Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#102
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Josh Brolin represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 41 years in, and Josh is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Josh Brolin appears in 50 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Josh. Dune: Part Two is the clearest case: a film rated 9.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for horror, thriller, science fiction. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Denis Villeneuve, Ridley Scott, Edgar Wright and others, Josh Brolin helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Dune: Part Two (2024) as Gurney Halleck · Avengers: Endgame (2019) as Thanos · Avengers: Infinity War (2018) as Thanos
Career snapshot
Ranked #102 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
50
1985–2026
Career length
41 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.0
Dune: Part Two
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.5
Dune: Part Two
Most frequent director
Denis Villeneuve
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Denis Villeneuve
Most common genre
Thriller
20 titles
Average runtime
1h 57m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.2
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
7.6 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. The Goonies — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
7.6
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
7.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2020s
2 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Whalefall, Dune: Part Three, The Dog Stars.
Most productive era
2010s
21 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.11 film | 6.67 films | 6.78 films | 7.42 films |
| Action | — | — | 6.44 films | 7.411 films | 6.42 films |
| Thriller | — | 6.11 film | 6.67 films | 6.57 films | 4.05 films |
| Comedy | 7.61 film | 6.21 film | 6.32 films | 6.66 films | 6.62 films |
| Sci-Fi | — | — | — | — | 9.01 film |
| Crime | — | — | 6.95 films | 6.75 films | 5.82 films |
| Romance | — | — | 6.21 film | 6.52 films | — |
| Horror | — | 6.12 films | 6.82 films | — | 3.62 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1985The Goonies
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Brand.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
2024Dune: Part Two
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2026The Dog Stars
The current state of the argument, as Bangley.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
50 of 50 films
as Gurney Halleck
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
as Thanos
Directed by Anthony Russo
as Llewelyn Moss
Directed by Joel Coen
as Gurney Halleck
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
as Thanos
Directed by Anthony Russo
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 55 titles · 59 total credits · active 1985–2026
Whalefall
2026 · Mitt Gardiner
Dune: Part Three
2026 · Gurney Halleck
The Dog Stars
2026 · Bangley
The Running Man
2025 · Dan Killian
Weapons
2025 · Archer · Executive Producer
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
2025 · Mons. Jefferson Wicks
Breakdown: 1975
2025 · Self
Countdown: Canelo vs. Crawford
2025 · TV · Narrator (voice)
The American Revolution
2025 · TV · George Washington (voice)
Dune: Part Two
2024 · Gurney Halleck
Brothers
2024 · Moke Munger · Producer
Outer Range
2022 · TV · Royal Abbott · Director · Executive Producer
Dune
2021 · Gurney Halleck
Flag Day
2021 · Uncle Beck
Marvel Studios Legends
2021 · TV · Thanos (archive footage) (uncredited)
What If...?
2021 · TV · Thanos (voice)
Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King
2020 · Self
Avengers: Endgame
2019 · Thanos
Avengers: Infinity War
2018 · Thanos
Deadpool 2
2018 · Cable
Once Upon a Deadpool
2018 · Cable
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
2018 · Matt Graver
Only the Brave
2017 · Eric Marsh
Hail, Caesar!
2016 · Eddie Mannix
The defining work
#1
Gurney Halleck
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Performance score8.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Gurney Halleck gives Josh Brolin a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Thanos
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Performance score8.4
Avengers: Infinity War asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Thanos is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Llewelyn Moss
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Performance score8.3
No Country for Old Men asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Llewelyn Moss is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Gurney Halleck
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Performance score8.2
Dune: Part Two asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Gurney Halleck is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Gurney Halleck
Start here. Dune: Part Two is the clearest statement of what Josh Brolin does — accessible, 166 minutes, and rated 9.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Josh at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
A deliberate change of key after Dune: Part Two — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
A deliberate change of key after No Country for Old Men — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Same director as Avengers: Infinity War, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Keeps the science fiction register of Avengers: Endgame but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Denis Villeneuve
Director
5 films together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Joel Coen
Director
3 films together
Notably No Country for Old Men
Woody Allen
Director
2 films together
Notably Melinda and Melinda
Oliver Stone
Director
2 films together
Notably W.
