Nothing is quite so satisfying as hard-won revenge. And the righteous, obsessive pursuit of justice has inspired storytellers for centuries, from Shakespeare to Dumas to the filmmakers responsible for some of your most enjoyable movie nights.

Since it’s not always advisable to embark on a quest for vengeance yourself, why not get the same gratification by watching one of our picks instead? We’ve rounded up features revolving around people looking for payback, whether teenagers retaliating against their bullies or grief-stricken orphans/parents/siblings desperate to avenge their lost loved ones. Get your Netflix and thrill on with these tales of sweet revenge, all available to stream now.

Ballerina

The title character in Lee Chung-hyun’s 2023 South Korean action thriller Ballerina may not be able to get her own vengeance, but her memory inspires it. The dying wish of talented dancer Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) is for the ring of sex traffickers that destroyed her life to be brought down, once and for all. Luckily for her, her best friend Ok-ju (Jeon Jong-seo) is just as graceful and highly trained as Min-hee herself — albeit in a very different discipline. One by one, the criminals find out that Ok-ju’s revenge game is en pointe. 

Ballerina

1h 33m   TV-MA   2023

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Do Revenge

Nobody does revenge quite so ruthlessly as teenage girls. Writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (whose directorial debut, Someone Great, dropped on Netflix in 2019) took inspiration from this incontrovertible fact for her second feature, the delicious dark comedy Do Revenge. When queen bee Drea (Camila Mendes) and new girl Eleanor (Maya Hawke) find themselves victims of the vicious rumor mill at their posh private school (presided over by Sarah Michelle Gellar’s glam headmaster), the duo join forces to ensure that their tormentors get what’s coming to them.

Do Revenge

1h 58m   TV-MA   2022

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Eye For An Eye

When a cartel boss (Xan Cejudo) is released from prison, he moves into a nursing home for what he expects to be a restful retirement while his two inept sons lead his empire. But Spanish filmmaker Paco Plaza’s tense drama isn’t just about their fraught family dynamic: Unbeknownst to the drug lord, a nurse at the facility (Luis Tosar) suffered as a result of the kingpin’s disreputable career and can’t resist the vindictive urge to take advantage of his new position of power.

Eye For An Eye

1h 48m   TV-MA   2019

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Kate

The clock is ticking in Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s action thriller Kate, in which the titular heroine (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an assassin ready to retire after a troubling assignment, has one day to complete a final, self-imposed mission: to get her revenge. After discovering she’s been poisoned by a mysterious stranger, Kate endeavors to find out who orchestrated her murder and to repay them — all while her body steadily weakens from the toxin coursing through it.

Kate

1h 46m   R   2021

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The Killer

Vengeance may not have a name, but it’s served up with great style in 2023’s The Killer, a coolly minimalist thriller directed by David Fincher (and adapted from the French graphic novel by the writer Matz and artist Luc Jacamon). This time, it’s a meticulous assassin (Michael Fassbender) — known by many aliases but credited simply as the Killer — who seeks retribution. After one of his assignments goes awry, his girlfriend becomes a target to the men who hired him. So what choice does a nameless killer have but to methodically take out every single person involved in the attack against her? 

The Killer

1h 59m   R   2023

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Message from the King

Chadwick Boseman headlined Fabrice Du Welz’s Message from the King two years before the late actor ascended to icon status with 2018’s Black Panther. The action thriller follows Jacob (Boseman), a man who receives a distressingly cryptic message from his sister in California, asking for his help. Jacob answers her plea only to find her dead, sending him on a vengeance-fueled investigation that takes him through the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles (featuring shady characters played by Luke Evans and Alfred Molina).

Message from the King

1h 42m   R   2017

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Night in Paradise

Revenge comes early in Park Hoon-jung’s South Korean crime drama Night in Paradise — wherein a mobster’s retaliation after a devastating tragedy sets off a gang war between rival factions — but its profound impact is felt throughout. Our hero, Tae-goo (Uhm Tae-goo), escapes Seoul after sparking the conflict to hide out on Jeju Island, where he befriends a terminally ill young woman (Jeon Yeo-been); they both become swept into the violence as the syndicate tracks him to his refuge.

Night in Paradise

2h 12m   TV-MA   2021

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Your Son

A father’s rage drives the taut drama Your Son, from Spanish filmmaker Miguel Ángel Vivas. After finding that his son has been brutally beaten outside of a nightclub, surgeon Jaime (José Coronado) becomes determined to find out the details of what really happened and punish those responsible. As he learns more about the night of the attack, Jaime’s obsession only deepens — but the truth may be darker than he ever expected.

Your Son

1h 43m   TV-MA   2018

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