53 Denzel Washington Movies & TV Shows, Ranked Best to Worst

The Academy Awards-winning movie depicts the first unit of all African-American soldiers during the Civil War. Col. Robert Gould Shaw leads the ‘54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry’ of all-black soldiers; however, he meets with strong prejudices from both Union Army and the Confederates. Initially assigned to only menial tasks, the regiment earns its place in the battle and achieves glory at Fort Wagner.   

A burnt out ex CIA operative John Creasy finds a new objective in life when he is hired by an industrialist Samuel Ramos to protect his daughter, Pita. A reluctant and uninterested Creasy soon forms a bond with the little girl. So when she is kidnapped, he is enraged and seeks to kill everyone involved in the heinous act.

Law student, Darby Shaw, writes a brief with a theory as to why two Supreme Court justices were killed and she herself becomes the target of the assassin. As she is forced to go on the run, she reaches out to reporter Gray Grantham for help and uncovers a conspiracy involving senior Government officials. 

One of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and homophobia, Philadelphia is a gripping tale of a homosexual senior associate at a large corporate law firm who gets fired due to his sexuality, and his fight to get justice. 

After the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese, whom he helped to catch, Detective John Hobbes and his partner Jonesy are called in to investigate a series of demonic murders very similar to Reese’s. When they come in contact with a woman named Gretta Milano, they discover, a fallen malevolent angel might be behind all the killings. 

The movie depicts the inspirational story of African-American coach Herman Boone and his assistant coach Bill Yoast. In 1971 USA, an all-white high school is integrated with an all-black school. The two coaches fight racial discrimination and unite the racially divided team of the T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia to win the state championship.  

A fictionalized account of the criminal career of gangster Frank Lucas who was notorious for smuggling heroin, American Gangster is a crime film produced by Ridley Scott. A critical and commercial success, the film was nominated for 21 awards.

The movie is a dramatization of different events of the life of controversial African-American icon, Malcolm X. The film focuses on his early criminal endeavors, his imprisonment, his conversion to Islam, his joining and leaving the Nation of Islam, his marriage, his experiences with racial violence against blacks, his fight for racial unity and his assassination.

Former-DIA agent and retired-Marine Robert McCall works as Lyft driver and helps the exploited as a vigilante. His friend Susan Plummer and former-teammate Dave York are sent to investigate a murder-suicide in Brussels. But when Susan is found murdered, it becomes a personal vendetta for McCall, who sets out to confront a team of highly trained professional assassins to avenge Susan’s death. 

Bartholomew Bogue takes control of the American frontier town Rose Creek and forces its citizens to forced labor. When a group of locals, led by Matthew Cullen stand up to him, he has them killed. Cullen’s widow then recruits U.S. Marshal Sam Chisholm who forms a group of seven fighters to take on Bogue and his army. 

Nick Styles is a rookie cop who sends a psychotic contract killer to prison. However, he manages to escape years later, and plans to take revenge on Styles, who is now working as a district attorney.

A former Intelligence agency officer, Robert McCall, leads a quiet life working for a hardware store. However when his friend Alina, a young prostitute working for Russian mafia is brutally beaten by her pimp, McCall refuses to take it quietly. He comes out of retirement to avenge the injustice done to Alina, or anyone who is helpless.

Courage Under Fire is a mystery war drama film, which tells the story of a US Army Officer, who is still dejected about a mistake he made during the Desert Storm incident. Now he has to investigate a female chopper commander, to find out whether she is worthy of the Medal of Honor.    

The Bone Collector is a crime-thriller that revolves around a paraplegic detective and a newly recruited patrol officer, with great forensic skills, who set about solving a series of grisly murders committed by a psychopath who leaves gruesome clues at every crime scene. Starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, this film has a lot of drama and gory violence too.

Based on true events, a massive locomotive carrying highly toxic and flammable phenol becomes unstoppable when it becomes unmanned due to human carelessness. A major disaster is waiting to happen unless veteran engineer Frank Barnes and young conductor Will Colson who are pursuing the running train on another engine manage to catch it and stop it.  

