Great action movies really don’t get old, since even some of the classics from real far back (like The General and Seven Samurai) still largely hold up and remain entertaining. Audiences have always liked seeing staged dangerous events on screen, since that kind of thing, when done right, is undeniably exciting and impressive, sometimes even because there is an element of danger that goes into making a great action sequence.
So, that’s why some of the usual suspects have been rounded up below. These action movies aren’t super old, given they all came out within the last 40 years, but a bunch are old enough to be classics, and then some of the newer picks below will surely be classics, once enough years have passed. And you might’ve seen all of these, and read about them all a bunch, but hey, good action is timeless (as mentioned before), and so why not praise some stuff that’s already been praised a bunch, but could still stand to be praised a little more.
10
‘Gladiator’ (2000)
The filmography of Ridley Scott is varied when it comes to genres, and it’s also not the most consistent out there, though when he hits, he really hits. And Gladiator was a hit in just about every way, seeing as it tells a simple story well, has a compelling hero and villain, features a wonderful score, paces itself well, and has some truly great – and interestingly filmed – action sequences.
Gladiator is something of an epic, but it’s on the shorter side of things as far as epics go, making it fairly approachable. It also helps that while it’s 2.5 hours long, it races by and feels more like 100 to 110 minutes in total. It’s fairly effortlessly done, on most fronts, and so potentially easy to take for granted, as a result, but it still excites and moves in much the same way it would’ve done upon release, approximately a quarter of a century ago now.
9
‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ (2018)
Speaking of movies that have come out in the past 40 years, Tom Cruise has been active as a major player on the film scene for a bit over four decades now. But he hasn’t spent all of that time as an action star, honestly becoming more well-known for his action movie roles as he’s gotten older, funnily enough, and it’s the increasingly wild and entertaining Mission: Impossible series that demonstrates this best of all.
Of the eight movies to date, number #6 – Mission: Impossible – Fallout – is probably the best.
Every movie gives him opportunities to do a lot of running, and later entries have also benefited from giving Cruise chances to do wild stunts, which are always great to see. Of the eight movies to date, number #6 – Mission: Impossible – Fallout – is probably the best. It’s business as usual as far as the plot goes, but it’s the everything else that makes this a modern classic of the action genre.
8
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
Though the series it kicked off hasn’t always been smooth sailing, the original film in The Matrix series is a classic through and through. This is a sci-fi movie that asks some interesting questions about humanity, free will, and technology, as good science fiction tends to do, but The Matrix is also just as phenomenal as an action movie, delivering spectacle, gunfights, and martial arts action in spades.
It capped off a good decade for Keanu Reeves; one that made him an action star in the same way that plenty of 2000s and 2010s releases for the aforementioned Tom Cruise kind of made him an action movie legend. Put simply (even though the film is complex and multi-layered), The Matrix kicks a ton of ass, it holds up beautifully, and it offers so much that it’s continually rewatchable, perhaps even benefiting more and more from each subsequent viewing.
7
‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)
Going from point A to point B and then back to point A has never been as much fun – or so thrilling – as it is in Mad Max: Fury Road. This is a series where the oldest installments are now more than 40 years old (and they do largely hold up), but the peak of all the films to date is likely this fourth one, which takes the sort of action found in The Road Warrior and updates/streamlines it to great effect.
Mad Max: Fury Road has a straightforward but compelling conflict at its center, and the actors here do manage to do quite a lot with the minimal dialogue given. There’s enough of a reason to care, but the focus is on the action and all the chase sequences, with the pacing being particularly fast throughout. It’s a blast of a film, and it largely lives up to the immense hype surrounding it.
6
‘Police Story’ (1985)
If you want to understand the immense hype around Jackie Chan, particularly regarding his pre-Hollywood stuff, then the best movie to check out would have to be Police Story. This sees him in his wheelhouse, being both funny and death-defying in equal measure, and it’s also notable for being perhaps the best of his films that he both starred in and directed.
