7 Most Important Jason Statham Movies That Define His Filmography

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Jason Statham as Adam Clay in 'The Beekeeper.'

Published Apr 6, 2026, 5:53 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.

Before Jason Statham was an actor, he was a model and a professional diver. His career took him everywhere but into acting, and he often credits his time with the British National Swimming Squad as a lesson in life that instilled in him discipline and focus; these are greatly demanded when it comes to the film roles he chooses, so we might simply say that Statham is himself in most of his films.

Whether it's the most recent film Shelter, which sees him as a father figure and action hero, or his earliest ventures as a small-time criminal getting into trouble, Statham is a sort of chameleon in his own respect. Sure, he's always delivering the same intensity and action in his films, but it requires great effort to find the motivation and a difference in approach for roles that are predominantly physical. If you really want to get to know him, here are the most important Jason Statham movies that define his filmography.

'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' (1998)

Jason Statham as Bacon talking to a person offscreen in Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrels

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is obviously the film that defines Statham's filmography because it's the first film he appeared in. The movie opens with a hefty dialogue line, "Handmade in Italy, hand-stolen in Stepney," as we see a very handsome street seller with lad-like energy shuffling buyers and making them laugh. Though he doesn't have too many lines of dialogue across the entire film, the opening of Lock, Stock is entirely his, and he delivers his monologue superbly. This is also the first film for both Statham and Guy Ritchie, and the two have been friends since.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels follows four London friends: a card sharp, Eddie (Nick Moran); a street peddler, Bacon (Statham); a sly salesman, Tom (Jason Flemyng); and one with arguably the only real job, line cook, Soap (Dexter Fletcher). After Eddie tries to swindle his way through a poker match with local gangster Hatchet Harry (P. H. Moriarty), Harry gives him a deadline to pay off his cut. Eddie and the boys decide to rob the gang next door, but they find themselves battling it out with them, who, in turn, battle it out with local marijuana growers. It's a classic Ritchie conundrum and a defining moment for Statham.

'Snatch' (2000)

Jason Statham as Turkish in Snatch giving a fist bump while looking at the camera.

Sometimes we wonder whether we can see actors' real-life personalities in some of their roles; a lot of the time, it sure feels like it, especially when they're allowed to improvise and instill the characters with some of their own gravitas. That's why Statham's portrayal of Turkish in Snatch feels like a reflection of his personality: cheeky, clever, and witty, he delivers a likable protagonist who finds himself in a business that proves to be more dangerous than he ever imagined. Snatch is the sophomore film for Statham and Ritchie, and if the first one helped establish their footing in the crime comedy landscape, Snatch helped them refine and claim a permanent position in it.

Snatch is a massive ensemble film that weaves together several storylines that meet at some point in the story. The protagonist is Turkish, an aspiring boxing manager and slot machine shop owner, who, together with his friend Tommy (Stephen Graham), manages the boxer Gorgeous George. After George gets injured, Turkish and Tommy are forced to reach out to the volatile Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), an Irish Traveler boxer, before they get in trouble with the local gangster, Brick Top (Alan Ford). Gangster films haven't been the same since Lock, Stock and Snatch, and though Statham has long moved on from that, Turkish and Bacon remain his most memorable characters.

'The Transporter' (2002)

Jason Statham as Frank Martin drives a car and looks serious in The Transporter.

Luc Besson's Transporter franchise is truly unique, and though it starts to exude a sense of fatigue by the fourth film, Statham keeps it refreshing and alive (though the fourth film is technically a reboot and has nothing to do with Statham). The Transporter was written by Besson for Statham in particular, and if any film should be considered a definition of his career as an action star we all know and respect today, it is definitely this one. The film was, interestingly, developed based on a series of short films called The Hire, in which Clive Owen portrays a similar kind of transporter-for-hire. The short films were commissioned by BMW as a form of advertisement for different models and were directed by various directors (among whom is also Guy Ritchie).

The Transporter follows Frank Martin (Statham), an English transporter-for-hire living in France, who operates his high-stakes transport business under three distinct rules: no names, no shipment changes, and never open the package. When Frank is given a package that contains a living person inside (Shu Qi), he becomes a part of a human trafficker's scheme. Frank is the ultimate reluctant hero, but since his background as a former Special Ops soldier may not allow him to look away from wrongdoings, he's the best possible option for saving the day. The Transporter was the first glimpse of Statham as an action hero, and without him, the world of high-octane action wouldn't be the same today.

'Spy' (2015)

Jason Statham as Rick Ford smiling at a gala with his arms raised in Spy

If you wonder why Spy is one of the most defining movies in Statham's filmography, well, you just have to watch his hilarious monologue and you'll understand. This was maybe the first time we got to see Statham in a role in which he actually delivers comedic lines with a straight face, rather than just trying to be cheeky or one-up his conversation partners like in Ritchie's old films. In Spy, he embraces the parody of James Bond, a role he expressed interest in playing IRL (which would have been fun), starring as super spy Rick Ford, who "makes it a habit of doing things people say he can't do," such as walk through fire and take up piano at a late age.

