Denzel's Most Memorable Movie Moments

From Crimson Tide to Glory, we list our favorites.

Denzel Washington in Training Day - Does it get any better — or, should we say, worse — than Detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day? We'd be hard-pressed to find a character who is so bad to the bone, that we enjoy watching more. Washington uses a strange kind of seduction to bring us over to the dark side in Antoine Fuqua's cop corruption drama. Often, he had us forgetting that he was the bad guy.  (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)
Flight (2012) - After years of seeing Washington play confident and capable characters, audiences were surprised to see the actor looking significantly worse for the wear as a substance-abusing pilot in Robert Zemeckis’s gripping drama. Still, even drunk and disheveled, Washington manages to rise to the occasion by emergency crash-landing a plane and saving hundreds of lives — even with a hangover.(Photo: Paramount Pictures)
Book of Eli (2010) - Washington shows off his uncanny survival skills in this post-apocalyptic, Biblical epic. His character, tasked with the safe delivery of an important book to the opposite end of the country, proves he’s not one to mess with in the film’s infamous bar fight scene. “Dust you are and to dust you shall return,” he tells the thirty-odd menacing bikers who are threatening him before he slays them all in one swoop.(Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)
John Q (2002) - Any parent could relate to Washington’s desperation as a man fighting the corrupt health care system in order to save his son from a life-threatening illness. His character goes to extreme measures to correct the system, culminating in a hostage situation in which Washington gives a moving speech to the cops during a heated stand-off: “I will not bury my son, my son will bury me.”(Photo: New Line Cinema)Why So Serious? - We know him for his serious roles, but Denzel Washington received his film debut in the comedy called A Carbon Copy.  (Photo: Columbia Pictures)

Next Gallery

2025 NAACP Image Awards: Tiny Trendsetters: The Kids Bringing Big Style to the Red Carpet

7 Photos

9 / 12

Flight (2012) - After years of seeing Washington play confident and capable characters, audiences were surprised to see the actor looking significantly worse for the wear as a substance-abusing pilot in Robert Zemeckis’s gripping drama. Still, even drunk and disheveled, Washington manages to rise to the occasion by emergency crash-landing a plane and saving hundreds of lives — even with a hangover.(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

ADVERTISEMENT