Denzel Washington's $192M Action Hit Officially Finds a New Streaming Home on Netflix

Denzel Washington walks into a diner. Not the start of the joke, he just wants somewhere to read a book and have a cup of tea in peace, and before you know it, that diner is home to terrible people who've made a catastrophic mistake. This premise became a full-fledged franchise thanks to a kind man who loves using hardware tools as lethal weapons.

That movie was The Equalizer, and Netflix has officially added Washington's smash-hit thriller to its U.S. streaming library on October 1. The arrival gives the movie a new subscription streaming home more than a decade after justice began being served, cold.

Across three Equalizer movies, Washington plays Robert McCall, a former operative trying his best to live a quiet life, but trouble keeps finding him, wouldn't you know it? It's all very straightforward. McCall sees people being hurt, gives the bad guys a chance to walk away, and then when they don't take it, he hurts them. But McCall doesn't want to do any of this, and that might just be why it's so effective. He's a polite and considerate man who's haunted and lonely and driven by justice, but in a very specific way. The action scenes are satisfying because McCall is so lethal and deadly, but the hook comes from watching a guy who wishes people would be as decent as him to save him the bother.

The Equalizer trilogy stars the iconic Washington (Training Day) as Robert McCall, the titular Equalizer; Marton Csokas (Kingdom of Heaven) as Teddy Rensen, a pimp; Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) as Alina, a young sex worker McCall tries to help; David Harbour (Stranger Things) as Masters, a corrupt CIA operative; Melissa Leo (Prisoners) as Susan Plummer, McCall's closest friend; Bill Pullman (Independence Day) as Brian Plummer, Susan's husband; Pedro Pascal (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) as Dave York, McCall's former partner; Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) as Miles Whittaker, a young artist; Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds) as Emma Collins, a CIA analyst; David Denman (Brightburn) as Frank Conroy, Emma's colleague; Sonia Ammar (Scream) as Chiara Bonucci, a local woman in Italy; and Gaia Scodellaro (Promises) as Aminah, a café owner.

How Good Is 'The Equalizer'?

Critics were somewhat divided when The Equalizer arrived in theaters, but audiences were considerably more enthusiastic. The movie currently holds a 61% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared with a 77% audience score from more than 50,000 ratings. The bigger story was at the box office. Made for a reported $55 million, The Equalizer earned approximately $192 million worldwide, including $101.5 million domestically, and turned McCall into one of Washington's defining modern roles.

The Equalizer began streaming on Netflix in the United States on October 1.