What is the best action movie of the 2000s?

From arena-filling epics to sleek spy reboots and bone-crunching martial arts, the 2000s redefined what action cinema could look like. Which film tops the decade?

1

Gladiator

Ridley Scott's 2000 Oscar-winning Roman epic about a betrayed general who becomes a gladiator to avenge his family's murder.

2

The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan's 2008 operatic crime thriller in which Batman faces the anarchic menace of the Joker in a gripping moral battle for Gotham.

3

Kill Bill: Volume 1

Quentin Tarantino's 2003 high-octane revenge saga following an assassin who wakes from a coma and hunts down her former colleagues.

4

The Bourne Identity

Doug Liman's 2002 sleek and influential spy thriller about an amnesiac assassin piecing together his identity while evading his own agency.

5

Casino Royale

Martin Campbell's 2006 gritty Bond reboot introducing Daniel Craig as a raw and emotionally vulnerable 007 on his first mission.

6

Batman Begins

Christopher Nolan's 2005 grounded origin story that reinvented Batman as a psychologically complex hero driven by fear and vengeance.

7

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Ang Lee's 2000 visually breathtaking wuxia masterpiece weaving a stolen sword's secrets with a forbidden love story across ancient China.

8

Collateral

Michael Mann's 2004 tense nocturnal thriller starring Tom Cruise as a silver-haired contract killer forcing a taxi driver to be his accomplice.

9

The Departed

Martin Scorsese's 2006 Oscar-winning cat-and-mouse crime thriller about moles embedded in both the Boston mob and the state police.

10

Iron Man

Jon Favreau's 2008 crowd-pleasing origin story that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Robert Downey Jr.'s magnetic Tony Stark.

11

Kung Fu Hustle

Stephen Chow's 2004 wildly inventive Hong Kong action-comedy set in 1940s Shanghai, blending martial arts with slapstick and surrealism.

12

Man on Fire

Tony Scott's 2004 visceral revenge thriller about a burned-out ex-CIA operative who wages a one-man war after his young charge is kidnapped.

13

Taken

Pierre Morel's 2008 stripped-down thriller that turned Liam Neeson into an action icon as a former spy hunting his daughter's kidnappers.