The Umbrella Academy has become a popular Netflix series due to its engaging characters and balance between stylish action sequences and hilarious comedic relief. The show is also creative with its storyline and approach to comedy and action while also being a character-driven drama focused on family.
The Umbrella Academy itself isn’t a secret society as they allowed the public to know who they were, but the show also follows The Commission, a secret network of hitmen who maintain the world’s timeline. There are countless comedic action films, but the films below take a creative approach to their storyline and characters.
Updated on June 30th, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: The Umbrella Academy premiered its third season in June 2022 and offered fans a new world for the team to discover and explore. It also presented another apocalyptic situation for them to stop, which is why their team was built, to begin with. While the Umbrella Academy itself was never a secret organization, it was formed thanks to an older secret organization that tried to pull strings and influence global events behind the scenes. Between the ideas of secret organizations helping change the world and young people used as weapons to ensure changes, there are a lot of great movies for fans to seek out if they loved Umbrella Academy.
Honorable Mention: The New Mutants (2020)
Streaming now on HBO Max
In Umbrella Academy, one man adopts a group of babies that he knows have superpowers. He then raises them, and instead of helping them become well-rounded adults, he turns them into weapons that he can use to fight crime and eventually change the world into what he believes it should be.
The plot of The New Mutants has kids with powers – albeit much older – taken and imprisoned at a facility where one doctor tries to help them learn how to control their powers. The twist is that this is for a nefarious organization that wants to turn the kids into weapons that they can use to change the world into what they want it to look like.
Honorable Mention: Power Rangers (2017)
Streaming now on Fubo and DirecTV
When it comes to the 2017 movie Power Rangers, the critics were not kind to it, but it remains a highly entertaining addition to the Power Rangers franchise. This was the origin story of the Power Rangers, where the high school students happened upon the crashed spacecraft that housed Zordon.
This was similar to Umbrella Academy in that Zordon, like Sir Reginald, knew that bad things were coming and wanted to create a team of young heroes to save the world. The difference is that Zordon was a good person and someone who wanted the best for the world and Reginald always had ulterior motives, but in the end, it was a similar tale.
Tenet (2020)
Streaming now on HBO Max
The one thing that keeps coming back to bite the kids in Umbrella Academy is the constant time-travel and world-altering events that they have to deal with. They struggle every day in figuring out what they are supposed to do to save the world and often just rush into a plan and hope for the best.
A movie that deals with time travel and saving the world, but one with a very high level of intrigue and plotting is Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. Much like Umbrella Academy, the story works hard to make sense of time travel and how it can create an alternate world, changing everything that people know. It is a bit more cerebral than Umbrella Academy but is well worth the watch.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Rent now on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Redbox, and more
When it comes to secret societies changing the world behind the scenes, it is not always on a scale of world politics, as it was in Umbrella Academy. Instead, in The Cabin in the Woods. it started on a much smaller scale. Just like Umbrella Academy, this saw a secret organization using kids to pull off their plans.
However, the twist in The Cabin in the Woods is that this organization had captured and enslaved monsters of all sorts throughout history and was using them to test out situations, often throwing the kids out there as cannon fodder for the creatures. The endpoint here was also similar to Umbrella Academy in that people trying to rule the world often destroy everything.
X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)
Streaming now on Disney+
The main plot of Umbrella Academy saw a group of young superpowered people who learned an apocalyptic event was going to destroy the world set out to stop it. They had no idea what was going to trigger the apocalypse, but they tried. In the second season, they traveled back in time and learned the apocalypse followed them, once again forcing them to stop it.
In X-Men: Days of Future Past, the movie started in the future when an apocalyptic event destroyed the world and the mutants had to figure out a way to stop it. This involved, much like season two of Umbrella Academy, traveling back in time to stop it. This is also arguably the best of the later-year X-Men movies.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Streaming now on Hulu and Max Go
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star in Hot Fuzz as two police officers in a small town where crime is non-existent. Pegg’s overzealous officer begins to suspect a cover-up as any arrest he tries to make and any investigation he tries to open is pushed to the side as warnings for underage drinking and grisly deaths being deemed accidents with no investigation.
Frost’s character wants to see some action so he agrees to help Simon Pegg look into it and the two uncover the small town’s dark secrets. The film is hilarious throughout and the creative stylized action mixed with the comedy makes it worth the watch.
