Best Action Movies of 2022, Ranked

After theaters were shut down for over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, audiences slowly started to return to the movies. 2021 was very much a test year, with movies having a slow roll-out release, but in 2022 they made a big return, and one genre that certainly had a lot of sway at the box office was action movies. Action movies, by their very nature, invite people to watch them on the big screen, as they can be engrossed in the spectacle.

Updated: May 30, 2023: This article has been updated by Danilo Raú with even more great action films from 2022 and additional information regarding the previous films listed.

2022 brought out the proverbial big guns. Action directors like Michael Bay, James Cameron, and the Russo Brothers offered exciting spectacles on both the big and small screen. There were action films that spanned across time, set in the past or the far future, and tackled a variety of subgenres, including horror and comedy. These were the best action films of 2022.

16 Ambulance

Michael Bay has yet to take a break in his ongoing production of action thrillers. Ambulance is one of his best offerings to date. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Danny and Will Sharp, the adoptive brothers get together after Will returns home from Afghanistan and finds his wife Amy sick with cancer. Desperate to get $231,000 for an experimental treatment, he joins his brother Danny in a heist that goes wrong. The ensuing chase is plagued with drama and desperation as the brothers try their best to escape the situation to no avail.

This rock-solid movie touches on themes of social disparity and how the need to provide can lead to desperate decisions. Despite being disappointing at the box office, it was one of Michael Bay’s best-reviewed movies, and it wowed the audiences who did see it with its innovative action cinematography, particularly its use of drone shots.

15 Beast

Idris Elba has proven more than once he has the chops to be a major action star; that’s precisely why Beast, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, lands on this list. Recent widow Nate Samuels travels back to South Africa with his daughters Meredith and Norah to visit the Mopani Reserve and reconnect with them after their mother dies from cancer. Everything goes well until they discover an entire community mauled by a rogue lion.

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The beast has been tracking Nate and his daughters and is not going down without a fight. Beast is a tense movie exploring multiple themes such as family love, cultural differences, poaching, and wildlife. It is a barebones action throwback to creature features of the 1980s and ’90s.

14 Day Shift

Few offerings in 2022 were as odd as Day Shift. J.J. Perry directs this Netflix exclusive with a script by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten. Jamie Foxx stars as Bud Jablonskiis, who is a blue-collar worker with issues providing for his family. When his estranged wife tells him she’s moving to Florida and taking his daughter, Bud must get back his old job as a vampire hunter. It turns out there are some ground rules to kill vampires in this world, and Bud is not very good at following them. The film is very amusing, given that it’s nearly impossible to kill vampires without making a mess, something Bud’s union representative is well aware of.

13 The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is the most meta film of 2022. Written and directed by Tom Gormican, the story features Nicolas Cage as himself, alongside Pedro Pascal, who plays a rabid fan of his movies. Nick is a down-on-his-luck actor wishing for one grand role before leaving the industry who gets involved in a massive CIA operation. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is very much a parody but also a love letter to Nicolas Cage’s action movies like Gone in 60 Seconds and Con-Air. It is over the top, silly, and one can’t help but enjoy seeing Cage back in action-hero mode.

12 The Gray Man

Who doesn’t love a movie about the corruption of the CIA? It’s a face-off between Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, who dons a very intense mustache as his character tries to track down his former colleague. The Gray Man is based on a 2009 novel of the same name and was directed by the Russo Brothers, who are most notably remembered for their work in the MCU.

This film is jam-packed with action and guns and increases the scale of the spy-espionage action the Russo perfected on Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The Gray Man is the first in what is planned as a long-running action franchise for Netflix.

11 All Quiet on The Western Front

While not an action movie in the traditional sense, the multiple Academy Award-winning film All Quiet in the Western Front explores the horrors and violence of war in a way that makes the audience think about their perspective on the action. The story is a chronicle of the life of troops and how their superiors view them as disposable assets. The story is told through the story of Paul Bäumer, played by Felix Kammerer, as he joins the army after a patriotic speech by a German official.

He’s given the uniform of a dead man and sent to France, and over the film, Paul sees his friends die one by one in a year. His physical transformation reflects the toll the war has taken on him, as the Germans make do in the war effort with the few resources at their disposal, while the French are overwhelmingly better prepared than them. The story’s ending is a gut-punching resolution highlighting how war is not about resolving differences but total submission.

10 The Batman

Matt Reeves’ The Batman was one of the most anticipated superhero movies of 2022, and it certainly delivers. Fans of the Batman story were eager to see how Pattinson was going to compare to his predecessors, especially Christian Bale. He proved that he could hold his own amongst the great Batman actors of the past.

While The Batman is more a noir detective story than a traditional superhero action movie, it still features plenty of great visceral fist fights that display how powerful of a fighter this version of Batman is. The Batmobile chase, where Batman hunts the Penguin, was one of the best Batman action scenes in the franchise, and audiences eagerly await The Batman Part II in October 2025.

