Actor, rapper, producer – this proud son of Philadelphia has worked with the best of the best Hollywood has ever seen and, to this day, remains the pinnacle of what stardom really looks like. With so many movies under his belt, which among them are actually the greatest Will Smith movies made?
Hailing from Philly and starting out as a rapper with DJ Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith found more success as an actor from his starring role in the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. (If you've ever seen a wedding party go nuts to 'Jump On It,' well, you have Will Smith and co-star Alfonso Ribeiro to thank.) As Fresh Prince invited Smith inside millions of homes, the actor's star grew as he transitioned to the bigger realm of movies. By 1995, Smith was a household name and a legitimate box office draw, not to mention one of the most prolific Black celebrities in American pop culture.
While Smith has all but withdrawn from his music career, the name "Will Smith" is still synonymous with a level of stardom a fragmented industry simply can't produce anymore. His confident aura, mixed with his legitimate range as an actor, has led the star to appear in Oscar-winning movies and even gotten the actor past some bizarre controversies, like his physical assault on Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony in 2022.
From punching out aliens to serious dramas about individual resilience, these are the 33 greatest Will Smith movies.
33. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Year: 2013
Director: Adam McKay
Jeff Bullington, ESPN, all sports. Tonight's play of the day: Will Smith in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. While Smith has only a cameo in Will Ferrell's Anchorman sequel, the man holds it down against a parade of A-listers in an exceptionally violent news media battle royale. Satirizing the proliferation (and fragmentation) of television in the 1980s, Smith represents ESPN as he heads to war against the BBC, MTV, and even the History Channel. You've never experienced cinema until you've seen Will Smith call in an airstrike against the Minotaur.
32. The Legend of Bagger Vance
Year: 2000
Director: Robert Redford
Based on the 1995 book by Steven Pressfield, itself loosely inspired by the Hindu sacred text Bhagavad Gita, The Legend of Bagger Vance stars Will Smith as a spirit who comes to Earth in the form of a golf caddy to mentor a once-famous golfer turned alcoholic World War 1 veteran Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon). The Legend of Bagger Vance was a major disappointment for all involved, including director Robert Redford, being a movie that glosses over the period's racism and tells a trite story about faith and perseverance. But Smith puts on a solid performance, finely tuned in a film that is overly and comically sincere.
31. Where the Day Takes You
Year: 1992
Director: Marc Rocco
During the early years of his sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith made his theatrical acting debut in the 1992 drama Where the Day Takes You. The movie follows a group of homeless and runaway youths in Los Angeles and their everyday struggle on the streets; among the movie's cast are Dermont Mulroney, Sean Astin, Lara Flynn Boyle, Kyle MacLachlan, Alyssa Milano, and David Arquette. Will Smith has a supporting role as a disabled, wheelchair-bound friend of the group, who has his own ways to survive. Where the Day Takes You is just a glimpse of what Smith would soon show as a bigger star.
30. Shark Tale
Year: 2004
Directors: Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, Rob Letterman
In the aftermath of hits like Shrek and Ice Age, the 2000s saw a boom in star-studded CGI animated family movies. Will Smith inevitably wound up in one of them: the 2004 comedy Shark Tale. Smith leads as main protagonist, Oscar, an underachiever living under the sea who publicly lies about killing the son of a shark mob boss. As the lie spins out of control, Oscar learns a thing or two about honesty. Shark Tale has nothing on another seafaring animated movie from 2004, Finding Nemo (also known as one of the best Pixar movies ever made), but it's innocent and inoffensive enough.
29. Seven Pounds
Year: 2008
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Critics panned Seven Pounds when it was released in 2008, citing its illogical plot and grim tone as unbearable, but Will Smith is still an assured lead. The actor plays Ben Thomas, a man burdened by the guilt of an accident he caused that claimed the lives of seven people, including his own fiance. Seeking atonement, Ben goes out of his way to improve the lives of seven strangers, falling in love with one of them, Emily (Rosario Dawson) in the process. Seven Pounds asks a lot of its viewers to suspend their disbelief, and maybe too much, but it's far from a major sacrifice to watch a movie star at work.
