The latest film to certify Maggie Q as one of Hollywood’s most badass action movie stars is The Protégé, in which she plays an assassin who goes head-to-head against an experienced rival (Michael Keaton) after the supposed death of her mentor and father figure (Samuel L. Jackson). Of course, the 42-year-old, Hawaiian-born actress has been kicking ass (and doing a damn good job at it) for years, in titles such as the Divergent movies and TV series reboot of Nikita on The CW. If you want to see more examples of her most kick-ass career highlights, let us be your guide with the following list of Maggie Q movies and TV shows (complete with a tip of where to watch them) starting with an action-comedy favorite you might have forgotten she was in.
Rush Hour 2 (HBO Max)
A Los Angeles detective (Chris Tucker) follows his Chinese partner (Jackie Chan) to Hong Kong for a vacation that gets interrupted when they uncover a counterfeiting scheme.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Maggie Q does not do any ass kicking in Rush Hour 2 - the hilarious, action-packed, 2001 sequel to the equally thrilling 1998 hit - but she has a pretty fun, albeit wordless, cameo as a woman who Chris Tucker’s James Carter fails to make a decent impression on within the first few minutes of the film.
Stream Rush Hour 2 on HBO Max.
Rent Rush Hour 2 on Amazon.
Mission: Impossible III (Paramount+)
Engaged to be married and hoping to leave his career as a secret agent behind, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is given one last mission, should he choose to accept it, to figure out what a ruthless arms dealer (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is selling and who he is selling it to.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Maggie Q does plenty of ass kicking as an IMF agent on Ethan Hunt’s team named Zhen in Mission: Impossible III, which sees J.J. Abrams at the helm and the late, Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as, arguably, the most sinister of the Mission: Impossible movies’ villains so far.
Stream Mission: Impossible III on Paramount+.
Rent Mission: Impossible III on Amazon.
Live Free Or Die Hard (AMC+)
A hardened, aging New York City cop with a lot of experience in dealing with terrorists (Bruce Willis) enlists the help of a young hacker he has been assigned to protect (Justin Long) in order to stop a threat he has never faced before: cyberterrorism.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Maggie Q does even more ass kicking as a ruthless, scene-stealing henchperson to Timothy Olyphant's character in Live Free or Die Hard, which is one of the lighter installments of the Die Hard movies series, but is a still relentlessly entertaining romp from beginning to end.
Stream Live Free Or Die Hard on AMC+.
Rent Live Free Or Die Hard on Amazon.
Balls Of Fury (Peacock)
A disgraced, former ping-pong champion (Fantastic Beasts star Dan Fogler) is enlisted by an FBI agent (George Lopez) to enter an international tournament in hopes of capturing a criminal (Christopher Walken) who killed his father.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: In addition to kicking ass, Maggie Q hits a lot of balls in Balls of Fury, which is just about the funniest movie about ping-pong ever made (so far, at least).
Stream Balls of Fury on Peacock.
Rent Balls of Fury on Amazon.
The Argument (Starz)
A man (Dan Fogler) and his girlfriend (former The Walking Dead cast member Emma Bell) attempt to recreate the events of their disastrous cocktail party as many times as it takes to figure out which one of them is on the correct side of their encompassing disagreement.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: In her second time working with Dan Fogler, Maggie Q plays one of the conflicted party guests in the star-studded cast of The Argument - a clever, quirky comedy released in 2020 that puts the importance of relationship “wins” into question from director Robert Schwartzman (Jason’s brother).
Stream The Argument on Starz.
Rent The Argument on Amazon.
The Con Is On (Netflix)
A man (Tim Roth) and his wife (Uma Thurman) attempt to alleviate their debt to a deadly mob boss (Maggie Q) by fleeing England and hatching an elaborate jewel heist in Los Angeles.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Another recent comedy starring Maggie Q (in a role more familiar to her repertoire this time) is The Con is On, in which she plays the one who has two Quentin Tarantino movie veterans shaking in their boots.
Stream The Con Is On on Netflix.
Rent The Con Is On on Amazon.
