Entertainment
10 Best Psychological Action Movies of All Time
There are plenty of psychological thriller/drama/horror movies that don’t have a great deal of action, because they don’t have to, what with being engaging in more subdued ways and all. And then there are also a good many action movies that can be called mindless, and they get by being that way, too, since there’s fun to be had with “turn your brain off and just have a good time” sorts of movies.
Clashes between the action genre and more thoughtful/psychological films are rare, but far from non-existent, as the following titles will hopefully demonstrate. These movies can be considered psychological action movies, just because they’re about the mind, or they’re kind of introspective and/or psychologically disorientating, all the while also having enough solid action scenes to make them qualify as, you know, action movies. They’re interesting. They’re worth thinking about.
10
‘The Guest’ (2014)
The ways The Guest becomes an action movie can sort of be spoiled, since it’s more of a mystery and a psychological thriller before things take off and escalate in the second half, getting more outwardly violent. It does make for quite the ride, and before there’s much action, it definitely works at building suspense and dread, with its story being about a stranger who comes into the lives of a family, claiming that he knew their recently deceased son.
It was directed by Adam Wingard some years before he made two fun – but almost completely mindless – giant monster movies: Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The Guest does eventually get a bit silly and schlocky, but much of it feels subtle compared to those feature-length kaiju smackdowns. Wingard does have a bit of range; more than some might give him credit for, at least.
9
‘Mandy’ (2018)
Mandy is a little like The Guest in the sense that it’s patiently paced early on, and then it eventually becomes a bit more action-packed in its second half… also in a way that feels easy to spoil. There’s not much story to Mandy, and it takes a while for it to reveal what it’s really about, so pretty much anything feels like a spoiler.
Usually, you have to watch a bombastic Cage movie and a quieter Cage movie back-to-back to see his range, but in Mandy, you see a lot of that range in just the one movie.
Like, Nicolas Cage is well-cast here, and he gets opportunities to go big at some points, and then succeeds just as well in the most subdued and non-explosive scenes. Usually, you have to watch a bombastic Cage movie and a quieter Cage movie back-to-back to see his range, but in Mandy, you see a lot of that range in just the one movie. It’s very much a film of two halves, but thankfully in a way that mostly works.
8
‘Sucker Punch’ (2011)
Sucker Punch was divisive, and the kind of thing that sort of works and sort of doesn’t. You can see why it was misunderstood by some, and Zack Snyder’s even spoken about it, being aware himself. It’s a dark sort of film about several young women who have to fight back against abusive forces in their lives, doing so in a way that blurs the line between reality and fantasy.
Like, kind of. It’s strange. It’s a lot. Some of the fantastical action sequences feel like they’re trying to be cool, or they might just clash with what Sucker Punch is trying to say as more of a drama, potentially a little like how not everyone clicked with Snyder’s creative decisions when he adapted Watchmen. Whether or not the set pieces should be spectacular, they are, and then Sucker Punch is also very much a psychological film, so it qualifies here. It might be a bit of a mess, but at least it’s a frequently interesting mess.
7
‘Ghost in the Shell’ (1995)
A dystopian/science fiction animated movie that’s very much about technology and humanity, regarding how the former might be changing (or harming) the latter, Ghost in the Shell does ultimately get pretty deep. “What makes people human” is a question or topic continually returned to, in science fiction, and it’s part of this movie for sure, with Ghost in the Shell also finding time to have some cool action sequences.
There’s a ton packed into just 83 minutes here, and it’s all brought to life with some amazing animation that still looks stellar more than 30 years on from release. Ghost in the Shell does have a tremendous reputation, and it’s an overall series (or franchise?) that’s a lot more than just this movie, obviously, but the 1995 movie is especially great, and the reputation it specifically has is well-deserved.
6
‘Branded to Kill’ (1967)
Sort of a Yakuza film, but with a deliberate emphasis on style over substance, Branded to Kill is effortlessly cool and also quite mind-bending for something that’s technically got a simple premise. There’s one assassin who has a job go wrong, as often happens to assassins in movies, and then he finds himself the target of another assassin. Chaos ensues.
