Best classic action films of all time
The 25 Best Action Movies of All Time
25. The Villainess - 2017
South Korean director Jung Byung-gil starts with a conventional story: a young woman trained as an assassin (Kim Ok-bin) must use her skills against her former masters after being betrayed by them, and goes a bit overboard. Clever first-person fight scenes and a dizzying battle within a bus distinguish this production from other oriental “extreme action” films.
24. Fast and Furious: 5in Control - 2011
This Fast & Furious installment became a template for what followed: a strong multicultural cast, a perfect exotic setting, jaw-dropping, physics-defying stunts, and an unconventional use of the word “family.” It took the franchise from a certain B-grade subgenre to the mainstream of blockbusters.
23. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2 - 2003/2004
Yes, we count the whole damn thing as one film. In this love letter to universal exploitation cinema, from the Shaw brothers’ kung-fu epics to spaghetti westerns and Swedish revenge thrillers, Quentin Tarantino finds the Bride (his muse Uma Thurman) going to war against her former partners in crime. Both episodes are packed with eye-rolling moments. One particularly notable one is the House of Blue Leaves scene, a scene so gory it was cut to black and white to avoid the film being labeled “no under 17s.”
22. Logan - 2017
Hugh Jackman's swansong as the sharp-clawed, short-tempered Wolverine would be a finalist in the contest for the most miserable superhero movie: the "indestructible" mutant is slowly dying, Professor X (Patrick Stewart) suffers from dementia and salvation comes thanks to a psychotic twelve-year-old. But the unusual maturity of James Mangold's approach lies in the fact that he cares much less about the continuity of the X-Men saga than about finding an answer to this question: what would happen if the most violent of the group expressed his crazed inner self on screen? The answer leads to a dead end, but one of the most captivating.
21. Snowpiercer - 2013
In the future, humanity survives a new ice age by living on a perpetually moving train. Upper and lower classes travel in separate carriages. Seeking emancipation, Chris Evans and his guerrillas must reach the front, carriage by carriage, fighting off mercenaries and professors armed with machine guns. Before Parasite , Bong Joon-ho put his finger on the sore spot of social inequality in this adaptation of a French graphic novel, a satire of the conflict between those who have everything and those who have nothing.
20. Mission: Impossible - Fallout - 2018
The adventures of Agent Ethan Hunt are a trademark with their mix of spy film, charismatic celebrities and deadly stunts that make us suspect that Tom Cruise does not value life. This sixth installment is the apex of the saga, from the parachute jump at 7,500 meters to Vanessa Kirby showing off her knife skills.
19. The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - 2000
The tale of Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, two 19th-century fighters who fall in love, is Ang Lee's admission to the Martial Arts Film Hall of Fame. It is a poetic rendition of the coordinated battles of wire-fu (where pulleys are employed to augment the warriors' mobility) as well as a tribute to the epic nature of the genre. It is a wonderful sight to see Chow and Zhang Ziyi battling peacefully on a field of bamboo poles.
18. Casino Royale - 2006
Taking cues from Sean Connery's first James Bond, the first 007 with Daniel Craig makes it clear from the start that there's a new, violent version of the character. We see him easily dispatch an informant in a bathroom and shoot down a corrupt superior, and we already know that he's not going to struggle to exercise his license to kill. This calmly brutal Bond, who shakes off blows without losing his composure, was an infusion of fresh blood for Ian Fleming's hero, a true reboot in a world where hand-to-hand combat and parkour chases are as much a part of the job as looking good in a tuxedo.
17. Terminator 2: Judgement Day - 1991
James Cameron's sequel to his 1980 masterpiece would have a massive impact. Think of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator spraying fire from an anti-aircraft machine gun, the maddening motorbike chase, the well-recycled "I'll be back" quote from the first film or the iconic image of Linda Hamilton, muscled and shotgun in hand. Add to all this Robert Patrick's brilliant T-1000, whose head is blown off by a shotgun blast and seen re-formed by liquid metal, and you realise that we were just a few steps away from a totally new cinema at this point.
16. The Dirty Dozen - 1967
There you have a group of high-ranking officers of the Third Reich who must be eliminated in one fell swoop. Who would you assign to such a suicide mission? Well, for that we have the worst murderers and psychopathic prisoners of the army, right? It's not the first film of the "squad on a special mission" genre, but this adventure by Robert Aldrich set in World War II is the best.
15. Batman: The Dark Knight - 2008
Christopher Nolan's Batman is best remembered for Heath Ledger's Joker. But the opening bank robbery feels like a first-rate homage to Heat. The urban chase scenes with a new Batmobile are impeccable, and Batman's kidnapping of a mob accomplice (with nothing more than a rope and a jet) leaves you reeling. With its deliberate gravitas, superhero cinema has taken things a step further.
14. Unknown Identity - 2002
Jason Bourne was only known to a spy fan until Matt Damon portrayed the amnesiac hero Robert Ludlum in the early 2000s. In Doug Liman's film, Krav Maga and Filipino martial arts are used to improve the character's combat abilities. The way that battle scenes have evolved throughout the narrative is documented by Damon's Bourne as he eliminates three guards at the embassy. Everyone was searching for more imaginative conflicts after that.
