(Photo by MGM / Everett Collection. THE ACCOUNTANT 2.)
Jon Bernthal’s best Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
In an age where toxic masculinity rages online, young boys are being influenced by the wrong people, and blatant sexism and bigotry will land someone in a position of power rather than shunned from society, Jon Bernthal is pushing back. This talented actor, known for playing best friends with an axe to grind, brooding and conflicted assassins, and argumentative and dangerous siblings, has an impressive and effective resume. But perhaps equally important as Bernthal’s acting roles might be his podcast.
Another actor with a podcast, you say? “Real Ones” with Jon Bernthal is different, and a welcome bastion against the forces of darkness from an actor who has long supported positive role models. This podcast has open and heartbreaking discussions with interesting people, without any particular agenda in mind. Bernthal also a strong ally to the LGBTQ+ community and a frequent critic of those who misuse the Punisher symbol for their own ends.
Interested in perusing some of Bernthal’s many roles? Here’s an overview of his career, followed by a ranking of his movies and TV shows by Tomatometer.
THE WALKING DEAD: Seasons 1 & 2 (2010-11): The first place most of us saw Bernthal’s work was in AMC’s The Walking Dead, based on the long-running comic book series created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. In the first two seasons, Bernthal plays Shane, the best friend of main character Rick Grimes. Right away, fans and critics latched on to Bernthal’s simmering performance, especially since Shane enters into a secret relationship with Rick’s wife Lori while Rick is in a coma at the start of the series. Shane ultimately isn’t thrilled with Rick’s reemergence following the zombie apocalypse, and is the first of many to try and kill Rick with fatal results for Shane. Indeed, reviewers early in Season 2 (and readers of the comic book) were starting to catch on to Shane’s deception.
Salon’s Matt Zoller Seitz on The Walking Dead: “For some reason, Jon Bernthal’s performance exudes untrustworthiness; I keeping hoping he’ll turn out to be a conniving and selfish character, the kind of guy that the young Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas might have played back in the day.”
DAREDEVIL (2015-2018), THE PUNISHER (2017-19), DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN (2025-): We next saw Bernthal in an example of perfect casting: his co-starring role in Marvel’s Netflix series Daredevil Season 2 as the gun-toting, single-minded assassin, The Punisher. Bernthal injects this comic book character with loads of internal conflict and pathos. Bernthal’s performance was so effective that he graduated to his own show, The Punisher, which lasted for two seasons toward the end of Marvel’s run on Netflix. As mentioned below, Bernthal is back again, and even more compelling, in 2025’s Daredevil: Born Again.
/Film’s Jacob Hall on Daredevil Season 2: “In a season with many new highlights, Bernthal shines the brightest. It takes an actor of great skill to make ‘vengeful soldier sets out for revenge’ interesting, but he finds an angle. Even when his face isn’t a mask of bruises, his Frank Castle looks like he’s in constant pain, a twitchy mess looking for someone, anything, that will bring order to his broken world. And in his case, that anything happens to be violence. There’s a dark nobility to his performance, a single-mindedness that lets us know (long before the characters onscreen know) that the Punisher may be the sanest guy in Hell’s Kitchen. And that makes him all the more frightening.”
In Daredevil: Born Again, Bernthal’s Punisher returns, 10 years after he originated the role, and the two very different crime fighters trade philosophies about their approaches: Daredevil prefers to beat up the bad guys, but never kill, and Punisher simply takes out his opponents as quickly, and permanently, as possible.
San Francisco Chronicle’s Zaki Hasan on Daredevil: Born Again: “That moral conflict is woven throughout the series, even bringing back Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, Marvel’s gun-toting vigilante who debuted in the previous show and starred in his own series for two seasons. The Punisher’s brutal methods starkly contrast with Murdock’s own struggles. Their philosophical debates on the nature of violence provide some of the season’s most engrossing moments.”
