10 Best Christmas Action Movies, Ranked

Just about any movie can be a hybrid Christmas movie. There have been Christmas comedies, Christmas dramas, Christmas mysteries, Christmas sci-fi, Christmas Westerns, even Christmas horror. And of course, there have been Christmas action movies — some that even share an additional subgenre from that previous list.

We're not here to dwell on the debates about movies that people can't agree on being Christmas movies, though we will definitely need to touch on that topic a bit here and there. Instead, we're going to primarily operate under the assumption that there aren't extremely rigid guidelines as to what can or can't be a Christmas film. Just as the holiday itself has become extremely fluid and can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, so too can a movie that falls under the Christmas movie umbrella. It's a holiday with conflicted origins, whose true meaning is often disputed. That leaves it open for people to project their own meaning onto the season and celebrate it however they want — up to and including the media they make a part of their annual Christmas traditions. 

So with that in mind, from the obvious movies that unfortunately still have to justify their inclusion in the Christmas movie pantheon 30-plus years on, to lesser-known and/or more recent entries, here are the best options for when you want your Christmas movie egg nog spiked with fight scenes, chases, and explosions.

If there is an action director out there who has absolutely nothing to prove, it is the legendary John Woo. The highly influential filmmaker changed the action movie genre forever with pioneering classics like "Hard Boiled" and "The Killer," not to mention the unhinged cult classic "Face/Off." Woo mostly stepped away from Hollywood after scoring several big hits in the 1990s, returning to helm movies in his native China for most of the 2000s and 2010s. But he came back in a big way in 2023 with "Silent Night."

The title isn't just a reference to the movie's Christmas setting — and the gaudy reindeer ugly sweater that protagonist Brian Godlock ("Suicide Squad" star Joel Kinnaman) wears during the first big fight scene — but the fact that the hero loses his ability to speak during the gang attack where his son is murdered. Of course, you don't need a voice to extract violent, bloody, John Woo-staged revenge, and that's what "Silent Night" is for much of its runtime. Nobody needs to say anything when an expertly-choreographed, slow-mo ballet of flips, bullets, explosions, and plummeting corpses is going on, all under the red and green lights of Christmas. Ads for "Silent Night" were heavy on quotes from critics proclaiming that John Woo was back, and it's hard to think of a better gift for action movie fans than that. 

The oldest film on this list, 1978's "The Silent Partner" might fall more into cult classic territory in the U.S. but was a big hit in its native Canada. The action thriller stars Elliott Gould as a mall bank clerk named Miles Cullen who discovers that the mall Santa (Christopher Plummer) is going to rob the bank. Miles decides to secretly help himself to a bunch of the bank's cash first, knowing that he can just blame it on the soon-to-be thief. The Santa puts two and two together when he watches a news report on the robbery, realizing that the amount that was reported to have been stolen is far more than he actually walked off with.

In a rave review, Roger Ebert described "The Silent Partner" as "a thriller that is not only intelligently and well acted and very scary, but also has the most audaciously clockwork plot I've seen in a long time." It later won six Canadian Film Awards, including best picture and best director for Daryl Duke. Although not quite as fun as Christmas-based action movies often tend to be, "The Silent Partner" is still an excellent watch for the season. And as a bonus, it also features an early film appearance by future holiday movie MVP John Candy. 

It would have been easy to write off 2022's "Violent Night" as the latest in a long line of cheesy Santa-based horror movies, but you should never judge a film by its cover — or, to modernize that phrase, by its thumbnail image. In fact, "Violent Night" was first pitched as "Die Hard" with Santa. The action comedy stars David Harbour as a version of Santa Claus that isn't afraid to get physical on anyone who gets in the way of Christmas cheer. In this case, it's someone who has taken a family hostage on Christmas Eve — someone who fittingly goes by the name Mr. Scrooge (John Leguizamo).

