Denzel Washington has made quite a few action movies over the course of his acting career, and they all range in strength. Denzel Washington is one of the most talented working actors in Hollywood, and as such, he's played all types of roles. From the soaring drama of The Tragedy of Macbeth to the comedy of Carbon Copy, Washington can handle almost any type of character. One genre he's been particularly prolific in, however, is action, and he has played quite a few heroes and villains over the years.

Ranking Denzel Washington's action heroes by strength isn't an entirely straightforward task. Many of Washington's best action movies had him play characters that weren't traditional action heroes, yet they displayed quite a bit of strength. Physical strength, then, isn't enough to make a character strong, and other factors like morals, bravery, and convictions have to be taken into consideration too. With that in mind, these 15 characters are Denzel Washington's strongest action heroes.

15 Matt Lee Whitlock - Out Of Time

Out of Time is a rare movie for Denzel Washington: though he plays the main character in an action movie, Matt Whitlock isn't much of a hero. Out of Time, up until its final minutes, is a kind of comedy of errors. Everything Matt did was just a reaction to an earlier bad decision he made. Additionally, all of Matt's most memorable scenes - like counting the bullets in Chris' gun - were due to his intelligence, not his strength. The fight scenes he does get into were often stumbling messes rather than shows of strength as well. Matt was just another cop role played by Denzel Washington.

Out of Time is available to stream on Max.

14 Alonzo - Training Day

Denzel Washington's character in Training Day, Alonzo, is far from a hero, but he is an action star. Throughout Training Day, Alonzo proved he was incredibly capable at intimidation, extortion, and several other dubious practices, which are technically forms of strength. However, he was also a dirty cop and a bad man, which secures him a place very near the bottom in of Washington's other action heroes. Regardless, however, Alonzo is one of Washington's most iconic characters, and the Oscar he won for Best Actor for Training Day proves it.

13 Bobby - 2 Guns

In almost the exact opposite situation as Training Day, Washington played a good cop who was undercover as a criminal in 2 Guns. Washington's Bobby worked with Stig (Mark Wahlberg) to take down a drug kingpin and eventually expose a massive government conspiracy. 2 Guns put Bobby and Stig into several intense gunfights that proved how strong Bobby was in combat, but he also had quite a bit of help from Stig, which limits how high he can be placed on Washington's list. That being said, Bobby also proved his strength in a few other ways, like brushing off a gunshot wound to the arm fairly easily and continuing his search.

12 John Creasy - Man On Fire

Though not nearly as villainous as Alonzo in Training Day, Washington's character in Man on Fire has more than his fair share of baggage. Washington played John Creasy in Man on Fire, a former CIA operative who was suffering from alcoholism and suicidal thoughts. What makes Creasy strong is the fact that he overcame his dark past so that he could help someone who needed him: Pita, a young girl who was kidnapped. Creasy was also an extremely effective warrior, and his ultimate sacrifice at the end of Man on Fire also went a long way in showing just how strong his character was.

11 Parker Barnes - Virtuosity

Keeping up what seemed to be a trend of morally ambiguous protagonists, Denzel Washington played Parker Barnes in Virtuosity. While Barnes was imprisoned for murder, he managed to be a bit stronger in the morality department than Creasy was, as he killed a terrorist who had executed his own family. Barnes also proved quite physically and mentally strong, as Virtuosity pitted him against SID (Russel Crowe), a sentient computer program made up of the most evil minds in history. Barnes needed quite a bit of strength to beat SID, a feat he barely managed to accomplish.

10 Keith Frazier - Inside Man

In keeping with Man on Fire and Virtuosity, Denzel Washington's character in Inside Man isn't morally perfect, but he did show quite a bit of strength. In Inside Man, Washington played Keith Frazier, a troubled detective tasked with stopping a bank heist led by Dalton Russel (Clive Owens). While there aren't many (real) firefights in the movie, Frazier still managed to show his resolve. He had the strength to continue his investigation even after the rest of the authorities had given up, and he even proved himself strong enough to stand up to his superiors in search of the truth.

9 Chisholm - The Magnificent Seven

Though his character wears a black hat throughout The Magnificent Seven, Washington's Chisholm is one of his strongest action protagonists. Chisholm was a U.S. Marshall who helped protect the town of Rose Creek, and he was essentially a mix of some of the strongest Western heroes and gunslingers ever. Chisholm was quick with a gun, smart, and incredibly strong, as evidenced by the fact that he was one of the few fighters who survived to see the end of The Magnificent Seven. He also had quite a bit of moral strength as a servant of the law and protector of the innocent.

8 Walter Garber - The Taking Of Pelham 123

Though Denzel Washington has played plenty of traditionally strong action heroes in his career, one of his most unconventional heroes is among the strongest. In The Taking of Pelham 123, Washington played an ostensibly ordinary man named Walter Garber. After Ryder (John Travolta) took a train hostage, Garber was thrust into the middle of a dangerous situation, but he handled himself extremely well. Garber was also an interesting character because he wasn't perfect: he had accepted a bribe, but he proved that he always had good intentions and was a committed family man, which takes quite a bit of non-physical strength.

7 Frank - Unstoppable

Like The Taking of Pelham 123, Denzel Washington doesn't play a typical action hero in Unstoppable. Instead, he took the role of Frank Barnes, a railroad engineer who had to stop a runaway train with the help of Will Colson (Chris Pine). While there aren't any gunfights or traditional action sequences in Unstoppable, Barnes was still quite a strong hero. A runaway train is extremely dangerous, and Barnes showed great courage several times in his attempts to stop it, such as when he tried to manually engage each car's handbrakes.

6 Doug Carlin - Déjà Vu

Very few of Denzel Washington's movies are as mind-bending as Déjà Vu. In that film, Washington plays Doug Carlin, an ATF agent who travels back in time to prevent a terrorist bombing and save Claire (Paula Patton), who was killed in the blast. Carlin mostly relies on his brains and detective skills for most of Déjà Vu, so what really makes him such a strong character is his bravery. At the end of the film, Carlin sacrifices himself to save the ferry, which is an incredible display of bravery, even if he managed to come back through some time travel logic.