Spy follows a CIA desk agent, Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy), who is reluctantly sent to the field after spy Bradley Fine (Jude Law) is killed. Since she's the only one who understands the purpose of Fine's mission, she volunteers to catch his killer and prevent a nuclear bomb trade herself; smug but experienced field agent Rick Ford (Statham) protests and goes on the same mission on his own accord, shadowing Susan and pretty much bombing her mission. The monologue in which Ford mentions reattaching his own arm and performing at Cirque du Soleil wouldn't have been as funny or effective if someone else had spoken it; that's why any serious fan of Statham knows that his role in Spy was basically meant for him and that the movie is a must-watch.

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

'Crank' (2006)

Crank is an incredible feat of action cinema, reaching the points of camp, hilarity, and over-the-top visuals, sometimes in one fell swoop. It's considered one of the most outlandish action films ever made, and it was written with Johnny Knoxville in mind for the lead role. It would have been much less intense had Knoxville come on board, since Statham has the ability to maintain an outward intensity as much as he can do it quietly. Crank raises the stakes of action to skyrocketing levels, introducing mindless violence as a means to save one's own life; filmmaker Gareth Evans cited Crank as his favorite Statham movie.

Crank follows Chev Chelios (Statham), who works for London-based gangster Don Carlito (Carlos Sanz). However, Chev's rival, Ricky Verona (Jose Pablo Cantillo), breaks into his apartment and injects him with a synthetic drug that slows his heart rate; to survive, Chev must raise his adrenaline almost continuously, and he does it in the most bonkers ways possible—getting into street fights, having sex in public, and entering car and bike races. Crank is a powerhouse of action films and a movie Statham himself seems to love as much as the audiences, showing us a more chaotic and bold side of the actor.

'The Expendables' (2010)

image-1the-expendables-jason-statham-sylvester-stallone-social-featured

The Expendables has also turned into a franchise, though nobody genuinely expected that. It's a sort of action equivalent to Fast and the Furious, with bigger and more ridiculous stakes in each film and a great win for the good guys, who never look bad or break a sweat while saving the world. The Expendables was also a revival of 1980s and '90s blockbuster action, chock-full of actors who otherwise would've had a single lead billing in their own film, from Sylvester Stallone to Dolph Lundgren. The second film adds Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, while the third adds Mel Gibson and Wesley Snipes. By the third film, Statham has become the franchise's producer as well, holding down the fort as one of several constant cast members.

The Expendables follows Barney Ross (Stallone), the leader of a mercenary group called The Expendables, comprised of various weaponry, combat, and martial arts experts; they take on the mission of overthrowing a Latin American dictator led by a CIA agent. If you love gunfights, pure action stunts and high-adrenaline films, The Expendables truly is the right thing for you. While the concept was created by Stallone, Statham feels like the carrier of the franchise as Lee Christmas; the two are, together with Lundgren and Randy Couture, the only four men to appear in all four films, and the franchise wouldn't be the same without them. Christmas is, in particular, loyal, rowdy, and often the butt of the joke because of his name, but an admirable and equal part of the team nonetheless.

'The Beekeeper' (2024)

Jason Statham wears a hat in a club in The Beekeeper

The Beekeeper is a fine movie, formulaic when it comes to action movies and even Statham's performance. Yet, The Beekeeper is the first film from Statham's recently established production company, Punch Palace Productions (beautiful name, by the way). If you're wondering where Statham is today and what he's up to, The Beekeeper is the film to watch to let you know. In fact, even if you are a fan who follows every movie that Statham makes, you'll feel even more delighted by The Beekeeper's sense of simplicity and complexity equally carried throughout the film. Standard action flick with bonkers ways to kill enemies? Yes, but also a deep-state cover-up, dissolved entirely by one man who likes bees and justice and has no fear.

The Beekeeper follows the retired assassin Adam Clay, who lives as a beekeeper and is friends with his elderly neighbor Eloise (Phylicia Rashad). When Eloise gets scammed out of her entire life savings and dies, Adam seeks revenge by tracking down the people who took her money; he is meanwhile pursued by Eloise's daughter, Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who happens to be an FBI agent. While she pursues him, Verona realizes Adam has come into a conspiracy that involves a presidential candidate, but also that he's a part of a clandestine agency called Beekeepers, tasked with protecting U.S. citizens and given clearance above government level. The Beekeeper 2 is in production, and this could be an amazing new franchise yet again, and we could get the same levels of lore we subsequently got with the John Wick movies, turning a simple action film into a poetry of fistfights and physical justice.