The fact that Santa's weapon of choice against Mr. Scrooge and his festively-named henchmen is a sledgehammer should tell you all you need to know about the kind of violence that ensues. Trudy (Leah Brady), the youngest member of the kidnapped family, also helps Santa by setting up various traps. We don't need to tell you what other Christmas classic that is likely a tribute to. But unlike that film, and despite children being in the cast, "Violent Night" earns every bit of its R rating. It's the type of Christmas movie that needs to wait until visions of sugar plums are dancing in the kids' heads before the parents can watch it. 

For all the details that make "Die Hard" a Christmas movie, its first sequel does admittedly veer a bit away from the holiday road. Christmas is definitely much more of a background element in 1990's "Die Hard 2" than it was for the original "Die Hard," even if the movie still makes it very clear that it takes place at Christmas time. Once again, John McClane (Bruce Willis) is traveling to be with his wife for the holidays — who, by the way, still has the very festive name of Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) — which sets the entire plot in motion. The fact that this time it's to actually spend Christmas together as a happily married couple, rather than John trying to win back the wife from whom he was separated in the original, gives things a slightly cozier yuletide vibe.

Of course, all that coziness goes out the window when John discovers that the airport he's waiting at just happens to have been taken over by terrorists. What follows is a much louder and more bombastic action flick than the more deliberately-paced, close quarters-set original. The general consensus is that the third "Die Hard" movie, "Die Hard with a Vengeance," is the best of the sequels. But "Die Hard 2" is still a solid entry, and as for its relevance to this list, it marks the last time the franchise used Christmas as a backdrop or featured Holly as an on-screen character. 

Unless you live in Finland, France, or Norway — or happened to be at Austin's Fantastic Fest in 2010 — then you missed the theatrical run of "Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale" and may not even be aware it exists. The movie with arguably the most hyphenates on this list — as a Christmas-fantasy-horror-black comedy — "Rare Exports" isn't for everyone, but it's quite the treat for anyone who is down for what the movie brings to the holiday table.

In the universe of the movie, Santa is not only real, but is evil and tortures children. Fortunately, he is dead — or so it is thought, until his tomb is plundered and hundreds of reindeer are subsequently slaughtered. We don't want to give too much away, as this is the type of movie that's best enjoyed when you go in as fresh as possible. Just know that it's not for the littlest members of the household but probably okay for most older kids, or at least those that can handle some frights. It's a true hidden gem among not just holiday movies but 21st century movies in general. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, with an impressive 89% "certified fresh" rating, calls the movie "an unexpectedly delightful crossbreed of deadpan comedy and Christmas horror."

It was tough to not have Shane Black dominate this list. After all, the writer-director has basically built his entire career out of action movies set in and around the Christmas season. He even added "Iron Man 3" to the pantheon of movies you didn't realize were secret Christmas movies when he directed and co-wrote the MCU sequel. But we would have been remiss to arbitrarily limit his presence on this list to just a single movie — the most obvious one — and feel that "The Long Kiss Goodnight" justifies its existence as Black's runner-up best Christmas action movie.

Slightly reminiscent of "The Bourne Identity" — which was not yet a movie in 1996 but had already long since been part of a book series — "The Long Kiss Goodnight" stars Geena Davis as a woman who suffers from amnesia but has spent the last eight years building a nice, quiet, mild-mannered life. While celebrating Christmas with her family, she gets into a car accident and suffers a concussion, after which she suddenly discovers that she posses formidable skills with a knife. She then learns that she's also adept at hand-to-hand combat when someone attacks her and her family at their home. 

Also starring Samuel L. Jackson, Brian Cox, and David Morse, "The Long Kiss Goodnight" is a Shane Black movie through and through — with whip-smart dialogue, well-developed characters who have great chemistry with one another, and most importantly of all, the Christmas season being ever-present throughout. 

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service," the sixth official James Bond film, has a complicated legacy. It was saddled with being the first entry without original star Sean Connery, and that alone started it off on a bad foot with a lot of fans. That it was George Lazenby's only turn in the role — with no actor before or since only playing 007 once before stepping away — gave the movie an even more unusual flavor. It spent years being left out of lists of the best Bond movies, though it was eventually reappraised and is now often considered among the franchise's finest. On our own list of every James Bond movie ranked worst to best, we put "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in the top 10, ahead of several Connery efforts. 