Mr. Right (2016)
Streaming now on Netflix
Anna Kendrick, Sam Rockwell, and Tim Roth star in this oddball comedy action film about a secret society of hitmen. Rockwell portrays an extremely skilled hitman who has decided to quit the game and instead kill those who hire him to kill.
He meets Kendrick and the two begin a relationship with her thinking all of his statements about killing people are darkly humorous jokes. The film is filled with comedy and stylized fighting similar to The Umbrella Academy.
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Streaming now on Spectrum on Demand
In the first Kingsman film, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is a young kid with rough edges but a strong moral compass; he is recruited as a trainee and given the opportunity to become a spy in a secret organization in England.
Harry Hart (Colin Firth) becomes his mentor throughout the training and teaches him everything he knows. Eggsy is an underdog who has to stop a villainous scheme that aims to solve the problem of climate change by killing a large part of the population.
Sky High (2005)
Streaming now on Disney+
Although Sky High is more targeted toward a younger audience it is still similar to The Umbrella Academy in that it focuses on comedy and a secret society of superheroes.
The film follows a legacy hero who has two famous hero parents but he hasn’t come into his powers yet as he’s sent to a high school for those with powers. The film mostly focuses on an underdog team of sidekicks who have to band together to defeat a dangerous villain.
The Old Guard (2020)
Streaming now on Netflix
South African-American actor and producer Charlize Theron stars in the recent Netflix film The Old Guard; a secret society of immortals who use their immortality and fighting skills to protect and save mortal lives. In the film, they are discovered and have to fight for their freedom while they also try to bring a new immortal into their group.
The film is new and creative with stylized action sequences and intriguing and somewhat apathetic immortal characters who are also incredibly complex. The extremely skilled fighters and their attitudes are similar to those of The Umbrella Academy.
Wanted (2008)
Streaming now on Fubo, DirecTV, and USA Network
James McAvoy portrays a meek office worker who is pulled into the life of The Fraternity, a network of secret assassins after his estranged father is killed. The assassins train James McAvoy’s character and he becomes one of the best they have.
However, he quickly uncovers dangerous secrets and an overarching conspiracy behind the leaders of The Fraternity and has to take them down from the inside. The stylized fighting, secrets and conspiracies, and comedy throughout the film are similar to The Umbrella Academy.
Kick-Ass (2010)
Streaming now on HBO Max
Kick-Ass follows a teenager (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who is set on becoming a superhero despite his lack of training or superpowers besides having a high tolerance for pain. Much like Umbrella Academy, Kick-Ass is based on a comic book as well, this one by Mark Millar.
He teams up with the more serious father/daughter duo of Big Daddy and Hit-Girl to fight crime and face off against a local mobster. Kick-Ass‘ violence, stylized fighting, comedy, underdog status, and the added family plot make this film similar to The Umbrella Academy.
21 Jump Street (2012)
Rent now on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Redbox, and more
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum portray two cops who join the secret undercover unit called Jump Street. The two attend high school to investigate a new drug being sold on the campus that has been hurting and killing students who take it.
The film has become a hilarious hit and the chemistry between its two leads has a lot to do with it. 21 Jump Street has a great balance of action and comedy that is similar to the approach used in The Umbrella Academy.
The Losers (2010)
Streaming now on HBO Max
The Losers follows a team of skilled fighters who are betrayed and almost killed, but the team survives the attack and fakes their deaths. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, and Chris Evans star in the film as part of The Losers team.
The group comes out of hiding to get revenge on the man who betrayed him with the help of a mysterious and equally skilled fighter portrayed by Zoe Saldana. The comedy and camaraderie of the group mixed with the inventive action sequences make this film an enjoyable watch for The Umbrella Academy fans.
Deadpool (2016)
Streaming now on Fubo, FX Now, and DirecTV
Ryan Reynolds stars as Wade Wilson in Deadpool about a skilled fighter joining a secret network of mercenaries after serving time in the Special Forces. Ryan Reynolds’ Wade is diagnosed with terminal cancer and decides to go to a mad scientist, Ajax, for experimental treatment, which turns him into Deadpool, a facially different and quick healing somewhat hero who can’t die.
The all-consuming quest to find Ajax, the stylized fighting, and the twisted sense of humor make Deadpool a great movie to watch after The Umbrella Academy.
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