John Cena’s four favourite movies
When Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson made the move to Hollywood, he set the template for other famous wrestlers to succeed in Tinseltown. Since then, only two ex-WWE stars have had the same level of success as ‘The Brahma Bull’. One is Dave ‘Batista’ Bautista, who took a different route to the top, choosing to focus on more character-oriented roles at the start of his career. Then there’s the man who followed Johnson’s playbook to the letter—and his name is JOHN CENA!
Following appearances in a few WWE-produced action movies as well as the cinematic classic Fred: The Movie, Cena’s acting career really took off in 2015. Much like his predecessor, he found success in comedy roles, playing musclebound meatheads in Trainwreck, Sisters, and Daddy’s Home all in the same year. Since then, he’s turned up in everything from Ferdinand to Barbie to franchises like Fast and Furious and James Gunn’s unfurling DC Universe. He is now a bona fide superstar, both inside the ring and out.
In 2025, Cena teamed up with Idris Elba for the Amazon Prime movie Heads of State. The 17-time world champion plays a former action star who becomes president of the United States, while Elba plays the gruff-voiced prime minister of the United Kingdom. An outlandish concept for sure, and some people thought it was too ridiculous, but at least it gave Letterboxd the chance to sit down with the cast and ask them about their four favourite films.
“You can only understand the anxiety we all have,” Cena said, speaking for his co-star Elba and director Ilya Naishuller. Being the company man he is, he then used this opportunity to promote his other venture. “As a WWE performer,” he explained, “I love the definition of good and evil and outside challenges and the absolute totality of the hero’s journey”. Cena spent most of his WWE career as a heroic character, defeating enemies many times bigger and stronger than him in classic movie fashion. He only went evil, or ‘turned heel’, to use wrestling speak, in early 2025.
Given this admission, it should come as no surprise that Cena opted for some truly classic pieces of cinema. “At this moment in time, this is what I’m going with,” he said. “The Shawshank Redemption, The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, Star Wars episodes four, five, and six.” To avoid confusion, that’s A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Cena was born in the 1970s; he ain’t no prequels kid.
His fondness for the “hero’s journey” is evident in his choices here. This common pattern, which has been used in storytelling for centuries, forms the backbone of every single one of his picks. Luke Skywalker, played by the irreplaceable Mark Hamill, is the archetypal example of a hero’s journey, going from simple farm boy to galactic saviour after learning of his special heritage. In many ways, this mirrors Cena’s position in wrestling for so many years—the company-appointed ‘chosen one’.
He might not have thrown out any obscure French New Wave or German Expressionist epic, but Cena’s four favourites are clearly an honest representation of what he enjoys. If he’d gone for something else, then people would have been able to (ironically) see right through him.
John Cena’s four favourite movies:
- Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 2004)
- The Matrix (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 1999)
- Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977)
- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
- Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983)