Pilot Whip Whittaker is hailed as a hero for landing his plane with almost no casualties after it suffers a mid-air mechanical failure. A routine investigation after the fact reveals another story, however; that of a man struggling with substance abuse.

Henry Biggs is a pastor at a struggling church, in a small poor neighborhood in New York City. He is in pressure from a real estate developer who wants to sell the property of the church to build luxury condos. Meanwhile, his relationship with his wife also seems to be failing. Things get interesting when a man enters his life claiming to be an angel sent by God.

Gulf War veteran Major Bennett ‘Ben’ Marco starts looking into his past after experiencing vivid dreams. While investigating his friend, Sergeant First Class Raymond Shaw, now a senator, who was also part of the same mission, Marco unveils a conspiracy by elite politicians and the Manchurian Global corporation. 

John Quincy Archibald is a factory worker whose son Mike/Michael is diagnosed with enlarged heart for which emergency heart transplant is the only solution. As John’s health insurance doesn’t cover the expensive transplant surgery and with no other means to raise the amount, a desperate John holds the staff and patients of the hospital’s emergency room hostage to save his son’s life.   

The film revolves around an incident that takes place on a ballistic missile submarine assigned to launch its missile on a Russian nuclear installation. But when the time comes only a part of the order can be decoded, resulting in a conflict between its Commanding Officer, a war veteran and his Executive Officer, a military tactic expert.  

Passengers of a New York subway train are pulled into a nightmare when Dennis Ryder Ford and his associates hijack their train. Ryder demands a ransom and will only talk to Walter Garber, a dispatcher being investigated on bribery charges. Garber must negotiate, find a way to save the people, and stop Ryder. 

In 1966, Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter, a renowned boxer, was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The film concentrates on his fight against his conviction, also depicting how an Afro-American youth convinces his Canadian foster parents to help Hurricane, resulting in his release after twenty years of imprisonment.  

Devil in a Blue Dress is a mystery drama film which tells the story of Easy Rawlins, a World War II veteran, who finds himself in need of a job after he is laid off from Champion Aircraft. He soon meets DeWitt Albright, a white man who has been looking for a woman, and he decides to hire Easy to find her.

Rookie LAPD narcotics officer Jake Hoyt is trained on his first day by veteran detective Alonzo Harris, who has questionable methods for getting the streets of Los Angeles free of drug dealers. Hoyt is faced with several ethical dilemmas as he follows for 24 hours the convoluting concepts of legality, justice and corruption employed by Harris.

In a small Florida town, Police Chief Matt Whitlock, who is estranged from wife police-detective Alex, is having an affair with Ann Merai. As Ann is diagnosed with cancer, Whitlock gives her huge cash confiscated from drug raid, after which she and her husband are found dead. With Alex heading the investigations, prime suspect Whitlock must race the clock to prove his innocence.  

Based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, the film focuses on an African American sanitation worker, who wanted to be a professional baseball player, but missed his chance because of the color bar in place till then. The story then goes on to reveal how he faces reality, depicting his relationships with others around him. 

Based on true events, the story depicts social concepts of the 1930s’ Texas. Melvin Tolson, professor at largely black Wiley College, Texas, coaches and encourages the college debate team of four resolute, bright black students, including a girl and a 14-year-old James Farmer Jr. The team, trained by Tolson using power of words, becomes the first black team to take on elite Harvard champions.

Deja Vu is an action-thriller that centers around an A.T.F. agent who uses an experimental technology, which can take you back in time, to discover the identity of the culprit responsible for bombing a ferry in New Orleans. Denzel Washington stars as the brilliant agent who becomes obsessed with a particular clue to find the bomber before he strikes again.

After criminal Tobin Frost acquires a data storage device for an MI6 agent, he is attacked by mercenaries. He surrenders to the American consulate, who place him in a safe house under rookie agent Matt Weston. The two men then try to survive assassins and the CIA while uncovering the truth. 

