Jennifer Garner made an unusual turn as a mild-mannered woman who trains herself to be a merciless vigilante who hunts down the members of the gang responsible for her family’s deaths in the 2018 thriller Peppermint and it earned her a new wave of fans.
Fans of the plot who are looking for similar stories, or just other modern examples of revenge thrillers, should make sure to check out these 10 vigilante movies that are like Peppermint in many ways.
A Vigilante (2018)
Written and directed by Sarah Daggar-Nickson, this barebones vigilante drama stars Olivia Wilde as a woman who helps victims escape their abusers after narrowly escaping her own in the past.
Wilde is brutally believable in the lead role and A Vigilante proves itself to be an atmospheric experience that balances itself to be as emotional as it is thrilling.
Taken (2008)
Liam Neeson redefined his career and became a latter-day action god after a career spent gaining notoriety for his dramatic roles with this vigilante revenge thriller from Peppermint director Pierre Morrel.
Playing a former CIA operative whose daughter is kidnapped in Paris, Neeson’s ruthless rampage would make Taken a massive sleeper hit and spawn two sequels and even an origin story TV series for his character.
The Punisher (2004)
Thomas Jane took on the role of the infamous Marvel comics vigilante with this abnormally uncompromising superhero movie alongside John Travolta’s crime kingpin villain.
Though it would never produce a sequel, the 2004 version of The Punisher has its fans and Jane would reprise the role for a short film entitled The Punisher: Dirty Laundry which was written by Peppermint screenwriter Chad St. John.
The Equalizer (2014)
Denzel Washington takes the lead role in this modern update of the original 80s TV show as a former government fix-it man who discovers his true calling in retirement as a vigilante who helps the less fortunate as a much more violent kind of one-man A-team.
Taking on a Russian mafia boss, Washington takes like a fish to water with his steely-eyed yet charismatic hero and leaves a path of destruction that is sure to entertain a fan of Peppermint.
Death Wish (2018)
Bruce Willis stars in this modern remake of the classic Michael Winner/Charles Bronson movie from 1974 with updated social concerns and upgraded firepower.
Directed by Eli Roth and written by Joe Carnahan, Death Wish 2018 incorporated both the gritty street-level origins of the original movie and the ridiculous action of the later sequels.
Death Sentence (2007)
Director James Wan dipped his toe into the action genre with this revenge thriller starring Kevin Bacon as a father out for revenge against the gang that murdered his son in an initiation ritual.
The movie wasn’t particularly successful at the box office, or with critics, but quit quickly rose through the ranks as a cult favorite thanks to the director’s bloody panache from his history with horror movies and his flair for shooting interesting action sequences that would, years later, translate into billion-dollar franchise successes.
Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
When a young pseudo-relative of Sylvester Stallone’s titular action hero is kidnapped by a Mexican gang, John Rambo goes south of the border to unleash his own brand of guerilla justice against those involved.
Well into his seventies, Stallone still busts more heads than most movie stars a third of his age and it all builds to a gory grand finale that fans of the previous movie will know and love.
Colombiana (2011)
Seeking revenge for her murdered parents, a young girl from Colombia travels to Chicago and learns to become a world-class assassin who, 15 years later, goes on a mission to destroy the criminal empire that was responsible.
Zoe Saldana is great as the vigilante warrior with superheroic skills and the Taken pedigree of series writers Luc Besson and Mark Robert Kamen, as well as sequel director Olivier Megaton at the helm, means guaranteed satisfaction for fans of those movies as well as a Peppermint fan.
The Brave One (2007)
Oscar-winner Jodie Foster gets in touch with her action side in this Death Wish-inspired vigilante movie as she plays a woman who is viciously attacked in New York City and becomes a street-level vigilante in the vein of Charles Bronson’s original Paul Kersey.
Foster also gets to flex her acting muscles with co-star Terrence Howard, who plays the cop hot on her tail; a very different role to the one he took on in the next vigilante movie on our list.
Dead Man Down (2013)
Colin Farrell stars as a man who’s out for vengeance against Terrence Howard’s crime lord when he’s discovered and blackmailed by Noomi Rapace’s mysterious neighbor who wants him to carry out her own revenge killing.
The blackmail angle adds an odd emotional dynamic to the plot and the main vigilante crime war is packed with all the relevant guns, gadgets, and explosions of a comic book antihero movie.
