Acting throughout four decades, Keanu Reeves has long been a household name, but it seems that in the last few years his star has been shining brighter. Whether it’s his recent roles, such as playing a tongue-in-cheek version of himself in Always Be My Maybe or a vengeance-seeking John Wick in the eponymous film or the fact that he’s one of the few unproblematic celebrities left, he has amassed a legion of fans. The mysterious actor opts to stay out of the public eye, though directors have described him as incredibly hardworking, which no doubt comes across on-screen.
Updated October 4th, 2022: If you are a Keanu Reeves fan, you’ll be happy to learn this article has been updated with additional films featuring the celebrated star.
The Canadian actor was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a father of Native Hawaiian and Chinese heritage and a British mother. He grew up all over the world, living in New York City and Sydney, Australia, before his family settled in Toronto. He started acting at the early age of nine and chose to make it his career when he was only 15. Before then, he was seriously considering a career as a professional hockey player, aspiring to play for the Canadian Olympic team. Since starring in a Canadian short in 1985 and a few made-for-TV movies in 1986, Reeves has appeared in over 70 films. Out of the whopping number of roles, these are the 20 best Keanu Reeves movies.
20/20 Dangerous Liaisons
Directed by Stephen Frears, Dangerous Liaisons is a period drama based on an adaptation of the 1782 French novel Les Liasons Dangereuses. It boasts a star-studded cast including Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Uma Thurman and more. The 1988 film no doubt helped to propel the career of a young Keanu Reeves. The film won Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 61st Academy Awards. Dangerous Liaisons also served as inspiration for 1999’s teen drama Cruel Intentions with Ryan Phillippe.
19/20 Man of Tai Chi
Keanu Reeves made his highly-anticipated directorial debut with the 2013 multilingual martial arts film Man of Tai Chi, telling the exciting tale of gifted martial artist Tiger Chen Linhu as he attempts to find success in a dangerous and highly profitable underground fight club.
Tiger discovers his quest to earn fast cash compromised by the mysterious leader of the illegal operation (Reeves), who pushes his prized fighter to become a ruthless killer. Though it failed to make a splash at the box office, both Reeves and the thrilling flick earned widespread acclaim by critics, with the Los Angeles Times calling it “a movie streamlined to evoke the timeless zip of martial arts movies past.”
18/20 River’s Edge
Another film early on in Keanu Reeves’ impressive career is the incredibly-dark crime drama River’s Edge. In the film, Reeves plays Matt, an older teen caught up in an increasingly disturbing murder scenario. With plenty of underage drugs, sexuality, and violence, the film, which also stars Crispin Glover, Ione Skye, and the late Dennis Hopper, paints an extremely bleak picture of American teenagerhood. That said, it is an excellent vehicle for Reeves’ acting skills.
17/20 Destination Wedding
Keanu Reeves reunited with his Bram Stoker’s Dracula co-star Winona Ryder for the charming 2018 romantic dramedy Destination Wedding, in which the seasoned actors portray two unpleasant, down-on-their-luck wedding guests who despite their insufferable eccentricities find themselves attracted to one another. The duo’s undeniable chemistry is on full display in the quirky film (even though they appear as hilariously repugnant characters), and fans of the celebrated performers couldn’t get enough of their cynical banter and pairing.
16/20 Parenthood
An ensemble comedy, Parenthood was directed by Ron Howard and features big names like Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, and Dianne Weist, to name a few, with Reeves in a smaller supporting role. The movie was a huge box office success, earning $126 million on a $20 million budget. It was later adapted into a TV series twice. After the first failed run in 1990, it rebooted again 20 years later. The 2010 version of Parenthood lasted for six seasons, starring established television names like Peter Krause, Dax Shepard, and Lauren Graham.
15/20 Bill & Ted Face the Music
Bill & Ted Face the Music is the third installment of the Bill & Ted film franchise, released in 2020 nearly twenty years after the first sequel. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves reprise their roles as Bill & Ted and are tasked with writing a song to save the world. The movie also stars rapper Kid Cudi, Glee star Jayma Mays, and Saturday Night Live‘s Beck Bennett. The film received a generally positive critical reception, considering it’s a modern comedy that went to Video-on-Demand and theatrical releases simultaneously.
14/20 Under the Influence
Under the Influence is a made-for-television movie that came out in 1986, and is one of Keanu Reeves’ earliest projects, co-starring Andy Griffith. The CBS film is par for the course in terms of TV movies. A melodrama centering around the alcoholism of a father (Griffith) and how it affects his family. His son (Reeves) ultimately follows in his unfortunate footsteps. The flick is nearly impossible to find, only available on DVD and with copies out of stock from most sellers.
13/20 Constantine
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Based on DC Comics Hellblazer comic book, Constantine tells the story of a demonologist who can communicate with angels and demons in their true form. Condemned to hell from a prior failed suicide attempt, Constantine tries to earn good favor to get into heaven.
As such, Constantine teams up with detective Angela Dobson to investigate her sister’s apparent suicide. Angela is convinced that supernatural forces were to blame for her sister’s death. During the investigation, Constantine becomes entwined in a supernatural plot involving both angelic and demonic forces. Keanu has said he enjoyed playing the role of Constantine and would like to play the role again.