9 Violent Night

Violent Night took reimagines the Die Hard story but, this time drops Santa Claus in the middle of the action. David Harbour stars as Santa, who one night is caught in a house that is under an invasion from a criminal organization. This festive beat-em-up sees “the man with a bag” go toe-to-toe against an onslaught of mercenaries, dispatching them in the most festive of ways. From piercing a candy cane through many bad guys to well as sticking a star from the top of a Christmas tree through a henchman’s eye and forcing his head to catch fire.

Violent Night was a pleasant surprise for the end of the year, as both a great action movie but also a genuine Christmas movie that will likely be rewatched over the holidays for years to come. In a wave of action films inspired by John Wick, Violent Night stands out as one of the best.

8 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had a lot to live up to. It had to deliver a sequel to one of the most beloved movies in recent years while also needing to address the tragic passing of star Chadwick Boseman. Not only did filmmaker Ryan Coogler tell a deeply personal film about grief and loss, but he also was able to deliver an exciting action movie that kept the spirit of Chadwick Boseman alive.

The addition of the anti-hero Namor as the primary villain opened the film up to some incredible action scenes, including an impressive assault on Wakanda. The final battle at sea is a massive epic that manages to cut away from the larger-scale war to a smaller personal conflict between Shuri and Namor and allows both characters to progress in meaningful ways.

7 The Northman

From the brilliant mind of Robert Eggers comes this brutal, action-packed, and beautifully authentic, gritty Viking revenge flick. It delivers some of the best action scenes of the year. Filled to the brim with exhilarating, well-shot, and incredibly brutal action scenes, The Northman quickly became of the best revenge flicks of recent years, mostly due to the brilliant action scenes, especially the phenomenal Viking assault portrayed as a one-take action shot. The film is elevated by Alexander Skarsgård’s exceptional performance as the lead role, selling every action scene with his beastly physicality.

6 The Woman King

The Woman King is a historical film centered around The Kingdom of Dahomey and the Agojie, an all-female group that were warriors and protected the state. Viola Davis and John Boyega star in this historical action drama filled with great acting and powerfully moving moments. The Agojie served as the inspiration for the Dora Malaje in Black Panther, and this film puts the spotlight on these real people in a story that had gone overlooked for far too long.

5 Prey

Prey is a prequel to the iconic Predator series and was the shot in the arm the franchise needed. It followed a young Comanche warrior named Naru, played by Amber Midthunder, who encounters the alien hunter known as the Predator in 1719. Prey is the perfect update of the original 1987’s Predator mix of action and horror, providing some truly terrifying scares but also some jaw-dropping R-rated action that highlights with this franchise has endured for so long.

4 RRR

RRR is not just one of the best action movies of 2022, but one of the best movies of 2022, and is filled with iconic action packed into it. The movie is a Telugu epic and is a fictional story of two real-life revolutionary leaders, Raju and Bheem, in the British Raj India. The movie has some of the most beautifully crafted epic action scenes that redefine the definition of over the top.

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The movie features one man fighting off an entire mob of people, another man throwing a trigger, and drop-kicking motorcycles into mid-air. There is more imagination in one of this movie’s action scenes than in most whole movies. RRR is a three-hour epic that goes by quickly due to the outstanding action.

3 Avatar: The Way of Water

After a long hiatus, James Cameron returns with Avatar: The Way of Water. Just like his two previous sequels, Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Avatar: The Way of Water manages to improve on the iconic first film to make an even more epic but personal film. Avatar: The Way of Water may not have as grand an epic as its predecessor, but it is a far more personal one, and that pushes the action into darker territory. Avatar: The Way of Water shows when it comes to action, James Cameron still has it.

2 Everything Everywhere All At Once

Michelle Yeoh shines brightly in this action-filled movie, which was one of the most talked about of 2022. The movie is separated into three parts, and Everything Everywhere All At Once‘s pace is impeccable. It’s filled with a great cast and incredible imaginative action choreography. This movie should seem absurd on paper, but everyone involved gives it a true heart showing that action movies and emotional dramas do not need to be mutually exclusive genres. The movie broke through with audiences, critics, and even Oscar voters as it went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

1 Top Gun: Maverick

There is no arguing that Top Gun: Maverick was the biggest surprise of 2022 in terms of box office, critical reaction, and just the scope of the action. The original Top Gun was iconic, so topping it seemed impossible, yet Top Gun: Maverick pulled it off. It was a great addition to the original movie. Top Gun: Maverick stuck around the Top 10 at the box office for months, bringing in over $1 billion worldwide, and even earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. This movie is a technical marvel and has already become an action movie classic in the same way that Mad Max: Fury Road did.