The Best Tom Hardy Movies & TV Shows
With his rugged persona, distinctive voice, and remarkable versatility, Tom Hardy has become one of the most beloved actors both at home and in Hollywood.
His ability to portray complex characters with depth, tenderness, intensity and authenticity alongside a willingness to try a variety of different roles has made him one of the most compelling actors working today.
Born in 1977, Hardy rose to fame with his performances in Christopher Nolan’s Inception and The Dark Knight Rises before earning an Oscar nomination for his remarkable turn in The Revenant and jumping behind the wheel for Mad Max: Fury Road. These roles confirmed Hardy as one of the biggest British stars of his generation and helped to build a reputation for being able to shapeshift while maintaining his signature charisma. More recently, Hardy has starred in the gangster series MobLand, opposite Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren, and in the gritty action-thriller, Havoc. At the time of writing, he’s attached to an upcoming Navy SEALs movie, directed by Andrew Dominic, and is said to be reuniting with George Miller in the upcoming Mad Max: The Wasteland.
If, like us, you can’t get enough of the actor’s work, here are 10 of his very best performances in both movies and TV shows. Read on to discover more and use the guide below to find out where to stream them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
In the psychological thriller Locke, Hardy gives one of his most intricate performances as Ivan Locke, a construction foreman in charge of overseeing the largest concrete pour in European history. The entire film takes place in the confines of his BMW X5, meaning Hardy is the only character to appear on screen—for some obvious comps, think of movies like Buried and Phone Booth.
For the film’s two hour duration, we watch as Hardy’s Locke fields a series of phone calls from his wife of 15 years, his two sons, his colleagues, and a woman who he’s been having an affair with and is currently in the process of giving premature birth to his child. Hardy’s performance is fascinating and demonstrates his ability to capture multiple emotions at the same time, giving his character a feeling of loneliness as he tries to keep his life from falling apart.
Tom Hardy gives one of his earliest career-defining performances in director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson. The film is based on the life of “Britain’s most notorious prisoner,” Michael Peterson (aka Charles Bronson), and will particularly appeal to fans of the Danish director—though more for fans of his grittier movies (like Pusher) than his more stylized work (like Drive).
After robbing a bank, Bronson was originally sentenced to seven years in prison, only to find himself locked away for life, spending years on end in solitary confinement and in high security psychiatric hospitals due to multiple violent outbursts. The film is an exploration of Bronson’s mind and motivations, and Hardy juggles his subject’s violence, physicality and vulnerability to perfection.
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning The Revenant saw Tom Hardy star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in an epic story of identity and revenge. DiCaprio plays frontiersman Hugh Glass who, after being mauled by a grizzly bear, is abandoned by his travel companions thanks to Hardy’s deceptive trapper, John Fitzgerald. If you appreciate the filmmaking flourishes of Iñárritu’s best work (Birdman and Amores Perros come to mind), you’ll want to see what he achieves with this one.
Fitzgerald’s piercing stare coupled with his ruthless and sadistic nature make him one of the most dangerous baddies Hardy has played thus far. The performance earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars—where he lost out to Mark Rylance’s astonishing work in Bridge of Spies.
Tom Hardy’s performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is quite unlike his others. The actor is probably best known for playing charismatic hard men, but Thomas Alfredson’s update on the John Lecarre classic allowed the actor to explore a softer, somewhat defeated character.
The film features an all-star cast, including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Toby Jones, and Benedict Cumberbatch, and takes place in 1970s London, a time of peak Cold War tensions—and if you’re a fan of Slow Horses or the Alex Guinness-starring TV show from 1979, you need to check this one out. The story takes place amongst the British Secret Service, who are hard at work to find a double agent in their ranks. Hardy plays the softspoken Ricki Tarr, the spy who first discovers the mole.
Hardy joined the cast of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight’s popular period crime drama, in the second season as Alfie Solomons, the leader of a Jewish gang from Camden Town—and if you’re a fan of what Knight’s been up to with House of Guinness and are, for some reason, not familiar with Blinders, you know what to do.
Calculating and unpredictable, Alfie shares Tommy Shelby’s understanding for business and the two men respect each other despite multiple betrayals. Hardy’s portrayal of Alfie makes him one of the most memorable characters in the series, presenting him as straightforward and rational, while giving him a layer of contained volatility and danger that erupts in unexpected moments.
Tom Hardy’s portrayal of the classic Batman villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises was one of the roles that made him into a household name. It was always going to be a tough task to follow Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight, but Hardy made Bane a formidable and terrifying opponent for the caped crusader in the final instalment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.
From his hulking physique to his muffled, peculiar accent, Hardy brought just the right amount of menace and camp to make Bane memorable (certainly more than Robert Swenson’s unfortunate incarnation in Batman & Robin), enjoyable to watch, and a suitably diabolical foe for Bale’s Batman.
Taking place from 1965 to 1975, Jeff Nichols’s underseen movie The Bikeriders documents the rise and fall of the Vandals biker gang. Hardy plays Johnny, the aging leader of the gang, and a man desperate to keep control of a group that’s changing underneath him.
Austin Butler stars opposite Hardy as Benny, a younger member who Jonny wants to see take over the leadership, and so takes him under his wing. Throughout the film, Hardy adapts gracefully to the role of a grizzled, hardened mentor, as the world changes around him. If you liked Butler in the recent movie Caught Stealing and are a fan of classic biker movies, like Easy Rider, this is one you’ll want to seek out.
Given the time that passed between Beyond Thunderdome and Mad Max: Fury Road, it’s no surprise that Hardy’s Mad Max is a far cry from Mel Gibson’s iteration—and if it’s all-out action you’re looking for, I’d recommend the latter of the two. For George Miller’s wild extravaganza, the actor gave the character a quieter, more thoughtful quality: a steady, near-silent witness to all the chaos going on around him.
In, Hardy stars Opposite Charlize Theron, Hardy appears like a tragic figure surviving in a post-apocalyptic world where clans fight for dwindling resources while roaring around the desert in menacing vehicles. Hardy’s Max is both soft spoken and lethal, and his portrayal gives the character humanity and humility as he gracefully steps out of centre stage, making way for Theron’s Furiosa—who’s recent prequel movie is also more than worthy of your time.
Taboo is a critically-acclaimed pet project that Hardy wrote with his father Chips and made with his Peaky Blinders collaborator Steven Knight. Over eight episodes, the show tells the story of James Delaney (Hardy), a businessman and explorer returning home to London in 1814 after 12 years in Africa—and if you appreciate stories from that era (think The Duellists, Master and Commander), this one should be right up your alley.
The series explores the business, politics, and class discontent from that era, and Hardy’s performance brings all the depth, versatility and grittiness we’ve come to expect from him. Stephen Graham and Jessie Buckley round out the stellar cast.
Hardy’s first foray into the world of Marvel superheroes saw him take on the role of Eddie Brock (aka Venom), first in Sony’s Venom films and later (just about) the broader MCU. From his playful American accent to his Jekyll-and-Hyde portrayal of the human-symbiote duo, Hardy gives a performance with a more straight-edge feel that is also genuinely weird and hilariously funny.
Hardy has since gone on to play the role in two sequel films, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Venom: The Last Dance. The films themselves are not the most beloved superhero movies, but Hardy’s performance across the trilogy have made them consistently fun to watch. If you’re interested in seeing the actor do something completely different than what you’d expect, these are the films to watch.
