2024 has been a pretty decent year for action movies, and Boy Kills World is one of the reasons why. A deaf and mute boy whose mother and sister were killed gets raised by a shaman in the woods. This man trains him to become a killing machine, and that’s exactly what he becomes. By the end of the introduction, he is played by an intense Bill Skarsgård, who proceeds to kill a lot of people on his way to get revenge. This man’s flashbacks indicate that the oppressive government was responsible for their deaths, which means that vengeance will not be so easy to attain.
Boy Kills World was released to mixed reviews, but not for a lack of effort. Collider’s own Nate Richard writes that it almost has “an overabundance of style and flair to everything,” which makes it at least worth one movie night. With a chatty narrator whose voice comes straight out of a typical fighting game, a dystopian government with an amusingly satirical tinge, sci-fi elements, a ton of bullets, a bunch of martial arts, and a dark twist near the end, this movie cannot simply be labeled a sci-fi action-comedy. The revenge-fueled narrative, the over-the-top violence, and the psychology of the protagonist give this genre-tornado a particular kind of mood that gears toward a few target audiences. Below are ten, arguably better movies that are similar enough to Boy Kills World for its fans to enjoy.
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10 ‘Total Recall’ (1990)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best movies,Total Recall is about a construction worker who tries to temporarily escape the ennui of his life through a simulation that will make him feel like he’s been to Mars. Suddenly, he finds himself on a real-life mission to recover his memory as an undercover spy who wants to end the rule of the oppressive Martian government.
Based on the short story “We Can Remember it For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick, this film has the satirical kick of a tyrannical dystopia, the violence, the playful sense of humor, and the thrill of secretly infiltrating an organization that is hunting you down. Not to mention a twist that’s similar to the one in Boy Kills World. Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 action flick made so much money that a remake was released in 2012, but it wasn’t nearly as good or successful as the original.
9 ‘Taken’ (2008)
Directed by Pierre Morel
Taken is one of the biggest revenge movies of the century so far. Liam Neeson plays former government operative Bryan Mills, whose daughter (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped (along with her friend) by Albanian sex-traffickers in Europe. That scene features one of the most badass lines in cinema, spoken over the phone to one of the men who took Mills’s daughter: “I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.” Mills proceeds to throat-chop, shoot, and knife his way to the top of the human-trafficking ladder.
It wasn’t expected, but this movie wound up earning about ten times its budget at the box office. It’s not sci-fi, and it’s much less interested in making the audience laugh than Boy Kills World, but the premise of a man standing up against an evil organization in such a violent, action-packed, and thrilling fashion will put the same target audience on the edge of their seats.
8 ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ (2007)
Directed by Len Wiseman
The fourth Die Hard brought the classic franchise to the road-movie genre, and it still kicks ass today. With some of the best practical effects of the 2000s, Live Free or Die Hard sees John McClane (Bruce Willis) both driving and flying across the country to stop a cyberattack on the U.S. government’s online infrastructure. With the help of a young hacker (Justin Long), McClane takes a bunch of people down and gets some very dangerous criminals very angry.
Among other things, McClane blows up a helicopter with a car, blows up an elevator shaft with another car, and gets into a very intense fist (and leg) fight. After enough bullets and explosions to already rival any of the other Die Hard movies, McClane’s daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) gets kidnapped, too. By the end, McClane has a personal vendetta against this evil enterprise and its coup. With great music and humor, this might not be the best Die Hard entry, but it’s worth looking into for fans of Boy Kills World.
7 ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (2014)
Directed by Doug Liman
Edge of Tomorrow is one of the best time-loop movies ever made. In the face of a terrible alien invasion, Major Cage (Tom Cruise) is demoted to soldier and forced onto the battlefield. When he kills one of the more powerful enemies, he is sent into a time loop. Every time he dies, he respawns on the same day. Emily Blunt plays a formidable soldier who used to be in the same situation, and she winds up training him to one day win the entire war.
It sounds serious, but the first hour of the movie is also very funny. Cage is a coward at first, and it’s both amusing and thrilling to watch him slowly gain more confidence in his ability to navigate not only the terrain but the timing of his surroundings. With heavy sci-fi, an infiltration mission, intense psychological thrills, lots of explosions and gunfire, and even robotic hand-to-hand combat, this movie should satisfy much of the same target audience as Boy Kills World.
6 ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ (2017)
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
The first James Bond parody for millennials, Kingsman: The Secret Service was a hit, and its sequel delivered on the strange yet satisfying expectations its predecessor set up. Kingsman: The Golden Circle sees the Kingsman Secret Service headquarters destroyed, forcing Agent Galahad (Taron Egerton) to work with the agency’s American relative: Statesman. This makes this spy-action comedy a revenge movie, too.
