The only problem with the "John Wick" movies is that there aren't more of them.
If you need your fix of action pictures with thoughtful worldbuilding and plenty of style,
here are some other movies like "John Wick" you need to watch before you die.
Released in 2006, "Crank" stars action stalwart Jason Statham as Chev Chelios,
an assassin betrayed by an upstart hitman who wants to take his place.
While asleep in his apartment, Chelios is injected with a synthetic poison
that suppresses his body's production of adrenaline, gradually killing him
unless he can keep his mind racing and his heart pounding. Chelios must do whatever
it takes to make his search for an antidote as intense as possible — that means speeding cars,
getting into shootouts, and in one instance, engaging in an extremely public sexual encounter.
"Crank" is a lot like its protagonist: if it slows down, that means it's over. First
time directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor pace and edit the film like a wild video game,
with each stage and set piece more outrageous than the last. Statham's performance is easily
the most unhinged of his already explosive career, and his rampage across Los Angeles is nothing less
than a bloody delight. As Felix Vasquez, Jr. wrote in his review for Cinema Crazed,
"It's trashy, gory, gratuitous, ridiculous,
completely far-fetched, and I had a smile on my face the entire time."
A sequel called "Crank: High Voltage" was released in 2009, in which Chelios has his heart replaced
with a mechanical device that requires constant jolts of electricity to continue working.
Director Michael Mann is no stranger to stylish crime thrillers, having directed such hits as
"Heat" and "Thief." However, it's safe to say that his 2004 film "Collateral"
is certainly among his most stylish and thrilling.
"Collateral" stars Tom Cruise as Vincent; a hitman with a gun and a list, but no wheels.
When mild-mannered cab driver Max — played by Jamie Foxx — picks him up, he becomes Vincent's
unwilling accomplice, driving him all over Los Angeles so he can assassinate some big-shot
criminals. It only takes one body dropping for Max to realize he's made a terrible error in judgment
— but by then it's too late, as Vincent holds Max at gunpoint and forces him to finish the job.
"You killed him?" "No, I shot him. Bullets and the fall killed him."
What starts out as a simple fare turns into a chaotic night of chases, standoffs, and plenty
of shootouts. It's not at all mindless action, though — Vincent and Max have some fascinatingly
tense conversations on the road. Life, death, dreams, fate — all are topics that the two discuss
as they travel from hit to hit. Both Cruise and Foxx give captivating performances throughout,
and actors Mark Ruffalo, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Javier Bardem round out an all-star cast.
Charlize Theron stars in director David Leitch's high-octane feature, "Atomic Blonde," which was
released in 2017 and is based on the graphic novel series "The Coldest City" by Antony Johnston.
Theron plays Lorraine Broughton, a deadly MI6 agent sent to Berlin in 1989 to retrieve The List,
a stolen compendium of all the names of spies operating there, before the entire intelligence
community is compromised. James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, and John Goodman also star.
With its saturated hues and exceptionally choreographed stunt work, "Atomic Blonde"
drew plenty of comparisons to "John Wick" when it was released — which makes sense,
considering Leitch's role as an executive producer of the franchise. Although it's set
in the world of espionage and covert operations, there's plenty of bombastic action throughout,
including a particularly stunning stairwell fight taken in a single unbroken shot.
Anchored by Theron's killer performance and a pulsating soundtrack of familiar late-80s jams,
"Atomic Blonde" makes for a good double-feature with any of the "Wick" films.
When director/writer John Woo's "The Killer" was released in 1989, one of its taglines was
"One vicious killer. One fierce cop. Ten thousand bullets." Though that last part may be a bit of an
overstatement, there are certainly plenty of shell casings littering the scenes in Woo's hard-boiled
tale of professional killer Ah Jong, played by Chow Yun-Fat. Jong's own moral code dictates
he take one last assignment in order to secure funding to help Sally Yeh's Jennie, a woman he
accidentally blinds during one of his hits. On his tail is Inspector Lee Ying, played by Danny Lee.
"The Killer" is filled with all of Woo's filmmaking trademarks: stand-offs, shoot-outs,
slow-motion, and plenty of sentimentality. Even though "The Killer" contains gnarly action and
gore, it also contains some beautiful reflections on the nature of spirituality and humanity.
