Sean Bean is the sort of actor who frequently shows up in supporting roles, perhaps being best known for playing villains and side characters who don't make it to the end credits in one piece. Though there are a decent number of prolific actors who've died more times on screen, that tends to be the narrative or meme surrounding Bean, and part of that comes from an iconic - yet temporary - stint as the main character of Game of Thrones' first season, Eddard Stark.

But Sean Bean's body of work goes much further than Game of Thrones, as the following movie roles demonstrate well. He's an actor who's been showing up in various films for about four decades now, and the range of those movies proves impressive, as Bean's been in action films, fantasy epics, and crime thrillers, as well as even lending his voice to animated movies. The following movies are some of the very best he's appeared in, ranked below from good to great.

10 'Equilibrium' (2002)

Director: Kurt Wimmer

As mentioned before, Sean Bean dies quite often in his movies (or at least his characters seem to perish in some of his most well-known films), and Equilibrium is one movie that contributed to this idea/running joke. It’s not too surprising that his character dies here, considering he’s a supporting character within the film and that the film itself has a rather staggeringly high body count, with well over 200 on-screen deaths.

As for the movie itself, Equilibrium is hard to talk about without comparing it to The Matrix in some way, what with the aesthetics/style, blend of science fiction and action, and even the fashion the characters tend to have. As far as movies riding off that 1999 film’s success, Equilibrium could definitely be worse, and it benefits from having some solid action as well as a strong cast that includes, alongside Sean Bean, the likes of Christian Bale, Emily Watson, and William Fichtner.

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9 'Troy' (2004)

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Though it can’t quite include itself among the greatest movie epics of all time, Troy is still a pretty good time and does deliver for anyone who’s after spectacle. It’s a big-budget take on the story of the Trojan War, also functioning as a loose adaptation of The Iliad that mostly focuses on the siege of Troy, which may or may not have actually happened.

Troy therefore has the feeling of a historical epic, but depicts events that happened so long ago that historical accuracy isn’t something most would be concerned about (and, to stress, that’s only if people assume the event did indeed happen in some capacity). And, to focus on Sean Bean, he plays the mythical figure of Odysseus, who’s the hero of Homer’s The Odyssey, but not Homer’s The Iliad.

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8 'National Treasure' (2004)

Director: Jon Turteltaub

A clean, efficient, and fairly enjoyable blend of action and adventure genres, few would call 2004’s National Treasure a classic in the traditional sense, but it’s definitely a good time for those after easy-going entertainment. It does have an immortal premise, to be fair, focusing on a treasure hunter played by Nicolas Cage who’s on a quest to obtain the Declaration of Independence, as it purportedly contains clues that will lead those in the know to great riches.

National Treasure is to Indiana Jones what Equilibrium was to The Matrix, but as far as imitations could, you could – once again – do a great deal worse. This film does also benefit from having Sean Bean in a villainous role, and though it’s the kind he could probably do in his sleep, he is nonetheless pretty good here.

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7 'Wolfwalkers' (2020)

Directors: Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart

Wolfwalkers made a decent impact upon its release in 2020, though seems to have been forgotten about to some extent in the years since, perhaps unfairly so. It’s a somewhat mature animated movie that can still be enjoyed by younger viewers, and never goes too far as to become inappropriate for kids, getting the balance right in telling a story about a young girl becoming attached to a pack of wolves her hunter father has sworn to destroy.

Given it’s an animated movie, Sean Bean’s involvement here is obviously limited to a voice role, but he’s very good as the father who becomes inevitably conflicted about the whole ordeal once he learns what his daughter’s been up to. Wolfwalkers hits the beats you’d expect it to narratively, but proves more memorable than most animated family movies because of how distinctive the animation looks, and how effectively it ends up telling its simple yet emotional story.

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6 'Caravaggio' (1986)

Director: Derek Jarman

Derek Jarman made some groundbreaking arthouse films throughout his directorial career, and arguably the most high-profile one he ever made also happened to star Sean Bean: 1986’s Caravaggio. Its titular character was a Baroque painter who’s shown dying at the beginning of the film, with subsequent flashbacks revealing the tumultuous yet ultimately short life he lived between 1571 and 1610.

