James Bond fans across the globe were gearing up for the highly anticipated 25th installment in the 007 franchise with No Time To Die before MGM, Universal, and the film's producers announced they were shifting the release date from April to November 2020 in light of the Coronavirus. With a seven-month delay sitting between everyone and the latest 007 spectacular, now would be a perfect time to catch up on that seemingly never-ending list of action movies that are available for streaming.
This extended delay gives everyone more than enough time to watch all of the stunning and thrilling action movies that take up so much real estate on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO, so there's no excuse not take a trip down memory lane. With so many options available at your fingertips, it can be overwhelming to pick out one action flick over the rest, so here's a short list of 10 of the most stunning action movies currently available to stream.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (Hulu)
The Mission: Impossible movies (all six of them) are filled with enough espionage, plot twists, and action sequences to make your heart explode. That's never been more evident than in Mission: Impossible - Fallout in which Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) performs a high altitude (HALO) jump into the heart of Paris.
The jump, which Cruise actually filmed three times for the final product, makes for one of the most beautiful and breathtaking scenes in the entire franchise. Add some lightning and an unconscious Henry Cavill and you have yourself a recipe for near disaster. The movie is worth watching for this scene alone, but there are still plenty of crushing fight scenes and all the spy action you've come to know and love.
Where To Stream: Hulu
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (HBO)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum picks up right where the second film in the neo-noir action thriller franchise left off - with John Wick on the run with nowhere to go. When he tries to make his escape from New York City and the assassins on his tail, Wick finds a horse in the stables of Central Park to make a daring escape in the rain.
Showered in rain and the neon lights of the busy New York City streets, Wick fights traffic and hitmen on motorcycles around every corner. The scene really sets up what the audience should expect from the third installment in this popular franchise. And finally, we got Keanu Reeves on a horse.
Where To Stream: HBO
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (Netflix)
Kill Bill is an epic tale of revenge about a woman known as the Bride (Uma Thurman) who sets out to kill the team of assassins after they attempted to murder her and her unborn child on her wedding day. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, this two-part saga follows the Bride from the brink of death to the satisfaction of sweet revenge.
The first half of story, Kill Bill: Volume 1 takes the audience on a wild ride to Tokyo, where the Bride cuts through the hordes of the street gang, the Crazy 88 to get to their leader and her former friend, O-Ren Ishiii (Lucy Liu). While the rest of the movie (both parts) are violent and highly detailed, nothing compares to the epic conclusion of Volume 1, which sees the Bride and O-Ren square off one final time in the peaceful tranquility of a snow-covered garden that is quickly broken by bladed combat, blood, and vengeance.
Where To Stream: Netflix
Hanna (Cinemax)
People just not learning about Saoirse Ronan are in for one hell of a surprise with the 2011 action thriller Hanna in which a young Ronan portrays the titular character whose entire life has been a training exercise to create a lethal assassin. It's hard to believe that you're watching the same actress that would go on to star in Lady Bird and Little Women when you see her mercilessly kill multiple people throughout the movie.
There's one scene in particular where Hanna is forced to confront a group of hitmen in the middle of a darkened container park. The bursts of hand-to-hand combat are only broken up by a parkour scene that leave you wanting more from the character. And fans got just that when Hanna was adapted as an Amazon original series several years later.
Where To Stream: Cinemax (with subscription through Hulu)
Fast Five (HBO)
For the release of Fast Five in 2011, the Fast And Furious franchise traded in the street racing scenes that had become a staple of the series and replaced them with one of the most memorable and imaginative heists scenes in recent memory. When Dom (Vin Diesel), Bryan (Paul Walker), and the rest of the crew are on the run from the FBI, they hide out in Brazil. Little did they know that DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) was on their tail the whole time.
The movie is pretty much non-stop action from the jump, but it's the epic climax of the film that has everyone talking nearly 10 years after the fact. During the legendary heist sequence, the crew steal not one, but two bank vaults and drag them through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The way the vaults slide across the busy streets taking out cars, building facades, and everything else in their way is something I go back and watch time and time again.
Where To Stream: HBO
Spenser Confidential (Netflix)
What is a disgraced former Boston police officer to do after getting released from a five-year stint in prison? Go out on the streets and solve crimes on his own. And that's exactly what Spenser (Mark Wahlberg) and Hawk (Winston Duke) do in the Netflix original movie Spenser Confidential. This hilarious and action-packed buddy crime movie has been all the rage lately.
Most of the movie is pretty much a paint-by-numbers buddy crime affair, but the pairing of Wahlberg and Duke really bring this comedy to the next level. Plus, it has one of the greatest restaurant fight scenes thanks to a lot of fists and some machetes.
Where To Stream: Netflix
Bad Boys (Netflix)
As Bad Boys For Life continues to crush it at the box office, now is the perfect time to go back and see where it all started for Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) in Michael Bay directorial debut Bad Boys. This 1995 ultra-stylized action crime thriller follows the two Miami police detectives as they investigate the disappearance of $100 million in heroin from police headquarters. But that's just the beginning.
The film concludes with one of the most "Michael Bay" action sequences that looks more like a music video than anything audiences had ever seen from a buddy cop movie prior to its release. It should come as no surprise that the final airport chase scene looks so amazing even 25 years later because prior to signing on to direct Bad Boys, Bay was an accomplished music video director.
Where To Stream: Netflix
Alita: Battle Angel (HBO)
Alita: Battle Angel was one of the big box office surprises in 2019, bringing in $404 million globally. Set decades in the future, Alita (Rosa Salazar), an abandoned cyborg is discovered by cyber-doctor Ido (Christoph Waltz) who revives the deactivated android. As she begins to regain her memory, Alita learns more and more about her dark and mysterious past.
Through the use of beautiful and hyper-realistic CGI, Alita: Battle Angel has some of the most well crafted and thought out action set pieces in any movie that came out during its year of release. One of the most exciting of those scenes is the Motorball scene in which the cyborg discovers her true power.
Where To Stream: HBO
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Disney+)
If you thought I'd make an entire list without including at list one entry from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you'd be mistaken. And while I could have added each and every one of the MCU movies to this list, you'll have to settle for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. For those who don't remember, this film served as a turning point for Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and introduced the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), but it also gave us one of the best fight sequences in franchise.
The elevator fight between Cap and nearly a dozen of Shield/Hydra's most vicious operatives is still a scene I go back and watch from time to time, even if I have no plans to watch the rest of the movie. In a franchise that has gone great lengths and introduced some of the most dastardly villains, this fight reminds everyone that sometimes you just need a badass fight in an elevator.
Where To Stream: Disney+
Inception (Netflix)
And then there is Christopher Nolan's 2010 psychological action thriller Inception, which has at least three of the most beautifully crafted action sequences we've in the 21st Century, and the movie is nearly 10 years old. The film follows Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) a professional thief specializing in infiltrating his victims' dreams who is given the opportunity to wipe his criminal record upon completing a job.
Trying to name the best set piece in this Academy Award-winning picture is almost as impossible as figuring out the film's ending, but the sequence where Cobb's partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has to fight a group of henchmen in an inverted hotel room and corridor comes to mind whenever I think about the movie. It gets even better when you realize that most of effects were accomplished through choreography and set held together by wires and motors.
Where To Stream: Netflix
Those are just 10 stunning action movies to stream while you wait for No Time To Die to hit theaters in November 2020. Now that you know about the movies, there's no time to waste.