BABY DRIVER & WIND RIVER (2017): In between Marvel seasons, Bernthal scored a couple of highly memorable roles in two highly rated crime movies (both Certified Fresh) from two first-rate filmmakers: Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver and Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River.
In Baby Driver, Bernthal plays Griff, a security man in the heist crew, someone who takes his work extremely seriously, and a criminal who is perpetually annoyed to a humorous degree by the music-obsessed title character, Baby (Ansel Elgort).
The Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern on Baby Driver: “The gang has its own claims to distinction. Jon Hamm is Buddy, formerly a stockbroker on Wall Street. Eiza González is Darling, Buddy’s volcanic—i.e. crazy—girlfriend. Jon Bernthal is Griff, a hard case and a funny one.”
In Wind River, Bernthal’s small role is a riveting one, as he delivers an extended heart-rending speech about loss. Sheridan’s projects are known for incisive monologues, and this is no exception.
THE BEAR (2022-): Remarkably, Bernthal’s performance as Mikey in The Bear, the brother who ended his own life, kicking off main character and younger brother Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) ascent to head chef at the family restaurant, is notable for his absence and effect on the other characters throughout the series. Bernthal appears very sparingly but sharply in flashbacks, as Mikey’s happy-go-lucky (with a drinking problem) personality contrasts fully with Carmy’s intensity and Mikey’s best friend Richie’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) loud brashness. This is never more apparent than the infamous Christmas flashback episode “Fishes” in Season 2, where a seething and utensil-throwing Mikey nearly comes to blows with his Uncle Lee, played by a very angry Bob Odenkirk. This brief but pointed presence throughout the series landed Bernthal an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.
Financial Times’ Joe Einav on The Bear Season 2: “Before Richie’s moment of tenderness comes a bruising hour-long episode that flashes back to a nightmarish Berzatto family Christmas. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Jon Bernthal as Carmy’s volatile mother and late brother (Bob Odenkirk and Sarah Paulson also appear), it is an extraordinary piece of tragicomedy — at once a hysterical farce and a raw, soul-draining domestic drama. You wish more TV could be this intense while feeling relieved that it isn’t.”
THE ACCOUNTANT & THE ACCOUNTANT 2 (2016 & 2025): One of Bernthal’s major breaks in movies came through in Ben Affleck’s The Accountant, where he plays a familiar role as a grumpy but talented assassin and foil to Affleck’s autistic thinking-person’s killer. As revealed, Bernthal’s and Affleck’s characters are brothers, and in Certified Fresh sequel The Accountant 2 the two very different siblings play off each other effectively in between killings.
The Wrap’s Matt Donato on The Accountant 2: “Bernthal and Affleck share beers, push buttons and liberate guarded encampments as brotherly mercenaries who are fine apart — although Bernthal does no wrong all film — but captivatingly hilarious together. There’s a buddy comedy vibe that sustains when no one’s dying, which is lucky because action sequences are front and back-loaded.”
Bernthal has two new interesting roles: a quasi-ally to Rami Malek’s CIA revenge quest in The Amateur, and in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, an adaptation of the epic poem, out in 2026. As Bernthal’s roles have become meatier over time, he’s revealed many facets to his acting talent, focusing on masculine characters who aren’t afraid to show dimension and emotion. At the same time, he’s been willing to return to morally conflicted assassin characters that kicked off his career. It’ll be fascinating to see what intense role he takes on next, and what deep and involved conversations he has next, and with whom, on “Real Ones.”
In the meantime, catch up on Bernthal’s roles with this list in order of Tomatometer ranking, with Certified Fresh films and shows first. (Steve Horton)
95%
93%
79%
92%
92%
91%
91%
90%
89%
91%
87%
87%
78%
87%
93%
81%
82%
81%
89%
80%
83%
79%
79%
78%
75%
75%
74%
93%
77%
72%
69%
68%
88%
68%
66%
81%
63%
61%
61%
69%
57%
53%
50%
44%
- -
43%
40%
38%
35%
43%
34%
50%
31%
24%
20%