28. Wild Wild West
Year: 1999
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
In 2019, Will Smith revealed in a YouTube video that he turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix to star in the box office disaster of 1999, Wild Wild West. To be fair, the movie sounded like a good move. The film not only reunited him with his director from Men in Black, Barry Sonnenfeld, but its story – about an old-timey gunslinger tasked with tracking down an evil scientist in a heightened reimagining of the Old West – made more sense than The Matrix, an anime-inspired sci-fi about rebel hackers. (Smith also said the way he was pitched The Matrix was not ideal, with the blockbuster hit sounding incomprehensible as it was told to him by the Wachowskis.) Wild Wild West is indeed a bad movie compared to The Matrix, but Smith fires on all cylinders as a leading man with Kevin Kline as his straight-faced co-star. Smith isn't proud of it, but come on: The song with Dru Hill is a banger.
27. Winter's Tale
Year: 2014
Director: Akiva Goldsman
It's only a cameo, but Winter's Tale has maybe the scariest performance ever from Will Smith. In this romantic fantasy by Akiva Goldsman, Colin Farrell plays a thief – unknowingly raised by a demon posing as a gangster (Russel Crowe) – who falls in love with a severely ill young woman (Jessica Brown Findlay). Will Smith has a small role as the supreme ruler of all demons, Lucifer, who intimidates Crowe's subordinate character. Despite the uninspired VFX work, which transforms Smith's jaw into something out of Mortal Kombat, there's no doubt that Smith has a range with potential for bone-chilling darkness.
26. After Earth
Year: 2013
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Will Smith has gone on record saying After Earth is one of the biggest regrets of his career, a sci-fi disaster that strained his relationship with his son Jaden Smith who co-starred in the picture. The elder Smith stars as a rigid military general in a future where humans have left Earth behind. A crash landing leaves him and his son, Kitai (Jaden Smith), stranded on the planet, now overrun by hostile creatures. Critics were unforgiving of After Earth – Grantland's Alex Pappedemas called it a "parade-float tribute to nepotism" – but real ones know that M. Night Shyamalan isn't a careless director. After Earth isn't anyone's favorite movie, but Smith departs from his usual smarmy, swaggering persona to portray a man who masks his fears with razor-sharp restraint.
25. Bright
Year: 2017
Director: David Ayer
Training Day meets Shadowrun in Bright, a big-budget Netflix exclusive movie that strove to inspire a new franchise. It didn't, and frankly, Bright isn't very – ahem, bright. But it has one thing going for it: The chemistry of Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, the latter in heavy orc prosthetics. Set in an alternate reality where our real world is co-inhabited by mythological creatures, Smith plays a veteran LAPD officer who is paired with Nick Jakoby (Edgerton), the first-ever orc police officer. Thus begins this gritty crime thriller where mismatched cops track down magic wands tied to a conspiracy involving the resurrection of the "Dark Lord." Bright didn't inspire a new cinematic universe, but in 2017, it was quite a big deal that a star like Will Smith was headlining an original new movie for the increasingly powerful Netflix.
23. Focus
Year: 2015
Director(s): Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Following her head-turning performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, Margot Robbie's Hollywood star was on the rise when she appeared opposite Will Smith in Focus. Released in 2015, this crime drama movie sees Robbie play a rookie con artist named Jess, who submits herself to training under seasoned professional Nicky (Smith). But as the stakes get higher with every job, their personal boundaries blur as feelings get mixed up in their schemes. Sexy and suspenseful, Focus is one of the more underrated movies in Smith's body of work.
22. Gemini Man
Year: 2019
Director: Ang Lee
While the cutting-edge VFX technology behind Gemini Man is maybe more interesting than the movie itself, Will Smith proves why he's one of the best Hollywood action stars to ever do it in Ang Lee's ambitious sci-fi. Smith stars in the picture as Henry Brogan, a senior assassin who fights against the man tasked with killing him: Junior, an artificial clone of his younger self. (Smith plays dual parts, and with aplomb.) While fending off Junior, Henry races to take down the corrupt entity who wants him dead in the first place. Past all the explosions and breakneck action sequences is a surprisingly meditative blockbuster where Will Smith explores themes of duality and identity, and whether the dangerous life he's led has been a life worth living.
21. Men in Black 2
Year: 2002
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Though it lacks the charm and craftsmanship of its 1997 predecessor, Men in Black 2 still entertains as it reunites Agent J (Will Smith) with his former mentor, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones). Flipping the script over the original, Agent J re-recruits the now-retired Agent K by restoring his memories of the MIB in order to deal with an alien menace with links to Agent K's past. Along for the ride is a pretty young New Yorker (Rosario Dawson) who has no inkling she's actually a lost alien princess. Men in Black 2 doesn't come close to touching the original, but it's not a half-bad sequel. Honestly, any excuse to see these two actors together is a good one.
