The 20 Best Action Movies of 2024 (So Far)
2023 was an interesting year for Hollywood. As the industry went through a game-changing strike, several of fall’s most highly-anticipated releases were pushed to the next year, while superhero blockbusters arrived in theaters to mid reviews and disappointing box offices. (The two biggest movies of the year—all hail Barbenheimer—weren’t superhero films for the first time in a while.) Suffice to say, the action genre could really use a reset.
Luckily, 2024’s action movie slate is already filled with exciting new releases, from the Mad Max spinoff Furiosa to collaborations between A-list stars. Below, we’re tallying up the action flicks to look out for throughout the coming year.
‘Argylle’
((Image credit: Courtesy of Apple TV+)+)
Release date: February 2, 2024
Starring: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Why It’s Worth Watching: A homebody spy novelist (Howard) is pulled into real danger when her book’s details hit a bit too close to the workings of an actual underground syndicate. Combine a stacked cast (Dua Lipa! Ariana DeBose!) with a fun premise and I’m all in.
Trailer: HERE
‘Madame Web’
((Image credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures))
Release date: February 14, 2024
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced, and Tahar Rahim.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Sony’s latest action flick (about yet another Spider-Man side character) introduces Cassie Web, an NYC paramedic who gets clairvoyant powers and has to face dark secrets from her past while protecting a trio of teen girls. Come for the time-twisting action, stay for the meme potential.
Trailer: HERE
‘Dune: Part Two’
((Image credit: Niko Tavernise))
Release date: March 1, 2024
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, and Souheila Yacoub.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The sequel to the Oscar-nominated film finally comes to the big screen this year, as director Denis Villeneuve continues to adapt the acclaimed sci-fi novel—this time with much more Zendaya!
Trailer: HERE
‘Damsel’
((Image credit: Netflix))
Release date: March 8, 2024
Starring: Millie Bobby Brown, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Brooke Carter, and Shohreh Aghdashloo.
Why it’s worth watching: For her latest Netflix project, the Stranger Things star plays a “damsel” who has to rescue herself when she discovers she’s meant to be sacrificed to a bloodthirsty dragon.
Trailer: HERE
‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’
((Image credit: YouTube/Warner Bros.))
Release date: March 29, 2024
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, and Fala Chen.
Why It’s Worth Watching: In this sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong (with Hall, Henry, and Stevens reprising their roles), Godzilla and Kong must team up to defeat an undiscovered threat that threatens the both the Hollow Earth and the surface.
Trailer: HERE
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’
((Image credit: YouTube/Sony Pictures))
Release date: March 29, 2024
Starring: Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton.
Why It’s Worth Watching: This sequel to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife sees the Spengler family traveling to the iconic New York City firehouse to link up with the original Ghostbusters(!), who will reprise their roles from the hit ’80s films. When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, the two groups must work together to protect their home and save the world from a second ice age.
Trailer: HERE
‘The Fall Guy’
((Image credit: Courtesy of Universal Pictures))
Release date: May 3, 2024
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Hannah Waddingham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, and Stephanie Hsu.
Why It’s Worth Watching: This blockbuster inspired by the 1980s TV series of the same name stars Ken, I mean Gosling, as Colt Seavers, a retired stuntman who’s drawn back into the business when his ex Jody (Blunt) asks for his help to find the star of her studio film, who’s gone missing.
Trailer: HERE
‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’
((Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures))
Release date: May 24, 2024
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Alyla Browne, and Tom Burke.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Nine(!) years after Charlize Theron stole the show in 2014’s Mad Max: Fury Road, her character Imperator Furiosa is getting a prequel, with Taylor-Joy stepping into the role. After being abducted from her home into a savage Biker Horde, led by the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), Furiosa faces many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.
Trailer: HERE
‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’
((Image credit: 20th Century Studios))
Release date: May 24, 2024
Starring: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The latest film in the Planet of the Apes franchise continues on nearly 300 years after the events of the 2010s trilogy, at a time where ape civilizations rule and humans have regressed into a feral state. As a tyrannical ape leader begins to enslave other clans, common chimp Noa and young human Mae (The Witcher star Allan) embark on a journey to determine the future for apes and humans alike.
