The 18 Best Revenge Thriller Movies of All Time

Cold-blooded vendettas span arthouse gut-punches, stylish action spectacles, and slow-burn payback served decades cold. Where does your loyalty lie? Cast your vote!

1. 1
   Oldboy

   Park Chan-wook's 2003 South Korean masterpiece about a man seeking vengeance after a mysterious 15-year imprisonment.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Cape Fear

   Martin Scorsese's 1991 thriller in which a vengeful ex-convict terrorizes the lawyer who failed him.
   647pts
3. 3
   Death Wish

   The 1974 thriller about a mild-mannered architect who becomes a vigilante after his family is attacked.
   624pts
4. 4
   I Saw the Devil

   A brutal 2010 South Korean thriller about a secret agent who methodically torments his wife's serial-killer murderer.
   624pts
5. 5
   John Wick

   The 2014 action thriller in which a retired hitman unleashes lethal vengeance after the killing of his dog.
   624pts
6. 6
   Léon: The Professional

   Luc Besson's 1994 thriller about a hitman who helps a young girl avenge the murder of her family.
   560pts
7. 7
   Prisoners

   Denis Villeneuve's 2013 thriller about a desperate father taking the law into his own hands after his daughter vanishes.
   485pts
8. 8
   Memento

   Christopher Nolan's 2000 reverse-chronology thriller about a man with amnesia hunting his wife's killer.
   485pts
9. 9
   Promising Young Woman

   Emerald Fennell's 2020 thriller about a woman exacting calculated revenge for a friend's assault.
   485pts
10. 10
    Munich

    Steven Spielberg's 2005 thriller following a covert squad hunting those behind the 1972 Olympics massacre.
    397pts
11. 11
    Kill Bill: Vol. 1

    Quentin Tarantino's 2003 stylized epic about an assassin hunting down the team that betrayed her.
    397pts
12. 12
    Taken

    The 2008 action thriller about a former CIA operative who tears through Paris to rescue his abducted daughter.
    397pts
13. 13
    Lady Vengeance

    The 2005 finale of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy, following a woman's elaborate revenge after wrongful imprisonment.
    291pts
14. 14
    Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

    Park Chan-wook's bleak 2002 thriller that opens his Vengeance Trilogy with a kidnapping gone tragically wrong.
    291pts
15. 15
    Nobody

    The 2021 action thriller in which a seemingly ordinary family man reveals a violent past against Russian mobsters.
    291pts
16. 16
    Django Unchained

    Tarantino's 2012 Western about a freed slave who tracks down the brutal plantation owner holding his wife.
    0pts
17. 17
    The Crow

    The gothic 1994 cult thriller about a murdered musician resurrected to avenge his and his fiancee's deaths.
    0pts
18. 18
    Blue Ruin

    Jeremy Saulnier's tense 2013 indie thriller about a drifter who returns home to avenge his parents' murder.
    0pts

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