The plot boils down to some typical crime/action movie stuff, with bad guys doing bad things, and Chan playing a rebellious cop who becomes increasingly desperate to thwart them. It’s an excuse to have a bunch of wild things happen, with every big sequence in Police Story being a little more impressive than the last, all building to a crazy climax that has to be seen to be believed (and even then…).
5
‘Heat’ (1995)
Perhaps the best of all the movies Michael Mann has directed, Heat is ambitious, sprawling, and worth the price of admission for the Robert De Niro + Al Pacino showdown alone. They play men on opposite sides of the law who are obviously at odds, all the while having an odd amount of respect for each other, and though they only share the screen briefly, it’s an incredible sequence… plus the build-up to it is just as engaging.
And that’s before getting to all the action in Heat, which is remarkable, and the big heist sequence is particularly grand. It’s not wall-to-wall action all the time, but Heat has enough by way of shootouts and chase sequences to still feel like an action movie, albeit all the while also being a very compelling crime drama that has enough scale to feel like a bit of an epic, too. However you might want to define it, genre-wise, the most important thing is that it’s awesome, and that’s more than enough, you know?
4
‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)
The most action-packed half of Kill Bill is undeniably Vol. 1, to the point where Vol. 2, while still quite violent, doesn’t entirely feel like an action movie (maybe more of a neo-Western/drama sort of thing). Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is all about style and throwing viewers into a wild story of revenge, and only slowing things down, developing characters, and explaining more by way of backstory later on.
So if you just want a lot of fighting, and some of the best sword-fighting ever captured in an English-language martial arts movie, then Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is for you. Quentin Tarantino might’ve made a couple of other films that are even better than this, but he hasn’t made any as relentless or action-packed as this one, and so it’s a film worth mentioning for present purposes.
3
‘Hard Boiled’ (1992)
The best way to summarize Hard Boiled within John Woo’s filmography is to say that it’s his most John Woo movie. You could argue The Killer (1989) is even better, and Face/Off is also similarly great if you want something truly wild, but Hard Boiled has him focusing on action more than anything else, and doubling down on what makes his brand of action so good at every step.
It’s got another excuse plot, with two people who join forces to take down a ton of bad guys, and like, what more do you need? There’s an extended series of action scenes in Hard Boiled that pretty much feels like non-stop action for the movie’s final hour, and the hour before that doesn’t skimp on action, either. There’s so much slow motion, explosive stuff, and moments of heroic bloodshed goodness here, all dialed to 11 and feeling borderline perfect, so long as you just want great action and pretty much nothing else.
2
‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the sequel to The Terminator, which felt like a sci-fi/horror movie with a bit of action for good measure, especially in the second half. This sequel (which is even better), on the other hand, is kind of relentless as an action movie, elevating things as far as scale is concerned while still functioning as a very interesting sci-fi film… and, it has to be said, being unsettling/horrific during a few choice moments, too.
It’s James Cameron at his potential peak, which is saying a lot, considering how great some of his other movies are. But there really is something extra special about Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which was so good it kind of tanked the Terminator series going forward, since the idea of topping this one – or even just equaling it – seems potentially impossible.
1
‘Die Hard’ (1988)
Of course Die Hard is #1. As far as action movies go, there are a few that are more than 40 years old which could arguably be better – or at least more important – than Die Hard. But among those released in the last four decades, there’s no competition. This is, from front to back, a textbook example of how to make an essentially perfect action movie.
There’s a confined setting, clear stakes, an all-time great hero (played by Bruce Willis), and one of cinema’s best-ever villains (played by Alan Rickman). Everything is established and paid off with immense skill, the action is always exciting, and everything escalates just how it needs to across a well-paced two-hour runtime. Take it for granted if you want, but Die Hard is such a well-oiled and efficient machine of a movie, and its classic status probably goes without saying, but hey, it’s being said anyway. Die Hard is an absolute classic.
Die Hard
- Release Date
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July 15, 1988
- Runtime
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132 minutes