The first Kingsman may have gotten better reviews, and it’s surely recommendable as well, but this one has Sir Elton John. It also has an Agent Whiskey (Pedro Pascal) who uses a lasso in a bar-fight. It also has a diabolical meat grinder, and very exciting action sequences that feature some pleasantly ridiculous moves and science fiction weaponry. With a degree of violence and irreverent tone that’s quite comparable to Boy Kills World, this ridiculous thrill ride shouldn’t disappoint its fans.
5 ‘Kill Bill, Vol 1 & 2’ (2003/4)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino loves excessive violence, action, and stylistically over-the-top sequences. All these things are on full display in his Kill Bill duo, led by an assassin (Uma Thurman) who was shot by her old boss and presumably killed, but then wakes up from a coma. With her fiancé dead and baby gone (she was pregnant during the attack), she has one purpose in life: vengeance against Bill (David Carradine) and his associates. Not the most original premise, but Tarantino puts a lot of his signature style into it.
Both halves of this movie are filled with great action, whether it’s a suburban home brawl between two women who have to take a break when a child comes home from school, a sword fight of one against eight-eight, or a brutal first fight with a new master. This isn’t Tarantino’s best work, but that’s not what he’s really going for anyway. Anyone who likes Boy Kills World should try this ridiculous yet emotionally effective revenge duo.
4 ‘Face/Off’ (1997)
Directed by John Woo
Boy Kills World can be pretty eccentric, so fans who especially like those aspects of it should check out Face/Off, one of the weirdest and off-the-wall action movies of the 1990s. Put another way, it’s John Travolta playing Nicolas Cage versus Nicolas Cage playing John Travolta. One is an FBI agent, and the other is a high-ranking criminal. The plot doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it doesn’t have to. Just know that faces are switched, turning each of the two leads’ performances into highly entertaining impressions of each other.
It’s got science fiction, action, revenge, and more than enough humor. Directed by John Woo, Face/Off is supposed to be a fun blockbuster, and boy does it succeed. Embracing silliness, explosions, and wild performances in equal measure, this goes down as one of the best Nicolas Cage movies of all time. Boy Kills World fans should be able to appreciate it.
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3 ‘John Wick’ (2014)
Directed by Chad Stahelski
Another classic revenge action-thriller whose franchise’s popularity rivals that of Taken, the first John Wick movie is arguably the best of them. It’s much more concise than its sequels, and its premise aligns best with Boy Kills World as well. A former assassin (Keanu Reeves) is mourning the tragic death of his wife when some thugs steal his car and kill his dog (gifted to him by his deceased wife). Well, it turns out this attack was carried out by his former boss’s son.
Of course, if you’re going to kill the boss man’s son, you’re going to have to kill the boss man, too. This makes for a surprisingly sad and unusual revenge plot that immediately garners the viewer’s sympathy. John Wick is so deadly that he’s known as “the boogeyman” by his peers, so he shoots a ton of people. Even when the boss finds out his son killed John Wick’s dog, he says “Oh” and hangs up the phone. Needless to say, the movie has a good sense of humor, too.
2 ‘Violent Night’ (2022)
Directed by Tommy Wirkola
If Die Hard didn’t take itself seriously at all, only had a wealthy family taken hostage (rather than a huge office building’s worth of people), and replaced John McClane with Santa Claus (David Harbour), then it would look something like Violent Night. No more information needed, really, but there are some other wonderful details worth mentioning. For example, did you know that Santa is a heavy drinker? Or that he’s proficient in sledgehammer combat, and has been for centuries?
It goes without saying that the main villain (John Leguizamo) is on Santa’s naughty list. With lots of silliness, violence, unrealistic combat (like when Santa uses a magical sack of toys), and a plot in which one guy infiltrates the enemy’s lair (with a little bit of help), Violent Night is a nice bit of irreverent B-movie fun for fans of Boy Kills World over the holiday season.
1 ‘Deadpool’ (2016)
Directed by Tim Miller
Starring “God’s Perfect Idiot,” “a hot chick,” “a British villain,” “the comic relief,” “a moody teen,” “a CGI character,” and “a gratuitous cameo,” Deadpool already has the audience laughing in the opening credits. He tells a cab driver that he’s been waiting one year, three weeks, six days, and fourteen minutes to get his hands on the guy who made him a superhuman. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, a man has been decapitated and another has been splattered onto a road sign.
“Directed by an overpaid tool,” this movie has lots of slow motion and explosions. One scene that stands out is when Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) shoots three men with the same bullet. With a funny sex montage, fun references to other movies (including Taken and 127 Hours), and a very broken fourth wall, this anti-hero flick became an instant R-rated sensation. Not all the jokes land, but the irreverent take on the superhero genre and overall style make for a fun ride that Boy Kills World definitely takes after.
