Ryan Phillippe's Two-Part Action Thrillers Have Been A Paramount+ Streaming Hit For Weeks

2026 has been full of truly great movies, but sometimes it's nice to turn off the old noggin and enjoy some all-out action. Paramount+ has seemingly cracked the code on that one, with a two-part survival action thriller that has been dominating the streamer's charts for weeks now. "One Mile: Chapter One" and "One Mile: Chapter Two" star Ryan Phillipe as an ex-soldier who raises hell after his daughter is kidnapped by a wood-dwelling survivalist militia. It's good old-fashioned action nonsense, and Paramount+ subscribers seemingly can't get enough.

All you really need to know to understand what you're getting with the "One Mile" movies is a single line from Phillipe: "These guys don't know it yet, but they messed with the wrong dad." That's it. The movie is a guy unleashing his dad rage on a bunch of bad guys who took his daughter. The films are basically "Taken" in a forest.

But clearly there's something more to "One Mile" than your average B-movie actioner. After receiving a digital release back in February 2026, the films hit Paramount+ on October 1, 2026 and have been holding strong in the most-watched charts ever since. In fact, this has to be one of the strongest streaming runs of any release this year. Per viewership tracker FlixPatrol, "One Mile: Chapter One" and its sequel have now been in the Paramount+ movie rankings in the United States for 42 days apiece.

Before he rose to fame with roles in the 1997 slasher craze cash-in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and 1998's "Cruel Intentions," Ryan Phillipe made his film debut in the submarine action thriller that pit Denzel Washington against Gene Hackman, "Crimson Tide." Three decades later, he's leading his own action thrillers that draw heavily on the tone and style of their '80s and '90s predecessors. The "One Mile" movies most obviously bear a striking resemblance to 1982's "First Blood" in terms of their one-man-army outnumbered in a forest story. Unlike in that seminal Sly Stallone outing, however, Phillipe's ex-soldier isn't opposed to racking up the kills.

The actor plays former special forces operative Danny Beckett, who has had very little time to connect with his teenage daughter Alex (Amélie Hoeferle). To make up for lost time, he takes Alex on a road trip to visit colleges ahead of her high school graduation. On their way, they make an impromptu stop in a remote area where they set up camp, only for a violent off-grid community to descend.

At first Danny uses his special forces skills to evade the group, but they eventually get their hands on Alex. Cue a violent rampage in which Danny runs through the survivalists one by one in a desperate attempt to get his daughter back. If you're wondering why such a straightforward action premise requires two movies, it's because Alex manages to get kidnapped twice. Yes, twice. Look, these movies might not measure up to the Denzel and Hackman effort that gave Phillipe his start, but they're a solid way to waste away a weekend and come with a ringing endorsement from Paramount+ users.

The "One Mile" movies are directed by Adam Davidson, who has a prolific career stretching back to the late-'80s when he made his directorial debut with the short "The Lunch Date." His filmography otherwise includes dozens of directing jobs on shows such as "Bosch" and Ryan Phillipe's former USA series "Shooter." "One Mile" chapters one and two represent a rare feature film project for the director, and thus far it's proven a worthy departure for him.

Per FlixPatrol, not only have both chapters been in the Paramount+ charts for over a month, until November 13, 2026, "Chapter One" was sitting at the very top of the U.S. movie charts, with "Chapter Two" occupying the second spot. At the time of writing, both have slipped to the second and third position respectively, but that's an impressive run for the duology. What's more, the films are clearly sticking around for some time to come, having thus far only succumbed to the might of "PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie," which only just batted Phillipe's thrillers down a slot to take number one.

The runtime for "One Mile: Chapter One" is 89 minutes while "Chapter Two" runs for 83 minutes. That means you're essentially getting an almost three-hour action epic, if you watch the films back to back. Why couldn't they just be one movie? Who knows, but Paramount+ viewers, who previously turned Aaron Eckhart's neo-Western "Thieves Highway" into a Paramount+ hit, don't seem to mind at all.