Operation: Endgame (Tubi)
Two separate teams of government assassins are left to fend for themselves against each other while holed up in an underground facility following the death of their boss.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Another comedy that stars Maggie Q in a role even more familiar to her repertoire (and complete with brutal violence) to match is 2010’s Operation: Endgame - a silly action-comedy with an amazing supporting cast (including Bob Odenkirk, Ellen Barkin, Ving Rhames, and Zach Galifianakis) that is not be confused with a certain Marvel movie title.
Stream Operation: Endgame on Tubi.
Rent Operation: Endgame on Amazon.
Nikita (CW Seed)
A government assassin (Maggie Q) goes rogue and vows revenge against the organization that trained her after she finds her fiancé murdered.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: If you have not noticed already, Maggie Q has played quite a few killers in her day, but none more iconic than the title role of The CW’s Nikita - the second TV series adapted from the early-’90s French action thriller La Femme Nikita by writer and director Luc Besson.
Stream Nikita on CW Seed.
Buy Nikita on Amazon.
Designated Survivor (Netflix)
Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) was the United States secretary of housing and urban development until a brutal attack on the United States Capitol killed most of the President’s cabinet (including the Commander-in-Chief), putting Kirkman in charge.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: One of Maggie Q’s next major TV roles following the end of Nikita’s four-season run in 2013 was on the short-lived, but much-loved Designated Survivor as Hannah Wells - an FBI agent assigned to investigate the terrorist attack that led to Tom Kirkman’s presidency.
Stream Designated Survivor on Netflix.
Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (Starz)
A group of people venture onto a mysterious tropical destination which claims to grant its guests’ wishes, but not without resulting in grave consequences.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Despite a promising first arrival, survival would become the objective of Maggie Q’s unsuspecting character in Fantasy Island - Blumhouse’s dark reinterpretation of the classic quasi-anthology TV series from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Stream Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island on Starz.
Buy Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island on Amazon.
Death Of Me (Netflix)
After waking up with no memory of the previous night, a woman (Maggie Q) and her boyfriend (Luke Hemsworth) struggle to figure out the mystery behind a video tape they find that shows him killing her while vacationing in Thailand.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Another one of Maggie Q’s more recent horror movies that takes place during a tropical getaway from Hell is Death of Me, a strange supernatural puzzle from Saw movies director Darren Lynn Bousman.
Stream Death Of Me on Netflix.
Rent Death Of Me on Amazon.
The Divergent Series (Amazon Rental)
A young woman (Shailene Woodley) living in a dystopian Chicago divided into five disparate factions leads a revolt against its oppressive rulers after discovering she was born with a rare condition that makes her resistant to manipulation.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: The first person to learn of Tris Prior’s divergence in 2014’s Divergent - the first installment of the films based on Veronica Roth’s YA novels - was Maggie Q’s character, Tori, who would become one of the heroine’s most trusted allies in the sequels: 2015’s Insurgent and Allegiant from 2016.
Rent Divergent on Amazon.
Rent Insurgent on Amazon.
Priest (Hulu)
In a world burdened by years of conflict between humans and vampires, a man of the clergy (WandaVision cast member Paul Bettany) breaks the rules of his church and sets out to avenge the death of his niece by hunting down the blocksuckers that killed her.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: Another film starring Maggie Q that is set in a dystopian society, but with a unique horror-centric twist, is Priest - an amusing adaptation of Min-Woo Hyung’s popular graphic novel of the same name from director Scott Stewart.
Stream Priest on Hulu.
Rent Priest on Amazon.
Young Justice (HBO Max)
A group of young, ambitious superheroes try to prove their worth as members of the Justice League.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Maggie Q: One of the more popular comic book adaptations that Maggie Q has starred in is the acclaimed, Emmy-winning animated DC TV show Young Justice, on which she voices none other than Wonder Woman herself.
Stream Young Justice on HBO Max.
Buy Young Justice on Amazon.
Soon, Maggie Q will return to TV for a new series called Pivoting, which is now filming. She is also preparing to star in the modern day war movie Long Gone Heroes opposite Sir Ben Kingsley and a crime thriller called Cutman, which also stars rock musician Lenny Kravitz, is now in pre-production.
