10 Best Action Movies on Netflix

Move buffs live for the thrill of cinema. While films of all genres are able to touch our emotions, action movies add excitement to our lives in a unique way. Action films are ones that tell tales of epic adventurers on a personal mission and are chock full of excitement in the form of external conflict such as fighting, physical endurance and feats, heart-pounding chase scenes and oftentimes violence. This article will detail a comprehensive list of the 10 Best Action Movies on Netflix that will deliver adrenaline-inducing, edge-of-your-seat moment-to-moment thrills that only this genre can produce.

1. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Release Date on Netflix	October 1, 2016
Director	Sergio Leone
Runtime	2 hours 55 minutes
IMDb Rating	8.5 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes Score	98%
MPAA Rating	PG-13
Streaming on	currently available through the Netflix DVD service

Sitting at number 30 of top rated movies on IMDB and earning the coveted number one spot on the 10 best action movies on Netflix list, Once Upon a Time in the West follows the story of a strange harmonica player who teams up with an infamous desperado in order to save a widow from an assassin employed by the railroad.

• Unusual for the genre, a few scenes from this film were recorded in Monument Valley.
• During the opening scene, the filmmakers coated actor Jack Elam with jam to film his close-up, letting out flies from a jar to get a true reaction from the actor as one landed on his cheek.

Recommended read: If you enjoyed Once Upon a Time in the West, you may want to check out other great cowboy movies streaming on Netflix.

2. Braveheart (1995)

Release Date on Netflix	September 1, 2014
Director	Mel Gibson
Runtime	2 hours 58 minutes
IMDb Rating	8.4 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes Score	76%
MPAA Rating	PG-13
Streaming on	Netflix Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden

Ranked at a comfortable number 77 on the IMDB Top 250 List, Braveheart is a tale about a Scottish hero named William Wallace, played by actor and director Mel Gibson, who in the 13th century, goes against and begins a war with the English Monarch by collecting a fearless group of amateur soldiers to fight against the English Army. Wallace is spurred to violent action when his bride is killed for attacking her abuser.

• Gibson had actual Wallace clan members stand in as extras.
• The writer of Braveheart was inspired on a castle tour in Edinburgh.

3. V for Vendetta (2006)

Release Date on Netflix	November 11, 2014
Director	James McTeigue
Runtime	2 hours 12 minutes
IMDb Rating	8.2 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes Score	73%
MPAA Rating	R
Streaming on	Netflix United States, Italy, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea

V for Vendetta ranks number 151 on IMDB’s Top 250 movie list and has been named number 3 on our 10 best action movies on Netflix for a good reason. This film is set in totalitarian Britain and follows a masked vigilante played by Hugo Weaving who takes advantage of terrorist techniques to fight the fascists in charge. He saves a woman named Evey, played by Natalie Portman, who proves to be a valuable ally.

• The famous “V Speech” uses 48 words that begin with the letter “V.”
• The domino scene used 22,000 dominoes and took four domino professionals 200 hours to create.

4. No Country for Old Men (2007)

Release Date on Netflix	October 3, 2013
Director	Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Runtime	2 hours 2 minutes
IMDb Rating	8.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes Score	93%
MPAA Rating	R
Streaming on	Netflix United States, Brazil, Australia, Netherlands, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain

No Country for Old Men follows the story of hunter Llewelyn Moss who stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong. He takes the cash left behind only to find that he is then being hunted a by a killer who picked up his trail to get money.

• Used on the shotgun belonging to Chigurh, the suppressor was made especially for the film as it did not exist in real life.
• The score of this film is made up of only 16 minutes of music.

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Release Date on Netflix	January 15, 2014
Director	Gore Verbinski
Runtime	2 hours 23 minutes
IMDb Rating	8.0 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes Score	79%
MPAA Rating	PG-13
Streaming on	Netflix United States, Hong Kong, India, Israel

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl sits at 248 of 250 on IMDB’s list of the Top 250 best movies but sits much higher on our list of the 10 best action movies on Netflix. This film follows Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, who goes to Port Royal. The same night, the port is taken over by pirates who kidnap Elizabeth, played by Keira Knightley, who has a coin linked to a curse that has turned the pirates into undead creatures.

• Keira Knightly was only 17 when she shot the film and brought her mother along to all filming locations.
• When Port Royal was attacked, the entire scene was shot in one single take.