It's a well-made and often striking biographical film, with Sean Bean second-billed here, playing Ranuccio, a young man whom Caravaggio becomes infatuated with, with such an infatuation eventually leading to tragedy. Not only was Caravaggio one of Bean’s earliest film roles, but it’s also a noteworthy movie for the fact that it contains the debut film performance of Tilda Swinton who, like Bean, has gone on to have an impressive acting career in the decades since.

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5 'Ronin' (1998)

Director: John Frankenheimer

One of the first things that truly stands out in the underrated Ronin is how great its cast is. Though its title might make it sound like a samurai movie, this star-studded movie is actually an action/crime/thriller film, and its cast includes the likes of Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgård, Jonathan Pryce, and, of course, Sean Bean.

The plot of Ronin revolves around De Niro’s character assembling a team of mercenaries for a dangerous mission that involves obtaining a highly sought-after suitcase that is said to contain contents that make it desirable for all sorts of individuals/groups. It’s a fairly standard set-up for a crime movie, but Ronin runs with the premise and works wonders with it, benefiting from its very strong ensemble cast and some slick, very well-put-together action sequences.

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4 'Possessor' (2020)

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

There have been plenty of great horror movies released during the 2020s so far, with Possessor being up there with the best (and the earliest, given it was released in 2020). It’s a mind-bending, gory, and undoubtedly disturbing blend of science fiction and horror, telling an intense story about an organization that makes use of advanced technology to carry out a series of ambitious assassinations.

Though Sean Bean’s character is targeted by dangerous people, he doesn’t die on screen here, funnily enough, but arguably suffers a fate that could be seen as worse than death. And his character is far from the only person to suffer psychological and/or physical damage in this movie, with Possessor being a cruel, grisly, and oftentimes unpleasant film that nevertheless leaves an impact and also succeeds in feeling very creative and supremely unsettling throughout.

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3 'The Martian' (2015)

Director: Ridley Scott

Like Sean Bean’s filmography, Ridley Scott’s body of work as a director is quite varied when it comes to the genres he’s tackled, though science fiction is one he’s come back to multiple times throughout his career. Of these, The Martian might not be quite as much of a classic as say Alien or Blade Runner, but it’s still a very good survival/sci-fi movie set in space, following one man stranded on Mars.

The Martian also revolves around people on Earth working hard to arrange a rescue mission for the protagonist, with Sean Bean’s character being one of the individuals who are essential to said mission. It’s a movie that remains engaging, entertaining, and visually very impressive throughout, and whether it eventually becomes an iconic piece of science fiction the way Scott’s very best films have remains to be seen.

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2 'GoldenEye' (1995)

Director: Martin Campbell

Outside the fantasy genre (specifically, the first season of Game of Thrones and a certain yet-to-be-mentioned movie about lords and rings), GoldenEye is likely what Sean Bean is most well-known for. He did have prominent roles before being featured as the villain in this James Bond movie, but given how iconic this title is within the overall series, it might be fair to call GoldenEye something of a star-making role for Bean.

He's very effective here as Alec Trevelyan, who’s also known as Agent 006; a man who used to be an ally of Bond but is now at odds with him, plotting to control a deadly space weapon that places the entire world in danger. The stakes are perhaps ludicrously high in GoldenEye, but that doesn’t matter too much when the film is as entertaining as it manages to be, with Bean portraying a top-tier villain within the entire series here, too.

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1 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001)

Director: Peter Jackson

One does not simply consider any other movie besides The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring when it comes to ranking Sean Bean’s best and most memorable movies. He only has a prominent role as the rather tragic Boromir in one out of three The Lord of the Rings movies, but he makes a genuine impression in that time and his arc in The Fellowship of the Ring is a memorable, emotional, and significant one for the overall trilogy.

Sean Bean is seen in the extended versions of both The Two Towers and the grand finale that is The Return of the King, but it’s The Fellowship of the Ring that solidifies Boromir as a great character and Bean as the perfect actor to play him. Anyone who counts The Fellowship of the Ring as the best of the trilogy will likely cite Boromir as a reason for that, and Sean Bean deserves praise for playing this complex yet temporary supporting role exceptionally well.

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