All 10 Best Josh Hartnett Movies Ranked (Best to Worst)

Christopher Nolan’s historical chronicle turns theoretical physics into a thunderous study of collective hubris and geopolitical reckoning. Propelled by Ludwig Göransson’s anxious, propulsive score and Hoyte van Hoytema’s expansive 65mm cinematography, the narrative cuts between the desert isolation of Los Alamos and bitter postwar inquisitions. The film succeeds because its intellectual skirmishes carry the explosive weight of its titular weapon. Stepping into the shoes of pioneering nuclear physicist Ernest Lawrence, Hartnett provides an indispensable grounding wire. He plays Lawrence with warm midwestern reason, trading sharp moral arguments with Cillian Murphy. Hartnett projects institutional integrity without vanity, turning what could have been a dry expository role into an emotionally vital anchor that announced his triumphant return to elite filmmaking.

Ridley Scott’s uncompromising dramatization of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu strips away standard military heroics in favor of sheer logistical pandemonium. Pietro Scalia’s kinetic editing and Scott’s dust-choked lens capture the total collapse of urban operational planning, placing audiences inside an unyielding crossfire. The terror arrives not from cinematic artifice, but from the relentless, deafening rhythm of mechanized urban warfare. Hartnett carries the movie's heavy emotional spine as Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann, an idealistic Ranger forced to lead untested soldiers through hell. He resists flag-waving grandstanding, choosing instead to portray command as a quiet, terrified burden of accountability. It remains one of his defining early triumphs, proving he could anchor a massive ensemble with grit and authentic battlefield exhaustion.

Sofia Coppola’s ethereal directorial debut filters Jeffrey Eugenides' novel through a hazy, sun-bleached lens of suburban malaise and teenage alienation. Anchored by Air’s melancholy synth score and Edward Lachman’s lush photography, the film examines five cloistered sisters through the mythologizing memories of neighborhood boys who never truly knew them. It is an aching, poetic meditation on doomed innocence that established Coppola’s distinct visual grammar. Hartnett is exceptional as school heartthrob Trip Fontaine, sauntering down high school corridors in velvet flared trousers to the strains of Heart. He captures the effortless swagger of a small-town adolescent god, yet subtly telegraphs the superficiality beneath the charm. Hartnett subverted his real-life pin-up status with uncanny self-awareness, earning enduring critical cred.

Director Paul McGuigan’s hyper-stylized caper revels in colorful mid-2000s crime tropes, deploying split-screens, rapid-fire rhythmic dialogue, and ornate production design reminiscent of classic graphic novels. The labyrinthine plot—involving rival mob bosses, a mysterious assassin, and an elaborate revenge scheme known as the Kansas City Shuffle—moves with electric, irreverent bravura. While the genre thrills lean deliberately into theatricality, the movie holds together through pure narrative moxie. Hartnett operates at the center of the madness, clad in little more than a bath towel for much of the runtime. He delivers dry one-liners with impeccable comic timing, displaying magnetic chemistry alongside Bruce Willis and Lucy Liu. It stands as a joyful reminder of how well Hartnett wears effortless, self-effacing pulp charisma.

David Slade transplants graphic-novel terror to the frigid edge of Barrow, Alaska, where a month-long polar night leaves an isolated community vulnerable to an onslaught of feral, primal vampires. Stripping away romantic vampire folklore, Slade unleashes screeching, blood-slick predators onto blinding white snow, creating stark visual horror underlined by bleak sound design. The pacing is merciless, turning an eccentric survival story into a grim siege film. As Sheriff Eben Oleson, Hartnett gives a fiercely grounded, physically demanding performance. He plays Eben with stoic resolve and raw desperation, grounding the outlandish premise in marital heartache and civic loyalty. His climactic sacrifice provides genuine emotional punch, elevating the film from standard creature feature into a certified modern horror staple.

M. Night Shyamalan crafts an ingenious exercise in escalating, single-location dread by setting a psychological cat-and-mouse game within a pulsating arena pop concert. The atmosphere brims with slick crowd energy, surveillance paranoia, and sharp spatial choreography as federal agents systematically seal every exit to corner a prolific killer. The fun lies in watching the protagonist navigate an increasingly hopeless maze. Hartnett commands every frame as Cooper, juggling warm, goofy dad banter with chilled, calculating sociopathy. His uncanny ability to switch between disarming smiles and predatory panic drives the entire film. It represents a bold star vehicle that weaponizes his handsome matinée charm to reveal something deeply unsettling, proving his contemporary career instincts are sharper and more fearless than ever.

Robert Rodriguez injects 1990s high school archetypes with sharp Kevin Williamson dialogue and body-snatching sci-fi paranoia. Borrowing liberally from Jack Finney and John Carpenter, the film turns Herrington High into an infested war zone where teachers drink gallons of water and turn hostile. With a killer grunge soundtrack and razor-sharp practical creature effects, it serves as an exuberant time capsule of post-Scream genre cinema. Hartnett broke through here as Zeke Tyler, the brilliant slacker selling illicit drugs out of his trunk. He exudes effortless bad-boy magnetism, providing both sarcastic levity and inventive heroics when the alien threat escalates. Even amidst a stacked young cast, Hartnett possessed undeniable star wattage, signaling his immediate elevation to Hollywood's leading ranks.

Guy Ritchie strips away his usual buoyant cockney humor to deliver a brooding, revenge-soaked Los Angeles heist thriller. Armed with thumping brass cues, cold industrial grading, and heavy weaponry, the film methodically pieces together an armored car robbery that spirals into tactical slaughter. The production thrives on unrelenting, heavyweight brutality and tight mechanical suspense. Hartnett leans delightfully against type as 'Boy Sweat' Dave, a brash, neurotic security guard whose loud machismo evaporates the second genuine violence erupts. It marked his first reunion with Ritchie and served as an early harbinger of his current screen renaissance. Hartnett clearly relished ditching conventional heroics to play a frayed, panicked survivor, adding vital human texture to an otherwise icy crime machine.

Michael Bay’s three-hour wartime epic attempts to balance sweeping romance with explosive historical catastrophe. While the romantic dialogue often veers into heavy-handed melodrama, the center-stage attack sequence remains an astonishing showcase of practical pyrotechnics, complex aerial choreography, and sheer visual scale. Bay stages destruction with thunderous operatic excess that demands awe even when the surrounding script falters. Hartnett stars as Captain Danny Walker, radiating earnest mid-century nobility alongside Ben Affleck. Though saddled with a formulaic love-triangle narrative, Hartnett manages to cut through the bloated sentimentality with earnest vulnerability and undeniable screen charisma. The production cemented him as a bankable Hollywood icon, even if the film itself remains more memorable for its deafening technical fireworks than narrative depth.

Adapting Colleen Hoover's best-selling psychological thriller brings a sleek, shadowy gloss to twisted romantic obsession and dark domestic secrets. The story follows a struggling writer hired to complete a paralyzed novelist's work, only to stumble upon sinister home truths that blur truth, manuscript, and criminal madness. While the narrative occasionally struggles under lurid genre clichés and heightened melodrama, it constructs an undeniably moody, gossip-fueled atmospheric tension. Hartnett tackles the morally ambiguous husband Jeremy Crawford, offering a restrained, smoldering presence that anchors the story's unraveling twists. Though the film represents the thinnest entry in his top-tier resume, his performance brings a shadowy weight and layered guilt that outclasses the soapier aspects of the source material.