20. Suicide Squad
Year: 2016
Director: David Ayer
Fans hold out hope to one day see David Ayer's actual "Director's Cut" version of Suicide Squad. Until that day, there is still the movie that came out in 2016, which made Margot Robbie an even bigger star despite the movie being underwhelming in every other regard. Will Smith leads a collection of DC supervillains as Deadshot, an assassin with perfect aim – and with a grudge against Batman – who is forcibly recruited into a black ops task force. Taking on an exceptionally dangerous mission in exchange for a reduced sentence, the Suicide Squad tries to stop a demon who has unleashed her powers on an unsuspecting public. Suicide Squad are no heroes, but they undeniably made bigger waves than the Justice League on the big screen. Sure, it isn't one of the best DC movies by any means, but the trailer set to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" is still something.
19. Spies in Disguise
Year: 2019
Director: Nick Bruno
On the surface, Spies in Disguise didn't look like much of anything. Aside from some midcentury spy-fi design cues from the reliably imaginative Blue Sky Studios, the movie was yet another star-packed CGI movie for kids, where a slick secret agent (Will Smith) is transformed into a pigeon and needs the help of a kid genius (Tom Holland) to restore him. But Spies in Disguise surprised even the most cynical critics, surpassing low expectations as a fun, all-ages romp about friendship and teamwork. Smith doesn't do cartoon voice work often, but Spies in Disguise makes a great case that he's always up to the task.
18. King Richard
Year: 2021
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
King Richard landed Will Smith his first-ever Academy Award win as an actor, although his controversial actions during the ceremony eclipsed his acceptance. Still, it's a performance worthy of Oscar gold, as King Richards brings to the screen the real-life story of Richard Williams as he coaches his daughters, future tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams. Facing adversity while maintaining charisma, charm, and determination to succeed, Smith's performance challenges audiences to consider where the lines are drawn between love and ambition. While Smith slapping show host Chris Rock onstage deflated the excitement of Smith's Oscar win, there is still the performance of an assured Smith far removed from his bad boy arrogance.
17. Bad Boys 2
Year: 2003
Director: Michael Bay
Bigger and badder than its 1995 predecessor, Michael Bay's Bad Boys 2 cranks up the dial to 11 as Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reunite as hotshot Miami cops Mike Lowry (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) as they investigate a criminal ring flooding the streets with a dangerous strain of ecstasy. Gleefully garish and totally shameless, Bad Boys 2 is a dizzying balls-to-the-wall action spectacle that makes the most out of the combined efforts of Smith and Lawrence. From high-octane shootouts to car chases that explode like fireworks, Bad Boys 2 is hotter than a summer afternoon barbecue.
16. Aladdin
Year: 2019
Director: Guy Ritchie
It's a tall order matching up to the late Robin Williams, and truth be told, Will Smith does not. (Who on Earth can?) But Smith does his best in one of Disney's many remakes of its cartoon classics. In 2019, Disney's Aladdin was next in line for the remake machine with Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Naomi Scott as feisty Princess Jasmine. Supporting Aladdin's efforts to woo Jasmine is Genie, the cosmic wish maker who becomes Aladdin's mentor. Imbuing his role with showmanship and trickster panache, not to mention giving his own spin on the song "Friend Like Me," Will Smith is tons of fun, even if his impressions of Robin Williams leaves him blue in the face.
15. Emancipation
Year: 2022
Director: Antoine Fuqua
For much of his career, Will Smith's image was that of a Black Hollywood star who doesn't ruffle anyone's political feathers. Few of his movies, if ever, dealt with America's ongoing history of racism. That changed in 2022 when Smith starred in Antoine Fuqua's Emancipation. In this historical thriller, Smith plays "Peter," the real American slave whose pictures revealing his inhumane wounds gave fuel to the abolitionist movement. Fuqua follows Peter in the aftermath of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, where Peter survives as a runaway slave while being hunted by slave catchers. Emancipation awkwardly comes across as a survival action movie rather than the necessarily grave drama it should be. Still, it is a stirring movie with a dirt-smeared Smith giving a performance that only a lifetime of Hollywood stardom can teach.
14. Concussion
Year: 2015
Director: Peter Landesman
With an audible Nigerian accent, Will Smith becomes real-life Dr. Bennet Omalu for Peter Landesman's drama Concussion. The movie dramatizes Omalu's efforts in the 2000s to promote his work studying chronic traumatic encephalopathy after he discovers that many players in the NFL were suffering from severe mental deterioration. While Omalu's work itself has been challenged, particularly in a scathing Washington Post article in 2020, as far as Concussion is concerned, Smith's measured and authoritative performance makes his version of Omalu across a principled outsider whose expertise falls on deaf, greedy ears. Concussion is a maddening movie for all the right reasons.
