diff --git a/cloud/amazon/ec2.py b/cloud/amazon/ec2.py
index 0b660e0dba7..087d4c5cd1a 100644
--- a/cloud/amazon/ec2.py
+++ b/cloud/amazon/ec2.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ module: ec2
 short_description: create, terminate, start or stop an instance in ec2
 description:
     - Creates or terminates ec2 instances.
+    - C(state=restarted) was added in 2.2
 version_added: "0.9"
 options:
   key_name:
@@ -212,7 +213,7 @@ options:
     required: false
     default: 'present'
     aliases: []
-    choices: ['present', 'absent', 'running', 'stopped']
+    choices: ['present', 'absent', 'running', 'restarted', 'stopped']
   volumes:
     version_added: "1.5"
     description:
@@ -498,6 +499,15 @@ EXAMPLES = '''
         Name: ExtraPower
     state: running
 
+#
+# Restart instances specified by tag
+#
+- local_action:
+    module: ec2
+    instance_tags:
+        Name: ExtraPower
+    state: restarted
+
 #
 # Enforce that 5 instances with a tag "foo" are running
 # (Highly recommended!)
@@ -734,8 +744,8 @@ def create_block_device(module, ec2, volume):
     # http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2013/10/09/ebs-provisioned-iops-maximum-iops-gb-ratio-increased-to-30-1/
     MAX_IOPS_TO_SIZE_RATIO = 30
 
-    # device_type has been used historically to represent volume_type, 
-    # however ec2_vol uses volume_type, as does the BlockDeviceType, so 
+    # device_type has been used historically to represent volume_type,
+    # however ec2_vol uses volume_type, as does the BlockDeviceType, so
     # we add handling for either/or but not both
     if all(key in volume for key in ['device_type','volume_type']):
         module.fail_json(msg = 'device_type is a deprecated name for volume_type. Do not use both device_type and volume_type')
@@ -1326,6 +1336,78 @@ def startstop_instances(module, ec2, instance_ids, state, instance_tags):
 
     return (changed, instance_dict_array, instance_ids)
 
+def restart_instances(module, ec2, instance_ids, state, instance_tags):
+    """
+    Restarts a list of existing instances
+
+    module: Ansible module object
+    ec2: authenticated ec2 connection object
+    instance_ids: The list of instances to start in the form of
+      [ {id: <inst-id>}, ..]
+    instance_tags: A dict of tag keys and values in the form of
+      {key: value, ... }
+    state: Intended state ("restarted")
+
+    Returns a dictionary of instance information
+    about the instances.
+
+    If the instance was not able to change state,
+    "changed" will be set to False.
+
+    Wait will not apply here as this is a OS level operation.
+
+    Note that if instance_ids and instance_tags are both non-empty,
+    this method will process the intersection of the two.
+    """
+
+    source_dest_check = module.params.get('source_dest_check')
+    termination_protection = module.params.get('termination_protection')
+    changed = False
+    instance_dict_array = []
+    source_dest_check = module.params.get('source_dest_check')
+    termination_protection = module.params.get('termination_protection')
+
+    if not isinstance(instance_ids, list) or len(instance_ids) < 1:
+        # Fail unless the user defined instance tags
+        if not instance_tags:
+            module.fail_json(msg='instance_ids should be a list of instances, aborting')
+
+    # To make an EC2 tag filter, we need to prepend 'tag:' to each key.
+    # An empty filter does no filtering, so it's safe to pass it to the
+    # get_all_instances method even if the user did not specify instance_tags
+    filters = {}
+    if instance_tags:
+        for key, value in instance_tags.items():
+            filters["tag:" + key] = value
+
+     # Check that our instances are not in the state we want to take
+
+    # Check (and eventually change) instances attributes and instances state
+    running_instances_array = []
+    for res in ec2.get_all_instances(instance_ids, filters=filters):
+        for inst in res.instances:
+
+            # Check "source_dest_check" attribute
+            if inst.get_attribute('sourceDestCheck')['sourceDestCheck'] != source_dest_check:
+                inst.modify_attribute('sourceDestCheck', source_dest_check)
+                changed = True
+
+            # Check "termination_protection" attribute
+            if inst.get_attribute('disableApiTermination')['disableApiTermination'] != termination_protection:
+                inst.modify_attribute('disableApiTermination', termination_protection)
+                changed = True
+
+            # Check instance state
+            if inst.state != state:
+                instance_dict_array.append(get_instance_info(inst))
+                try:
+                    inst.reboot()
+                except EC2ResponseError, e:
+                    module.fail_json(msg='Unable to change state for instance {0}, error: {1}'.format(inst.id, e))
+                changed = True
+
+    return (changed, instance_dict_array, instance_ids)
+
 
 def main():
     argument_spec = ec2_argument_spec()
@@ -1357,7 +1439,7 @@ def main():
             instance_ids = dict(type='list', aliases=['instance_id']),
             source_dest_check = dict(type='bool', default=True),
             termination_protection = dict(type='bool', default=False),
-            state = dict(default='present', choices=['present', 'absent', 'running', 'stopped']),
+            state = dict(default='present', choices=['present', 'absent', 'running', 'restarted', 'stopped']),
             exact_count = dict(type='int', default=None),
             count_tag = dict(),
             volumes = dict(type='list'),
@@ -1415,6 +1497,14 @@ def main():
 
         (changed, instance_dict_array, new_instance_ids) = startstop_instances(module, ec2, instance_ids, state, instance_tags)
 
+    elif state in ('restarted'):
+        instance_ids = module.params.get('instance_ids')
+        instance_tags = module.params.get('instance_tags')
+        if not (isinstance(instance_ids, list) or isinstance(instance_tags, dict)):
+            module.fail_json(msg='running list needs to be a list of instances or set of tags to run: %s' % instance_ids)
+
+        (changed, instance_dict_array, new_instance_ids) = restart_instances(module, ec2, instance_ids, state, instance_tags)
+
     elif state == 'present':
         # Changed is always set to true when provisioning new instances
         if not module.params.get('image'):