Summary

• Jason Statham excels in playing strong action heroes, showcasing incredible feats of strength and resilience in intense and thrilling roles.
• Statham’s characters vary from everyday tough guys to ex-special forces soldiers, hitmen, and mercenaries, each bringing a unique level of strength and skill to the screen.
• Whether he’s breaking rules as a cop, seeking vengeance as an ex-soldier, or battling giant sharks, Statham consistently delivers top-notch performances in action-packed spectacles.

Jason Statham has made a name for himself as one of today’s biggest action stars and has played countless incredibly strong characters. With a tough-guy reputation and a passion for intense action sequences, Statham’s most notable characters have pushed the boundaries of human resilience and often passed the threshold into a pure superhuman. This has always included incredible spectacles to witness. Whether Statham’s playing an everyday person or a ruthless killing machine, he has consistently brought his A-game to all his action hero roles.

The best Statham action movies typically consist of intense hand-to-hand combat, thrilling chase scenes, and over-the-top violent confrontations. While this meant many of Statham’s best heroes utilized brute force to achieve their aims, this was not the only kind of strength, as other heroes relied on intellect, stealth, and weapon skills to save the day. Statham has proved himself a major action star, and looking back on his best heroes, he’s played some truly strong characters.

15 Detective Sergeant Tom Brant

Blitz (2011)

Jason Statham played the no-nonsense cop Tom Brant in the enjoyable crime thriller Blitz. Brant was not afraid to break the rules and showcase his violent side in his pursuit of the deranged cop killing serial killer Barry “Blitz” Weiss, played by Aidan Gillen, in a particularly menacing performance. While this made for some exciting entertainment, even if the story was a little bit by the numbers, the truth was that Brant lacked the superhuman feats of strength that categorized Staham’s strongest characters and, at his core, was just a regular guy.

14 Joseph Smith

Hummingbird (2013)

Hummingbird capitalized on Jason Statham’s tough-guy reputation as he played the haunted, alcoholic ex-special forces soldier Joseph Smith. With a tendency toward violent behavior, Joseph infiltrated the world of organized crime and exacted his vengeance on a murderous city boy who had been beating and killing prostitutes. Once again, Statham’s character had a lot of sinister energy and was not shy of getting into a fight, yet he still remained in the realms of reality in terms of his strength and could easily be defeated by other Statham movie characters.

Hummingbird
was released under the title
Redemption
in the United States.

13 Nick Wild

Wild Card (2015)

Wild Card had all the elements of a classic Jason Statham action movie, yet it still managed to flop at the box office and grossed just $6.7 million against its $30 million budget (via Box Office Mojo.) Statham played Nick Wild, a troubled Las Vegas bodyguard with lethal skills who got in hot water with the mob due to his gambling addiction. While Nick has serious combat skills and had no problem taking out a litany of henchmen and criminals, Wild still paled in comparison to other, far more impressive Statham action heroes.

12 Phil Broker

Homefront (2013)

A father who will do anything in his power to protect his daughter should never be underestimated, and this was proven by Jason Statham’s performance as Phil Broker in Homefront. Directed by Gary Fleder and written by Sylvester Stallone, Homefront didn’t break any new ground regarding action thrillers, yet Statham still proved the fortitude of his ex-DEA character. As a sinister meth lord put Broker’s daughter in the firing line, Statham unleashed hell and left a horde of beaten bodies in his wake.

11 Danny Bryce

Killer Elite (2011)

The action thriller Killer Elite was a star-studded heart racer that featured not just Jason Statham but also other legendary performers such as Clive Owen and Robert De Niro. As the former mercenary Danny Bryce, Statham found himself in a killer-for-hire situation as he sought to protect his mentor and take out three former SAS troopers. In Killer Elite, Statham showcased skills that were more in line with his most outrageous characters, as his incredible feats of strength saw him leaping from buildings, jumping through glass windows, and easily surviving massive explosions.

10 Orson Fortune

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)

The action comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre utilized Jason Statham’s often underexploited comedic talent, and it was a treat to watch him play opposite stars like Aubrey Plaza and Hugh Grant. Statham played Orson Fortune, a spy orchestrating a plot to retrieve a stolen high-tech device before an arms dealer sold it to the highest bidder. With plenty of combat and shooting, there’s a sneaking feeling that the true limits of Orson Fortune’s skills were never fully seen, as he consistently surprised viewers with his strength and resilience.