Branded to Kill might be psychedelic, but then it’s also not really psychedelic in the way you’d expect most semi-experimental movies from the 1960s to be. Its own rules are the only ones it plays by, and even then, it’s very hard to discern what those rules even are. But Branded to Kill is a blast, it’s dizzying in the best of ways, and there’s a good deal of slick action throughout, so it’s all pretty easy to recommend if you’re in the mood for something both exciting and more than a little offbeat.
5
‘Total Recall’ (1990)
Like Ghost in the Shell, Total Recall delivers thrills of a psychological nature while also being a sci-fi movie, and then there’s a good deal of action, too, albeit a different kind than what you might usually find in an Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Total Recall is over-the-top, like other films of his, but there’s a bit more going on than just mindless action, which can be said about other movies directed by Paul Verhoeven that might seem like pure blockbusters on the surface.
See also RoboCop and Starship Troopers; he’s good at this kind of thing. And his filmmaking sensibilities pair oddly well with Schwarzenegger’s whole vibe, making Total Recall pretty great. Of all the movies that deal with a protagonist who has a tenuous grasp on reality, and can’t always differentiate what’s really happening from what might be in their head, Total Recall is definitely one of the most entertaining and explosive.
4
‘Lady Snowblood’ (1973)
Okay, maybe this one’s a bit of a stretch, but Lady Snowblood is an effective character study of someone who exists only to get revenge, not necessarily because that’s what she’s decided she wants, but because those older than her ensured she’d be that way. She’s born to a mother who’s lost everything, and that mother then makes sure that her daughter will grow up to avenge the rest of the family she never got to know.
It’s bleak stuff, and yet at the same time, Lady Snowblood does also have a ton of well-executed sword-heavy action. It’s a despairing kind of character study as well as a samurai movie, and it holds up exceptionally well on both those fronts. It also takes a lot for a martial arts movie about revenge to stand out, given that’s such a commonly recurring theme in such movies, but Lady Snowblood is indeed special.
3
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
The Matrix scratches the same itch as Total Recall, but with perhaps a little more clarity, and it’s also not nearly as violent and over-the-top. So, okay, not exactly the same itch, but a similar itch, or a similar way of scratching. Or a bit of both. It’s about a seemingly ordinary guy who learns that what he thought of reality isn’t actually reality, and it’s instead a simulation that machines in the real world have effectively fooled humanity with.
It becomes a movie about rebelling against the machines, and joining a group of people who know the truth about what’s real and what isn’t. Lots of The Matrix is head-spinning in nature the first time you watch it, but all the rules are laid out well, things start to click as it goes along, and then revisiting the movie does prove extra rewarding. Of course, the action’s all particularly strong, too. Even without the thought-provoking sci-fi stuff, it would be worth watching just for the fights and shootouts.
2
‘The Sword of Doom’ (1966)
If you didn’t think Lady Snowblood was a dark enough samurai film, for whatever reason, then The Sword of Doom has probably got your back. The protagonist here is basically like a villain from a slasher series who’s been dropped into a samurai/historical story, because he rampages around and keeps taking on increasingly violent jobs, spiraling more out of control the more people he kills.
He’s the central character, but he’s not even close to heroic at the start of the movie, and then he manages to get a bit worse with just about every passing scene. So, The Sword of Doom is kind of a nightmare, tracking a psychological descent that goes further and further downward very rapidly, but as a portrait of a dangerous mind attached to a body that’s also a killing machine, it is compelling and successfully tense throughout.
1
‘Inception’ (2010)
So directly a psychological action movie that it honestly inspired this whole ranking, it feels necessary to put Inception in the #1 spot here. This is something of an action/adventure movie, but so much of the action and adventuring takes place inside a person’s mind, with a team assembling to pull off a mind heist, basically, traveling through layers of dreams to implant an idea in that person’s mind.
Inception sees Christopher Nolan doing his thing for sure, but doing it extremely well, and in a manner that feels a little brainier than your average action movie, but not so dense or complicated that you’ll stop having any kind of fun, or otherwise find yourself checking out. There’s a good balance here, and it’s matched by some exceptional pacing, with almost 2.5 hours flying right by every time.
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