Nobody 2 landed in movie theaters in August, 2025. While the ante has been upped in the action department, the film has divided audiences and critics. From the mind of John Wick creator Derek Kolstad, this sequel certainly delivers fight scenes akin with its iconic predecessors. However, many have said that the story is lacking.
The truth is, most action movies don’t set out to take audiences on a deep and reflective journey. Most simply want to take us on a thrill-ride of over the top violence and mayhem. If there’s one sub-genre of action that showcases this best, it’s the one man army genre. So, here’s our pick of 5 of the best entries to date, some hidden gems and others iconic trailblazers.
5. Death Sentence (2007)
Starting off this list with an underrated one man army movie, Death Sentence is a brutal yet more realistic take on revenge. Of course, with Saw‘s James Wan behind the camera, the blood and guts is prominent. However, the story underneath is much more grounded and believable. The film follows mild-mannered executive and family man Nick Hume (played by Kevin Bacon), who has his entire world shattered when his son is murdered in an horrific gang initiation slaying. When the killer walks free, Nick takes matters into his own hands but soon realizes he is way out of his depths and has now put the remaining members of his family in extreme peril.
As the movie moves along with a frenetic pace, Nick slowly but surely transforms into a killing machine as brutal as the ones who took his son’s life. But as things continue to escalate, he begins to question if revenge really ever ends. To that, Death Sentence is a one man army action movie with a little more soul than most, leaving viewers with more than just blood and gore running through their heads when the credits roll.
4. Nobody (2021)
With many saying that Nobody 2 fails to live up to the first movie, this just goes to show how exhilarating the first go around actually was. Sequels can be tricky, especially when you take into the consideration the “difficult second album” theory. This essentially means that an initial piece of work was so good that it feels impossible to top. The problem with this is, sometimes people go in expecting too much.
Nobody 2 actually delivers more carnage than the first film. However, where it flails is with the lack of intrigue. We already know what Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is capable of. Whereas in the first movie, a slow burn approach is utilized to lay out some breadcrumbs before all hell breaks lose. With the movie coming from the same screenwriter behind John Wick, audiences knew what they were getting themselves in for. However, the beauty was the casting of Odenkirk, a man far from the typical vision of an action hero. Yet, by the end, we are totally rooting for the everyman, or as the movie would say, the “nobody”.
3. Extraction (2020)
By the time Extraction landed on Netflix in 2020, the one man army sub-genre was in full swing thanks to the John Wick universe expanding year-by-year. While Chris Hemsworth had proven his action abilities with his role as Thor, this movie was much more challenging, seeing him take on the role of fearless black market mercenary Tyler Rake. Written by the Russo Brothers and directed by Sam Hargrave, Extraction is set in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and follows Rake as he is hired to extract a kidnapped teenager. However, he soon finds himself betrayed and hunted through the city’s streets.
What elevates Extraction beyond typical genre fare is Hargrave’s kinetic visual approach – frantic handheld camerawork throws viewers directly into the chaos, while the film’s now-legendary approximately 12-minute “one-shot” action sequence seamlessly flows from rooftops to car chases to brutal combat. This technical marvel creates unbroken tension that proves innovative cinematography can transform familiar one man army beats into something genuinely exhilarating, setting a new standard for the genre.
2. Taken (2008)
Taken not only marked a significant shift in Liam Neeson‘s career, but also in the way action movies were delivered. Movies like Clint Eastwood‘s Unforgiven had proven that audiences enjoy sinking their teeth into revenge stories where once tough men rise to the occasion in their later years. However, no one had done it with the ferocity of Neeson.
On the surface, Neeson’s character Bryan Mills looks like a mild-mannered citizen who is enjoying an early retirement. But as we all now know, he’s a man with a particular set of skills, skills that make him a nightmare for the bad guys of the world. This formula certainly laid the path for a string of revenge movies that followed. Films like Nobody and Nobody 2 probably wouldn’t have arrived without this trailblazing vehicle about a seemingly everyman who embarks on a chaotic spree of violence to protect his child. To that, Taken is easily one of the greatest one man army actions movies of all time.
1. John Wick (2014)
While John Wick may be the most obvious choice for the top spot, it goes without saying that this action-packed masterpiece took the one man army genre to unprecedented heights. Keanu Reeves‘ titular assassin didn’t just reinvent the revenge thriller – he elevated it into an art form. Over the top it may be, but the film knew exactly what it was and revelled in every beautifully choreographed moment of carnage. What makes the original John Wick (2014) so compelling is how grounded it remains compared to its increasingly far-fetched sequels.
At its core, this is a love story doubling as a brutal revenge flick that simply gets way out of hand. When Russian gangsters kill the puppy left to him by his deceased wife, John’s grief-fueled rampage feels both deeply personal and tragically relatable. The film’s genius lies in taking something as simple as a man mourning his wife and turning it into a ballet of violence that spawned an entire cinematic universe. John Wick didn’t just define the modern one man army film, it perfected it. And like the majority of the movies on this list, John Wick stands as a theatrical example of how far a man will go to protect or avenge those he cherishes most, a chord that will surely always strike a note with moviegoers. Timeless.
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