Energetic compounds represented by trinitrotoluene (TNT), cyclotrimethylene trinitramine (RDX) and cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine (HMX) are highly toxic. When released into the environment, these energetic compounds will undergo complex redistribution, migration and transformation in soil-water-organism system, and pose hazards to ecosystems and human health. According to the pollution status of energetic compounds in domestic and foreign sites, the environmental behaviors of TNT, RDX and HMX in soil such as dissolution/precipitation, volatilization, adsorption/desorption, photolysis, hydrolysis, reduction, microbial degradation and plant uptake and transformation were reviewed. The physical and chemical properties of explosives and soils, and the effect of on-site environmental conditions on these complex environmental behaviors were also analyzed. The latest research on the environmental behavior of hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane (CL-20) and other novel explosives was briefly introduced. Based on the current research status, it is recommended that more attention should be paid to marine environmental ammunition pollution and combined pollution between energetic compounds and heavy metals in the future, and more attention should be paid to the application of the advanced technologies, such as compound-specific stable isotope analysis, to the environmental behavior and fate of explosives.