Trailer: HERE
‘Ballerina’
((Image credit: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images))
Release date: June 7, 2024
Starring: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, the late Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, and Keanu Reeves.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The first John Wick theatrical spin-off (the beginning of the JWCU, if we may) stars de Armas as an assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma. She seeks revenge when her family is killed by hitmen.
Trailer: TBA
‘Horizon: An American Saga’ (Chapters 1 and 2)
((Image credit: YouTube/Warner Bros.))
Release date: June 28, 2024 and August 16, 2024
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, and Jamie Campbell Bower.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Former Yellowstone star Costner wrote, directed, produced, and stars in this two-part Western epic about the settlement of the American west, which spans 15 years and includes both the lead-up to and aftermath of the Civil War.
Trailer: HERE
‘Deadpool 3’
((Image credit: Ryan Reynolds/Instagram))
Release date: July 26, 2024
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Morena Baccarin, Brianna Hildebrand, Jennifer Garner, Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfayden, Karan Soni, Rob Delaney, and Leslie Uggams.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The plot for the next Deadpool movie is still tightly under wraps, but all we need to know is that Jackman’s Wolverine is coming back to life.
Trailer: TBA
‘Transformers One’
((Image credit: Getty Images/Getty Images for the Critics Choice Association))
Release date: September 13, 2024
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, and Laurence Fishburne.
Why It’s Worth Watching: This new animated Transformers movie will tell the origin story of how a young Optimus Prime (Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) went from being brothers-in-arms to sworn enemies.
Trailer: TBA
‘Venom 3’
((Image credit: Sony Pictures))
Release date: November 8, 2024
Starring: Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The third Venom flick will bring the unlikely buddy comedy duo of reporter Eddie Brock and his ruthless alien symbiote back to the big screen.
Trailer: TBA
‘Gladiator 2’
((Image credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images))
Release date: November 22, 2024
Starring: Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, and Derek Jacobi.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The star-studded sequel to the iconic 2000 action film follows Lucius, the nephew of Commodus, who is now a grown man after being saved by Maximus (Russell Crowe) in Gladiator.
Trailer: TBA
‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of The Rohirrim’
((Image credit: New Line))
Release date: December 13, 2024
Starring: Brian Cox, Miranda Otto, Gaia Wise, Luke Pasqualino, Laurence Ubong, and Shaun Dooley.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The world of Lord of the Rings is returning to the silver screen…in animated form! This prequel will be set 261 years before The Two Towers and will star Brian Cox (Logan Roy himself!) as the legendary king Helm Hammerhand (a.k.a the namesake behind Helm’s Deep).
Trailer: TBA
‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
((Image credit: Courtesy of Netflix))
Release date: TBA
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Taylour Paige, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, and Kevin Bacon.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Forty years after the original buddy-cop comedy, Detective Axel Foley (Murphy) is returning to Beverly Hills. After his daughter Jane’s (Paige) life is threatened, the father-daughter duo team up with a new partner (Gordon-Levitt) and some old friends to uncover a conspiracy.
Trailer: HERE
‘Mickey 17’
((Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures))
Release date: TBA
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Director Bong Joon-ho’s highly-anticipated follow-up to Parasite is an English-language sci-fi epic adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel Mickey7, following a disposable employee (called an “expendable”) sent on a human expedition to colonize the ice world Niflheim. After one iteration of the expandable dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact.
Trailer: HERE
‘Hit Man’
((Image credit: Netflix))
Release date: TBA
Starring: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta, and Molly Bernard.
Why It’s Worth Watching: Richard Linklater’s new action comedy—based on the wild true story first reported in Texas Monthy—follows a sought-after professional killer (Powell) who actually works for the cops. When he breaks protocol to help a desperate woman (Arjona) flee her abusive husband, he starts falling for her and then toys with the idea of adopting his undercover persona and becoming a real-life criminal.
Trailer: TBA
‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse’
((Image credit: Sony Pictures Animation))
Release date: TBA
Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Issac, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzmann, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Jharrel Jerome, and Mahershala Ali.
Why It’s Worth Watching: The final installment of Miles Morales’ trilogy may not arrive until 2025, but after the cliffhanger ending of 2023’s Across the Spider-Verse, I’m keeping hope alive that the third film may hits theaters ASAP.
Trailer: TBA