Action fans, have you scoped out what’s on Netflix this month? One of the films becoming quite popular with subscribers is Escape Plan, the long-awaited team-up movie starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Other action films impacting the top 10 include The Mechanic, Trouble, and Edge of Tomorrow.
If search within the action genre, you’ll find several subgenres that offer even more movies — pulse-pounding adventures, violent spectacles, and sci-fi battles are some of the films. Below, we picked three action movies to watch in October: a historical epic, a zombie heist saga, and a suspenseful thriller.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Troy (2004)
Wolfgang Petersen can turn anything into popcorn entertainment. His resume includes a CIA thriller (In the Line of Fire), a medical thriller (Outbreak), an aircraft hijacking (Air Force One), and a disaster drama (The Perfect Storm). In 2004, Petersen directed a loose interpretation of Homer’s Iliad in Troy. For those unfamiliar with the Trojan War, the film depicts the battle between Troy and Sparta.
On one side are the mighty Trojans, led by Prince Hector (Eric Bana) and his brother Paris (Orlando Bloom). On the other side are the Greeks, led by the ruthless King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) and his rebel warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt). Troy is not a proper history lesson for the Trojan War, but Petersen’s battle scenes are quite thrilling, especially when Pitt fights.
Speaking of Pitt, Troy’s lasting impact on the culture involved body image, as nearly every twentysomething man Googled “Brad Pitt Troy workout” after seeing the Oscar winner’s insane physical transformation.
Stream Troy on Netflix.
Army of the Dead (2021)
Love him or hate him, Zack Snyder makes films that people feel very strongly about, both positively and negatively. The Batman v Superman filmmaker might have stumbled with Rebel Moon but found a winner with Army of the Dead. In a postapocalyptic world, Las Vegas is a quarantine zone that’s occupied by flesh-eating zombies.
The government plans to drop a nuclear bomb on the city to wipe out the infected. Before that happens, casino owner Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada) approaches mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) with a proposition: recover $200 million from his casino vault in Vegas before the bomb destroys the city.
Desperate for money, Ward agrees and assembles an eclectic crew of soldiers to complete his mission. Snyder leans into the ridiculousness of the situation, resulting in a funny and violent zombie heist adventure.
Stream Army of the Dead on Netflix.
Hold the Dark (2018)
2024 has been noteworthy for Jeremy Saulnier. The Green Room filmmaker released his first film in six years with Rebel Ridge, an excellent action thriller starring Aaron Pierre as a former Marine tackling corruption in a small town. The film has received nearly universal praise, with many citing it as one of Netflix’s best originals of the year. Saulnier’s previous film, Hold the Dark, though not as good as Rebel Ridge, has its moments thanks to a suspenseful narrative.
Russell Core (The Batman 2‘s Jeffrey Wright) is a wolf expert hired to investigate the disappearance of three small children in Keelut, Alaska. Medora Slone (Riley Keough), the mother of one of the missing children, is convinced wolves are responsible for this potential tragedy. As Russell begins his search, he realizes that humans, not animals, provide the biggest obstacle to his investigation.
Stream Hold the Dark on Netflix.
