Denzel Washington Was Always at His Best Working With This Misunderstood Action Filmmaker

When you think of Denzel Washington, recent acclaimed films like Fences, Flight, and The Equalizer series might come to mind, or his Oscar-winning performances in Glory and Training Day. No doubt, Washington has an incredible filmography that ranges across multiple genres, and he has even become an accomplished director in his own right. But while some of Washington’s other films might typically receive the highest praise, for many, the actor was always at his best when working alongside director Tony Scott.

Denzel Washington and Tony Scott Frequently Pushed Each Other to Greatness

Image via Buena Vista Pictures

While perhaps not as well-known as his older brother, Ridley Scott, it was Tony Scott who was responsible for crowd-pleasing action flicks like the original Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Days of Thunder. But while his visionary side was responsible for critical darlings like True Romance and Enemy of the State, his collaborations with Denzel Washington have come to define the type of action they were each capable of.

Of course, Washington, like Scott, had already had an impressive career long before they met, thriving no matter the genre he tackled. Indeed, their first partnership, 1995’s Crimson Tide, was simply another slam-dunk in Washington’s string of hit ’90s thrillers, while it stands as one of Scott’s mellower dramas. There, Washington was pitted opposite Gene Hackman in a nail-biting narrative that echoed Cold War fears, though it didn’t lean so heavily into Scott’s trademark “rock ‘n’ roll” filmmaking. It would be another decade before the two collaborated in earnest — and by then, they had perfected their signature styles.

When the two reunited nine years later for Man on Fire — which may just take the cake for their best work together — Scott had reinvented himself for the 21st century, becoming increasingly more chaotic in his quick-cutting and philosophical in his character work. Tony Scott’s unique penchant for displaying hyper-kinetic energy on-screen threw his stars into fast-paced, highly erratic, action-driven pictures that keep you laser-focused until those credits rolled. Washington, meanwhile, played against his usual type at the time, embracing the lone, “one-man-army” sort of action hero he would come to exemplify later on with The Equalizer.

Scott and Washington would end up making five films together, tackling maritime thrillers, gritty revenge dramas, high-concept sci-fi, and blue-collar disaster pictures, but no matter what film they were making, they always made each other better. “What I get off on is that we challenge each other,” Scott explained to The New York Times while promoting Unstoppable. “Out of the five movies Denzel gives me a different aspect of his personality, always something different inside of him.” Even their weakest collab, The Taking of Pelham 123, is a darn-good heist flick that manages to engross the viewer for an hour and a half as Washington faces down the threat posed by John Travolta. It may ride off the heels of their far-superior film Déjà Vu — a picture that’s equal parts action-suspense and philosophical romance — but it still manages to capture the essence of what made the Washington-Scott duo superior to other action-centric actor/director partnerships in the early 2000s.

Denzel Washington Starred in Tony Scott’s Very Last Film

It was fitting, that Washington was the leading man in Scott’s final film, Unstoppable. The vastly underrated runaway train flick positioned Washington opposite Chris Pine as Scott constructed a high-stakes disaster thriller that never slammed on the breaks. It’s a brilliant film that speaks strongly to Scott’s commercial expertise, as well as Washington’s uncanny ability to make just about any role interesting. Scott died two years after the release of Unstoppable. “Tony Scott was a great director, a genuine friend, and it is unfathomable to think that he is now gone,” Washington told E! News afterward.

While Scott is perhaps best known for directing Top Gun, his work with Washington is on another level. The filmmaker pushed the star to embrace vastly different characters each time they worked together, and it’s that stretching of his acting ability that shines brightest in their shared works. Man on Fire‘s ex-CIA operative John Creasy couldn’t be further from Déjà Vu‘s ATF agent Doug Carlin, even if both have the express goal of preserving human life. No matter if Washington was playing subway dispatcher Walter Garber, Naval Lt. Ron Hunter, or railroad engineer Frank Barnes, Scott always found a way to separate the star’s most recent role from his last.

Unstoppable is available for on Tubi, The Taking of Pelham 123 and Déjà Vu are available on YouTubeTV, Man on Fire is available on Peacock, and Crimson Tide is available for streaming on Prime Video.