The Greatest Action Movie From Every Year of the Past Decade

Image via Paramount Pictures Published Sep 19, 2026, 1:57 PM EDT Anja Djuricic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1992. Her first interest in film started very early, as she learned to speak English by watching Disney animated movies (and many, many reruns). Anja soon became inspired to learn more foreign languages to understand more movies, so she entered the Japanese language and literature Bachelor Studies at the University of Belgrade. Anja is also one of the founders of the DJ duo Vazda Garant, specializing in underground electronic music influenced by various electronic genres. Anja loves to do puzzles in her spare time, pet cats wherever she meets them, and play The Sims. Anja's Letterboxd four includes Memories of Murder, Parasite, Nope, and The Road to El Dorado. Sign in to your Collider account From 2015 until today, we've had the chance to see some amazing (and not so amazing) action movies. Fans of the genre have been enjoying a surge of creative new action flicks that are becoming more genre-bending and focus on giving the characters a good story, rather than just participating in glorified action and violence. In 2026, so far, we've gotten films like the thrilling Charlize Theron starrer Apex and the horrifying and creative They Will Kill You. With over half the year still left, there will certainly be more great hits. But for right now, let's discuss the best action movie from each year of the past decade (until 2025). 1 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015) Image via Warner Bros. George Miller's action masterpiece, Mad Max: Fury Road, marks his return to the wasteland he created during the 1980s with Mel Gibson as the titular character, Max. This time, Max is played by Tom Hardy, and he's a secondary character, giving the lead to a bold new character, Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. Everything we loved about the Mad Max trilogy is amplified and improved in Fury Road, which could arguably be the best action movie of all time because of its masterful editing, stunning cinematography, and non-stop pace. Mad Max: Fury Road follows Imperator Furiosa (Theron), a War Rig driver for the ruthless wasteland ruler Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Immortan Joe has brides he keeps in his fortress, and Furiosa decides to save them and take them to the place she remembers as her home. Max Rockatansky (Hardy) joins them on the mission, helping Furiosa run away. Fury Road redefined what modern action could look like; all the stunts are practical, the story doesn't suffer for a second, and the plot's weight is rather amplified by the action. 2 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016) Image via Marvel Studios Opening the third phase of the MCU was assigned to Captain America: Civil War, a movie that was almost bafflingly great. With a lot of Marvel movies overtaking the landscape during the 2010s, people weren't expecting to be totally dragged into the narrative of each, but Civil War proved that a superhero movie can be a brilliant standalone action feature and a conspiracy thriller in one. Civil War is one of the best parts of the MCU in general, with exceptional leading performances by Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., as well as stunning action sequences. Civil War is set after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, when the Avengers took part in the devastation of Sokovia while trying to defeat alien forces. The UN meets for the purpose of enacting the Sokovia Accords, with which they'll have the power to oversee the Avengers' actions. Tony Stark (Downey) agrees with this, but Steve Rogers (Evans) doesn't; their rift grows as they gather like-minded people to their side and become entwined in conflict among themselves. The airport battle alone cements Civil War as peak superhero action; it's an ensemble spectacle driven by a serious, politically-charged plot. 3 'Logan' (2017) Image via 20th Century Studios Another Marvel movie that's gritty and could easily pass for a non-superhero flick is James Mangold's masterpiece Logan. It follows Wolverine — and Hugh Jackman in one of his final appearances as Wolverine — and was based on the Old Man Logan comics, showing the descent of mutants and the weakening of Logan's powers, causing him to start growing older. Logan is one of the greatest R-rated swan songs ever made — an intimate, brutal, and action-packed story that combines sci-fi, action, and Western (or, well, neo-Western, technically). Logan is set in a future in which mutants are nearly extinct or completely weakened. Logan (Jackman), aka Wolverine, lives near the Mexican border with the ailing Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and a tracker mutant, Caliban (Stephen Merchant). When a young girl escapes an experimental facility and runs into Logan, he realizes she has the same powers as him; her pursuers are relentless, but Logan still has a few tricks up his sleeve. He protects her, Xavier, and Caliban from all impending danger in a difficult but exciting feature that will leave you breathless. 4 'Mission: Impossible – Fallout' (2018) Image via Paramount Pictures Mission: Impossible – Fallout is greatly considered one of the best action movies of the century. It's a relentless adventure into crazy action sequences, even crazier stunts (and Tom Cruise did most of them himself!), and a pretty airtight storyline that has conspiracy thriller vibes. Fallout is daring and bold, but it was undoubtedly inspired to look deeper within itself due to similar action flicks around the time. Having a fleshed-out, gripping story caused Fallout to feel like the most complete and best part of the Mission Impossible franchise. Fallout is set two years after the events of the previous movie, Rogue Nation, and follows the events after the capture of terrorist leader Solomon Lane. His followers are now terrorists for hire and are paid to steal three plutonium cores for nuclear bombs for a mysterious man. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team embark on catching them before they succeed in their mission. Receiving widespread acclaim, Fallout is still gladly talked about. Despite being a part of a bigger scheme, it's a brilliant standalone feature you can watch anytime. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019) Avengers: Endgame was the highest-grossing movie of all time for about two years (it was surpassed by Avatar, which reached no.1 again), and this isn't just a testament to how many Marvel and MCU fans exist around the world. Many people went to watch the movie multiple times, fascinated, saddened, and utterly impressed by what they saw. This is the culmination of the Infinity saga, and it can only be described as an action spectacle on an epic scale. Its final battle sequence is a pure blockbuster and a catharsis unlike any other in the MCU. Avengers: Endgame is set right after Avengers: Infinity War, in which the Avengers' nemesis Thanos (Josh Brolin) gathers all six Infinity Stones and snaps his finger while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. Endgame follows the remaining Avengers' efforts to reverse The Snap and bring people back, while figuring out ways to defeat Thanos once and for all. This epic has it all — fun action, tearjerking moments, great performances, and a beautiful goodbye to the Avengers lineup many of us grew up with. Even if you're not the biggest fan of Marvel's superhero movies, you have to admit Endgame is a great action movie. Image via Netflix Many would say Tenet was the best action movie of 2020, but it really confused a lot of people. Its non-linear, backwards storytelling felt like having to sit down with an interpreter, and though it is good, we must give this title to another feature — Extraction. Yes, the Netflix action thriller is no frills, all thrills, and sees Chris Hemsworth in the type of role he's definitely been doing all those deadlifts for. Even if it is a simple action movie, it's good because it delivers what it promises. Extraction was based on the graphic novel Ciudad and follows mercenary Tyler Rake (Hemsworth), who lives in India and is hired to save the son of a notorious Indian drug lord from captivity. Extraction filled the void of a theater-less year (you know, COVID), and it has a lot to enjoy, particularly the stunts, which the director, Sam Hargrave, knows everything about (because he is a stuntman). The movie's long-take chase and gunfight stand out in this high-octane feature. 7 'Wrath of Man' (2021) Image via United Artists You will likely feel the Wrath of Man when you read that I placed this movie here over, say, Spider-Man: No Way Home. While IMDb scores do confirm the latter is a higher-rated movie, you're sleeping on the former. Wrath of Man is the confirmation that Guy Ritchie understands more than just yappy black comedies with gangsters — he understands action, and how to use his longtime collaborator and friend, Jason Statham, as the ultimate action hero. Wrath of Man is well-directed, greatly acted, serving as both a solid revenge story and a spruced-up thriller. Wrath of Man follows H (Statham), who gets a job as an armored truck driver at a security company. H is reclusive and prefers to work and be alone; his coworkers dislike him, but they warm up to him after a while, unaware that H has a personal vendetta to fulfill and has no intention of taking anyone with him. Wrath of Man is fun, gritty, stylish, and showcases Statham's strengths; there's not much more we could ask for. 8 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022) Image via Paramount Pictures In the era of legacy sequels no one wanted, Top Gun: Maverick became the best legacy sequel recently made. After decades, Tom Cruise brought fighter jets back to theaters — and audiences flew in spades to see it all again. Top Gun: Maverick is, at times, better than the original, as we now have the technology and means to make an iconic movie about fighter jet pilots even better. Still, the sentiment of Top Gun can't be replicated, but Maverick does it fairly successfully with a batch of charming new characters. Top Gun: Maverick follows Cruise returning as Maverick, a retired fighter jet pilot who comes to the Top Gun Academy to help new pilots think up a strategy for destroying an enemy base. Maverick also meets his old friend Goose's (Anthony Edwards) son, Rooster (Miles Teller), and Rooster clashes with Maverick over his father's death. The aerial stunts with the jets are all real, which makes them a lot more exciting to watch; the jet fights and pursuits are high-octane; and the old-school blockbuster energy is delivered in droves, making Top Gun: Maverick an instant future classic. 9 'John Wick: Chapter 4' (2023) Image via Lionsgate The John Wick franchise closes out on a high note, with John Wick: Chapter 4 an undeniable masterpiece. This nearly three-hour-long epic is comprised of pure stunts and action, combined with some serious, deep-lore world-building, combat, and gunfights that feel like watching a deadly dance take place. Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves put their all into the final movie about John Wick (though the franchise and Wick's universe remain alive and well). When they said they wanted to give the story a satisfying closure, they delivered exactly as promised. John Wick: Chapter 4 continues after the third installment and follows Wick while he's on a vengeance quest to destroy those at The High Table and everyone who abandoned him. The movie flows almost like a video game — each new boss is more difficult to defeat than the former — but Wick seems to get his health bar restored with each fight. Finally, the epic turns into a tragedy, and we see one of the greatest franchise endings ever made. John Wick: Chapter 4 is truly an action highlight of the 2020s. 10 'Monkey Man' (2024) Image via Universal Monkey Man was so underrated and underappreciated that I feel like we need to keep saying how great it is again and again. It's a pure action movie that borrows a lot from its predecessors, but that's why it's so great. A classic action movie set in a world so different from our Western one is more than welcome into the mainstream. Hanuman is one of the biggest deities in Hindu mythology, and Dev Patel does a great job of incorporating Hanuman's myth with reality. He also steps into the lead role in his first-ever action movie, beyond just writing and directing the film. Monkey Man is set in India, where we see a young boy named Kid; his village is raided and burned down by a religious cult leader, Baba Shakti, and the police chief, Rana Singh, who keep claiming land for their cause. Because of that, Kid grows up without his mother. Years later, he is an underground boxer and plots his revenge on Baba Shakti and Rana. Monkey Man is a gritty revenge thriller soaked in bloodshedding action and raw, kinetic fight scenes. The movie also carries great emotional weight and depicts marginalized members of Indian society, showing us that originality in cinema isn't dead.