Top 20 Most Violent Movies of All Time

Writer/director Robert Eggers may prefer to live in the past with his filmography thus far, but “The Northman” proved that this past can also be a very violent place. Brutal and visceral revenge serves as the driving force behind Alexander Skarsgård’s character, while “The Northman” also takes time to develop its mystical Scandinavian lore. Eggers’ penchant for long, uninterrupted takes often makes the bloody set-pieces in “The Northman” feel even more dangerous and exhilarating. The results make the audience feel enveloped within this cold and unforgiving world, perhaps warmed only by the gratuitous red stuff that seems to flow like wine throughout its running time.

We’re thankful that director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Edward Neumeier decided to lean so heavily into satire with their adaptation of the 1959 novel, “Starship Troopers.” This political commentary makes the excessively gross battle sequences feel more satisfying, pleasing both our brains and our guts. Speaking of “guts,” there’s a whole lot of that to be found within these interstellar conflicts between space marines and world-dominating bugs. “Starship Troopers” successfully subverts the expectations of average action movie fans, while never forgetting to remain completely entertaining. Oh, and did we mention that it’s also technically a Disney movie, having been co-produced by the Mouse-owned Touchstone Pictures?

It was 1971’s “Man in the Wilderness” that served as an inspiration for director Alejandro González Iñárritu to adapt the folktale of Hugh Glass for a modern audience with “The Revenant.” Glass’ alleged encounter with a grizzly bear and the subsequent abandonment by his accompanying party serve as a crux for all three stories. The bear attack in “The Revenant,” however, is supremely well-actualized. The sequence goes on for an uncomfortably long period of time, and we’re left with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Glass as he seeks both recovery and revenge. Elsewhere, “The Revenant” also makes use of extended long takes for other violent skirmishes, and never shies away from the occasional brutality of frontier life.

We could’ve easily populated this list with examples from the Hong Kong action scene of the 1980s and ‘90s. And perhaps we should do that someday, but for now, we have “A Better Tomorrow” from 1986. This defining example of the “Heroic Bloodshed” genre helped codify many tropes found within many of its successors. These include stylish gun battles, hard-boiled dialogue, and character themes that tend to focus on duty, loyalty, and friendship. Oh, and gun battles! “A Better Tomorrow” is a ballet of bullets and well-choreographed fight scenes, all of which never let up for a minute. If you watch one film on this list for the first time, then we highly suggest it be “A Better Tomorrow.”

David Cronenberg may be rightfully lauded today as a master of body horror cinema, but the Canadian genre film legend also did great work outside of the scary stuff. “Fast Company” was a dyed-in-the-wool exploitation picture, while “Eastern Promises” proved that Cronenberg could also go gangster with the greatest of ease. This isn’t a typical Italian mob movie, however, but instead one that focuses upon the Russian mafia and its equally interesting traditions. A scene that takes place within a public bathhouse is probably the most infamously daring example of this film’s violence, but it isn’t the only one. Instead, “Eastern Promises,” exists as a latter-day gem within Cronenberg’s filmography, a mature and hard-hitting affair that still works well today.

It isn’t always about how much violence there happens to be in a movie, but rather how it happens to hit the audience. The brutality of “Drive” tends to occur in short and sharp bursts, exploding from the screen without warning. Of course, it helps that Ryan Gosling’s unnamed Driver is a man of few words, but then again, this is also by design. “Drive” is a neo-noir soaked in synthesized neon and dangerous characters. Gosling’s rage perpetually seems to be bubbling beneath the surface, so when it does arise in scenes such as one in an elevator… well it strikes like lightning and cracks like thunder.

There’s a good reason why so many fans of director Martin Scorsese seemingly always want the man to deliver a gangster picture. He’s just so damn good at these, having earned this reputation helming all-time classics like “Goodfellas.” This is a film that walks a fine creative line. On one hand, it’s endlessly quotable. It features complicated protagonists we’re not supposed to like, yet we just can’t help ourselves as we follow their story. This is why the frankly gruesome violence in “Goodfellas” is perhaps so easy to forget. This is a VICIOUS film, and cuts no corners with the brutality of mob hits and assassinations.

It’s perhaps easy to ignore all of the violent goings-on present with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s “Sin City.” It all comes down to the fact that this adaptation of the latter’s graphic novel is supremely stylized in its approach to action and violence. Make no mistake, however, because the “R” rating for “Sin City” is absolutely earned. The ensemble cast of Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Elijah Wood, Mickey Rourke, and more all do a great job, and it’s honestly surprising to see so many big names attached to a property that contains this much old-school bloodshed. It all comes together brilliantly, however, leaving us with set pieces that went on to define boundary-pushing cinema from the mid-2000s.

When it was announced that a new film adaptation of the “Judge Dredd” comic strip was set to be produced, many movie fans that recalled the Sylvester Stallone film were less than excited; but comic fans knew something we didn’t. The potential of the property was huge and when the end product was released, “Dredd”’s visual effects and action, enhanced by the graphic violence, appeased many who’d been disgusted by the previous film. Involving a unique idea of showing the violence through the eyes of drug-addled viewers in slow motion lent the sci-fi flick an otherworldly, cool veneer.

