Forget John Wick, the Ultimate Action Thriller of the Century Is Officially Streaming on Netflix

You'll never look at simple hardware tools the same way again

Some of my favorite movies are about ordinary dudes who turn out to be a nightmare for anyone dumb enough to cross them. Pierre Morel’s Taken twisted Liam Neeson into the patron saint of revenge. Then came John Wick with an angry Keanu Reeves to perfect that very specific formula. More recently, Nobody proved there’s still plenty of mileage left in watching a highly dangerous man decide retirement isn't for him, especially when you add a bit of levity to it.

But Denzel Washington just hits different. Having starred in the 2004 masterwork of action, Man on Fire, Washington knows perfectly well how to captivate as a tired ex-soldier pushed to the brink. While it might not have the same Tony Scott flair, 2014’s The Equalizer still carries that satisfying dad-action energy — but in this film, Washington’s kills feel even more visceral at times. It may not be the pinnacle of the genre, but it’s still one of my dad’s favorites, and it just dropped on Netflix, making now the perfect time to revisit one of Washington’s best characters.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who previously teamed up with Washington for Training Day, The Equalizer takes inspiration from the 1980s television series of the same name. Unlike the show's private detective, who uses his particular set of skills to help people who have nowhere else to turn, Washington instead steps into the role of Robert McCall, a quiet Boston hardware store employee who spends his nights reading books at a local diner. When a teenage diner regular (Chloë Grace Moretz) runs into serious trouble with the Russian mob, McCall is forced to fold back into the person he long abandoned to protect her.

Half the fun of The Equalizer is watching Washington sit perfectly still while everyone around him has absolutely no idea they’re about to have the worst night of their lives. McCall is quiet, polite, and almost boring on the surface, right up until someone slights one of his acquaintances or pushes him too far over the edge. Washington plays that reversal with an incredible combination of warmth, restraint, and menace. It’s the kind of performance that makes even the most ridiculous action-movie violence feel completely convincing — and, trust me when I say the kills can get over the top. When McCall finally decides to return to his old life, The Equalizer becomes exactly the sort of excessive action movie you hoped it would be.

McCall isn't simply a guy who's good at shooting people à la John Wick. He's methodical, calculating every option while memorizing his surroundings, turning whatever happens to be nearby into a deadly weapon. This is exactly where The Equalizer gets cooking. It takes its time establishing just how capable McCall is while also highlighting how ruthless his opponents are until finally letting him loose. Fuqua lets just enough of the runtime fly by before the bodies start falling, making those kills all the more satisfying. The centerpiece comes in its final act, when McCall finds himself fighting a group of armed men inside the very hardware store he longed to make his forever home. Watching Denzel dispatch foes like a murderous handyman is something else. Turning ordinary hardware tools, from a power drill to a nail gun, into a deadly arsenal with brutal ease, McCall delivers the exact brand of action-movie absurdity the genre excels at.

For all of its explosive action, even the film's quietest scenes can feel heart-pounding, like the now-infamous dinner table confrontation. After dispatching one of the mobster’s men off-screen in a nearby bathroom, McCall calmly sits down at the dinner table like he belongs there, but not before dropping a pair of blood-stained sunglasses in front of the Russian enforcer sitting across from him. Mid-meal, picking at a plate of fish, Teddy (Marton Csokas) doesn’t flinch, appearing more intrigued than frightened by his newfound dinner guest. McCall, meanwhile, remains almost unnervingly relaxed. It's a masterclass in chilling restraint; instead of raising his voice, McCall delivers a methodical promise to dismantle Teddy's entire operation "brick by brick, dollar by dollar, body by body." Coupled with that unwavering gaze, it’s an intimidating moment that lives rent-free in my head.

While the sequels aren’t currently available on Netflix, both The Equalizer 2 and The Equalizer 3 serve as heart-pounding follow-ups well worth tracking down elsewhere. Fuqua returned to direct the entire trilogy, keeping the tension tight and the action relentlessly satisfying as Robert McCall's vigilante crusade expanded from a rideshare driver in Boston to the Southern Italian coast. Still, the original remains the ultimate gold standard, masterfully slow-burning McCall’s quiet and charming demeanor before letting him go full grim reaper on a mobster-filled hardware store.

The Equalizer works so well because it was never trying to reinvent the action thriller. It took a very old formula and gave it one of the most charismatic movie stars alive. Denzel gets to be quietly intimidating, unexpectedly funny, brutally efficient, and just sentimental enough to make McCall feel like a person rather than an invincible killing machine. It’s violent, occasionally absurd, and very much a product of its era, but if you're looking for pure, unadulterated vigilante catharsis, you really couldn't ask for a better streaming pick this weekend — especially if you’re bringing dad along for the ride.

---

The Equliizer is streaming on Netflix