Whenever you’re in the mood for some pulse-pounding action, look no further than Amazon Prime Video. Amazon has an awesome selection of action flicks, from classics to originals, but the lineup changes frequently. To keep you up to speed, we’ve searched through the platform and identified the best action movies you can stream on Prime Video right now. Crank up the volume and get ready to move to the edge of your seat!
If you’ve already burned through the Amazon Prime catalog, we’ve also put together a list of the best action movies on Netflix, the best action movies on Disney+, and the best action movies on Hulu.
Aliens (1986)
A fantastic example of how to make a compelling sequel, Aliens builds upon the classic original by ratcheting up the action and the stakes to terrifying proportions. Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has been floating in space for 57 years when she is finally found by a deep space salvage team. Arriving at LV-426, the marines find only one survivor, a 9-year-old girl named Newt (Carrie Henn). But even 57 years of awareness and technological development is not enough to put the marines on even footing with the aliens that have taken over the colony.
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn
Director: James Cameron
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
Resident Evil (2002)
Milla Jovovich has built a career on basically one franchise: Resident Evil. And with the newest film due out in 2022 — a full 20 years after the original — now is as good a time as ever to start getting caught up. Given, Resident Evil hits better with fans of the popular video game, but good old-fashioned monster-killing fans will enjoy too. Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez star as the leaders of a commando team tasked with breaking into “the hive,” a labyrinthine genetics laboratory operated by the Umbrella Corporation. Inside, a deadly virus has been unleashed, killing and resurrecting the staff as evil Undead. Now, the team has just three hours to shut down the lab before the virus runs out of control.
Rotten Tomatoes: 36%
Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Mad Max (1979)
2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road introduced a new generation to the thrills of George Miller’s Mad Max, but the world’s even more interesting when you’ve seen the original. In a dystopian future, oil has been depleted, and the world is plunged into war, famine, and financial chaos. The last vestiges of the law in Australia struggle to restrain a vicious biker gang tearing through the Outback. Max (Mel Gibson) is an officer with the Main Force Patrol who launches a personal vendetta against the gang when his wife (Joanne Samuel) and son are hunted down and murdered, turning Max into a vengeful hero.
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Stars: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne
Director: George Miller
Rating: R
Runtime: 93 minutes
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
One of the best naval epics of the 21st century, Master and Commander is packed with high-octane scenes of 19th-century naval warfare, punctuated by a solid story to boot. During the Napoleonic Wars, aboard the H.M.S. Surprise, Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and surgeon Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) are ordered to hunt down and capture a French ship that has been raiding along the South American coast. Napoleon is winning the war, and the British face an onslaught of obstacles, both from the French and internally, but Aubrey is determined to complete the mission.
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Stars: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd
Director: Peter Weir
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 139 minutes
Platoon (1986)
A Vietnam War classic, Oliver Stone’s Platoon digs deep into the psychology of the people fighting an unjust war. Charlie Sheen plays Chris Taylor, a promising student who leaves his studies to enlist in combat duty in Vietnam in 1967. On the ground, his patriotic idealism fades amid unit infighting between the sadistic, paranoid Staff Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the more magnanimous Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe). Ultimately, the conflict pits the soldiers against one another as well as the Viet Cong.
Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Stars: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen
Director: Oliver Stone
Rating: R
Runtime: 120 minutes
The Terminator (1984)
If you feel like there are too many Terminator movies, you might be right, but it’s due in large part to the brilliance of James Cameron’s 1984 original. The story is so classic that it’s been emulated or parodied hundreds of times and gets increasingly prescient the more modern technology advances. Disguised as a human, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent from the year 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to the man who will lead a human uprising against machines in the future. Meanwhile, humanity sends back resistance fighter Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to protect Sarah. With the virtually unstoppable Terminator in pursuit, Kyle and Sarah go on the run as Kyle divulges the coming of Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that will spark a nuclear holocaust.
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn
Director: James Cameron
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
In the Line of Fire (1993)
Clint Eastwood went from westerns to political thrillers in this high-octane ’90s action hit. Eastwood plays Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, taunted by calls from a would-be assassin who has detailed information about the agent, including his failure to save President John F. Kennedy from assassination. As Horrigan investigates the man harassing him, he discovers that it’s an ex-CIA assassin with a grudge against the current president. Horrigan is determined not to fail again.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Rene Russo, John Malkovich
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Rating: R
Runtime: 128 minutes
Patriot Games (1987)
Harrison Ford’s first turn as Tom Clancy’s famed CIA agent Jack Ryan was such a hit, he’d return for a second turn in Clear and Present Danger. After hampering an IRA terrorist attack in London, retired agent Ryan kills one of the terrorists but fails to kill his brother, Sean Miller (Sean Bean), who escapes arrest. Vowing revenge against Ryan, Miller forces Ryan’s wife and daughter into a car accident that nearly kills them. Suddenly, Ryan is back in action and on the vengeance path himself.