“Goodfellas” definitely incorporated the violence that enforces that world’s rules, but there was one scene in “Casino” that outdid all of the destruction of its predecessor. When the film literally started with a bang, we thought we knew what we were in for. But when a man is later forced to watch his brother be beaten to death with baseball bats, even we were appalled. When he then suffered similar treatment but was allowed to just barely live so he could be buried alive, it sent a shudder down our spines.

The harrowing nature of everyday violence is what makes “City of God” so impactful as a fictionalized account of real-life criminal lifestyles. The film tethers poverty and violence together in an eternal and inescapable dance, set against the backdrop of a Brazilian favela. There are no real heroes to speak of within “City of God,” but instead a survival of the fittest story of desperate living. Generations of those living within this suburb of Rio de Janeiro find violence around them at every turn, with seemingly no way out of the growing urban walls that keep them prisoner.

It should go without saying that a film depicting the bloody trail of a couple of serial killers was not going to get a PG rating, but the highly stylized violence “Natural Born Killers” still caused much outrage when it was released. Scenes in which murder is given the sitcom treatment, laugh track included, may have been meant as a satire, but by the time a prison riot is shown, we know what’s going on here is no laughing matter.

When Sylvester Stallone brought one of his trademark characters back to life 20 years after he last played the role, the decision was made to go for a grittier, gorier version of John Rambo. We’d seen the titular badass kill plenty of people, but never had he done it in such throat-ripping, disemboweling fashion as he does in the 2008 indie film. Ultimately coming to a crescendo in a .50 caliber M2 machine gun shootout that begins with its first victim being turned to liquefied goo, “Rambo” definitely earned its credentials for our list.

Coming out years before “The Hunger Games,” this Japanese action thriller sees a group of youngsters forced to hunt each other to the death, but instead of drama and melodrama, it focuses on the actual games and horror they’d create. This is a world where disrespect by the youth is so out of control that examples had to be made of them, with the worst-behaving class being forced to kill or be killed each year. Upping the action by throwing in a few ringers with superior weaponry, you can rest assured nobody will be climbing and hanging out in trees in “Battle Royale.”

The war film genre received a serious upgrade back in 1998 with the release of Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.” The frequently glossy and overly stylized battle sequences of old were replaced by gritty and up-close accounts of realistic death and dying. No characters felt safe, and this aura of chaos and danger was amplified by the hand-held camera work that frequently peppered each attack. “Saving Private Ryan” remains uncomfortable viewing, too, even some twenty-plus years removed from its initial release. The tragedy and horrors of war are difficult to bear, after all, and this film reminds us of the magnitude of challenges faced by “The Greatest Generation.”

A man and his hammer sure can do a whole lot of damage. As “Oldboy” tells the story of a man consumed by a desire for vengeance, it makes sense that things are going to get a little gruesome. But the level things reach in this Korean neo-noir is both surprising and enthralling. Whether it was the legendary hammer in the hall fight scene or the torture and tooth removal sequence, this film pulled no punches when it came to showcasing action and violence.

Most war movies are inherently violent, but this medieval war drama’s extended battle scenes stepped things up a notch in glorious fashion. Never cutting away to the men in the rear or focusing on the politics behind the death and destruction, the mayhem of the era’s wars that is typically glorified is instead shown in grisly detail in Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart.” The cherry on the top of it all comes in the extended torture and beheading that comes late in the film.

Much of the “Robocop” franchise in the eighties was child-friendly including toys, animated shows and comic books – EXCEPT for the film that started it all, which was the furthest thing from PG. This movie features a man who finds his way into toxic waste and is horribly mutated, only to be hit by a car and instantly pulverized. Even the protagonist meets a gruesome death before he becomes the title character, in a scene that includes his hand and arm being shot off before his entire body is riddled with bullets, all finished off with a final headshot.

When a group of samurai-obsessed professional killers attempts to take out one of their own but doesn’t finish the job, the table is set for a series of escalating stand-offs. In the first of the two films in the series, that was certainly the case, as “Volume I” ends off with a sword fight so brutal and bloody that Quentin Tarantino had to make the scene black and white to get past American film censors. Though several other of the director’s films, like “Reservoir Dogs,” “Inglourious Basterds,” and “Django Unchained” use violence, it was this film that showed it off in perfect Tarantino style.

Most movies based on the Bible eschew violence and opt instead to bring a sanitized version of the famous stories to celluloid. When Mel Gibson decided to tell the story leading up to Christ’s death, he bucked that trend in what appeared to be an effort to have viewers marinate in it all. Showing a vicious whipping, Jesus’ head being ripped apart by the crown of thorns and ultimately, his gore-filled crucifixion in all its grandeur, this film has more than earned the top spot on our list.


At what point does violence become too gratuitous? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!