Hugh Jackman Movies: The Greatest Films From The Iconic Actor
Over the span of a 30-year career, Hugh Jackman has been in many great movies.
Hugh Jackman movies seem like they’ve been in our lives forever, but his career began on stage long before he started getting signed on to films. He first starred in a couple of local theaters in Australia and played Gaston in a community theater’s production of Beauty and the Beast.
After coming to America to play Cuikarly in Broadway’s 1999 production of Oklahoma!, the actor was soon cast in what would be both his breakout role and his most iconic character. This Hugh Jackman movie was as Wolverine in X-Men (2000).
Although for many years, the Australian actor held the Guinness World Record for “longest career as a live-action Marvel character” (until Patrick Stewart stole the accolade from him in 2021), Hugh Jackman movies have been in genres from musicals to romantic comedies, to horror, and animated family films.
Hugh Jackman’s movie career has spanned almost 30 years and lists more than 60 credits. It’s hard to narrow the Hugh Jackman movie list to the best. And yet, we’ve done it.
Below is the list of the greatest Hugh Jackman movies of all time, based on our unbiased GIANT FREAKIN MOVIE SCORE algorithm.
HUGH JACKMAN’S BEST MOVIE IS LOGAN (2017)
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What better film to top the list of the greatest Hugh Jackman movies of all time than one that gives a brutal, beautiful end to Jackman’s most iconic character?
This movie takes place in the near future when mutants are almost all extinct. When Logan’s quiet life is interrupted by a mutant child being pursued by scientists, Logan must lead a dangerous existence once more while he escorts the child to safety.
In a film that defies the conventions of superhero movies, Hugh Jackman gave an unforgettable performance in a movie that audiences everywhere thought would be Wolverine’s last outing.
Of course, now fans know the last place Jackman will play Wolverine is in Deadpool 3. Still, as far as Hugh Jackman movies are concerned, Logan is his best work.
THE BEST HUGH JACKMAN X-MEN MOVIE IS DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014)
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X-Men Days of Future Past is the fifth mainline installment of the X-Men series and the second highest on our list overall.
In this Hugh Jackman movie, he reprises his role as Logan, who has to travel back in time to the 1970s to prevent an event that will cause indescribable devastation to all of humanity and mutants alike.
Surrounding Hugh in the movie is an ensemble cast that also stars James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Ian McKellen as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Halle Berry as Storm, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Elliot Page as Kitty Pryde, and Peter Dinklage as Dr. Bolivar Trask.
It’s unusual for sequels of films to be better than the originals. But X-Men Days of Future Past manages to use the elements that worked in the franchise’s previous films to create a fast-paced, entertaining, and satisfying feature based on the 1981 Uncanny X-Men comic book.
HIS BEST MUTANT FREE MOVIE IS BAD EDUCATION (2019)
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The first film on our Hugh Jackman movies list not connected to Marvel Comics is 2019’s Bad Education. This film is an American crime drama starring Jackman, Ray Romano, Welker White, and Allison Janney. Bad Education tells the alarmingly true story of the largest public school embezzlement scandal in the United States.
The screenwriter, Mike Makowsky, wrote the script after meeting Dr. Frank Tassone (played by Hugh Jackman in the movie) as a child. Tassone, along with his assistant superintendent Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), stole millions of dollars from their school district and attempted to hide the embezzlement before ultimately being caught and arrested in 2004.
Written as part biography, part comedy, and part crime film, Hugh Jackman delivers an outstanding performance in this movie. Many critics have called it the actor’s best work.
Bad Education premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019 before being picked up for broadcast on HBO in 2020. Hugh Jackman was nominated for Best Actor at the Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Awards for his talent in this movie, and Janney won Best Actress for her performance.
HUGH JACKMAN’S MOST INTENSE MOVIE IS PRISONERS (2013)
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Going back a decade in Hugh Jackman’s movie career, the crime and mystery film, Prisoners, makes the cut as Jackman’s fourth-best film of all time. In this feature, Jackman delivers an emotionally vulnerable performance as the father of a young girl who goes missing.
