Editor’s Note: This post is updated monthly. Bookmark this page and come back every month to see what other excellent action movies get added to Hulu.
Updated for June 2018
Hulu’s offering of action movies may be small but they pack a punch. Pun intended.
Here you’ll find the very best in action (not inaction) that Hulu has to offer. They films available feature explosions, fist fights, fire fights, ape fights, really any fight that you can think of. Action movies exist to excite us and gathered here are the most exciting action movies on available to stream on Hulu.
Crank: High Voltage
Crank: High Voltage exists for no reason other than to thrill.
Like the 2006 original, Crank: High Voltage stars Jason Statham (hell yeah) as ex-hitman Chev Chelios. In the original film, Chelios was poisoned with a drug that requires him to keep his adrenaline levels up or he dies. This time around the villains perform some simpler alchemy: they just take Chev’s heart. Chev’s heart is replaced with an artificial one that requires periodic electric shocks to work.
So Chelios sets out to find and kill his tormenters once again, this time with some jumper cables in tow. Crank: High Voltage knows exactly what it wants to be and succeeds in being an entirely silly, fun action comedy.
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is a remake of the 1960 Western of the same name. Like it’s 1960 original, The Magnificent Seven is a cowboy-movie retelling of the all-time classic The Seven Samurai.
The Magnificent Seven has a timeless, fascinating story to tell in which a small town besieged by bandits turns to seven mismatched gunmen and ruffians to protect them. More than anything, however, The Magnificent Seven is a grand excuse to rustle up a great cast. Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onforio, and more star.
Star Trek
Back in 2009 when J.J. Abrams was tasked with rebooting the Star Trekfranchise, he apparently had little knowledge or interest of the Star Trekfranchise. He did, however, have plenty of Star Wars knowledge. So he basically made what can be almost seen as a precursor to his own Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
Star Trek doesn’t have a lot of the progressive politics or forward-thinking humanity that the original series and movies do. What it does instead is recast all the original iconic characters with pitch-perfect actors and sends them on a space adventure.
Star Trek may not be pure Star Trek but it is pure blockbuster filmmaking.
Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek Beyond is the first of the Star Trek reboots not directed by J.J. Abrams, who went off to direct some other obscure “Star” movie. Thankfully, Fast and the Furious director Justin Lin steps in capably to keep the franchise afloat.
Star Trek Beyond is certainly a step above the disappointing Into Darkness and in many ways is the Trek-iest of the new films. While casting Idris Elba only to put him under 40 pounds of makeup remains a crime against humanity, this one has the most original Trek flavor we’ve had in years.
Goldfinger
Now this is pure James Bond.
Goldfinger is perhaps the most “James Bond” Bond movie of all time. Eccentric villains, ludicrous murder machines, insane futuristic gadgets, women somehow named “Pussy” – the gang’s all here. Connery returns once again for his third go-around as James Bond. This time around MI6 has him investigating gold smuggling from a gold magnate named Auric Goldfinger. Yes, it’s that kind of movie, folks.
To watch Goldfinger is to watch the creation of cinematic iconography. It’s also just a perfectly fun and pleasant action film to boot.
From Russia With Love
There are 25 Bond movies in existence and most lists that rank them put From Russia With Love right around the top.
This is the second Bond film in the official canon and brings Sean Connery back for his second go-around as the British spy. This is more of a direct sequel of a Bond film than we’ve come to expect with the events of the original Dr. No playing a big role. Bond is sent to assist a defecting Soviet clerk in Turkey but when he arrives discovers that SPECTRE is not quite over his treatment of Dr. No.
Ong Bok: The Thai Warrior
Ong Bok is known as Ong Bok: Muay Thai Warrior in its native Thailand but the title was changed to The Thai Warrior for American audiences who would apparently be absolutely mystified and furious trying to figure out what a “muay” is.
Ong Bok is kind of like a martial arts John Wick. Just replace Wick with Ting (Tony Jaa) and Wick’s dong with a decapitated Buddha head. When thieves from Bangkok steal a piece of a small northern Thai village’s Buddha statue, Ong Bok, the villagers turn to Muay Thai expert Ting to retrieve it. And retrieve it he does, with many broken bones along the way.
Ong Bok: The Thai Warrior is a serviceable martial arts film that serves as the introduction to excellent martial artist and actor Tony Jaa.