13. I, Robot
Year: 2004
Director: Alex Proyas
In a cameo appearance in Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl, Will Smith, playing as himself, admits that his latest "robot movie" wasn't "that good." Frankly, that's silly talk. Although Alex Proyas' adaptation of Isaac Asimov's short story is overburdened by now-dated CGI and generally overcooked action sequences typical of its time, I, Robot isn't an empty-headed tentpole made by machines. Smith, playing the part of a luddite police detective investigating the death of a robotics CEO, is in top form as a masculine protagonist, underscored by his organic, human instinct.
12. Hitch
Year: 2005
Director: Andy Tennant
If love has you feeling down, call Hitch. In this breezy romantic comedy, Will Smith plays self-proclaimed "love doctor" and matchmaker Alex "Hitch" Hitchens, whose clientele of lonely men rely on him to secure them dates. But Hitch soon meets his match in a beautiful, workaholic gossip columnist named Sara, played by Eva Mendes. It's bizarre to realize that Will Smith didn't star in many romantic comedies, even at the height of his movie stardom. Hitch is proof that Smith had all the ingredients to be a serious heartthrob in the genre alongside his sci-fi chops.
11. Enemy of the State
Year: 1998
Director: Tony Scott
Generations collide as Will Smith co-stars with Gene Hackman in Tony Scott's underrated political thriller Enemy of the State. Smith stars as a lawyer framed by corrupt agents in the NSA, after he receives visual evidence of the agents murdering a congressman. With the help of a former operative (Hackman), Smith embarks on a race against time to clear his name. Feeling like it came just a few minutes ahead of its time, Enemy of the State foreshadowed all our fears regarding privacy in the 21st century, with Smith's everyman protagonist relatably overwhelmed by how much the government is onto us. Its pairing of Smith and Hackman, resulting in an especially unusual yet dynamic duo, is just the cherry on top of this dadcore sundae.
10. Bad Boys for Life
Year: 2020
Director(s): Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
It took almost 20 years, but the wait was worth it for this action movie reunion. In 2020, Will Smith reunited with Martin Lawrence as the two returned as Mike and Marcus in Bad Boys for Life, the long-awaited third installment of the Bad Boys series. Under new direction by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, Bad Boys for Life sees Mike reckon with his past when the wife and son of a notorious Mexican drug lord go after him as payback for a very old sin. The rare legacy sequel that can stand shoulder to shoulder with its originators, Bad Boys for Life testifies that being middle-aged still doesn't mean you can't have style.
9. Men in Black 3
Year: 2012
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Although its budget ballooned to a whopping (estimated) $250 million, Men in Black 3 defied the odds to be a worthy sequel to a long-in-the-tooth sci-fi franchise. In 2012, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones returned as their sharp-dressed agents as Agent J embarks on a time travel mission to prevent the assassination of his partner K. In 1969, the time-displaced J meets the younger form of his partner K (Josh Brolin). Men in Black 3 is the rare sequel that actually has something to say, with the movie presenting an opportunity to explore how even longstanding friendships are delicate and must be handled with care. Though Men in Black 3 marked the last time Smith and Jones appeared in the series, they went out with one heck of a bang.
8. Bad Boys: Ride or Die
Year: 2024
Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Age finally catches up to Miami detectives Mike and Marcus, as Will Smith and Martin Lawrence go for another round together in 2024's Bad Boys: Ride or Die, again directed by previous directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. As both men square with their middle age and fragile mortality, they stand up to a major crime syndicate after they frame their late boss, Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), for false connections to drug cartels. Directors Arbi and Fallah go hard in the director's chair, with immersive action sequences that prove their mettle – and just how mad they still are over the cancellation of Batgirl.
7. The Pursuit of Happyness
Year: 2006
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Will Smith and his real-life son Jaden Smith co-star in the heartbreaking but uplifting biopic The Pursuit of Happyness. Based on the real-life story of once-homeless stockbroker Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness sees Smith play Chris as he lives on the streets with his young son (Jaden Smith) while employed at an unpaid internship. The Pursuit of Happyness is a heavy but inspirational movie; just as much as it champions the virtues of hard work and perseverance, it also reveals the easy pitfalls which people become destitute, and that bad luck can happen to anyone. Smith is in especially strong form as a dramatic leading man, with his natural chemistry with Jaden palpable on the screen.
