There’s not a lot separating the action and sci-fi movie genres anymore, especially when one of the top action flicks of the year had a sci-fi story about s sentient AI.
Can you remember the last time there was a true science fiction hit that wasn’t also a breakout action flick?
To save some time with these year-end lists, Watch With Us has combined these categories and chosen our picks for the five best action and sci-fi movies of 2025.
If you hurry, you may even have time to catch our third choice in theaters before its exit at the end of the week.
5. ‘Novocaine’ (2025)
The Boys is coming to an end in 2026, but Jack Quad seems to have a future as a movie star thanks to his turns in Novocaine and his other film on this list. The title of the film is also the nickname of Quaid’s character, Nathan Caine, a man who is physically incapable of feeling pain. However, we need to make it clear that Nathan’s body can be injured; he just doesn’t feel it.
After living a sheltered life as a bank executive, Nathan finally meets a woman, Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), who seems to get him. When bank robbers take Sherry hostage, Nathan takes it on himself to save her. Along the way, his body racks up some horrific injuries, which give this action comedy some dark humor. But it’s never enough to slow him down for long.
Novocaine is streaming on Prime Video.
4. ‘Predator: Badlands’ (2025)
There were two great Predator movies this year, both from director Dan Trachtenberg. The animated anthology Predator: Killer of Killers would have made this list if Predator: Badlands hadn’t been released a few months later. Trachtenberg did something that none of the other Predator films did before by shifting the focus of the story to one of the Predators.
Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi plays Dek, a Predator who has been exiled from his own people. After being marooned on a small planet, Dek realizes that he can reclaim his lost honor by slaying the apex predator of this world. To do that, Dek joins forces with Thia (Elle Fanning), a humanoid android from the Alien franchise’s Weyland-Yutani Corporation. To get off this rock, Del and Thea need each other, but that doesn’t mean they’re always on the same page.
Predator: Badlands is in theaters.
3. ‘Ballerina’ (2025)
Although John Wick: Chapter 5 has been announced as a project in development alongside a Donny Yen-led spinoff, Ballerina was all the Wick we may be getting for some time. Following her arresting cameo in No Time To Die, Ana de Armas demonstrated her action chops as Eve Macarro, a young woman who was raised in the Ruska Roma assassin clan that once welcomed John Wick (Keanu Reeves) in their ranks.
Reeves does have extended cameo appearances in this film, as do familiar faces Winston (Ian McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddick). But it’s largely Eve’s story as she looks for a way to get her revenge on the cult that murdered her father. Eve’s not only willing to take out anyone in her way, she’ll even burn her own clan down to the ground. The action choreography doesn’t hit the same heights as the John Wick movies, but it was still a lot better than most films.
Ballerina is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
2. ‘Companion’ (2025)
Jack Quaid’s character in Companion probably wishes he couldn’t feel any pain, especially once he alienates his girlfriend, Iris (Sophie Thatcher). She was incredibly devoted to Josh (Quaid) and only wanted to be happy with him… because that’s how she was programmed to behave. Iris thought she was living a fairy tale romance until a horrific vacation exposed her true nature.
This is one breakup that Iris isn’t going to take lying down. She may not have been built for violence, but Iris is quickly becoming adept at it. Once Iris starts thinking for herself, she becomes Josh’s worst nightmare.
Companion is streaming on HBO Max.
1. ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ (2025)
If this is the final Mission: Impossible movie for Tom Cruise, then he and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie went out on a high note. Each of the last few films in this series has escalated the stakes and the action, and it would be hard to get much bigger than Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
This film directly continues the storyline from the previous film, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, as Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team move Heaven and Earth to protect the world from the Entity, an AI being that could destroy everything humanity has built. Ex-thief Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Ethan’s former enemy, Paris (Pom Klementieff), join his rogue IMF squad alongside another newcomer, Theo Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis). Ethan will need all the help he can get as Cruise undertakes even wilder stunts that look fantastic on-camera.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is streaming on Paramount+.
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