Top 12 Jason Statham Movie Highlights

Daniel Day-Lewis has been acclaimed as one of the greatest actors in cinematic history, with three Academy Awards to his name, which is three more than his fellow English actor, Mr. Jason Statham. However, has Daniel Day-Lewis ever choked a man with a handful of casino chips, knocked out someone with a coin, killed a person with a spoon, or punched a man in the fist with his own head? Jason Statham accomplished all of these feats in the same film. There's simply no comparison.

Statham has emerged as one of the most reliable action superstars of the 21st century. It's thrilling, then, that he has a new movie out now, A Working Man. To celebrate this release, we're revisiting our favorite moments from Jason Statham's action-packed and humorous career. After all, until they start awarding Oscars for walking through fire, water-skiing blindfolded, or mastering the piano later in life, it's the least we can do.

The Best Jason Statham Movie Moments

13 Images12. Homefront

Ever get the feeling that Jason Statham's action heroes could take down multiple adversaries with their hands tied behind their back? In Homefront, Statham does just that, annihilating three opponents while restrained. It's a powerful way to start our list.

11. The Beekeeper

The only sting in The Beekeeper is Statham's leniency towards some scam call center employees, allowing them to escape before he destroys the building. We don't watch Jason Statham movies to see villains spared! Thankfully, he makes up for it by tracking down the call center manager, strapping him to a truck, and sending the vehicle off a bridge, dragging the villain behind it. Bumblebees may not be efficient flyers, but they're certainly better at it than a 1967 Ford F-100.

10. Wild Card

Returning to the film mentioned in the introduction, Wild Card underperformed at the box office despite being directed by the mastermind behind Con Air, featuring Stanley Tucci with hair, and showcasing some of Statham's best fight scenes. In the climactic battle, Statham takes down five armed goons with just a spoon and a butter knife, emerging unscathed. Jason Statham: the undisputed king of knifey spoony.

9. Death Race

Paul W.S. Anderson's video game adaptations may not have garnered much acclaim, but he deserves recognition for his slightly camp 2008 film, Death Race. It showcased a commitment to practical effects and crashing giant death trucks that rivaled Mad Max: Fury Road years before its release. Statham outsmarting the Juggernaut with the help of his rival is the film's highlight. The score: practical effects - one million, CGI - zero.

8. The Meg

No list of Jason Statham's most memorable moments would be complete without his epic battle against a megalodon in The Meg. After slicing the beast open from teeth to tail, Statham surfs the giant shark as it leaps into the air, impaling it with a spear through its eyeball. As the prehistoric creature falls back into the water, it's devoured by smaller sharks. It doesn't matter where the predator comes from; if it bleeds, you can kill it.

7. The Transporter

Sliding into the seventh spot is one of Statham's most iconic roles: Frank Martin in The Transporter. The 2002 original is packed with Hong Kong-style fight scenes directed by Corey Yuen. Choosing a single moment is tough, but the oil fight stands out. Frank greases himself up to slip through his enemies' grasp before using bicycle pedals and spinning heel kicks to turn the tables.

6. The Fate of the Furious

Deckard Shaw's transition from villain to hero in the Fast and the Furious series was initially controversial, but since Fast 9 revealed he didn't kill Han, we can enjoy his past actions guilt-free. A standout moment is the airborne rescue of Dom and Elena's baby in The Fate of the Furious, blending gun-fu with humor about poo. It's arguably Statham's finest moment in the saga.

5. The Expendables

Joining the ranks of Hollywood's toughest in Sylvester Stallone's Expendables series, Jason Statham's Lee Christmas has had many shining moments. From kicking Scott Adkins into a helicopter to firing a flare from a flying boat, his most memorable scene is the swift basketball court beatdown of his girlfriend's abusive ex and his cronies. Christmas may come once a year, but when he does, he delivers a swift 16-second thrashing. He's like Santa, but with a knife list instead of a nice list.

4. Spy

In the uproariously funny Spy, Jason Statham steals the show as Rick Ford, the unkillable secret agent who's immune to 179 poisons and makes his own suits. His best moment is regaling Melissa McCarthy with tales of his legendary toughness: "I drove a car off a freeway, on top of a train, while I was on fire. Not the car. I was on fire."

3. Transporter 2

You didn't think we'd forget the iconic barrel roll from Transporter 2, did you? With the calm of a cucumber, Frank Martin flips his Audi upside down to dislodge a bomb, displaying the confidence of a man brushing off a speck of dust. Tell your teachers: Physics are cancelled.

2. Crank: High Voltage

After surviving a fall from a helicopter, Chev Chelios' heart is stolen by Chinese gangsters in Crank 2. One of the film's wildest scenes is Chev's hallucination of a fight at a power station, where he imagines himself as a 100-foot-tall kaiju wearing a mask of his own head. This is a real movie that definitely happened.

1. Snatch

Topping our list is Snatch, where Jason Statham, in only his second film after Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, not only held his own against Hollywood heavyweights like Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro but also delivered some of the film's most quotable lines. Picking a favorite is tough, but Turkish's response to Tommy's gun in his trousers is a classic: "What is a gun doing in your trousers?" "For protection." "Protection from what? Zee Germans?" A safer bet than anything Brick Top suggests, at least.