Ahead of Washington’s next movie, one of his most iconic action roles has found its way back to the streaming charts. First released in 2014, and based on the 1980s TV series of the same name, ***The Equalizer ***shot onto global screens and immediately became a favorite action flick of many. Likened to the likes of John Wick and Reacher, this ass-kicking masterclass from a veteran like Washington remains one of his best roles of the past 20 years, and was followed by two sequels released in 2018 and 2023, respectively.
At the time of writing, The Equalizer is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Prime Video in the U.S., a list currently topped by the Mark Wahlberg and Paul Walter Hauser-led soccer comedy *Balls Up. *You shouldn’t miss out on this first outing for Washington as retired black-ups commander Robert McCall, who is joined in the movie by a captivating Chloë Grace Moretz, under the veteran directorial eye of Antoine Fuqua.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
As Washington’s 2014 effort takes over Prime Video, one of his best-ever movies has been reimagined as a hit Netflix series. Based on the same novel that inspired a 2004 smash starring Washington** **and a young Dakota Fanning, Man on Fire has returned as a seven-episode series starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, which is proving an instant hit with Netflix subscribers. Following a quick journey to the upper echelons of the streaming charts, it has now been revealed that Man on Fire has earned an impressive 11 million views in just four days since its premiere.
Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer is currently among the 10 most-streamed movies on Prime Video. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for all the latest streaming stories.
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Richard Wenk, Richard Lindheim, Michael Sloan