Free shipping is great, but Amazon Prime’s coolest perk may just be Amazon Prime Video. Amazon’s streaming service is packed full of movies, TV shows, documentaries, and user-generated content, both classic and fresh out of theaters. They add new offerings every month, so you never grow tired of what’s available.
Amazon Prime Video has a veritable treasure trove of pulse-pounding, high-octane flicks. What else would you expect from the creators of Jack Ryan? Whether you’re looking for super-spies and government conspiracies, superheroes, adventures into the unknown, or something in between, Amazon Prime has something for you. For a night of white-knuckled, action-packed fun, read on for the best action movies on Amazon Prime.
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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%
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Joss Whedon
Rating: PG
Runtime: 143 minutes
Most of the action in this film takes place in the ring as Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton star as estranged brothers who both enter a mixed martial arts tournament. The adrenaline is fueled in their fights by memories of their troubled childhoods they just can’t shake, including an abusive, alcoholic father, a terminally ill mother, and a grudge held between them. It’s a story about love, forgiveness, and, well, throwing plenty of punches to get there. Nick Nolte, who plays the father, was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role.
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Genre: Action, Drama, Sport
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Nick Nolte
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Rating: 14A
Runtime: 140 minutes
A feisty teenager takes it upon herself to hire a trigger-happy lawman to take down an outlaw who murdered her father. As they head out on their journey, they come upon a Texas Ranger looking for the same man, who killed a state Senator. The three band together, each finding their own unique form of “grit” being put to the test in different ways while they fight for their personal interests. The film, which performed extremely well at the box office, became an instant hit for the Coen brothers and remains their most successful movie to date.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Genre: Drama, Western
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper, Hailee Steinfeld
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Rating: 14A
Runtime: 110 minutes
When two women head out on a road trip to take a break from their mundane lives, they end up embroiled in a murder and on the run, desperate to get out of this mess. A story that’s, at its heart, about female empowerment, it was controversial for its time, ironically for the movie’s negative portrayal of men. But viewers spoke loud and clear and the film received six Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Original Screenplay. It remains a feminist classic.
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Drama
Stars: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel
Director: Ridley Scott
Rating: 18+
Runtime: 129 minutes
When Clint Eastwood is involved, you can guarantee there will be plenty of action. And this film doesn’t disappoint. It’s a dramatization of the real story of prisoners who escaped from a maximum-security prison on Alcatraz Island in 1962. Based on the 1963 nonfiction book of the same name by J. Campbell Bruce, it shows the many moves Frank Morris, a highly intelligent prisoner, made to achieve his masterminded plan of escaping from a prison that was supposedly not possible to break out of. It remains a mystery as to whether the men survived after escaping or perished while navigating treacherous waters in their desperate attempts to flee. Nonetheless, the film is a fascinating look at how they managed to do the impossible, with some moments embellished for dramatic effect but plenty that are true to the real story.
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan
Director: Don Siegel
Rating: PG
Runtime: 112 minutes
Considered one of Bruce Lee’s finest films, Fist of Fury is both a perfect introduction to the kung fu master and an endlessly rewatchable classic for fans. Fist of Fury introduced Lee to the world as famous Hong Kong cinema character Chen Zhen (later played by Jackie Chan). Chen Zhen is an acolyte of real-life martial arts master Huo Yuanjia, who became a legendary resistance fighter against imperialism. Just like his former master, Chen Zhen fights for honor and for his country. As he defeats vicious Japanese fighters who are eager to subjugate the Chinese, Chen Zhen climbs the ranks and seeks to earn his people a position of honor in martial arts.
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Genre: Action, Drama, Romance
Stars: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao
Director: Lo Wei
Rating: PG
Runtime: 106 minutes
The latest release in the franchise, Fallout meets the elevated standards of the more recent Mission: Impossible releases. When Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) chooses to save his team rather than complete a mission, stolen plutonium finds its way into the hands of brutal, extremely dangerous terrorists. Now, his IMF team is forced to join up with a CIA assassin (Henry Cavill) to stop an impending nuclear disaster. Cruise and Cavill, two of today’s best actors who do their own stunts, put on an absolute show of death-defying stunts and fight choreography.
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Stars: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Rating: PG
Runtime: 147 minutes
How do Nazi super-soldier zombies tickle your fancy? If you think that sounds like a weird, B-movie conceit, you wouldn’t be wrong, but don’t let that stop you from watching Overlord. This one has a lot more to give than just guts, gore, and survival of the fittest tropes. During D-Day, a troop of soldiers is covertly dropped behind enemy lines in a French village, where their mission is to knock out a tower that is interfering with the invasion. Nobody realizes, however, that they’re due for a much nastier surprise than some angry stormtroopers. Stumbling upon the work of a mad scientist while working desperately not to reveal their presence in the village, the American soldiers must work efficiently to protect their position while also moving on the tower and its cavalcade of horrors.
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror
Stars: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, John Magaro, Gianny Taufer, Pilou Asbaek, Bokeem Woodbine
Director: Julius Avery
Rating: 18A
Runtime: 110 minutes
One of the few Marvel movies available for free on Amazon Prime is also a great primer for anybody new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Captain America: The First Avenger is the origin story of Steve Rogers, a scrawny Brooklyn kid eager to contribute to America’s war effort, who keeps getting denied by the military for being too, well, scrawny. His heart, however, catches the eye of a defected German scientist who is working on a top-secret supersoldier project with the American government. After undergoing the transformation, Rogers suits up as a spokesperson for the war, still deemed unfit for battle. But he’ll take matters into his own hands to get on the front lines.
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Stars: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Stanley Tucci
Director: Joe Johnston
Rating: PG
Runtime: 124 minutes
“There can be only one Highlander!” That slogan is especially appropriate for this movie, a wild blend of high fantasy, time-traveling, Sean Connery in all of his Scottish (even though he’s Spanish?) glory, and loads and loads of ’80s 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%
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Stars: Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, Sean Connery
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Rating: R
Runtime: 111 minutes
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