We are well over halfway through this decade, which means that many film watchers are starting to look back at all the films released to take stock. There have been plenty of great films and a few masterpieces in the 2020s, with more likely to come. Every genre has gotten its fair share of new classics, and the action genre has been particularly potent. There have been installments in franchises new and old, bold originals, and everything in between. They haven’t all been perfect, but many have been good, some great, and a select few are absolute masterpieces. Opinions will always vary on what films can be classified as true masterpieces, with debate still surrounding awesome action movies from this decade like Furiosa, John Wick: Chapter 4, and Tenet. While time may tell on those movies, and a handful of others, at least five action movies from the 2020s can currently be certified as masterpieces.

Every action fan has their favorite era of movies, whether it’s the bombastic blockbusters of the ’80s, their high-concept cousins of the ’90s, or the grounded and gritty efforts of the 2000s. There have already been a few apparent trends for the 2020s, but the action genre has shown a lot of diversity so far, and the five action masterpieces of the decade offer a wonderful cross-section of it. We’ve got a superhero sequel, an Indian epic, and no less than two Best Picture winners. Add to those one of the best franchise legacy sequels ever made, and there’s no doubting that these five films represent the best of the best of the action genre for the 2020s so far. When this decade has come to a close, there’s no doubt that these action movies will be counted as true masterpieces.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (2022)

The decade got off to a slow start due to COVID. The pandemic pushed the releases of many movies and caused others to struggle at the box office when it finally opened back up. There were several movies credited with bringing audiences back to theaters, but the big blockbuster that truly got butts back in seats was the long-awaited legacy sequel <em>Top Gun: Maverick</em>. While the Tony Scott-directed original is certainly a favorite for some action fans, it could hardly be considered one of the best of the ’80s or even in the careers of Scott or mega-star Tom Cruise. This sequel, helmed by Joseph Kosinski, rose higher and faster than its predecessor, thanks to some astonishing aerial action sequences. Those sequences, which were shot with the actors in real jets in the sky, gave audiences all the action they’d been craving, and the young cast proved proper copilots to Cruise, who was still firmly in the pilot seat.

Picking up decades later, the film finds Maverick (Cruise) still feeling the need for speed and pushing the buttons of his superiors with his devil-may-care attitude and reckless flaunting of safety measures. That gets him a one-way ticket back to the Top Gun flight school, now to serve as an instructor for young blood cadets, including Rooster (Miles Teller), the son of the first film’s ill-fated Goose (Anthony Edwards), and Hangman (Glen Powell), who clearly takes after the antagonistic Iceman (Val Kilmer). Kilmer himself shows up for a surprisingly emotional cameo that sees once-bitter rivals embrace as old friends. While the action is superlative, it’s scenes like that between Maverick and Iceman that epitomize this legacy sequel’s effectiveness, which pays homage to what came before but isn’t afraid to chart its own flight path. Top Gun: Maverick succeeds where so many belated sequels failed by bringing in a solid new cast of characters while tinging itself with nostalgia without ever basking fully in its glow and featuring action that will pin you to your seat.

‘RRR’ (2022)

While Hollywood was patting itself on the back for remembering how to make great sequels, out of India came a film that showed everyone in America that the country was still outpacing us with original filmmaking. RRR, a Telugu-language historical epic with musical numbers and characters that rival superheroes for their athleticism, took international audiences by force with its blistering action set pieces. Directed by S.S. Rajamouli, who has been making films for two decades including the two-part action epic Baahubali, this film is a non-stop thrill ride through its period setting. It combines history with folklore and wraps it in an over-the-top action style that makes it one of the most original action masterpieces of the 2020s or any other decade.

Set in India in the early twentieth century during British colonial rule, this film follows two fictionalized versions of revolutionaries. Tribal guardian Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) is brought into action when a young girl is taken prisoner by a callous British Governor and his wife who enlist Imperial Officer Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) to help fight him off. The two go from adversaries to allies as they join forces to take down an oppressive regime in some of the most kinetic and riveting action sequences to come out of any country. RRR put Hollywood on notice and made international stars out of its creative team while paving the way for more Telugu cinema and other Indian action masterpieces to break through to Western audiences.

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2022)

The year 2022 was a banger year for action movies perhaps due to COVID lockdown or tumultuous politics leading to a flourish of creative energy. Even that year’s big Oscar winner was the martial arts extravaganza Everything Everywhere All at Once. Though Top Gun: Maverick was also nominated for Best Picture, and RRR should have been, it was this wickedly entertaining multiversal action-comedy from Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert that took home the gold. It’s truly one of the weirdest films ever to win Best Picture but richly deserved the award for its elaborate visuals, clever script, fantastic performances and wild action sequences. It made history with its award wins and proved that action movies don’t have to cater to more pretentious tastes in order to receive accolades.

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is a laundromat owner who struggles to balance her deteriorating marriage, estranged relationship with her daughter, and an IRS audit. Things get multitudes more complicated when she discovers that many parallel universes exist and she may be key to saving all from an alternate supervillain version of her daughter. That overloaded premise only scratches the surface of oddities existing in many different realities within this film. An Oscar-winning Yeoh is as dynamic a protagonist as ever supported by her fellow Oscar winners including Jamie Lee Curtis as a vindictive IRS agent and Ke Huy Quan as Evelyn’s husband. The film’s balls-to-the-wall absurdist approach isn’t for everyone, but it’s packed with more ideas in single scenes than many blander action films have across their entire runtime.

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ (2023)

Everything Everywhere All at Once would not be first film utilizing multiverse concept which had already broken through into mainstream several years earlier in animated action masterpieceSpider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. That invigorating comic book movie’s sequel,Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, expanded exponentially on its predecessor’s bold visual style and universe-jumping action making itthe best superhero action movie of 2020s. Introducing hundreds of new Spider-Heroes into its universe,Across The Spider-Versebroadened creative possibilities for what a Spider-Man movie could be. It opened up numerous new avenues for potential future exploration while a third film is on its way along with live-actionSpider-Noir streaming series there’s no telling where else franchise could go from here.