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Stars: Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Anne Archer
Director: Phillip Noyce
Rating: R
Runtime: 116 minutes
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)
After a five-year hiatus, Ghost Protocol kicked off a new generation of the Tom Cruise-led action franchise with bigger stakes and a bigger vision. After being framed for a terrorist attack on the Kremlin, the U.S. government initiates Ghost Protocol, disavowing Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF agency, forcing them off the grid without resources or support. Now, back against the wall, Hunt must clear the agency’s name and prevent a second attack from occurring.
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Stars: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner
Director: Brad Bird
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 133 minutes
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
The latest installment of the Terminator saga brought back both Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800. However, the story of Terminator: Dark Fate reveals that their new timeline has unfolded differently. The Rev-9 Terminator (Gabriel Luna) has come back in time to kill Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) before she can fulfill her destiny. A cyborg soldier named Grace (Mackenzie Davis) also comes back to protect Dani. But Grace and Dani soon find some unexpected backup from both Sarah and the T-800, who has adopted a human persona called “Carl.” The fight for the future is always changing, but this is a worthy sequel.
Rotten Tomatoes: 70%
Stars: Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes
Director: Tim Miller
Rating: R
Runtime: 128 minutes
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
There was a period when Harrison Ford was the world’s biggest action star, and what a time it was. In Clear and Present Danger, Ford had his second turn as Tom Clancy’s durable hero Jack Ryan. In the administration of President Bennett (Donald Moffat), Jack is the acting Deputy Director of Intelligence and seemingly done with fieldwork. However, the President’s covert war with a Columbian drug cartel erupts into chaos, which endangers Jack’s life and forces him to take on one last rescue mission.
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Stars: Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, James Earl Jones
Director: Phillip Noyce
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 141 minutes
The Expendables (2010)
If you think it isn’t possible to fit every action hero ever into the same movie, The Expendables is here to prove you wrong. Sylvester Stallone pulls double duty directing and starring in the first installment in this franchise. Like its follow-ups, The Expendables is pure, joyous action. With big explosions, a body count that keeps ticking up, and wicked one-liners, the film calls back to a time when Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger wrestled for action-movie dominance, and Bruce Willis surprised them both — fitting, since all three action divas show up in The Expendables. Joining them are Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, and more.
Rotten Tomatoes: 42%
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Rating: R
Runtime: 103 minutes
Bumblebee (2018)
Transformers movies aren’t exactly known for having a lot of heart, or easy-to-follow onscreen action. But Bumblebee changed the game for the Robots in Disguise. After a thrilling opening sequence on the Transformers’ home world, Cybertron, Bumblebee literally comes crashing down to Earth in 1987. Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie Watson comes across a badly damaged Bumblebee in his Volkswagen Beetle form, and she makes it her passion project to put him back together before realizing who and what he really is. Charlie and Bumblebee’s relationship is very fun to watch, but the action picks up when the Decepticons track him down on Earth. John Cena also has a very amusing turn as Jack Burns, a Sector 7 agent who is openly suspicious of both Bumblebee and the Decepticons. This movie really captured the charm of the Transformers, and it should be the template for any future sequels.
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Stars: Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr.
Director: Travis Knight
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 114 minutes
The Avengers (2012)
As the first Marvel film to earn $1 billion in ticket sales at the box office, this movie kicked off a fantastic storytelling journey that continued through three sequels, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. With a star-studded cast playing all of your favorite superheroes, it is the sixth film overall from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Relive the action-packed scenes as the Avengers join forces and set out on a mission to stop Loki from wreaking havoc on Earth. The film has been widely considered one of the best of all time, an impressive feat for a superhero flick.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo
Director: Joss Whedon
Rating: PG
Runtime: 143 minutes
Highlander (1986)
“There can be only one Highlander!” That slogan is especially appropriate for this movie, a wild blend of high fantasy, time-traveling, the late Sean Connery in all of his Scottish (even though he’s Spanish?) glory, and loads and loads of ’80s action movie camp. Russell Mulcahy, director of the first music video ever aired on MTV, brings an astonishing degree of lunacy and distortion to this film that captures the majesty of the Scottish Highlands and rapid-cut, neon, time-traveling sequences practically on top of one another. It weirdly works. Queen provides the soundtrack for this wild movie about an immortal Scottish swordsman who must journey to kill his one final remaining immortal enemy to become The One Highlander.
Rotten Tomatoes: 69%
Stars: Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, Sean Connery
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Rating: R
Runtime: 111 minutes
Guns Akimbo (2019)
Guns Akimbo is more than just the movie that launched 1,000 Daniel Radcliffe memes. It’s also one of the wildest action comedies to come along in years. Radcliffe stars as Miles Lee Harris, a keyboard warrior who angers the big players behind Skizm, a literal online deathmatch. To retaliate against Miles, Skizm’s masterminds bolt guns to his hands and force him to take on the game’s deadliest player, Nix (Samara Weaving). And to force his cooperation, the bad guys also kidnap Miles’ ex-girlfriend, Nova (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Miles is far from a conventional action hero, but through a strange mixture of luck and accidental skill, he creates his own legend in the game. He is Guns Akimbo.
Rotten Tomatoes: 53%
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Natasha Liu Bordizzo
Director: Jason Lei Howden
Rating: R
Runtime: 95 minutes
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