Revenge tragedy is a theoretical genre in which the principal theme is retribution and its often-fatal consequences. For most films, the second part tends to get left out. The revenge genre is often one of the most engaging forms of storytelling in cinema. If the story is personal for the main character, it makes it personal for the viewer. Whatever choices are made, for better or worse, they are more easily understood. Most revenge films may be more of the action variety, starting with a person with a past and a mission, and will often end happily despite all the destruction and bodies left in the hero’s wake. Commando, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is a perfect example.
The best revenge films make the viewer feel and think. Whether the protagonist felt cheated, betrayed, or personally attacked, the act of seeking revenge in some way changes them. To avenge a wife’s death or rescue a kidnapped child may turn someone into an entirely different person who does things they never thought capable of themselves. Sometimes their actions can cause more harm than good, leaving the audience asking themselves, was it all worth it? Here are the best revenge films of all time, ranked.
Updated May 22, 2023: If you’re a fan of revenge films, you’re in luck. This article has been updated to include even more great films about the theme of revenge by Danilo Raúl.
20 The Northman (2022)
The Northman is the underrated gem of 2022. Directed by Robert Eggers, one of the most imaginative creatives in Hollywood producing original IPs today, this magnificent movie went unnoticed by most audiences. The film adapts a Danish folk tale named “The Legend of Amleth.” It’s also the story used as the basis of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The cast includes an imposing Alexander Skarsgård, along with Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Willem Dafoe, all playing prominent roles.
The script, written by Eggers and Icelandic poet Sjón, tells the story of a boy who undergoes the rites to become a man in a Viking tribe. He witnesses the betrayal of his father by his closest ally. His mother is taken away, and he escapes into the world and becomes a warrior with a simple mission in mind: to go back home and kill the people who wronged his father. After finding his way back home, he wages a one-man war against the people who wronged him, but there’s more to the story than his narrow vision of justice.
19 The Punisher (2004)
The second venture of The Punisher in cinemas was a film written and directed by Jonathan Hensleigh, starring Thomas Jane as Frank Castle. The story plays the angle of revenge from multiple points of view to showcase how one wrong never undoes another. The story is an adaptation of a comic storyline named Welcome Back, Frank. Castle is an undercover operative working for the FBI. In his last operation, he takes down a weapon shipment by the youngest son of mafia boss Howard Saint, played by John Travolta. The wife of the mob boss orders the death of Frank’s whole family.
After recovering from the attack, Frank plans and prepares himself to take out the whole Saint clan. He kills each one using guile and deception. Howard realizes who he’s dealing with and sends his strongest henchmen to take Castle out. All of them return in pieces. Frank doesn’t spare anyone, not even the family’s matriarch, in the final confrontation. He vows to continue his mission until his body fails him.
18 Darkman (1990)
Another underrated gem directed by Sam Raimi, the story, co-written by Raimi and Chuck Pfarrer, follows the misadventures of Peyton Westlake, a scientist who becomes disfigured after his lab is blown up by thugs trying to steal his research. Darkman launched Liam Neeson’s career to stardom, along with his co-star Frances McDormand who plays his love interest, Julie.
After being rescued, Peyton discovers he’s been subjected to an experimental procedure to cut his nerve receptors so he no longer feels pain. Using his scientific knowledge, he creates a synthetic skin mask to help him blend in. However, Peyton’s psyche has been broken, and he gains incredible strength each time he gets agitated. The film has a lot of Raimi visual signatures, mixing horror elements with powerful action scenes.
17 The Revenant (2015)
The Revenant is written and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and features the talents of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The somber film retells the story of Hugh Glass, a fur trapper who led an expedition in 1823. After being mangled by a bear and left near death, fellow trapper John Fitzgerald suggests mercy killing Glass. The party disagrees and leaves Glass in Fitzgerald’s care along Glas’swith half-Pawnee’s son, Hawk. Fearing an Arikara attack, Fitzgerald kills Glass’s son and buries him alive.
Glass digs himself out of his shallow grave and begins his journey back to civilization. His body, battered and broken, can barely hold stitches. After his journey leads him back to civilization, he finds out Fitzgerald has escaped, so he embarks on a mission to hunt down and kill the man who wronged him and his son. The film is a hard watch, considering we must see Glass survive in the wild with no means to help himself other than his wits and drive for revenge.
