Idris Elba’s Best Crime Thrillers, Ranked

Idris Elba has worked his way to the top of Hollywood, becoming one of the most recognizable and respected actors in the business. After starring in a slew of supporting roles in British television shows throughout the ’90s and early ’00s, his big break came when he was cast as Stringer Bell in the HBO drama series The Wire in 2002. The show was a huge hit, and his performance received widespread critical acclaim. Since then, he has gone from height to height—his films have grossed over $9.8 billion at the global box office, and he has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and six Emmy Awards.

He has starred in a vast variety of movies spanning multiple genres and styles, from dramas like Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom to action movies like Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and even animated voice work in the likes of Zootopia and the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. This diversity and range is testament to his talent. Here, though, we’re focusing on his movies that appeal to those who love the suspense and tension found in a good thriller and a captivating crime story.

Here is every crime thriller starring Idris Elba, ranked.

7

‘The Gunman’ (2015)

The Gunman sees a retired special forces soldier and black-ops mercenary, played by Sean Penn, becoming the target of waves of hitmen sent by a powerful multinational security firm with a grudge, forcing him to dust off the old firearms and fight to survive. Directed by Pierre Morel, who had taken the ‘aging badass’ genre to new heights with the blockbuster hit Taken, The Gunman sees Morel retreading old ground with diminishing returns.

‘The Gunman’ Was a Misfire

A rote regurgitation of previous, better movies, The Gunman was skewered by critics, with many feeling Sean Penn lacked the commanding presence that made Liam Neeson so convincing in Taken. Elsewhere, it was noted that the talented cast of supporting actors—including Ray Winstone, Javier Bardem, Mark Rylance, and Idris Elba—were not fully utilized and were instead relegated to two-dimensional clichés. Elba’s talents, in particular, feel squandered playing a mysterious Interpol agent who occasionally appears and acts merely as a vague exposition device before disappearing again.

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6

‘No Good Deed’ (2014)

No Good Deed

Release Date

September 10, 2014

Runtime

84 Minutes

Director

Sam Miller

Idris Elba plays a smooth-talking but highly dangerous escaped convict who charms his way into a woman’s house during a storm in No Good Deed. Things quickly escalate as his violent nature and ulterior motives come to light, and the woman is forced to fight for her and her children’s survival.

‘No Good Deed’ Was Lambasted by Critics

Elba is a convincing psychopath; Taraji P. Henson portrays the desperate mother with conviction, and the movie feels somewhat suspenseful to start with. But ultimately, it all falls flat, descending into a dull, derivative, and generally uninspired mess. The movie was a moderate box office success but was lambasted by critics, scoring a meager 13% on Rotten Tomatoes and sitting among the very worst of Elba’s output.

5

‘Takers’ (2010)

Takers

Release Date

August 26, 2010

Runtime

107 Minutes

Stop me if you’ve heard this before—a group of professional bank robbers are pulled into one last job and find themselves pitted against a hard-boiled detective and his fresh-faced partner. Takers takes this classic trope and runs with it, but unfortunately goes nowhere we haven’t seen countless times before. As a result, this heist-by-numbers film was met with poor critical feedback and a lackluster box office performance.

‘Takers’ Is a Fun but Derivative Heist-by-Numbers

Takers features a stellar cast of immense talent, including the likes of Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Jay Hernandez, Michael Ealy, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen, and Idris Elba. But unfortunately, not even a cast of this caliber was able to save the movie from mediocrity or counter its clichéd script, two-dimensional characters, and flagrantly derivative plot.

4

‘Bastille Day’ (2016)

Bastille Day

Release Date

April 22, 2016

Runtime

92 minutes

Director

James Watkins

Idris Elba plays Sean Briar, a gun-toting, one-man wrecking crew who works for the CIA but has gone rogue after an American pickpocket is wrongly accused of a heinous terrorist attack in Paris. He smashes through doors, speeds through cities, and fights his way through hordes of ‘baddies’ to uncover the truth behind the attack and bring the real conspirators to justice. Combining political conspiracy, misdirection, and mystery with explosive shootouts, Bastille Day is a fairly enjoyable ride but brings little to the already crowded action thriller genre.

Elba Is a Saving Grace

Offering familiar tropes without much innovation, Bastille Day failed to impress critics. But despite mixed reviews, it was almost unanimously agreed that Elba was a delight to watch in what was possibly his most action-oriented role to date—a side to him we’ve seen him excel in since joining the MCU and The Suicide Squad.

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3

‘Sorted’ (2000)

When a man travels down to London following the death of his brother, he discovers that he had fallen in with a crowd of hard-partying, all-night ravers prior to his passing. Suspecting foul play, he befriends the group and is drawn into their hedonistic world as he tries to uncover the truth about his brother’s suspicious death.

Elba Plays a Minor Role in This Smart British Thriller

Masterfully capturing the vibrant, chaotic, and transformative nature of the late-’90s British rave scene, Sorted is a solid thriller that doesn’t need to rely on cliché gangster stereotypes and gunfights, delivering one of the genre’s most underrated gems. Stylish, seductive, and subversive, Sorted is a sound addition to Elba’s catalogue and could quite easily have appeared higher on this list had it not been for the fact that he only appears briefly in a minor role.

2

‘Luther: The Fallen Sun’ (2023)

Inspired by the likes of Columbo and Sherlock Holmes, with added grit, Luther is a critically acclaimed British psychological crime thriller television series starring Idris Elba as DCI John Luther. After five gripping seasons running from 2010 to 2019, in which viewers witnessed Luther battle his own demons as he solved countless dark, twisted, and complex crimes, it felt like the curtains had finally been drawn on the popular character.

‘Luther’ Is Based on One of the UK’s Greatest Crime Shows

It turns out there would be one last opportunity for a final bow (or a potential film franchise?)—the 2023 Netflix movie Luther: The Fallen Sun. It finds the brilliant-minded detective imprisoned for various infractions and crimes he had committed during his career, leaving him unable to protect a child from a sadistic serial killer after promising the mother he would. Racked with guilt and desperate to take the killer down, he orchestrates his escape and embarks on a deadly game of cat and mouse.

1

‘RocknRolla’ (2008)

RocknRolla

Release Date

September 5, 2008

Runtime

114 minutes

Starring some of the UK’s brightest stars, including Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandiwe Newton, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, and Idris Elba, RocknRolla is a darkly comic crime thriller directed by Guy Ritchie. Still riding high off the success of cult classics Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Ritchie throws viewers back into a similar world of gangsters, deception, guns, drugs, visual storytelling, wonderful needle drops, and witty, profanity-filled dialogue.

‘RocknRolla’ Features a Stellar Cast of Some of the UK’s Finest Actors

While not as universally acclaimed as his aforementioned earlier works, RocknRolla received praise for its strong cast performances—including Idris Elba, who plays a loyal and smooth-talking member of the criminal One Two gang, exuding his now-trademark suaveness. The movie is a big, bold, brash crime caper that’s fun, thrilling, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.