The Way Back
The Way Back is a World War II survival action feature from a successful Australian director Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show).
Based on a true story, The Way Back opens with the Soviet invasion of Poland. Polish army officer Janusz Wieszczek (Jim Sturgess) is captured by Soviet forces and ordered to endure 20 years in a Siberian Gulag labor camp. Janusz decides this is not to his liking and escapes along with companions Mr. Smith (Ed Harris), Khabarov (Mark Strong), Valka (Colin Farrell), and several others. Together they begin the long, long, long, long, long walk back home.
The Way Back shows once again that fictional action always pales in comparison to the real stuff.
13 Assassins
Samurai and shogun movies are the Eastern equivalent of the Western world’s…well, Westerns. They feature rural, weapon-wielding heroes trying to live an ascetic life and fighting those who would do them harm. 2010’s 13 Assassins is a perfect example of the similarities.
13 Assassins is a remake of a 1963 film of the same name. It takes place in 1844 and follows…well, 13 assassins (12 samurai and one hunter) as they secretly plot to assassinate Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu before he can be appointed to the Shogunate Council and become politically untouchable.
Action movies with one lone wolf John Wick-esque character are fantastic. But sometimes you need an action story with a large, sprawling cast to feel truly epic.
Boondock Saints
1999’s Boondock Saints was pop culture’s first solid evidence that Norman Reedus makes most things better.
Reedus stars as Murphy MacManus and Sean Patrick Flanery is his brother, Conor MacManus. The MacManus brothers are Irish-American Bostonians just trying to live their lives, have some pints, and keep their noses clean. That modus operandi fails miserably when three Russian mobsters try to take over the MacMurphy’s favorite pub and the brothers are forced to kill the mobsters in self-defense. That sets the MacMurphys on a dark (but fun) path to continue killing evildoers to protect the innocent.
Boondock Saints is about as straightforward a vengeance action movies as they come and was probably your college roommate’s favorite movie.
Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes asks one of cinema’s most important ever questions: what if planet…but apes?
In this 1968 classic an astronaut crew led by Taylor (Charlton Heston) crash land on a curious planet. The environment appears to be Earth like and there are humans to be found – they all just happen to be subjugated by a race of hyper intelligent apes. Taylor must escape ape bondage and get off this ape planet…whatever that planet may be.
Planet of the Apes is one of the most important science fiction films of all time and carries plenty of ape v. man action to boot.
The Matrix
Technically the entire Matrix “trilogy” is on Hulu as well so consider this three movies if you will but I imagine most of us will be more interested in The Matrix as a singular entity. The Matrix‘s impact has been diluted by more than a decade’s worth of frail imitators (that could even include the sequels) and that’s a shame because as a science fiction film it’s a masterpiece.
The story of Neo (Keanu Reeves) and his Alice in Wonderland-like journey into learning the truth about reality is endlessly fascinated. Even if it weren’t, however, the spectacular action-filled third act should make The Matrix a must-watch all the same.
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Writer-Direction Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of grindhouse action movies and rarely has that ever been more apparent in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Uma Thurman stars as the unnamed “Bride” – a member of an elite group of assassins, betrayed and left for dead. After she recovers, she embarks on a singular path of vengeance.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 features all the quiet character moments you’d expect from a great film. Vol. 1 features all the blood you’d expect from a great Tarantino film. There are moments in Vol. 1 when blood fires from severed limbs as though they’re fire-alarm sprinklers.
Hellboy
Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 Hellboy is one of the cooler comic book adaptations and action films of the new millennium.
Ron Perlman (under heavy makeup) stars as demon turned paranormal policeman Hellboy in…well, Hellboy. Hellboy works for the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense alongside his friends Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones). Together the Bureau works to protect the world from paranormal and mythological threats. In this installment those threats include Nazis and Grigori Rasputin (not that Rasputin).
Hellboy is an exciting paranormal action thriller and occupies a unique spot in the recent superhero movie canon.
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings films are the premier fantasy films of a generation and perhaps even of all time. All three of them, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King are on Hulu.
These films represent roughly 10 hours of J.R.R. Tolkien’s singular, iconic, and perfect story. Every film is exciting but if you’re looking for a particularly great action sequence, check out the last hour of The Two Towers for its Helm’s Deep battle or essentially the entirety of The Return of the King. What a miracle that this epic story was ever adapted and in such exciting, action-oriented fashion.
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