While he may be best known right now for his highly entertaining role as Billy Butcher on Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys, Karl Urban has an absolute monopoly on being in popular franchises. Between the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the work of Robert Kirkman, Riddick, Star Trek, the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, the Red series, and even Dredd, Urban is basically one of every geek’s favorite actors.
Before Billy goes on his next wild adventure on the highly anticipated fourth season of The Boys, these eight Karl Urban movies are his best.
8 ‘The Chronicles of Riddick’ (2004)
While The Fast and the Furious franchise is increasingly feeling like a work of science fiction fantasy, Vin Diesel’s actual trilogy of fantasy sci-fi adventures is actually pretty entertaining in its own right. Diesel took his character from the sci-fi horror film Pitch Black and continued to work with director David Twohy on two very odd sequels that combined the high fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons with the sci-fi worldbuilding of Star Trek.
Urban entered the series in 2008’s The Chronicles of Riddick as Commander Vaako, a character whose loyalty always seemed to be shifting.
7 ‘Pete’s Dragon’ (2016)
While a majority of Disney’s live-action reboots and reimaginings of their classic films have been nothing but cynical shot-for-shot remakes that don’t do anything different, David Lowery’s Pete’s Dragon was the rare film that actually improved upon its original. With a more naturalistic story and authentic characters, Pete’s Dragon far surpassed the shabby original film and turned into a modern fantasy classic.
Urban is, of course, in the villainous role, but he manages to tie his character into the film’s environmentalist themes. He provided a surprising amount of menace for a family film.
6 ‘Red’ (2010)
While the majority of Bruce Willis’ work in the last decade or so has been in direct-to-VOD genre films, the 2010 DC comic book adaptation Red gave him a chance to show why he is one of the greatest action stars ever. Willis starred as Frank, a retired assassin forced out of retirement to reunite with his old allies.
Urban has a juicy supporting role as William Cooper, a government agent assigned to track down Frank, before ultimately realizing that he should be questioning his employer’s motivations before anything else.
5 ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ (2004)
Director Paul Greengrass completely changed the course of the Bourne franchise when he took over directing duties from The Bourne Identity filmmaker Doug Liman. Greengrass’ frantic way of shooting haphazard action was done with intent, unlike many of the knock-offs that seemed to mistake chaos with directorial laziness.
The Bourne Supremacyis one of the most relentless action sequels of all time; Urban’s Russian assassin Kirill is just one of the threats that Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne has to deal with. Their final standoff is a knockout brawl for the ages.
4 ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2017)
While the first two installments in the Thor franchise were rather straightforward in their approach to traditional Norse mythology, Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok was the Led Zeppelin-fueled game changer that the series needed to change its tone entirely.
Urban’s performance as the lowly executioner Skurge is one of the film’s strongest; after realizing that Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) did not have his best interests in mind, Skurge sacrifices himself in a selfless act of awesomeness. It was sad to see Urban exit the MCU upon his debut because Thor: Love and Thunderreally needed his presence.
3 ‘Dredd’ (2012)
Sylvester Stallone had severely damaged the Judge Dredd character with his nearly unwatchable 1995 film, but Urban managed to redeem the iconic graphic novel character’s legacy with his performance in 2012’s gritty reboot Dredd. Urban’s clenched jaw was perfect for the stone-cold seriousness of the ruthless judge, jury, and executioner.
Dredd is relentless in its action and bloodlust, with R-Rated action sequences lifted straight out of Die Hardand Hard Boiled. However, Urban was keen to note that Dredd only takes out villains he is 100% sure are guilty.
2 ‘Star Trek’ (2009)
The great thing about the “Kelvin trilogy” of Star Trek films is that rather than ask the cast to do impressions of their counterparts from the original series, the films embraced each actor’s individuality and allowed them to bring something new to their characters.
Urban’s performance as Bones was the perfect subdued, grumpy counterbalance to Chris Pine’s cocky version of James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto’s highly neurotic take on Spock. The terrific chemistry between these three added enough heart and humor to launch a new generation of Star Trek fans.
1 ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy (2001-2003)
Like nearly every New Zealand actor from a certain generation, Urban got his breakthrough thanks to Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson’s attention to detail was so precise that even the smallest performances, such as Urban’s role as Eomer, have complete and thoughtful character arcs.
Eomer is among the most undervalued yet critical characters in the entire trilogy. A loyal servant of the true King of Gondor, Eomer turns into a vigilante and ally to Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) to retain the honor of his homeland in The Two Towers.