6. Bad Boys
Year: 1995
Director: Michael Bay
Ride together, die together… bad boys for life. Michael Bay makes his feature directing debut in the explosive action hit of the 1990s, the original Bad Boys. Although Will Smith was still regarded as a sitcom star in 1995, his starring role in Bad Boys, alongside Martin Lawrence, marked the beginning of his transformation into a legitimate box office draw. Smith and Lawrence show up to work as Mike Lowry and Marcus Burnett, respectively, as narcotics detectives for the Miami police department who must protect a key witness. Notably, Bay disliked the shooting script and so encouraged Smith and Lawrence to improvise, cementing their chemistry and their characters in ways no pre-written script could have done.
5. I Am Legend
Year: 2007
Director: Francis Lawrence
The third movie to adapt Richard Matheson's 1954 novel – after The Last Man on Earth in 1964 and The Omega Man in 1971 – I Am Legend sees Will Smith play a US Army virologist who lives alone in now-abandoned New York City. Immune to a disease that has turned most of the living into nocturnal mutants that feed on people, Smith's character races to develop an overdue cure before the mutants finally take him. Only a star like Will Smith could anchor a movie (mostly) by himself, while director Francis Lawrence enables I Am Legend to balance between Hollywood spectacle and smart rumination on society's fragility. While the movie's theatrical ending ended in typical Hollywood fashion, a more book-accurate alternate ending included on the home release became the origins for a sequel that entered development in 2022.
4. Independence Day
Year: 1996
Director: Roland Emmerich
Only Will Smith could cold-clock a space alien, unphased and unbothered, cigar in his mouth. That's Roland Emmerich's Independence Day, a massive summer blockbuster hit that modernized the classic alien invasion thriller a la War of the Worlds for a new generation. Through Emmerich's overblown artistry, aliens nuke the White House and hover over skyscrapers, but the daring work of brave heroes and a few clever computer hackers save humanity in the most exciting ways possible. Smith is just one piece of the puzzle in Independence Day, but he was a hard presence to ignore, becoming the big star we know him today from the bravura he showed off as a U.S. Marine and pilot ready to throw hands. Independence Day is one of the best sci-fi movies ever made and is hands down one of Smith's greatest hits.
3. Ali
Year: 2001
Director: Michael Mann
He floats like a butterfly, stings like a be, by golly he's the greatest of all time because he's just so pretty. That's something almighty boxer Muhammad Ali might say about himself, especially in his 2001 biopic. Will Smith steps into the ring as Ali in Michael Mann's expansive sports drama that chronicles a ten-year span of Ali's career as a professional boxer and public figure, from his conversion to Islam and refusal of conscription into the Vietnam War while putting on some of the greatest bouts the sport of boxing has ever seen. Smith is larger than life in his chameleonic impersonation of Ali, occupying Mann's widescreen frame with the same oversized presence that Ali commanded during his lifetime. Ali bombed at the box office, but rest assured, it's a knockout.
2. Six Degrees of Separation
Year: 1993
Director: Fred Schepisi
Not long after Will Smith surfaced from his starring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the rapper-turned-actor demonstrated his big screen chops in Fred Schepisi's 1993 film Six Degrees of Separation. Based on John Guare's Pulitzer-nominated play, Smith plays Paul, a charming con artist who disrupts the lives of an affluent New York couple. Claiming to be a friend of their children, Paul's presence has an unexpected effect on the couple (played by Stockard Channing and Donald Sutherland) as well as other people, but while Paul doesn't keep up the ruse for long, the impact he leaves behind is felt long afterward. Not only is Six Degrees of Separation one of Will Smith's earliest movies, but it's also still one of his best.
1. Men in Black
Year: 1998
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
A high-concept sci-fi blockbuster that doesn't waste a single second of its tight 90-ish minutes, Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black is the platonic ideal for a Hollywood tentpole. Will Smith is unmatched as NYPD officer turned rookie agent J, paired with the no-nonsense K (Tommy Lee Jones), who reveals to him the secret world of immigrant aliens living in plain sight in New York City. Men in Black – which, believe it or not, stems from an obscure Marvel comic book – predictably launched a franchise, but the original outing is still the best, and maybe the best alien movie Will Smith has ever done. It's quotable, compulsively watchable, and with special effects that have hardly aged a day, it's still formidable. And don't even get us started on the theme song. Just remember: The good guys dress in black.
