Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#98
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Dave Bautista works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Dave Bautista appears in 49 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Dave. Enormous physical presence deployed, repeatedly, for tenderness and comedy. John Cena's Greatest Rivalries is the clearest case: a film rated 10.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, screen presence. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, mystery, comedy. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Ángel Manuel Soto, Lauren Montgomery, Michael Dowse and others, Dave Bautista 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.
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries (2022) as Batista · Blade Runner 2049 (2017) as Sapper Morton · Dune: Part Two (2024) as Beast Rabban
Career snapshot
Ranked #98 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
49
2010–2026
Career length
20 yrs
Active since 2006
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
10.0
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
Average Nutevio score
6.6
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
10.0
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
Most frequent director
Denis Villeneuve
5 films together
Longest collaboration
5×
With Denis Villeneuve
Most common genre
Action
32 titles
Average runtime
1h 45m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
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
2020s
6.6 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. The Wrecking Crew, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, Trap House — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
6.6
Across 26 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
6.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2010s
2 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Avengers: Endgame, Escape Plan: The Extractors, Stuber.
Most productive era
2020s
26 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 | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.69 films | 7.33 films |
| Action | 6.420 films | 6.912 films |
| Thriller | 6.011 films | 6.43 films |
| Comedy | 6.62 films | 6.79 films |
| Sci-Fi | 9.21 film | 9.01 film |
| Crime | 5.97 films | 6.75 films |
| Romance | — | 6.61 film |
| Horror | 6.11 film | 7.03 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
2006Working from 2006
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
2010My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Officer, San Diego Police Department S.W.A.T Team.
First Nutevio masterpiece
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
2022John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
10.0 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
2026Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
The current state of the argument, as Tagah (voice).
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.
49 of 49 films
as Sapper Morton
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
as Tagah (voice)
Directed by Lauren Montgomery
as Beast Rabban
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
as Drax
Directed by James Gunn
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 54 titles · 63 total credits · active 1999–2026
The Wrecking Crew
2026 · James Hale · Producer
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
2026 · Tagah (voice)
Trap House
2025 · Ray Seale · Producer
In the Lost Lands
2025 · Boyce · Producer
Afterburn
2025 · Jake · Producer
The Naked Gun
2025 · Dave Bautista
WWE Raw Classics
2025 · TV · Batista
Dune: Part Two
2024 · Beast Rabban
Parachute
2024 · Bryce
My Spy The Eternal City
2024 · J.J. · Producer
The Killer's Game
2024 · Joe Flood · Executive Producer
The Last Showgirl
2024 · Eddie
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2023 · Drax
Knock at the Cabin
2023 · Leonard
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2023 · Self - 'Drax'
Thor: Love and Thunder
2022 · Drax
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
2022 · Duke Cody
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
2022 · Drax
Mek Raya
2022 · Actor
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
2022 · Batista
WWE Rivals
2022 · TV · Batista
Dune
2021 · Beast Rabban Harkonnen
Army of the Dead
2021 · Scott Ward
Creating an Army of the Dead
2021 · Self
The defining work
#1
Batista
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries (2022)
Performance score9.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Batista gives Dave Bautista a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Sapper Morton
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Performance score9.0
Blade Runner 2049 asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sapper Morton is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Tagah (voice)
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (2026)
Performance score8.8
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Tagah (voice) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Beast Rabban
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Performance score8.6
Dune: Part Two asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Beast Rabban 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 Batista
Start here. John Cena's Greatest Rivalries is the clearest statement of what Dave Bautista does — accessible, 140 minutes, and rated 10.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Dave 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.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
The turn in the path: a film the public underrates and we do not. By this point you will know why.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
A deliberate change of key after Blade Runner 2049 — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Keeps the adventure register of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 but asks for a colder reading of it.
