7 Action Movies That Blow John Wick Out of the Water

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Published Apr 12, 2026, 2:40 PM EDT

Dyah (pronounced Dee-yah) is a Senior Author at Collider, responsible for both writing and transcription duties. She joined the website in 2022 as a Resource Writer before stepping into her current role in April 2023. As a Senior Author, she writes Features and Lists covering TV, music, and movies, making her a true Jill of all trades. In addition to her writing, Dyah also serves as an interview transcriber, primarily for events such as San Diego Comic-Con, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival.

Dyah graduated from Satya Wacana Christian University in October 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, concentrating on Creative Writing. She is currently completing her Master's degree in English Literature Studies, with a thesis on intersectionality in postcolonial-feminist studies in Asian literary works, and is expected to graduate in 2026.

Born and raised between Indonesia and Singapore, Dyah is no stranger to different cultures. She now resides in the small town of Kendal with her husband and four cats, where she spends her free time cooking or cycling.

John Wick may have introduced one of the world's most iconic assassins, but there is plenty of action beyond his universe. In 2014, Keanu Reeves took on the role of the titular hitman, who goes on a rampage after gangsters break into his home and kill his beloved puppy. Fueled by grief and vengeance, Wick hunts down those responsible, only to uncover a larger, more sinister scheme. At this point, retirement proves anything but peaceful.

However, while Wick stands as Hollywood's quintessential assassin, there is still a wide range of action films worth exploring. He may be known for his signature "gun-fu" style, but some audiences crave more variety beyond relentless carnage and repeated techniques. Without further ado, here are the movies with even better action than John Wick.

'Kill Bill: Vol. 1' (2003)

As the Bride (Uma Thurman) would learn in Kill Bill Vol. 1, never leave your former lover hanging — especially when he's the ringleader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. The Quentin Tarantino classic is a pastiche of many elements: spaghetti western, martial arts, and samurai cinema. All of this is then greatly tied to the Bride's quest to find the man who not only left her dead at her own wedding rehearsal, but also lost the child she was bearing.

Female rage is emotional, but being torn apart from her child becomes the perfect backstory for the Bride's vengeance. She travels across the world to find the Deadly Vipers, battling each one with specificity. One standout is the scalp-cutting battle with O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) and the Crazy 88. In this sequence, she single-handedly kills dozens of armed enemies. Another is the suburban showdown with Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), where they try to stay as discreet as possible, given their neighborhood surroundings. Each encounter with a Deadly Viper highlights the Bride's fighting versatility and makes every fight feel freshly exciting.

'Police Story' (1985)

Police Story not only popularized Hong Kong cop movies, but it also revolutionized the art of stunts in action cinema. Action scenes are often known for their brutality, but Jackie Chan, who plays Chan Ka-Kui, shows that there are layers to crafting a great sequence. Action scenes should have style, and that comes from choreography. With Chan's background in Peking Opera training, his approach leans heavily into acrobatics. This influence explains the constant tumbling and aerial momentum, even during hand-to-hand combat.

Another defining feature of Police Story is how environmental the action scenes are. Forget fighting rings or evil lairs — most of these fights take place in public spaces, leveraging whatever is in Ka-Kui's surroundings. Instead of chasing a double-decker bus with a car, he clings to it using nothing but an umbrella. He swings himself upward while villains try to kick him off. In the film's peak ending, an extended shopping mall fight, Ka-Kui throws a henchman into a moving escalator, revs up a display motorcycle and crashes it into glass fixtures, and even slides down a pole from the upper floor to the ground floor, wrapped in light bulbs.

'The Raid: Redemption' (2011)

The premise of The Raid: Redemption is remarkably simple yet clever: a 20-man squad of MBC (Mobile Brigade Corps) infiltrates a rundown apartment. The objective is to arrest crime lord Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy), who sits calmly on the top floor. Taking over a building should be straightforward, especially when you're a government-backed police force. But before they can even lay a finger on him, the MBC has to push through 30 stories of criminals, ranging from your everyday thugs to deadly assassins.

The Raid: Redemption takes claustrophobia to new, deadly heights. The moment the MBC officers enter through the front door on the ground floor, there is no escape. At every turn — every corridor and every door opened — a bloodthirsty killer is waiting to murder them by whatever means necessary, especially since they have been promised free residence by Tama. Being in a small, cramped space with threats coming from all directions creates constant urgency. There is no time for showmanship, and by the time the MBC officers have exhausted all their resources, they can only rely on their fists to fight their way through each floor.