When the police aren’t delivering results, Jackman’s character, Keller Dover, takes matters into his own hands, including kidnapping a man at the top of his suspect list.
Alongside Hugh Jackman, this movie also stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki, the main detective on the case, and Terrence Howard as Franklin Birch, the father of Keller’s daughter’s friend, who also disappeared. Viola Davis stars as Nancy Birch, Franklin’s wife. Melissa Leo and Maria Bello also make appearances in the film.
In what has been described as an extremely chilling movie by director Dennis Villeneuve (Dune, 2021) and writer Aaron Guzikowski (Papillon, 2017), Hugh Jackman delivers an exceptional performance in what should have been an Oscar-winning movie.
While the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Jake Gyllenhaal won Best Supporting Actor at the Hollywood Film Festival.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE WAS AN AWESOME RETURN FOR HUGH JACKMAN
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Though he had a “perfect” ending in Logan, we all know that in the big budget franchise movie business, there is no such thing as a goodbye. It’s mostly just a see you later. That was the case for Hugh Jackman who returned to the character in Deadpool & Wolverine. It was the first turn for him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which was also the case for his running mate, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool.
The movie was a hit at the box office and with critics, blending the perfect mix of humor and pathos into a story about two heroes looking for redemption. Oh, and all the other insane cameos didn’t hurt either.
HE WORKED WITH CHRISTOPHER NOLAN FOR THE PRESTIGE (2006)
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Over the course of a three-decade-long career, Hugh Jackman has been in many memorable movies. In another thriller that is almost as good, if not just as good, as Prisoners, The Prestige follows two illusionists who go head to head against one another after a tragic accident.
In the film directed by The Dark Knight visionary Christopher Nolan, Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Borden (Christian Bale) sacrifice everything they have to outwit the other.
Next to Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, this movie also stars Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Andy Serkis, Rebecca Hall, and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. This film would be the second time Nolan worked with Bale and Caine, after Batman Begins (2005), before reuniting with them once again for The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
HIS OTHER GREAT X-MEN MOVIE IS X2: X-MEN UNITED (2003)
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The second X-Men film was critically rated as the best X-Men movie until Days of Future Past was released 11 years later. At the budding of his career, Hugh Jackman reprised his breakout role as Logan/Wolverine for this movie.
X2 follows the students at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters as they go up against Colonel William Stryker, a military man against mutants who has kidnapped Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart). The X-Men and Wolverine team up with their archnemesis, Magneto (Ian McKellen), to save their friend and mentor.
Like the other X-Men films, this Hugh Jackman movie features an ensemble cast that includes Jackman, Stewart, McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Kelly Hu, and Anna Paquin.
HUGH JACKMAN STARTED THE MODERN SUPERHERO MOVIE ERA WITH X-MEN (2000)
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We’re not biased, we promise. The GFR score uses a purely mathematical formula to come up with the best Hugh Jackman movies based on critical and audience consensus. The X-Men movies were just so good that three of them appear on this list.
The original X-Men filim was groundbreaking for the superhero genre, as it was a movie based on a comic book that turned out to actually be pretty good—an unusual feat for that time period.
The film was also groundbreaking for Hugh Jackman, as it was his first big movie role in Hollywood. Obviously, he did a pretty good job as Wolverine because his character has since become iconic, and fans can’t wait to see him reprise the role once more in Deadpool 3.
THE FUNNIEST HUGH JACKMAN MOVIE IS EDDIE THE EAGLE (2015)
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Ending the list of the greatest Hugh Jackman movies of all time is a charming film you may not have ever heard of called Eddie the Eagle.
In this movie, Jackman plays Bronson Peary, a former American ski champion turned alcoholic snow groomer who tries to convince the film’s protagonist, Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton), to give up on his dream of becoming a professional skier. After witnessing Eddie’s tenacious personality, Peary agrees to train the youngster instead.
The movie is a comedic adventure based on a true story that features Jackson, Egerton, Christopher Walken, and Iris Berben. Although this Hugh Jackman movie engages many cliches, the film is sweet and funny, and absolutely worth your time to watch it.
- GFR Score calculated using averages of audience and critical reactions across multiple platforms.
