14. Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear (2013)
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear is the sequel to the 2009 Ninja film. Shadow of a Tear follows Scott Adkins’s returning hero, Casey Bowman, who seeks revenge after his pregnant wife is murdered by a group of bandits. The film received mixed reviews from critics but proved generally popular among Adkins’s built-in fanbase. Shadow of a Tear did manage to outshine the original film in terms of quality but has yet to receive any word regarding another installment in the franchise.
12. Criminal (2016)
Criminal is an often forgotten action-thriller with a star-studded cast that includes Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, and many more big-name actors. Starring alongside this impressive cast is Scott Adkins, who portrays a CIA agent named Pete Greensleeves. Criminal failed to catch on with the general public, with critics complaining that the film was ultimately unimpressive and droll. Nevertheless, the film gave Adkins some much-necessary face time with several impressive stars that he had never worked with before in his career.
11. Savage Dog (2017)
A low-budget action movie set in the jungles of 1959 Indochina, Savage Dog was the point where Jesse Johnson began to rise up the ranks of straight-to-video action filmmakers. Adkins’ Ex-IRA soldier Martin Tillman is trying to leave his life of no-holds-barred fights behind. After the murder of his friend, Valentine, played by played by Keith David, Tillman embarks on one last mission of payback. Adkins and Johnson have become as exemplary a director-star package as Adkins has long been with Isaac Florentine, and Savage Dog squeezes everything it can get out of its limited budget, with explosions and gunplay one wouldn’t readily expect from an action movie of this scale.
10. Eliminators (2016)
2016’s Eliminators would pit Scott Adkins against Stu Bennett, know in the WWE world as Wade Barrett, and the movie is a curiously under-the-radar offering from WWE Studios. Adkins’ Former U.S. special agent Thomas McKenzie lives a quiet life in London under the Witness Protection Program but is forced to spring back into action when his former father-in-law hatches a plot of vengeance. The villain plot is a little more layered and personal than one might expect, which adds some emotional weight to the story of Eliminators. The action scenes are also top-of-the-line, with Adkins even trading fisticuffs with Aaron Gassor, known on YouTube as Ginger Ninja Trickster.
9. One Shot (2021)
Adkins’ third film with director James Nunn that unfolds in a single unbroken shot, One Shot follows him as Navy SEAL Jake Harris, arriving at a CIA prison to escort suspected terrorist Amir Mansur (Waleed Elgaldi) off site. When a group of insurgents storm the base to retrieve Mansur, government liaison Zoe Anderson (Ashley Green Khoury) realizes that he’s the only shot they have of stopping a dirty bomb from exploding in Washington D.C. With single-take action scenes leading to the rise of whole single shot movies like 1917, One Shot is one of the best to ever pull that gimmick off. One Shot is consistently gripping with the protagonist’s bottle-necked into an office while trying to hold the incoming attacks at bay.
7. Hard Target 2 (2016)
Landing a whopping 23 years after the 1993 Jean-Claude Van Damme original, 2016’s Hard Target 2 is a belated but very worthy straight-to-video sequel. After highly formidable MMA fighter Wes “The Jailor” Baylor ends up killing his best friend in the ring, his guilt haunts him as he competes in underground fights in Thailand, before the promise of a big fight leads to him being hunted through the jungles of Myanmar. Hard Target 2 oddly shares Boyka: Undisputed’s plot device of Adkins playing a skilled MMA fighter who accidentally kills an opponent, but their similarities end there. True to the original, the movie is packed with plenty of gun-fu and martial arts, the latter being a more prominent element this time. A great cat and mouse game in the jungle and another fantastic leading man turn from Scott Adkins, Hard Target 2 is a case of better late than never.
6. The Expendables 2 (2012)
This star-studded film is often considered the worst installment in the franchise, but certainly wasn’t lacking in the casting department. Plenty of big-name stars appeared in the action-heavy film, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Bruce Willis. Scott Adkins plays the henchman of the film’s antagonist, Jean Villain (Jean-Claude Van Damme). His character proved to be as equally skilled as Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), but he eventually met his death when he was punched straight into a helicopter’s tail rotor.
5. Ninja (2009)
After many supporting and villainous roles in the early 2000s, Scott Adkins graduated to leading man status with Ninja. The movie sees Adkins portray American Ninjutsu master Casey Bowman, who, along with his fellow student Namiko, played by Mika Hiji, must protect a chest of weaponry wielded by ninja warriors known as the Yoroi Bitsu from the bloodthirsty Masazuka, played by Tsutoshi Ihara. Ninja wasn’t quite as out-of-this-world as many had hoped. Its surprisingly brief run time makes it the rare case of an action movie being a little too fast-paced, and the final battle also blurs together otherwise excellent fight scenes. Nevertheless, Ninja is a fun modern update of the ’80s ninja movie craze, and showed that even when the Adkins-Florentine duo only earns a B, it’s what an A+ would look like for countless others.