12/20 Always Be My Maybe
Always Be My Maybe is a Netflix-produced romantic comedy starring stand-up comedian Ali Wong opposite Randall Park as childhood friends who are reunited years later. A recurring theme in the film is how Park’s character is less successful than Wong’s character, which is never more obvious than when they have dinner with Keanu Reeves, playing an uber-cool, over-the-top, fictionalized version of himself. It serves as the perfect foil to make Park’s character feel insecure and inadequate in comparison, as anyone would.
11/20 The Devil’s Advocate
Based on Andrew Neiderman’s novel of the same name, The Devil’s Advocate is a 1997 supernatural horror film starring Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, and Al Pacino. Reeves stars as young hotshot attorney Kevin Lomax who has never lost a case. When Kevin realizes (too late) that his client is guilty, he manipulates the situation to maintain his scorecard, securing a not-guilty vote. Kevin soon realizes that the consequences of his actions could be too great to bear.
10/20 John Wick
Keanu Reeves stars in the titular role in John Wick, which was so successful that it spurred three sequels, John Wick 2, John Wick 3, and the not yet released John Wick 4. The entire film trilogy hinges on Wick’s desire for bloodthirsty revenge spawned from the moment that three Russian gangsters kill his beloved dog, who was a gift from his late wife before she died. If the death of a sweet beagle named Daisy isn’t enough of a justification to send any man into a blind, murderous rage, then what is?
9/20 Point Break
In the 1991 action-thriller film Point Break, Reeves plays an FBI agent, Johnny Utah, who goes undercover to catch a band of bank robbers. Determining that the robbers are also surfers based on a hunch from his coworker, Utah learns how to surf and works his way into the surfing community to catch the criminals. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), the movie also stars the late Patrick Swayze and Gary Busey. Point Break was such a cult hit that it inspired a a 2015 remake and a potential sequel series titled Point Break 2.
8/20 Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare film adaptations can be extremely polarizing–viewers either love them or hate them. For fans of the bard, however, 1993’s Much Ado About Nothing was a smash hit. In the poetic romantic comedy, Reeves plays Don John, the evil half-brother of Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, played by Denzel Washington. The movie was directed by and stars Kenneth Branagh alongside Emma Thompson, Michael Keaton, and a young Kate Beckinsdale.
7/20 A Scanner Darkly
Richard Linklater is a director known for taking risks with his films, for example choosing to shoot the film Boyhood over several years with the same actors, giving a documentary aspect to the scripted coming-of-age film. For A Scanner Darkly, a science fiction film adapted from a Philip K. Dick novel of the same name, Linklater used the animation technique of rotoscoping, where real actors are filmed, and then animators trace over the footage frame-by-frame to give the imagery a dream-like quality. Reeves stars in the trippy film as a police officer in a world where a huge swath of the population is addicted to a mysterious hallucinogenic drug.
6/20 Speed
Another film on the list with an unusual premise, Speed is all about a bus that has been equipped with a bomb that will explode if the vehicle drives under 50 miles per hour. Keanu Reeves stars as a talented LAPD officer who receives a phone call from a terrorist, alerting him about the status of the public bus. He boards the vehicle, and thrilling action ensues, with most of the 116-minute movie taking place on the bus. The film also memorably stars Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper.
5/20 Something’s Gotta Give
A Nancy Meyer rom-com starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, this role was a diversion from Keanu Reeves’ typical casting. In Something’s Gotta Give, Nicholson’s character has a heart attack while on vacation in the Hamptons with his significantly-younger girlfriend and her mother (Keaton).
His doctor (Reeves) orders him to stay a few extra days in the area for observation, during which sparks fly with Keaton’s character, who happens to be more age-appropriate; however, she ends up falling for the doctor. Reeves excels as the doctor caught up in a complicated web of relationships.
4/20 Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
A science-fiction comedy, this old classic is one of Keanu Reeves’ early breakouts and still unlike any other project has been a part of. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is at its core a story about a time traveler from hundreds of years in the future tasked with helping two high schoolers in 1988 with passing their history course. Starring Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as Bill and Ted, respectively, the 1989 movie also stars comedy legend George Carlin. A massive box office success, the movie grossed $40.5 million on a budget of $10 million.
3/20 Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Francis Ford Coppola’s iteration of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is arguably one of the best vampire movies in existence. While Reeves’ performance leaves something to be desired, his flat incarnation of Jonathan Harkin certainly provides some balance to the outlandish happenings of the film. Reeves recently recounted that he and co-star Winona Ryder were actually married on the set of Dracula, as they had real Romanian Priests officiate the wedding scene.
2/20 My Own Private Idaho
In one of his more difficult roles, Reeves plays the character of Scott Favor, a fellow sex worker and friend of River Phoenix’s Mikey Waters. In the heartbreaking, gritty indie film My Own Private Idaho that deals with heavy themes of poverty, mental illness, and closeted homosexuality, Mikey confesses his love for Scott, who then rebuffs him, falling in love with a woman. At the end of the Gus Van Sant film, the boys are separated by consequence, with Scott falling into money and opportunity and Mikey perhaps left worse-off than before.
1/20 The Matrix
While The Matrix might not be Keanu Reeves’ most impressive acting role to date, not showing the range of Point Break or My Own Private Idaho, it might be his most iconic. The ’90s classic is one of the most successful film franchises of all time and one of the most referenced in pop culture and internet memes.
Reeves stars as a hacker nicknamed Neo who uncovers the truth about humanity’s takeover by artificially intelligent robots. Clad in small sunglasses and a floor-length leather duster, it’s no doubt Reeves’ most recognizable part. The movie spawned several sequels including, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and more recently The Matrix Resurrections.