Action fans have plenty to choose from on Amazon Prime Video. Among the thousands of selections available on Prime Video, there are many great action movies.

Action as a genre covers everything from big-budget blockbusters to scrappy independents. There is room for all kinds of storylines, from effects-heavy spectacle with explosions and car crashes to gritty close quarters combat. [The best action movies to watch now on Prime Video reflect that breadth. Here are three great selections that will get your heart racing and maybe even make you jump off the couch in excitement. For more recommendations, check out all the best new movies available for streaming right now.

"Mission: Christopher McQuarrie has become a key collaborator with star Tom Cruise, directing subsequent films in the franchise. He quickly showed he understood the format, combining a labyrinthine espionage plot with an astonishingly over-the-top action set piece that made the audience wonder if Cruise himself could have pulled off the stunts and survived.

These sets included IMF agent Ethan Hunt, played by Cruise, hanging off the side of a flying plane and infiltrating an undersea vault. McCarey incorporated elaborate and dangerous stunts into the winding spy story, bringing back characters played by Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, and Jeremy Renner in the previous "Mission: Impossible" films: Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Jeremy Renner revives the character he played in the previous "Mission: Impossible" film, while Rebecca Ferguson plays franchise mainstay Ilsa Faust. It's a thrilling introduction to a whole new "Mission: Impossible" era: a thrilling introduction to a new era of Mission: Impossible.

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"Isn't it fun!" Disgraced Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) famously yells to the crowd in this Oscar-winning epic. Ridley Scott's film immerses the audience in ancient Rome, even though it is based on little actual history, and pits the noble Maximus against a cunning usurper who killed his own father to take the throne.

Scott blends an early 00s Hollywood action epic with an old-fashioned sword-and-sandal saga, complete with gut-wrenching fight scenes and epic scale. As Maximus takes on all manner of foes in the gladiatorial arena in his quest for revenge, Crowe dominates the screen with a series of memorable and famous lines.

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This ridiculously funny revenge thriller is a classic example of what Jason Statham is particularly good at, taking down one bad guy after another with ruthless efficiency and a sense of humor. He plays a retired member of the Be Keepers, a secretive elite organization so powerful and dangerous that even the former CIA director (Jeremy Irons) fears them.

Adam Clay, played by Statham, is literally trying to live quietly as a beekeeper when a kindly old landlady (Phylicia Rashad) commits suicide after falling victim to an online scam. In a ridiculous but very satisfying barrage of fisticuffs and bee puns, Adam takes out everyone involved in the scam, right down to the self-important rich brothers (Josh Hutcherson) at the top.

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