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No More Mr. Nice Guy - We’ve seen Denzel Washington play a hardened soldier, a boxing champion, a civil rights leader, a corrupt cop and several types of gangsters. On September 26, the Oscar-winning actor is back at his gritty, take-no-prisoners best in The Equalizer. Reteaming with director Antoine Fuqua, who helped Washington win his first Academy Award for Best Actor for Training Day, Washington plays a retired black ops commander who gets lured in for one last job, saving a young woman from ruthless Russian gangsters. To gear up for the dramatic, action-charged film, we take a look back at the actor’s most memorable movie moments.(Photo: Columbia Pictures)

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Crimson Tide (1995) - Washington gives a blistering performance as a lieutenant who clashes with his captain (Gene Hackman) in Tony Scott’s classic submarine film. The tension between the two officers is palpable from the first frame, but comes to a head when Washington refuses to follow Hackman’s dubious orders to unleash an arsenal of nuclear weapons onto Russia. "Captain, I cannot concur," became a classic — bordering on treasonous — line.(Photo: Hollywood Pictures)

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The Hurricane (1999) - As a boxing champion wrongly accused of murder in a racially-motivated trial, Washington gave one of the most moving performances of his career. His defining moment came at the start of his life sentence, when he refuses to put on his prison uniform because he “won’t wear the clothes of a guilty man." Washington’s character is sentenced to ninety days in solitary confinement as a result of his protest, and in many ways, never comes out.(Photo: Universal Pictures)

Photo By Universal Pictures

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Remember the Titans (2000) - As a Black coach hired to lead a high school football team in a small Southern town steeped in racist sentiment, Washington has his job cut out for him. But rather than buckle under the pressure to quit or protest against his oppressors, his character keeps a cool head and commands respect from even his most stubborn players. When his white team captain tries to school him on the rules of the game, Washington answers him with a dose of public humiliation. “Who’s your daddy?” he asks, while the entire team and all their parents watch the player sheepishly reply, “you are.”(Photo: Disney Enterprises/Jerry Buckheimer)

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Malcolm X (1992) - This masterful biopic directed by Spike Lee brought out a career-making performance from Washington. As the controversial and icon civil rights leader, the actor had big shoes to fill, and he didn’t disappoint. The defining moment of Washington’s performance came during a speech to his followers in Harlem. “Actually, we didn't land on Plymouth Rock,” Washington told the rapt crowd. “Plymouth Rock landed on us!"(Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)

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Glory (1989) - Washington proved he was an actor to be reckoned with in Glory. As an escaped slave who takes up arms against the Confederacy in this Civil War drama, Washington had the most memorable, and painful, scene in the film: his character, Trip, is brutally whipped after stealing a pair of shoes. He endures the degradation, which he described as “a nightmare of American history” with stony, silent defiance. When one tear sprung from Trip’s eye, there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience.(Photo: TriStar Pictures)

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American Gangster (2007) - As a ruthless gangster and heroin smuggler, audiences found themselves confused when they were actually rooting for Washington’s character Frank Lucas in Ridley Scott’s violent drama. But that’s the power of Denzel: he can make us believe in him even when he’s doing wrong. When he uttered the phrase, "I took care of Harlem, so Harlem's gonna take care of me," he turned us all into believers.(Photo: Universal Pictures)

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Training Day (2001) - Washington rightly won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of corrupt detective Alonzo Harris in this drama, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Washington summoned all of the character’s rage and bravado when he barked the now-classic line, “King Kong ain’t got nothing on me!” during the movie’s climax.(Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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The Equalizer (2014) - By now it should be clear that, if you’re in a jam, Denzel Washington is the guy you want to have your back. The actor is at his butt-kicking finest in The Equalizer, when his character Robert McCall, a former black ops commander, single-handedly takes out the Russian mob. We can’t wait to see Washington — guns blazing! — in The Equalizer, which comes to theaters and IMAX on September 26.(Photo: Columbia Pictures)