'Kung Fu Hustle' (2004)

Beating the living lights out of gangsters doesn't always have to be vicious. In Kung Fu Hustle, it can be whimsical and graceful. Inspired by the art of wuxia — the classic genre depicting martial artists in ancient China — much of the film's fantasy draws on real spiritual elements. These elements form the basis of qi (life force), the energy that powers many of the action sequences in Stephen Chow's film.

Kung Fu Hustle emphasizes that fighting isn't always about being on the offensive. To overcome injustice, one must first find inner peace to harness one's qi. Only then can they unlock true power, and in the film's case, even supernatural abilities like the Buddha's Palm strike. Qi also serves as the foundation for many of the kung fu styles shown in the movie. These range from the rapid, grounded Hung Gar style to the low, coiled, yet explosive Hama Gong technique.

Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown

Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.

🤠Yellowstone

🛢️Landman

👑Tulsa King

⚖️Mayor of Kingstown

FIND YOUR WORLD →

Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.

ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.

NEXT QUESTION →

Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.

AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing.

NEXT QUESTION →

Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.

AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.

NEXT QUESTION →

Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.

AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.

AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.

NEXT QUESTION →

What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.

AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.

ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.

AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.

NEXT QUESTION →

What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.

AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.

NEXT QUESTION →

When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.

AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.

REVEAL MY SHOW →

Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…

The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.

🤠 Yellowstone

🛢️ Landman

👑 Tulsa King

⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown

You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.

You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.

You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.

You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'Hardcore Henry' (2015)

A man in a suit and tie in an elevator with a gun pointed at his head and pliers on his nose in Hardcore Henry.

In typical fashion, viewers watch movies from a third-person perspective. But if anyone has ever wondered what it's like to literally be the one doing the action, Hardcore Henry is the go-to movie. Told from a first-person perspective, the film unfolds through the eyes of Henry, an amnesia-stricken man brought back from the dead by his wife (Haley Bennett). Moments later, she is kidnapped, and Henry — or rather, you — is thrust into the action, immediately under fire.

Hardcore Henry feeds your action-filled curiosities. One moment, you find yourself sliding down a crowded escalator and accidentally crashing into someone. Next, you're peering through a sniper scope, picking off enemies from the top of a building. For adrenaline junkies, the film goes even further. You'll be riding a high-speed motorcycle and ramming it into a van ahead of you. It's a no-brainer action, but it pulls you in completely, letting you experience every moment viscerally.

'Gladiator' (2000)

Russell Crowe as Maximus yelling in the arena "Are you not entertained!?!", in Gladiator

For a movie filled with bloodshed, Gladiator still finds moments of humanity between its sword fights. Creative liberties aside — real gladiator battles did not typically end in death, and trained fighters were expected to survive multiple bouts — the film questions the universally troubling idea that people find violence entertaining. At the same time, it is this very violence that Maximus (Russell Crowe) is forced to endure. Each fight becomes part of his strategy to survive and move closer to Commodus.

The basis of Gladiator's action is embodied in the famous line Crowe improvised: "Are you not entertained?" The battles are designed to satisfy the masses watching them, and as a result, they go to extreme lengths. From decapitating an opponent to being trapped in a claustrophobic fight against heavily armored gladiators, to facing a former champion while real tigers circle the arena, each sequence is crafted to thrill. These battles are meant not only to entertain the crowds within the film but also the audience watching it.

'RRR' (2022)

Some think it’s kooky, while others call it camp. Either way, that doesn’t take away from the fact that RRR is packed with action from start to finish. The over theatrical nature of its stunts — reminiscent of the aesthetic in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet — amplifies the film’s already fierce spectacle. Yet, beneath all the stylization, the story is rooted in history. RRR reimagines the resistance against British colonial rule through two real-life Indian revolutionaries of the 1920s: Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.).

When we talk about heroes, there is a tendency to present them as larger-than-life figures. RRR fully embraces this idea through its over-the-top spectacle. The film holds nothing back in portraying its national heroes — the men who fought for the liberation of their people. From Bheem unleashing a collection of wild animals on British soldiers, to Raju fighting atop Bheem's shoulders, each sequence escalates the action. It's one explosion after another.