David Leitch
Director
2 films together
Notably Deadpool 2
Anthony Russo
Director
2 films together
Notably Avengers: Endgame
Ridley Scott
Director
2 films together
Notably American Gangster
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Goonies
David O. Russell
Director
1 film together
Notably Flirting with Disaster
Ole Bornedal
Director
1 film together
Notably Nightwatch
Guillermo del Toro
Director
1 film together
Notably Mimic
Paul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together
Notably Hollow Man
John Stockwell
Director
1 film together
Notably Into the Blue
Karen Moncrieff
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dead Girl
Andrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably To Each His Own Cinema
Quentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together
Notably Grindhouse
Robert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together
Notably Planet Terror
Paul Haggis
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Valley of Elah
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably Milk
Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Men in Black 3
Ruben Fleischer
Director
1 film together
Notably Gangster Squad
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Oldboy
Jason Reitman
Director
1 film together
Notably Labor Day
Frank Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably Inherent Vice
James Gunn
Director
1 film together
Notably Guardians of the Galaxy
Baltasar Kormákur
Director
1 film together
Notably Everest
Joss Whedon
Director
1 film together
Notably Avengers: Age of Ultron
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together
Notably Only the Brave
Stefano Sollima
Director
1 film together
Notably Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Sean Penn
Director
1 film together
Notably Flag Day
Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together
Notably Breakdown: 1975
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Zach Cregger
Director
1 film together
Notably Weapons
Edgar Wright
Director
1 film together
Notably The Running Man
Timothée Chalamet
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Dave Bautista
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Zendaya
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Rebecca Ferguson
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Javier Bardem
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Austin Butler
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Florence Pugh
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Christopher Walken
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Léa Seydoux
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Stellan Skarsgård
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Charlotte Rampling
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Souheila Yacoub
Actor
1 film together
Notably Dune: Part Two
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Denis Villeneuve
Director
5 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Dune: Part TwoJoel Coen
Director
3 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
No Country for Old MenAnthony Russo
Director
2 films together · 8.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Avengers: EndgameDavid Leitch
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Deadpool 2Oliver Stone
Director
2 films together · 6.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
W.Woody Allen
Director
2 films together · 6.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Melinda and MelindaRidley Scott
Director
2 films together · 3.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
American GangsterJames Gunn
Director
1 film together · 8.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Guardians of the GalaxyRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GooniesJoseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Only the BraveJoss Whedon
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Avengers: Age of UltronZach Cregger
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WeaponsRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out MysteryJason Reitman
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Labor DayGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MilkStefano Sollima
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sicario: Day of the SoldadoQuentin Tarantino
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GrindhouseEdgar Wright
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Running ManMorgan Neville
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breakdown: 1975Baltasar Kormákur
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
EverestPaul Haggis
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Valley of ElahRobert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Planet TerrorBarry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Men in Black 3Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Inherent ViceAndrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Each His Own CinemaFrank Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Sin City: A Dame to Kill ForRuben Fleischer
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Gangster SquadDavid O. Russell
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flirting with DisasterGuillermo del Toro
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MimicOle Bornedal
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NightwatchKaren Moncrieff
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dead GirlPaul Verhoeven
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hollow ManSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OldboyJohn Stockwell
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Into the BlueSean Penn
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Flag DaySix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Performer
Josh Brolin
Where this journey starts
Director
Denis Villeneuve
5 collaborations, averaging 6.5
Film
Dune: Part Two
Their highest-rated film together (2024)
Performer
Christopher Walken
Shares the frame in Dune: Part Two
Film
Pulp Fiction
Where Christopher goes next, and where you can too
Performer
Samuel L. Jackson
Three steps from where you began
Recognition
1 win
1 win · latest 2025
Dune: Part Two
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Dune: Part Two
as Gurney Halleck
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Only the Brave
as Eric Marsh
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Dune: Part Two
as Gurney Halleck
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Guardians of the Galaxy
as Thanos (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Dune: Part Two
as Gurney Halleck
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Josh Brolin has known it for a long time.”
“Long live the fighters.”
“I will love you as long as I breathe.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 7.8 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #567 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.0 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Denis Villeneuve | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Physical performance | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 2024–2024 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Gurney Halleck — Dune: Part Two | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | Dune: Part Two | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Adventure Movies, Best Space Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, Drama Movies
Collaborators in common
Timothée Chalamet · Florence Pugh
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
41 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Editor's Icon
Awarded
Named by our desk for a body of work we return to when we need to explain what screen acting is for.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Thriller Legend
Awarded
20 catalogue titles in thriller, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Dune: Part Two
as Gurney Halleck
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dune: Part Two
as Gurney Halleck
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Only the Brave
as Eric Marsh
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
as Mons. Jefferson Wicks
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Dune: Part Two
as Gurney Halleck
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Avengers: Endgame
as Thanos
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Melinda and Melinda
as Greg
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Dune: Part Two
as Gurney Halleck
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
director
Best Denis Villeneuve Movies
Features Dune: Part Two at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Adventure Movies
Features Dune: Part Two at #3
Read the collectiontheme
Best Space Movies
Features Dune: Part Two
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Features Dune: Part Two
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Features Dune: Part Two
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: sci-fi and adventure
Christopher Walken
Works with the same directors — Denis Villeneuve
Harry Dean Stanton
Works with the same directors — Ridley Scott
David Dastmalchian
Works with the same directors — Denis Villeneuve
Florence Pugh
Works with the same directors — Denis Villeneuve
Have your say
Community
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