Jong may be a hitman, but he'll go out of his way to protect anyone who might be
caught in the crossfire. The dance-like action sequences alone make "The Killer" worth seeing,
but the emotional dynamic between Jong and Ying makes it something truly special to behold.
Written by "John Wick" scribe Derek Kolstad and directed by Ilya Naishuller of "Hardcore Henry"
fame, 2021's "Nobody" is a wild ride filled with mayhem, murder, and a kitty-cat bracelet.
Starring Bob Odenkirk as retired "auditor" Hutch Mansell, "Nobody" wastes no time getting to the
good stuff — that being fights, shoot-outs, and stuff blowing up real good. This fast-paced film
fits a lot of action into its 92 minute runtime, even managing to be a bit touching by the end.
Mansell has a quiet life — boring job, wife and kids — but it's rudely interrupted when
their home is invaded by two robbers. He lets them get away with his watch and some cash,
but comes to regret his decision over the following days. After channeling
his regret into a violent altercation on a city bus, Mansell finds himself the target
of a Russian mobster and his crew. Little do they know, Mansell isn't actually much
of a nobody after all — and neither is his father, who's played by Christopher Lloyd.
During a Twitter watch party for the premiere of "Nobody," Naishuller tweeted,
"If you approach the character as if he's addicted to violence and has kept
himself in check for 15 years, then the film will really click for you."
Odenkirk's Mansell is wound up tightly and once he's unleashed,
there's no stopping him, just like Wick.
Not all contract killers do it by choice. Some are forced into the life by circumstance,
as happens to Nikita in "La Femme Nikita." This film, released in 1990, stars Anne Parillaud
in the title role, and was written and directed by French filmmaker Luc Besson.
Parillaud's Nikita is a debauched teen who murders a police officer during a robbery gone wrong.
After her arrest, rather than being put on trial, she is given a choice by the mysterious Centre:
be reborn as an assassin, or lose her life. Nikita chooses to become
a contract killer — a vocation that she seems to have quite a talent for.
"Nikita" is worth a watch for Parillaud's performance alone,
as Nikita is transformed from a derelict criminal to a femme fatale,
a female assassin who's both terrifying and sympathetic. The film has been remade twice,
once as "Black Cat" in 1991 and again as "Point of No Return" in 1993. The latter remake stars
Bridget Fonda in Parillaud's role. The film has also been adapted twice as a television series,
1997's "Le Femme Nikita" and 2010's "Nikita." Needless to say, Nikita has hit her mark.
Although Charles Bronson had already established a long and varied career as a supporting actor
by the end of the 1960s, it was his output in the 70s that cemented his status as a leading
man. In 1972's "The Mechanic," Bronson stars as Arthur Bishop,
a well-regarded assassin — or "mechanic," as they like to call him — whose violent
profession has led him deep into a spiral of anxiety and depression.
Much like "John Wick," Bishop works for a secret society with its own set
of laws — break those laws, and face dire consequences. After killing Harry McKenna,
one of the organization's big bosses, Bishop gets to know McKenna's son, Steve,
and decides to teach him the tricks of the trade behind his employers' backs. Turns out Steve is
a very good learner, so much so that Bishop may not only have his bosses to worry about.
Frequent Bronson collaborator Michael Winner directs this surprisingly nuanced take on
the business of death. Bronson shares the screen with his real-life wife, Jill Ireland,
70s heartthrob Jan-Michael Vincent, and "Dr. Strangelove" star Keenan Wynn.
"The Mechanic" was remade in 2011 with Jason Statham and Ben Foster
in the Bishop and Steve roles, respectively, and was successful enough to yield a sequel,
"Mechanic: Resurrection," in 2016. It's hard to beat the original,
though, for both its portrayal of the mechanics of assassination and the humanity of its characters.
Before "Spy Kids" and "Alita," writer-director Robert Rodriguez began his career with "El
Mariachi," starring Carlos Gallardo as a particularly unlucky traveling
musician who finds himself a victim of mistaken identity.
Arriving in a new town with nothing but his guitar, El Mariachi isn't looking for trouble.