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (2026)
Keeps the adventure register of Dune: Part Two 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 Blade Runner 2049
James Gunn
Director
4 films together
Notably Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Scott Mann
Director
2 films together
Notably Final Score
Anthony Russo
Director
2 films together
Notably Avengers: Endgame
Peter Segal
Director
2 films together
Notably My Spy
J.J. Perry
Director
2 films together
Notably The Killer's Game
Michael Dowse
Director
2 films together
Notably Trap House
Werner Herzog
Director
1 film together
Notably My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Roel Reiné
Director
1 film together
Notably The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption
RZA
Director
1 film together
Notably The Man with the Iron Fists
David Twohy
Director
1 film together
Notably Riddick
Sam Mendes
Director
1 film together
Notably Spectre
John Stockwell
Director
1 film together
Notably Kickboxer: Vengeance
Matthias Hoene
Director
1 film together
Notably The Warriors Gate
Luke Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably 2048: Nowhere to Run
Yuen Woo-ping
Director
1 film together
Notably Master Z: Ip Man Legacy
John Herzfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape Plan: The Extractors
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Army of the Dead
John Cena
Director
1 film together
Notably John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
Rian Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Taika Waititi
Director
1 film together
Notably Thor: Love and Thunder
Brad Baruh
Director
1 film together
Notably Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
M. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together
Notably Knock at the Cabin
Brittany Snow
Director
1 film together
Notably Parachute
Akiva Schaffer
Director
1 film together
Notably The Naked Gun
Paul W. S. Anderson
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Lost Lands
Lauren Montgomery
Director
1 film together
Notably Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
Ángel Manuel Soto
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wrecking Crew
Ryan Gosling
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Harrison Ford
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Ana de Armas
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Robin Wright
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Sylvia Hoeks
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Mackenzie Davis
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Jared Leto
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Carla Juri
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Hiam Abbass
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Lennie James
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
David Dastmalchian
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Sean Young
Actor
1 film together
Notably Blade Runner 2049
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Denis Villeneuve
Director
5 films together · 8.4 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 5 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Blade Runner 2049James Gunn
Director
4 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 4 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3Anthony 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: EndgameMichael Dowse
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Trap HousePeter Segal
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
My SpyJ.J. Perry
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Killer's GameScott Mann
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
Final ScoreJohn Cena
Director
1 film together · 10.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
John Cena's Greatest RivalriesLauren Montgomery
Director
1 film together · 8.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Avatar Aang: The Last AirbenderÁngel Manuel Soto
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wrecking CrewRian Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Glass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryLuke Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
2048: Nowhere to RunBrittany Snow
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ParachuteTaika Waititi
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Thor: Love and ThunderMatthias Hoene
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Warriors GateSam Mendes
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpectreYuen Woo-ping
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Master Z: Ip Man LegacyPaul W. S. Anderson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Lost LandsAkiva Schaffer
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Naked GunBrad Baruh
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
David Twohy
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RiddickM. Night Shyamalan
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Knock at the CabinZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Army of the DeadWerner Herzog
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye DoneJohn Herzfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape Plan: The ExtractorsRZA
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Man with the Iron FistsJohn Stockwell
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Kickboxer: VengeanceRoel Reiné
Director
1 film together · 4.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for RedemptionSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
2 wins
2 wins · latest 2025
Dune: Part Two
Blade Runner 2049
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
as Batista
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Parachute
as Bryce
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Blade Runner 2049
as Sapper Morton
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Naked Gun
as Dave Bautista
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
as Batista
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. Dave Bautista has known it for a long time.”
“Long live the fighters.”
“I will love you as long as I breathe.”
“You've never seen a miracle.”
“Dying for the right cause is the most human thing we can do.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.3 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #88 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.1 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Mystery | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Denis Villeneuve | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Drama, Screen presence, Charisma | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2017–2024 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | Sapper Morton — Blade Runner 2049 | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | Blade Runner 2049 | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 2 catalogue films | 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, Mystery Movies, Best Movies of the 2010s
Collaborators in common
Timothée Chalamet
Michael Caine 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.
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.
Action Legend
Awarded
32 catalogue titles in action, 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
Blade Runner 2049
as Sapper Morton
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Blade Runner 2049
as Sapper Morton
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Parachute
as Bryce
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Blade Runner 2049
as Sapper Morton
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
John Cena's Greatest Rivalries
as Batista
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender
as Tagah (voice)
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Blade Runner 2049
as Sapper Morton
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Blade Runner 2049
as Sapper Morton
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 12 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
director
Best Denis Villeneuve Movies
Includes Dune: Part Two, Blade Runner 2049
Read the collectiontheme
Best Space Movies
Includes Dune: Part Two, Blade Runner 2049
Read the collectiongenre
Sci-Fi Movies
Includes Dune: Part Two, Blade Runner 2049
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Includes Dune: Part Two, Blade Runner 2049
Read the collectiongenre
Mystery Movies
Features Blade Runner 2049 at #1
Read the collectiontheme
Hidden Sci-Fi Gems
Features Blade Runner 2049 at #2
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: sci-fi and adventure
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Léa Seydoux
Works with the same directors — Denis Villeneuve
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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