The Best Action Movies of 2025 (So Far)
Nothing beats a good action movie. Fistfights, explosions, Tom Cruise running in a straight line—what else can you ask for after grabbing a $20 bucket of popcorn at the theater? 2024 was one hell of a year for the genre. Furiosa and Dune: Part Two demanded their respective audiences seek the biggest screen possible. And Rebel Ridge made damn sure we kept our Netflix subscriptions active. Thanks to this year's slate, 2025 is no slouch either.
One year after Deadpool & Wolverine grossed over a billion dollars and restored (some) faith in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the superhero powerhouse plans to release more big-ticket action films in 2025. Following Thunderbolts* in May, Marvel will reintroduce the original superhero family with The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July. Those movies will face some distinguished competition when James Gunn's Superman takes flight as the first official movie from James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Studios.
But it's not all superheroes at the cineplex. Spies, soldiers, assassins, and out-of-the-ordinary men with extraordinary skills are going ballistic on the big screen. Jason Statham followed up last year's The Beekeeper with A Working Man. Plus, Daisy Ridley worked out her best Die Hard impression in Cleaner, and Warfare depicted Navy SEALs on screen like never before. Here are the best action movies of 2025 so far.
After kicking up a ruckus last year with The Beekeeper, Jason Statham and director David Ayer reunited for a new outing co-written by Sylvester Stallone. In this hard-edged action feast, Statham plays a former Royal Marine who applies his skills to rescue his boss's daughter from human traffickers. The story is based on a 2014 novel by Chuck Dixon (who wrote the Batman comic in which Bane breaks the superhero's back). A Working Man might come across like a carbon copy of Liam Nesson's generational classic Taken, but Statham is hard to resist as he swings sledge hammers with a Viking's vengeance.
The Force is strong in Daisy Ridley, but she's also got a mean reload. The Mask of Zorro and Casino Royale director Martin Campbell helmed this throwback action flick, which cast the Star Wars veteran as a trained soldier and blue collar skyscraper window sweeper in London. When terrorists crash a swanky party inside the building, Ridley trades her lightsaber for a Glock 26 and works to save everyone, including her brother. Cleanre is basically a British remake of Die Hard without the Christmas cheer, but Ridley carries the movie on her shoulders. Her Jedi training has clearly served her well.
Decorated Japanese auteur Takashi Miike spills more blood than a hospital ER. Look no further than the gory pictures under his belt such as Ichi the Killer, Audition, 13 Assassins (and its memorable 40-minute long climactic battle), Blade of the Immortal, and the gonzo Dead or Alive trilogy. Blazing Fists sees the filmmaker restrain from his signature bloodletting, but it still hits harder than a right hook. The story follows two juvenile delinquents who enter a martial arts tournament after attending a lecture by real-life MMA legend Mikuru Asakura. (The movie itself is loosely inspired by Asakura's upbringing.) Blazing Fists—which plays like Warrior meets Bloodsport with a dash of The Outsiders—lives up to its title with a flurry of knuckle sandwiches.
Gerard Butler reasserts his position as the reigning king of dad-core action cinema in Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. The sequel is a follow-up to Den of Thieves from 2018. Inspired by the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, Butler returns as Big Nick, alongside O'Shea Jackson Jr. as professional thief Donnie, who reconvene in Europe over a scheme to steal from a diamond vault in France. Once upon a time, it seemed like Gerard Butler was Scotland's answer to Hugh Jackman: a hunky leading man who can belt out show tunes. But after Butler kicked a dude to his death in 300, he's scowled on practically every movie poster since.
Who knew Hughie had it in him? Jack Quaid (The Boys) takes the spotlight in Novocaine, a riotous action-comedy with the right bone structure to support a new franchise. Quaid stars as a bank employee, Nathan Caine, whose normal life includes one not-so-normal thing: He can't feel pain. Caine's sickness suddenly becomes his advantage after his co-worker and love interest (Amber Midthunder, who rocked the screen in 2022's Prey) is kidnapped by bank robbers. Sharing the same spirit as popcorn flicks like Wanted, Deadpool, and Nobody, Novocaine is anything but numbing.
Years after his delectable Parasite swept the Oscars, visionary director Bong Joon-ho returns to the screen with the help of an eccentric Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17. Set in the year 2054, mankind has made it to space alongside a vast number of "Expendables"—clones who take on dangerous tasks, only to be replaced the next day. Pattinson is the seventeenth iteration of Mickey, whose repeat deaths can't stop him from falling in love with a beautiful security agent (Naomi Ackie). While primarily a sci-fi black comedy with plenty of Bong Joon-ho's favorite themes—ranging from authoritarianism, resource greed, and economic disparity—Mickey 17 explodes in its final act to provide audiences quite the fireworks display. It's not Starship Troopers, but Mickey 17 is no clone of anything.
When Gavin O'Connor first unleashed The Accountant with Ben Affleck in 2016, its leading man was all caught up as DC's Batman. Now that Affleck is free from his obligation to save Gotham, he's back for an even stronger follow-up in The Accountant 2. Affleck is once again his nameless autistic savant and black market accountant who comes to the aid of a Treasury Agent (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, reprising her role from the first film) who is out to solve a murder. Jon Bernthal and J.K. Simmons are also along for the ride. With a stronger emphasis on brotherly love and cranked-up swagger, The Accountant 2 wowed all at its South by Southwest premiere—proving the film doesn't have to cook the books to launch the next big franchise. A third movie is already on the way.
The rancid smell of hot lead and burnt metal. The agonizing screams of traumatized soldiers. The looming specter of death. Not since Black Hawk Down has a movie immersed audiences in the total terror of modern war than Warfare, the latest from Civil War director Alex Garland. Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Kit Connor, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and more step into the combat boots of real soldiers who survived an actual mission in November 2006 during the Battle of Ramadi. Sacrificing character arcs and artistic embellishment for full-throated realism, Warfare—which plays out almost entirely in real time—notably sources itself from the memories of the soldiers who lived through an episode of impossible survival. (The film is co-directed by Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza.) You will never forget it.
No shade to Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, or Doug Liman. But Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag raises the question: "What if Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a better movie?" Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender co-star in this sexy, simmering spy thriller as two married intelligence agents. The couple's marriage is thrown in jeopardy when George (Fassbender) is forced to question his wife Kathryn (Blanchett) after she's suspected as a traitor to her nation. Not only is Black Bag the best-dressed movie of 2025—with Blanchett and Fassbender rocking a wardrobe to die for—it's also one of the year's best overall.
esquire
