5 Action Movie Trilogies Better Than John Wick, Ranked

Published Oct 13, 2026, 5:01 PM EDT Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more. Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor. He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre. To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net. The John Wick trilogy was one of the most popular franchises of the 21st century, and it stands as one of the best action movie franchises of all time. The first of the three films starts off with a shocking moment and then ends with carnage as John Wick hunts down everyone who hurt him and makes them pay. The second and third movies both increase the danger and action on every level. There have been four movies in the series now, but that original trilogy was perfection. While the John Wick franchise has become the gold standard for action movies, it played off better action movie trilogies that came out before it. Some of the previous trilogies offered similar stories about a bad man who ends up fighting the good fight. But there were others that took things in a different direction, putting police officers in the forefront, or, in some cases, superheroes. There is even one trilogy that plays out very similarly to John Wick, with a man who is betrayed by his own organization and uses the skills he has built over the years to make them pay for it. While John Wick is all about the group of assassins working under the High Table, a better action trilogy has a man trained by the U.S. government and then discarded when he learns too much. 5 The Original Die Hard Trilogy The 1980s saw the rise of the action movie franchises, and most of these had larger-than-life actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone gunning down bad guys with guns that were even bigger than them. That is when one movie tried to subvert expectations by putting the hero as a normal guy who is clearly outmatched. Bruce Willis changed everything about action movies with his role as John McClane in Die Hard. This led to a great trilogy that was soon followed by some lackluster follow-ups. However, the original three movies were all great in their own right. The first Die Hard is still a masterpiece and one of the best action movies ever made. The second tells the exact same story, but at an airport. Die Hard With a Vengeance changes everything by opening up the world and having McClane in a race against time, and it is one of the most underrated action movies of all time. 4 The Bourne Trilogy If there is one action movie trilogy that shares the most in common with John Wick, it is the Bourne trilogy of movies. Just like John Wick, The Bourne Identity opens with a man who was wronged by the organization he once served, and he sets out to right the wrongs. Just like John Wick, Jason Bourne can kill an entire room full of soldiers on his own, and his fighting skills are what sell the entire franchise. However, what really makes the Bourne movies stand out as better than the John Wick movies is that there is a deeper story here. While John Wick starts as a revenge flick and moves on to a story of Wick just trying to survive, the Bourne movies are all about espionage and the mysteries behind why the U.S. government would turn on one of its own. The franchise is a dark political thriller, and its fight scenes match up with John Wick well. 3 Indiana Jones Original Trilogy Credit: Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Released in the 1980s, the original Indiana Jones trilogy showed how an action-adventure franchise could work so well and remain so popular for years to come. Harrison Ford stars as Indiana Jones, a professor who also moonlights as a treasure hunter whose main goal is to get priceless artifacts to a museum rather than into the hands of evil men. In the first movie, his main enemy is the Nazis, which makes it easy to cheer for the hero. Steven Spielberg patterned the first movie's appearance on the classic adventure movies he watched in his childhood, and Raiders of the Lost Ark remains one of the best adventure movies ever made. While the second movie is polarizing, the third film in the trilogy remains an underappreciated masterpiece, with Sean Connery brilliant as Indy's dad. This action trilogy has stood the test of time, something John Wick has yet to prove it can accomplish. 2 The Dark Knight Trilogy It is hard to believe that a superhero trilogy could match up with the best action movie trilogies in history, but both genres exist in the same playground. When Christopher Nolan released The Dark Knight, it quickly became known as one of the best crime movies Hollywood had made in years, and that had nothing to do with its superhero aspects. Nolan actually made superhero movies important with this film. Honestly, the entire trilogy is great. Batman Begins is a perfect origin story, showing how Bruce Wayne trains to become Batman, and then The Dark Knight stands as one of the best comic book adaptations of all time, even after the Marvel Cinematic Universe changed how people see superheroes. The third movie is overlong, but it is still a fitting conclusion to the best superhero action trilogy ever made. 1 The Dollars Trilogy Action movie trilogies are not a new thing. In fact, go all the way back to the 1960s, and there is a Western trilogy that fits perfectly alongside the action trilogies of modern days. Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy has more in common with John Wick than it does with almost any other movie in the Western genre. Clint Eastwood plays the Man With No Name in the three movies, although it is three different characters. He is very similar to John Wick. He refuses to put up with ignorant people, and he can kill an entire room of bad guys without ever breaking a sweat. He is also not a good man, and like John Wick, he is an outlaw who is forced to use his guns to stay alive and achieve his goals in the end. While The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the most famous, all three films in the trilogy are masterpieces and match up to anything in the John Wick franchise.