However, he finds it when the notorious killer Azul — known for his guitar case full of
guns — escapes from jail, raising the ire of the drug kingpin Moco. Unfortunately for El Mariachi,
the hitmen Moco sends after Azul can't tell the difference between the criminal and the performer,
and chaos ensues. Even when El Mariachi finally manages to escape the action,
he finds himself roped right back into it after falling in love with Moco's love interest, Dominó.
Gallardo stars alongside Consuelo Gómez, Reinol Martinez, and Peter Marquardt, who all give
endearing performances. Rodriguez's kinetic style and flair for the dramatic propel this tragic tale
of a man who wanted nothing more than to be a musician, only to have his dreams shattered
in the most painful way. The Spanish-language "El Mariachi" was made with no second takes,
on an ultra-low budget of just seven thousand dollars. The film's two sequels — 1995's
"Desperado" and 2003's "Once Upon A Time in Mexico" — were given significantly higher
budgets and feature Antonio Banderas taking over the role of El Mariachi. Gallardo didn't seem to
take the recasting personally, however, as he served as a producer throughout the trilogy.
Originally intended to be a single four-hour film, Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" was split into two
features, with the first chapter, "Kill Bill: Volume 1," released in 2003. "Kill Bill: Volume
1" stars Uma Thurman as The Bride, an assassin shot and left for dead at her wedding after her
former associates massacre everyone in the church. When she wakes up from a coma four years later,
she proceeds to wreak harrowing revenge on everyone involved on that fateful day. Lucy Liu,
Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, and David Carradine also star as the other members of
the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. As in "John Wick," the Assassination Squad has a strict code
of conduct that its members must abide by — one which the Bride seems to have violated.
Tarantino's appreciation for Asian action cinema, rapid-fire dialogue,
and impossibly bloody violence are on full display as The Bride methodically
hunts down the traitors who destroyed her happiness. The first "volume" is
highly stylized and follows The Bride's journey from hospital bed to snow-swept
Japan as she prepares to battle her former colleague O-Ren Ishii. As Roger Ebert put it,
"[Tarantino's] story is a distillation of the universe of martial arts movies,
elevated to a trancelike mastery of the material. Tarantino is in the Zone."
"Kill Bill: Volume 2" was released in 2004, wherein The Bride finishes what she started.
While most films involving contract killings are deadly serious, "In Bruges" goes in a bit
of a different direction. Released in 2008 and written and directed by Martin McDonagh , "In
Bruges" is a pitch-black comedy that features Colin Farrell as hitman Ray,
Brendan Gleeson as Ray's partner and mentor, Ken, and Ralph Fiennes as Harry, their boss.
Ray and Ken are in hiding because Ray recently botched a hit, accidentally killing a child,
and Harry is absolutely livid about it — after all, killing a child violates the hitman's code.
As Ray and Ken cool their heels in Bruges, Belgium, Harry tasks
Ken with "taking care of" Ray — but Ken's not too keen on that plan.
Harry doesn't appreciate Ken's disobedience, so he heads to Bruges himself to get his
hands dirty. It's only a matter of time before things come to a bloody head.
"In Bruges" finds a lot of humor in a lot of places,
from a colorful cast of supporting characters to the profanity-laden tirades from its leads.
Farrell and Gleeson have excellent chemistry, constantly playing their characters' neuroses
off of each other. McDonagh — also responsible for 2012's "Seven Psychopaths" and 2017's "Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" — teases non-stop laughs out of a bleak predicament,
infusing the story of a bunch of killers and reprobates with plenty of well-earned heart.
"The Assassination Bureau Limited," given the snappier title of "The Assassination Bureau"
in the states, also takes a darkly comedic look at the hitman business, but without all the bleakness
of "In Bruges." Based on an unfinished novel by Jack London, this 1969 picture stars Oliver
Reed as Ivan Dragomiloff, Diana Rigg as Sonya Winter, and Telly Savalas as Lord Bostwick.
