still the top action movies on Netflix right now.
The Debt Collector
The biggest star in B-movie action over the past decade or so has been English actor Scott Adkins. The Debt Collector is a great showcase for Adkins’ signature blend of martial-arts prowess, intimidating screen presence, and sardonic humor. Working with director and frequent collaborator Jesse V. Johnson, Adkins plays a trained fighter who reluctantly puts his skills to use convincing deadbeats to pay what they owe to a shady underworld figure.
The Gentlemen
After a stint directing big Hollywood productions, Guy Ritchie returned to his crime-thriller roots with freewheeling action comedy The Gentlemen. Ritchie assembles an impressive cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam, and Michelle Dockery. They play various colorful figures in a twisty plot centered on McConaughey’s retiring drug kingpin. Ritchie delivers fast-paced action and quippy dialogue, with Grant and Farrell especially relishing their showy roles.
Gunpowder Milkshake
The world of Gunpowder Milkshake is a stylized fantasia of rival factions of assassins, all operating under strict yet esoteric rules. Expert assassin Sam (Karen Gillan) breaks those rules when she’s targeted for death after a job gone wrong, and she takes down nearly the entire establishment in the process. Gillan delivers a perfect combination of deadpan snark and combat prowess, as Sam protects a young girl from the dangerous forces aligned against her. She’s surrounded by elaborate, colorful locations and characters, making the movie into a neon-soaked dream world.
The Harder They Fall
Filmmaker Jeymes Samuel brings a new perspective to the classic Western genre in The Harder They Fall. Samuel builds a fictional story around various real-life Black figures of the Old West, teaming them up for a showdown between two rival gangs on the American frontier. Jonathan Majors plays Nat Love, an outlaw with a code of honor, who’s sworn revenge against the sinister Rufus Buck (Idris Elba).
Samuel stages exciting, kinetic shoot-outs and chase scenes, combining the familiar aesthetics of Westerns with elements of music videos drawn from his own background as a hip-hop artist.
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The Old Guard
Based on the comic book series by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez, The Old Guard is Netflix’s take on the big-budget superhero movie. The film features a team of immortal warriors led by Charlize Theron’s Andromache. The centuries-old heroes operate in secret until the emergence of a new immortal forces them to confront the modern world, with lots of kicking, punching, and explosions along the way.
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Sentinelle
French action movie Sentinelle is a lean thriller about a traumatized soldier (Olga Kurylenko) seeking revenge for an attack on her sister. Klara (Kurylenko) returns from the Middle East only to encounter more danger at home in Nice, where her sister is raped and beaten by a powerful Russian gangster.
Director Julien Leclercq delivers a simple but brutal story of vengeance, and Kurylenko brings a haunted, mournful quality to her performance as a trained operative pushed too far.
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Skyfall
Although Daniel Craig made two more James Bond movies after Skyfall, his third adventure as the iconic British secret agent remains the highlight of his stint in the role. It combines the psychological complexity of Craig’s take on Bond with stylish, exciting action from director Sam Mendes. Judi Dench also gets a more substantial, layered role as Bond’s boss M, whose past actions provide the motivation for one of the series’ most memorable villains, a creepy cyber-terrorist played by Javier Bardem.
Top Gun
Thanks to the success of sequel Top Gun: Maverick, director Tony Scott’s iconic 1980s action movie Top Gun has found a whole new audience. It’s a bombastic piece of classic American cheese, starring Tom Cruise as a hotshot Navy fighter pilot competing against other pilots at an elite Naval training facility.
The midair chases and battle scenes are exhilarating, and the movie is full of quotable macho dialogue. Kelly McGillis balances out the testosterone as a female instructor who falls for Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
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Uncharted
Video games being adapted into movies have a spotty history, and Uncharted doesn’t perfectly translate its source material. It still mostly succeeds as a fun, old-fashioned action-adventure movie, clearly influenced by the Indiana Jones franchise.
Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg star as a pair of treasure hunters seeking gold supposedly hidden by explorer Ferdinand Magellan, with Antonio Banderas as the greedy villain pursuing them. It’s all a bit ridiculous, but it’s fast-paced and goofy, and Holland’s enthusiasm as video-game hero Nathan Drake is infectious.
Wheelman
Frank Grillo stars as the nameless title character in Wheelman, and he spends nearly the entire movie behind the wheel of a car. In the aftermath of a bank robbery, the getaway driver (Grillo) tries to figure out who double-crossed him, while keeping his daughter safe and outrunning (and outdriving) various pursuers. Grillo’s grizzled charm makes the wheelman easy to root for, and director Jeremy Rush keeps the action lively even when it’s contained to a single vehicle.