There's yet another aspect of 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" that is contentious, and that is its place as a Christmas movie. As far as we're concerned, it not only deserves that distinction, but it's one of the best of the Christmas action movie subgenre. The themes of the movie are very much of the season as they center around Bond actually falling in love — something we didn't see before and have rarely seen since — but it's also made clear that the Christmas holiday happens during the events of the film. 

In one memorable scene, Bond regains consciousness after getting knocked out and brought to the villain's hideout, with the first thing he sees being a large, ornately decorated Christmas tree. When iconic Bond antagonist Blofeld (Telly Savalas) sees that Bond is awake, he delivers the line "Merry Christmas, 007." 

On the off chance that you didn't know which obvious Shane Black Christmas action movie we were previously alluding to, it's his 1987 breakthrough film "Lethal Weapon." He was not yet directing his own movies — he wouldn't do that until 2005's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" — but "Lethal Weapon" was his screenwriting debut. And what a debut it was, announcing that the latest filmmaker to watch had arrived in Hollywood with a yuletide bang.

In all the hubbub over whether "Die Hard" is actually a Christmas movie, a growing contingent of people have joined the discourse to say that "Lethal Weapon" is the picture that should be crowned the Christmas action movie king. In fact, some have even called it the perfect Christmas movie, period. Whether you agree with that strong of an assessment or not, there's no denying how heavily the holidays play into the debut outing of unlikely cop partners Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). 

Film School Rejects points out that the events of the movie "[are] a reminder that we shouldn't take what we have for granted, and that's what Christmas is all about." And beyond all the fun action scenes bathed in Christmas colors, there's also the fact that "Lethal Weapon" is very much about how depressing the holidays can be, especially if you lose someone you love during the season. 

For someone who is often associated with the macabre, filmmaker Tim Burton sure does seem to be a pretty big fan of Christmas. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is the most blatant proof of this, but there are other examples as well. Christmas looms large over "Edward Scissorhands," both in terms of the holiday taking place during the events of the movie and Edward himself literally creating a white Christmas for the local townsfolk. But Burton also beat Shane Black to the punch by 21 years when he brought Christmas into a comic book character's cinematic universe after it hadn't been there before. 

After helping to lay the foundation for modern comic book films as we still know them today with 1989's "Batman," Burton was talked into doing a sequel. He agreed, but in doing so, he made the most anti-franchise, anti-superhero movie he could think of — while also staying true to the characters therein — with 1992's "Batman Returns." 

He also injected a heaping helping of dark Christmas cheer into the proceedings, decorating his exaggerated art deco vision of Gotham with equally over-the-top holiday décor. But it's not just window dressing; in fact, one of the movie's most pivotal scenes — Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) and Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) simultaneously discovering one another's dual identities as Batman and Catwoman, respectively — comes about thanks to a little help from the Christmas tradition of kissing under the mistletoe. 

While everyone has already picked their sides pretty firmly on whether or not "Die Hard" is a true Christmas movie, it is still a debate that people love to have. If the movie in question wasn't very remarkable on its own, the discussion wouldn't even matter. But the fact that "Die Hard" just happens to be one of the best action movies of all time, not to mention that it helped to launch the career of Bruce Willis as one of the all-time great Hollywood action heroes, is a big part of why people love to talk about it all these decades later — no matter what the discussion entails.

The movie opens with a Christmas song. It takes place on Christmas Eve, during an office Christmas party. The reason that John McClane (Bruce Willis) is at that party in the first place is that he figures the holiday season is the perfect time to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) — what screams Christmas movie more than a love rekindled? The list goes on and on. It's a nearly-perfect action movie that rarely goes more than a few minutes without mentioning and/or showing Christmas, often directly so. It's not only very much a Christmas action movie, but it's the best Christmas action movie of all time. Welcome to the party, pal.