5 Best Karl Urban Sci-Fi Movies, Ranked

Take a look at Karl Urban's IMDb page, and it reads like a pop culture bingo card, which explains why he's such a favored talent across so many fandoms. "The Lord of the Rings" fans will always see him as the heroic horse lord Éomer in "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King," while those who stuck it out for five seasons of "The Boys" learned to love and eventually loathe him as the superhero-hating anarchist Billy Butcher. Beyond that, there are a handful of other sci-fi roles — though not all of them leading roles — that still helped carve out a career that helped him get where he is now, and they're all worth revisiting.

From big blockbuster reboots to underappreciated comic book adaptations that fans demanded more of, Karl Urban has done it all and done it well. After careful assessment (and watching some absolute bangers), we've ranked his best stints in sci-fi and explained why they stand out from the rest. To begin with, we're going back to one of his earliest roles in a sequel that didn't quite meet the level of its predecessor, but still shone a spotlight on a young Karl Urban, who was meant for greater things.

After Vin Diesel's name gained traction through nitrous oxide in "Fast and Furious" and through extreme sports and spy activity in "xXx," he turned one of his earlier movies into a franchise by following the underrated sci-fi horror "Pitch Black" with "The Chronicles of Riddick." For Karl Urban, it was a cinematic stepping stone in his Hollywood career and a sequel that expanded the anti-hero's world. 

Stop us if you've heard this one before, but a lone hero finds himself standing between the safety of the galaxy and the tyranny of a cult-like group that fears a prophecy could lead to their demise. Colm Feore ("The Umbrella Academy," "For All Mankind") is the tyrannical leader with magical powers who thinks a one-man army is no match for him. Spoilers: it is.

Urban played Vaako, the second-in-command to the film's big bad cult leader, Lord Marshall (Colm Feore), whom he secretly planned to overthrow. He looked something of a space goth for most of the film, with his stupidly chiseled jaw, slicked-back hair, and heavy eyeliner. Urban made his presence known and held his own against Diesel where it counted. It might not have been a meaty role for the newcomer, but it was certainly enough to earn some attention for what lay ahead. He clearly had a lot of love for the role and the franchise that helped give him a nudge, as evidenced by his return to the role nine years later in the not-so-great threequel, "Riddick," for a small appearance. 

In the refreshing team effort that was the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot, there's no doubt that Karl Urban did an excellent job as a team player when he was beamed aboard the Enterprise as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. As one of the first members of the future crew that Kirk (Chris Pine) meets — and would eventually lead in seeking out strange new worlds — Urban helped continue setting the tone for just what kind of ride we were in for with the J.J. Abrams-directed movie. The voice of reason when everyone was out of their damn mind, Urban's dry delivery made for some of the movie's pitch-perfect moments that proved this young cast was paying immense respect to what came before. In Urban's case, though, there was an extra bit of passion given that he campaigned for the role himself.

The result is a truly loving performance that applies a different energy but shares the signature traits that made DeForest Kelley's original portrayal of the character so revered. Pine can swagger and smirk his way through a scene and clash with the logical and level-headed version of Zachary Quinto's Spock, but in the case of Bones, Urban needs to be the middleman regularly looking like he wants to bang their heads together until they see sense. It's Urban's involvement among so many others that made the Kelvin timeline the surprise hit for casual fans and ones that some die-hard "Trek" lovers begrudgingly accepted weren't bad at all.

From a man of science to a man of stuff, Urban appearing in "Thor: Ragnarok" felt like one of many welcome additions in what remains one of the best chapters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's a lot to have fun with in Taika Waititi's weird and wacky threequel, which includes Jeff Goldblum in full force and the brilliant blooming bromance between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), so it's a testament to Urban that he manages to carve some space for himself as stand-in gatekeeper of Asgard and part-time henchman, Skurge.

Originally a longstanding villain in the lore of Thor, here Skurge gets transformed into slightly meatheaded muscle, which feels a step away from the kind of roles Urban had made for himself. Up until now, he'd taken on parts like Vaako in "The Chronicles of Riddick" and indeed, Bones, but here Skurge is a bumbling idiot who loves paraphernalia and the far-off land of "Tex-arse." It's perhaps even more annoying than that; like a lot of characters in this threequel, Skurge is killed off after his crisis of conscience when he could've become another popular supporting character that these comic book movies are crammed with. Worry not, though, Skurge. We will not forget thee — or the idea of what you'd look like riding a Vespa with an M16 in each hand.

Why is the second best movie in the Kelvin timeline further up the ranking of Urban's best sci-fi works? Well, for one, a lot more time is spent with the good doctor than in previous films, and it's shared with the one character he famously rarely sees eye to pointy-eyebrowed eye with. It's well documented that following "Star Trek Into Darkness" (which even Abrams admitted should've been handled better), "Star Trek Beyond" faced an uphill struggle, and the fans weren't the only ones to think so. Urban had been open about his reluctance to return for a threequel after McCoy had very little presence in the previous installment and didn't want the same to happen here. Thankfully, that issue was wonderfully remedied (with some thanks going to cast member Simon Pegg, who also co-wrote the script) by splitting up the crew, including McCoy and Spock.

What follows is a great little bit of a buddy movie shoehorned into what feels like the closest thing to a classic "Trek" episode out of all the Kelvin movies. It also just gives us more time with McCoy that was well deserved. Now, if the higher-ups at Paramount could just get their act together and give us one final ride with McCoy and this crew, perhaps these movies might go down as a brilliant addition to the franchise that they have every right to be.

Ask a Karl Urban fan what their favorite performance is, and chances are that besides playing tea-swigging psychopath Billy Butcher in "The Boys," it's growling no-nonsense law enforcer Judge Dredd in a modern cult classic, "Dredd." Leaning into the stiff-lipped enforcer that Dredd is known as, Urban gives arguably a career-best performance that doesn't venture past his nostrils. Staying behind that iconic red and black helmet for the entirety of the film, he makes sure that every growl and grimace lands and establishes that 2000AD's most iconic hero is a force to be reckoned with.

More than anything, though, this is easily one of Urban's best-looking movies that's built around such a simple story. Dredd is called to an apartment block that houses a massive drug operation. Every floor is crammed with video game-level worth of henchmen just waiting to get ripped to shreds by his fancy gun and threats of justice that turn the air cold. There's not an ounce of cinematic fat on it, and any that might be there gets trimmed off by Urban in a performance that cements him as the live-action Dredd worth remembering. We'll always curse the heavens of Hollywood for making this comic book sci-fi movie bomb when it absolutely shouldn't, or missing out on a sequel that fans yearn for. That still doesn't change the fact that this is Urban's best bit of work on the big screen. You quite simply just have to love Urban's "Dredd." It's the law.