After a series of escalating terrorist attacks in Brooklyn, FBI Special Agent Anthony Hubbard teams up with CIA Agent Elise Kraft to find the terrorists. But martial law has been declared and the sadistic racist US Army General William Devereaux has started arresting anyone of Arab descent and torturing or killing them for information.

The post-apocalyptic movie centers on Eli, a blind nomadic warrior who is instructed by a voice to deliver the last copy of the New King James Bible to a sanctuary. Traveling across a wasteland, of what was formerly the USA, he demonstrates mythical fighting skills against the warlord Carnegie and his army who wants the book for himself. 

Forced by his mother to take trumpet lessons, Bleek Gilliam eventually becomes the leader of a successful jazz quintet. However, although he is in a relationship with a girl named Indigo, he is unable to commit to her, since he is also interested in other women.

Antwone Fisher, a young man working in the Navy, is forced to undergo psychiatric evaluation after a violent outburst against one of his fellow crewmen. During the course of his treatment, his painful past is revealed.

DEA agent Bobby Trench, hoping to implicate his target, decides to stay undercover to help Michael Stigman in a bank robbery, but unbeknownst to Trench, Stigman is an undercover naval intelligence officer with instructions to kill him. After both are disavowed by their respective organizations, they must work together against a ruthless Mexican drug lord while avoiding arrest.

The plot of the movie revolves around an elaborate bank robbery planned by a perfectionist robber Dalton Russell. He takes hostages and detective Keith Frazier is called upon to take charge of the negotiations. The bank president, concerned about something important, hires his own negotiator. However, Russell and his team are always ahead.

He Got Game is an American sports drama film, which tells the story of a convict, whose son is a brilliant basketball player. However, the convict needs to convince his son to go to college in order to reduce his sentence. 

A South African journalist attempts to investigate the death in custody of his friend, an activist. However, this eventually forces him to flee the country.  

After the owner of his firm suffers a heart attack, Roman, a lawyer for the firm, is forced to appear in courtroom trials that don’t go too well.  Eventually, the firm goes broke which forces Roman to find another job.

After Mina is forced to leave her home in Uganda along with her family due to the new racist policies, they soon relocate to Mississippi, hoping to start a new life. Mina soon falls in love with Demetrius, a young carpet cleaner, despite their racial differences. She is also aware that her parents will not approve of the relationship. Eventually, the two are forced to run away, as neither of their communities accept their relationship.

Virtuosity is a science-fiction action thriller film which tells the story of two detectives in Los Angeles, John Donovan and Parker Barnes, trying to track down a serial killer at a restaurant. The serial killer is a virtual reality simulation who is an amalgam of some of the most violent psychopathic killers in history.  

A nobleman, living with his daughter, niece and brother in Messina, an Italian town, is hosting a bunch of friends returning from war. The party play cupid to a couple in love for a long time. The British-American romantic comedy is based on a Shakespearean play of the same name.

Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon is sent to Los Angeles for a quick evidence-gathering assignment. However, he gets involved in the search for a serial killer who has been terrorizing the city, and joins forces with Sergeant Jim Baxter.

Based on the famous play by William Shakespeare, this drama thriller film tells the story of Macbeth, a Scottish lord, who manages to lead King Duncan’s forces to victory. He is soon approached by three witches who tell him that he will become the next King of Scotland. Meanwhile, his ambitious wife is willing to go to any lengths to help Macbeth wield power.

Based on true events, the story depicts social concepts of the 1930s’ Texas. Melvin Tolson, professor at largely black Wiley College, Texas, coaches and encourages the college debate team of four resolute, bright black students, including a girl and a 14-year-old James Farmer Jr. The team, trained by Tolson using power of words, becomes the first black team to take on elite Harvard champions.

Antwone Fisher, a young man working in the Navy, is forced to undergo psychiatric evaluation after a violent outburst against one of his fellow crewmen. During the course of his treatment, his painful past is revealed.

Based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, the film focuses on an African American sanitation worker, who wanted to be a professional baseball player, but missed his chance because of the color bar in place till then. The story then goes on to reveal how he faces reality, depicting his relationships with others around him.