Winter is a journalist and women's rights activist who discovers a secret organization of assassins,
aptly titled The Assassination Bureau Limited. Instead of exposing them in
her capacity as a journalist, Winter decides to have the head of the Bureau,
Dragomiloff, killed, believing that a power vacuum would dismantle the entire enterprise from the top
down. She does this by soliciting a hit on Dragomiloff from his own agency — a
request that Dragomiloff surprisingly accepts. There's other conspiracies at play, however,
as newspaper baron Lord Bostwick has his own sinister plans to take over the Bureau. The
whole thing is intentionally ridiculous and overly complicated, but a very fun watch nonetheless.
The second take on the hitman genre from Luc Besson, "Léon:
The Professional" was originally released in 1994 as just "The Professional" in the US. This time,
Jean Reno takes center stage as Léon — the titular professional killer — who finds himself
the guardian of 12-year old Mathilda, played by Natalie Portman. It hasn't exactly aged the best,
with certain scenes ranging from problematic to downright creepy, but the film is worth
checking out for its explosive action scenes and compelling revenge narrative.
Mathilda and her family live in the same apartment complex where Léon resides.
When Mathilda's drug dealing father runs afoul of Gary Oldman's loose cannon DEA agent,
Norman Stansfield, Mathilda returns home one day to find her parents and siblings slaughtered in a
violent raid. Léon takes Mathilda in, and when she learns the truth about what he does for a living,
she convinces him to teach her the tricks of the murder trade so she can avenge her
four-year-old brother. Over time, Léon and Mathilda form an odd bond — he teaches her
weaponry and tactics while she plots to take on Stansfield all by herself.
Portman is a tiny powerhouse of emotion, and her debut performance is a taste of what was to come
later on in her career. Reno is also quite good at being a likable killer, and Oldman often seems
like he's in a different movie from everyone else entirely — but in the best possible way.
"Bring me everyone."
"What do you mean, everyone?" "EVERYONE!"
Mathilda isn't the only adolescent assassin on this list. In 2011,
Saoirse Ronan played the title role in "Hanna," about a 15-year-old girl whose father teaches
her the ways of the hitman. Hanna's father Erik, an ex-CIA operator played by Eric Bana,
is being hunted by his former employer because he knows too much. To protect his daughter,
Erik does what any loving father would do: he starts training her how to kill
while she's still in diapers. He has motives of his own, however, as he sends her off to kill
Cate Blanchett's CIA agent, Marissa Wiegler, who's been sent to clean up Erik's loose ends.
"Hanna" twists and turns as the young assassin undertakes her mission and discovers a dark
secret her father has been hiding from her for her entire life. "Hanna" marries action
with coming-of-age drama, with Ronan showing off the skill that had already earned her an Oscar
nomination for Best Supporting Actress several years prior. Director Joe Wright keeps the tension
up and the pacing tight as Hanna heads straight into a reveal that will turn her entire world
upside-down. A TV series based on the film, also called "Hanna," premiered on Amazon Prime in 2019.
John Woo's groundbreaking 1986 Hong Kong action film "A Better Tomorrow" is widely considered the
film that turned Chow Yun-Fat into a superstar in Asia. Chow plays Mark, a high ranking member
of the criminal Triad alongside his friend, Sung Tse-Ho, played by Ti Lung. Things are going great,
but there's a problem: Ho's brother, Kit, is a cop hell-bent on stopping the Triad.
Ho wants to go straight, but as is always the case during that "one last job," things get out of
control and he's sent to prison. When he's finally released after three years, Ho discovers that his
gang has had a change in management: his former apprentice Shing has usurped Mark as the boss.
Woo mines the tension between Ho's dedication to his brother and his allegiance to his best friend
while meditating on what makes a family, albeit with a healthy dose of his trademark bloodshed.
The relationships between Ho, Kit, and Mark make up the emotional heart of the film.
A sequel, "A Better Tomorrow 2," was released in 1987, and a prequel, "A Better Tomorrow III:
Love & Death in Saigon," in 1989. The latter was directed by Tsui Hark after he and Woo had
a falling out. "A Better Tomorrow" has also gotten its fair share of remakes,
with a 1994 Hindi version called "Aatish," a 2010 Korean version,
and a 2018 Chinese remake, "A Better Tomorrow 2018."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite films are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.