21 Best Action Movies on Netflix in 2022 – Cosmopolitan

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Catch us on the edge of our damn seats.
Don’t get me wrong—I love quiet indie dramas and cheesy rom-coms as much as the next person. However! There’s nothing that’ll get your pulse racing on movie night quite like an edge-of-your-seat action-packed movie. From war epics and Westerns to sci-fi thrillers and heist flicks, action movies span all sorts of genres, and if you’re looking for the best action movies on Netflix right TF now, then you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re in the mood for a movie about assassins, agents, vigilantes, villains, spies, soldiers, or anything in between, Netflix has it all.
Ofc, finding a high-octane thriller on Netflix isn’t the hard part—ya simply go to the Action & Adventure Movies section and boom, movies galore. The hard part is finding the good action movies among all the classics, reboots, and originals Netflix has to offer. From the zombie-packed Army of the Dead to the star-studded The Harder They Fall, we’ve got all the action movies on Netflix that are actually worth watching, ’cause we know just how precious your time is, bb. Ahead, all the best action thrillers to stream right now that’ll have you sweatin’ harder than a cardio workout.
Set in Las Vegas, this wild heist film revolves around a group of mercenaries who decide to take advantage of the chaos amid a zombie outbreak and rob a major casino.
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And if ya loved Army of the Dead, then you’ve gotta watch the prequel, which takes place six years before the events of the original and follows safecracker Ludwig Dieter during the beginning stages of the zombie outbreak.
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Full disclosure: Netflix’s most popular movie ever—which follows FBI’s top profiler as he attempts to capture two rival criminals—wasn’t exactly a critical darling. But, IMO, it’s worth watching for the cast alone (especially since there’s a sequel on the way).
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With a legit ridiculous cast that includes Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, and Lakeith Stanfield, among others, this action-packed Western drama tells the story of an outlaw who discovers that the man who murdered his parents is being released from prison and decides to reunite his old gang to seek revenge.
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What happens when a trained assassin realizes she only has 24 hours to live after being poisoned? She goes on an epic mission through the streets of Tokyo to take down her enemies, naturally, and that’s exactly what goes down in this action thriller starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
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Directed by Spike Lee and featuring a S-T-E-L-L-A-R cast, this epic war drama revolves around four Black Vietnam vets who return to Vietnam in search of their former squad leader’s remains…as well as the gold fortune he once helped them hide.
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This cartel thriller tells the story of five ex-US Special Forces soldiers who reunite to rob millions of dollars from a South American drug lord, and it’ll have you on the edge of your damn seat, trust.
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In this thriller, a naturalist is brought to a desolate Alaskan village to search for the wolves that are suspected to have killed three children. As it turns out, the truth is even more terrifying.
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Hi, do you like gore? Then you gotta check out this Indonesian action film. In it, members of a small village are all brutally massacred after stealing from drug-trafficking Triads—except for one young girl. The assassin who saved her life must face the consequences of his sacrifice when he becomes the new target.
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Starring Charlize Theron, this superhero flick tells the story of four centuries-old immortals secretly working to protect humanity, who realize their secret powers have been exposed when they discover another immortal.
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This crime flick revolves around a black market mercenary (Chris Hemsworth) who finds himself recruited to assist in the rescue of an imprisoned crime lord’s kidnapped son. Hi, Netflix, where’s the sequel at??
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Based on real-life events, this war flick follows a commander of the Irish Army (Jamie Dornan) and his modest battalion of 157 as they heroically defend their outpost during a peacekeeping mission in Africa—despite being massively overwhelmed by enemy forces.
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When a getaway driver is double-crossed during a botched bank robbery, he figures out who betrayed him before it’s too late (and ofc there are plenty of car chase scenes along the way).
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Another epic war drama, Beasts of No Nation follows a young boy from West Africa who’s recruited by a group of guerrilla soldiers and trained by a fierce warlord (Idris Elba) after his country breaks out into a civil war.
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This sci-fi thriller is set in war-torn Moldova, following US military members as they discover the presence of ghostly aliens claiming the lives of soldiers…which then forces them to take down the aliens in order to save the capital from destruction.
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Starring Freddie Highmore, this action thriller revolves around a Cambridge engineering student who—after learning about a mysterious fortress hidden underneath the Bank of Spain—decides to team up with a crew of master thieves in order to crack it.
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Whoever said action movies can’t be funny, too? Starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, this rom-com tells the story of a couple on the brink of a breakup who are wrongfully accused of murder, and in order to clear their names, they must band together to figure out the true culprit.
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Chris Evans stars in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie, which takes place aboard a train carrying the last remaining people on Earth after a failed attempt to combat global warming created a “Snowball Earth.” Cue all the drama.
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In this Western crime drama, two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) attempt to carry out a series of bank robberies in order to save their family ranch…all while evading a very crafty Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges) who’s hell-bent on stopping them.
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Yet another war drama (and also based on a real-life story), The Outpost recounts the events of the Battle of Kamdesh during the war in Afghanistan, which is when a small unit of US soldiers found themselves overwhelmed by Taliban fighters in a coordinated attack.
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In this hiiighly-underrated action flick, a prisoner granted a furlough following his mother’s death decides to take advantage of the opportunity and get some revenge on the people who turned him into a killer. On that list: his loan shark brother.
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