16 Unforgiven (1992)
In the critically-acclaimed Revisionist Western Unforgiven, legendary silver screen star Clint Eastwood portrays an aging gunslinger and retired outlaw who is brought back into the fold to help a young man seek revenge on the cowboys responsible for disfiguring a prostitute. After being approached by aspiring gunman The Schofield Kid, repentant widower William Munny (Eastwood) reluctantly agrees to take a final job with the help of longtime partner Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) in order to claim the $1,000 bounty.
The trio must square off against the corrupt sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) and fellow bounty hunters to avenge the attack on the prostitute. The Oscar-winning picture features superb performances by its A-list cast and delves into the complexities of retribution and violence from differing character perspectives.
15 The Equalizer (2014)
Denzel Washington brilliantly captures the role of a lethal vigilante seeking cold hard justice in the gripping action film The Equalizer, delivering a tour-de-force performance as a former intelligence agent who is compelled to take a stand against the Russian mafia after a teenage prostitute is assaulted. Robert McCall finds his quiet, reclusive life disrupted when a girl he befriends is brutally beaten by her pimp, reigniting a powerful-yet-dangerous fire within him that leads him to take matters into his own hands and take on the violent crime boss.
The overwhelming popularity of The Equalizer led to a successful sequel in 2018, with a third follow-up set for release in 2023 with Washington’s Man on Fire co-star Dakota Fanning also appearing.
14 Carrie (1976)
This classic horror tale based on Stephen King’s first novel follows Carrie, a bullied teenage girl who finds out she has telekinesis. On a night that was supposed to be a turnaround in her tumultuous life, she is humiliated in front of the entire school by her tormentors and snaps, deciding enough is enough.
This film shows a vulnerable girl with a unique ability reaching her breaking point in a brutal climax that is still synonymous in pop culture decades later. Brian de Palma gave Carrie an incredibly innovative film style, especially in the final act, and both Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie got Oscar nominations for their portrayals of Carrie and Margaret White.
13 Death Wish (1974)
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After NYC architect Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson)’s wife and daughter are brutally attacked by a group of thugs (Jeff Goldblum plays Freak #1 in his first-ever role), he goes on a rampage through NYC to not only get revenge on those who destroyed his family but take vigilante justice to all of those he observes breaking the law.
Death Wish is a perfect example of a film that portrays both the revenge theme and the mental effects it can have on the person that takes it. Bronson would return for five more Death Wish sequels, with the last being in 1994. In 2018, Eli Roth remade the first film, casting Bruce Willis as Paul Kersey.
12 Upgrade (2018)
In Leigh Whannell’s underrated and under-seen science fiction film Upgrade, Logan Marshall-Green plays Grey, a man who becomes paraplegic after he and his wife are victims of a gang shooting. Grey accepts the help of a famous techno-engineer and has a state-of-the-art microchip placed in his neck, which takes complete control of his physical functions, allowing him to walk and move again and making him a violent force of nature, trained in several fighting styles. Grey then hunts down his wife’s killers to determine who was behind the attack.
11 Mandy (2018)
In probably the most important film in the resurgence of Nic Cage’s career, Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy is a visually stunning revenge flick. In Mandy, a happy couple’s lives are destroyed when a cult of hippie drug addicts and their demon-biker henchman kidnap and brutally murder Red Miller (Cage)’s wife, Mandy, right in front of him, and leave him for dead. After having a mental breakdown, Red retrieves his old crossbow from a friend (Bill Duke) and fashions his own weapons to take with him on an incredibly gory revenge ride.
This film starts off in a very artsy and psychedelic fashion, then flips the script into a brutal, bloody, wild ride. Cage’s acting is in top form in this flick, and he has one of the best performances of his career.
10 John Wick (2014)
John Wick wanted to leave his past as an assassin behind and grow old with his wife. But, when she dies of cancer, she leaves behind a beagle puppy so that John doesn’t have to grieve alone, giving him a final glimmer of hope after losing the only person he loved. But, when thugs break into his house and kill the puppy, his hope is snuffed out, and his rage takes over, setting a bullet-riddled path to avenge his lost friend in a world that wouldn’t leave him alone.
John Wick boasts a great cast including Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, and John Leguizamo, and reunited Reeves with producer/directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, who worked with him on The Matrix trilogy. Reeves also performed about 90% of his own stunts in this gun-fu action film.
9 Taken (2008)
A retired CIA operative and divorcee (Liam Neeson) listens helplessly as his estranged daughter is abducted half the world away. Then, with her kidnappers listening, he gives a deadly warning, let her go or die. Parents who see Taken won’t find connecting with the stoic father challenging. What parent doesn’t think of the lengths they’ll go to protect their kids? Though Neeson did a great job, performed most of his own stunts, and the film produced two sequels, it was actually Jeff Bridges who was picked for the role. It wasn’t until he dropped out that Neeson was hired on.