9 Patrick Hill

Wrath of Man (2021)

Jason Statham made his acting debut in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and it’s been so thrilling to watch Statham and Ritchie reunite over the years. The pair’s 2021 collaboration Wrath of Man signaled the arrival of yet another unstoppable Statham action hero as he played Patrick Hill, simply known as ‘H,’ thwarting a robbery and facing off against criminals. Wrath of Man was a fun, action-packed spectacle with an impressively resilient protagonist, but as a film, it failed to live up to either Ritchie or Statham’s best work.

8 Arthur Bishop

The Mechanic (2011)

In The Mechanic, Jason Statham played the professional hitman Arthur Bishop, who specialized in making his killings look like accidents. With a serious level of skill, the strength of Bishop’s character was not in brute force alone, as he had to use cunning and clever tactics to make his jobs look more like unfortunate mishaps or suicides rather than outright murder. This tendency to leave no trace and make his escape without being detected set Bishop apart from other run-and-gun-style action heroes that Statham often played.

7 Frank Martin

The Transporter (2002)

In the first installment of the long-running franchise, The Transporter, Jason Statham plays the highly skilled driver Frank Martin, who follows three strict rules: Never change the deal, no names, and never open the package. Once Frank broke his rules, all hell was unleashed, and he found himself in the midst of a human trafficking plot. With precision, efficiency, and the ability to handle high-pressure situations, Frank had the calm composure and brute strength needed to head one of Statham’s most notable franchises.

6 Jonas Taylor

The Meg (2018)

As Jonas Taylor in The Meg franchise, Jason Statham played one of his most fascinating and fearless characters. As a deep-sea diver specializing in rescue missions, Jonas had no issue putting himself in perilous situations and turned out to be the perfect man to face against a megalodon, a giant prehistoric shark species previously believed to be extinct. While Jonas had all the physical characteristics of a typical Statham action hero, his knowledge and appreciation for marine biology meant his intellect was also one of his greatest strengths.

5 Adam Clay

The Beekeeper (2024)

Jason Statham’s role as Adam Clay in The Beekeeper brought together everything that was great about Statham’s action movies. From ruthlessly taking out rooms full of phishing scammers to catapulting his enemy off a bridge like he was nothing, The Beekeeper was full of great action scenes. Statham played an unstoppable killer machine with a personal vendetta in The Beekeeper, although the film left things open for a sequel, and it felt Clay had the potential to take things even further in a follow-up.

4 Luke Wright

Safe (2012)

As an ex-cop, former cage fighter, and secret assassin, Luke Wright from Boaz Yakin’s action-thriller Safe was everything audiences could have asked for from a Jason Statham action hero. Wright proved himself one of Statham’s most formidable heroes as he protected a genius child from the Russian mafia, Chinese Triads, and corrupt NYPD officers. From fist fights, shootouts, car chases, and ruthlessly taking down endless enemies, Wright may look like an everyday man on the surface, but his actions showcased strength far beyond normal expectations.

3 Lee Christmas

The Expendables (2010)

It’s almost unfair to compare The Expendables to most other Jason Statham action movies, as this franchise was packed to the rafters with some of the strongest heroes ever assembled on the big screen. Joined by action legends like Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, and Dolph Lundgren, Statham, as Lee Christmas, has proven himself one of the strongest members of Barney Ross’s unmatched team. From hand-to-hand combat to knife fights and even intense shootouts, Lee Christmas was one of the strongest characters Statham has ever played.

2 Deckard Shaw

Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

While Fast & Furious viewers were first introduced to Deckard Shaw as the sinister villain of Furious 7, like many characters in this long-running franchise, he later became a reluctant hero. This was especially the case in Hobbs & Shaw when he teamed up with his once sworn enemy, Luke Hobbs, played by Dwayne Johnson. The limits of Shaw’s strengths appeared to know no bounds as he utilized his skills as a former British Special Forces and MI6 agent to blow viewers away with his limitless driving, firearm, and fighting skills.

1 Chev Chelios

Crank (2006)

Perhaps more than any other action movie, Crank perfectly captured the look and feel of playing a video game as its high-intensity concept powerfully mimicked the Grand Theft Auto series. In the film, Jason Statham played Chev Chelios, a man injected with a poisoned drug, which meant he had to keep his adrenaline flowing constantly to keep himself alive. This meant that Chev was forced to be the strongest action hero Jason Statham had ever played. Chev could not let the intensity die down for even one second as he pursued over-the-top violence, excessive killing, and shocking levels of pure carnage.

Source: Box Office Mojo