8 Cape Fear (1962 & 1991)
Flipping the narrative of revenge against the hero, both versions of Cape Fear, the original and the Scorcese remake, showcase a deadly cat-and-mouse game between a deranged convict (Robert De Niro) and his former lawyer (Nick Nolte) who lets him go to prison. Here is an example of the consequences of doing the right thing.
When the lawyer, Sam, had a chance to save the deranged Max Cady from prison, he hid crucial evidence upon realizing his guilt. Almost two decades later, Cady is released and tracks down Sam to punish him for his deed. Robert De Niro was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, and Juliette Lewis, who played the daughter, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
7 The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel) had a great life, a great career, and a loving fiancé. That is until his best friend betrays him and finds himself wrongly imprisoned with everything good in his life stolen from him. Edmond has been thinking about the life he once had and the friend who betrayed him for almost two decades and is ready to take back what’s his. So first, he escapes confinement with the help of his cellmate Abbe Faria (Richard Harris).
Then he enters the world of aristocracy as the mysterious The Count of Monte Cristo to get close to the man who betrayed him (Guy Pearce). This tale shows what one can achieve with time and patience and shows that not all ghosts stay dead. Henry Cavill also appears in one of his first film roles.
6 Memento (2000)
In this head-spinning adventure from Christopher Nolan, Leonard (Guy Pearce) sets out to avenge the murder of his wife. However, he suffers from short-term memory loss and must write notes that lose all meaning after falling asleep.
This winding tale in Memento follows two threads that reveal tiny morsels of the puzzle as Leonard struggles to find his wife’s killer. One thread plays the sequence of events backward, while a thread in black-in-white flays forward. Both end in a surprise ending that is not easily forgotten. The twists are great, and still just as effective, more than 20 years later.
5 V For Vendetta (2005)
In the political action revenge film V For Vendetta starring Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman, a freedom fighter known as “V” goes on a killing streak to dismantle the British tyrannical government that wronged him many years prior. Based on a graphic novel written by Alan Moore, both Weaving and Portman give fantastic performances, capturing their character’s personalities flawlessly. The Guy Fawkes mask that V uses in the film is now synonymous with the hacker group “Anonymous” and many groups fighting against government injustices.
4 Gladiator (2000)
Maximus (Russell Crowe) was a renowned Roman general loved by all, including the aging Emperor, who named him his successor to rule as regent. Unfortunately, this results in a coup that sees the Emperor’s son kill his father and condemn Maximus and his family to death. When the general is unable to save his wife and son, he is captured and sold as a gladiator to fight until he dies. This leads him to face his family’s killer once more as it brings him to the Roman Colosseum, where Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) holds the Gladiator games.
Now able to look his enemy in the eyes once more, and with his men behind him, Maximus prepares to take vengeance. Gladiator was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning five, including Best Picture and Best Actor, but many feel Joaquin Phoenix was snubbed as Best Supporting Actor, as he gave one of the best villain performances in film history.
3 The Crow (1994)
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The Crow unfolds on the night before Halloween when the henchmen of a vicious drug lord brutally murder Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancé. As Eric’s soul is escorted to the afterlife, a raven intervenes and guides him back to the land of the living to take his revenge against those who killed him and his lover. His time is limited, however, as the window for his retribution is closing.
Unfortunately, Brandon Lee was killed by an accidental shooting with a prop gun during the making of the film, but the accident changed the entire outlook on gun safety throughout Hollywood productions.
2 Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (2003 & 2004)
This epic saga of blood and mayhem see’s a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Uma Thurman) return from a four-year coma to take vengeance against her four former allies after they killed her fiancé and unborn child. Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 in a high-impact bloody good time that follows the would-be Bride cutting through anything and everything in the way of her justice and ends in a final confrontation with the orchestrator behind all the chaos, Bill (David Carradine), her former boss and lover.
1 Oldboy (2003)
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A loutish drunk finds himself imprisoned with nothing but a bed and a TV, on which he watches the news that his wife was murdered and that he is the prime suspect. With nothing but time, Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) spends the next 15 years thinking of revenge. Then, he is mysteriously set free.
What follows is a mystery to discover who imprisoned him. With brutal action and a shocking twist ending, Oldboy is the perfect story of revenge and punishment as the viewer gradually realizes not only why Dae-su was imprisoned, but why he was set free.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