13. Midnight Run - 1988
All bounty hunter Jack Walsh needs to do is take mob accountant Jonathan "Duke" Mardukas from New York to Los Angeles to collect $100,000. Sounds simple, but they're being pursued by thugs, federal agents, and a helicopter loaded with hitmen. Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, and director Martin Brest raised the bar for the ideal bawdy action comedy.
12. Police Story - 1985
When he made this gangster classic, Jackie Chan was already a martial arts star, but this was the film that established him as Hong Kong's Buster Keaton. Its opening alone, in which Chan skillfully drives through a hilltop city and hangs off the side of a bus, sets a record hard to beat, but the same actor-director tops it (in the same film!) by sliding along a 30-metre pole covered in light bulbs and through the glass roof of a shopping mall.
11. Raiders of the Lost Ark -1981
Here's Indiana Jones, globe-trotting professor, star archaeologist and snake-phobic adventurer. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's treasure hunter is a throwback to a kind of 1930s movie hero, and the first of Indy's (Harrison Ford) films is a series of moments of pure peril: will he get out of that cave alive? How will he avoid being crushed by that rolling boulder? Can he rescue Marion Ravenwood from the Nazis and keep the lost ark?
10. Aliens: The Return - 1986
The sequel to James Cameron’s 1979 hit doesn’t attempt to duplicate Ridley Scott’s perfect gradation of sci-fi, horror and suspense; instead, it pits Sigourney Weaver’s Lt. Ripley and a platoon of space commandos against toothy aliens in the most direct and dizzying way imaginable. The film is as relentless as the creatures it’s named after. And Weaver became an action heroine icon.
9. Black Panther - 2018
A high point in the Marvel universe, Ryan Coogler's film is proof that a superhero blockbuster can be intellectually challenging and politically representative without losing mass appeal. The director shows an incredible touch for action, whether it's T'Challa's fight with a gang of bad guys or a decisive show for an African utopia. And the star is unbeatable. Victory always, Chadwick Boseman.
8. The Seven Samurai -1954
A village threatened by bandits. The villagers recruit seven warriors to defend them. With this simple premise, Japanese Akira Kurosawa invented modern action cinema. Individual duels and mass battles, always with an eye on character and drama. The final fight in the middle of a storm is studied in film schools: Kurosawa cracked the code for filming sound and fury (and silence too).
7. Hard to Beat - 1992
We could fill a list like this with John Woo movies alone. Our favorite begins with one of cinema’s most incredible shootouts: a chaotic shootout in a teahouse. When supercop Chow Yun-Fat slides down a staircase railing with both guns spitting fire, you understand why Woo’s films have been called “bullet ballets.”
6. Matrix - 1999
On paper, the Wachowskis' formula already sounds great: cyberpunk imagery plus sadomasochistic tailoring plus a story worthy of a cult graphic novel. But The Matrix didn't just introduce the bizarre theory that the universe is a computer simulation into the mainstream: it also established Keanu Reeves as the first action actor of the 21st century and changed the way action is filmed forever. The "slow-motion bullet" sequences are still revolutionary.
5. Enter the Dragon - 1973
When you say "kung fu movie," you probably see Bruce Lee without a shirt, his arms in a fighting posture, and his scarred chest. His most recent movie solidifies his reputation as a real superhero. It is evident from seeing him battle his way through a flurry of fists, feet, and nunchucks why he has made martial arts a worldwide sensation.
4. Murder raid -2011
A SWAT team must capture a drug lord who lives on the top floor of a large apartment building, protected by a dozen thugs on each floor. With this simple concept taken from video games (going through the levels by killing bad guys until you reach the boss), Gareth Evans produced a classic. His heroes are sent to kill or be killed, again and again against all odds and with hyperkinetic movement speed.
3. Die Hard - 1988
“Come to the coast, let’s have a good time,” repeats New York policeman John McClane: his ex-girlfriend has invited him to spend a few days with her and they are having a Christmas toast in a skyscraper in Los Angeles when a terrorist cell takes over the building. What follows is a claustrophobic hunt that makes the most of the unique and limited setting. Bruce Willis goes from television comedian to action movie star and the concept is so successful that it gives birth to a million imitations.
2. John Wick - 2014
His name alone terrifies his fellow hitmen and other underworld bigwigs. You wouldn't want to piss off John Wick, which is exactly what a bunch of Russian mobsters do. Bad move! Co-directors and former stuntmen David Leitch and Chad Stahelski turn a standard revenge thriller into a riotous spectacle, with Keanu Reeves manipulating everything they shoot at him - bullets, elbows, assorted sharp objects - to his advantage. It's all-or-nothing gun-fu nirvana.
1. Mad Max: Fury Road - 2015
Australian filmmaker George Miller had already outlined the post-apocalyptic world of ex-cop Max Rockatansky in three films starring Mel Gibson. The first ( The Road Warrior ) was the model of dystopian car-chase extravagance. When it came time to revisit the character decades later, Miller decided to try to outdo himself by relying on non-digital stunts and stunts. And he succeeded. Watching Tom Hardy’s weary Max, Imperator Furiosa (a one-armed warrior played by Charlize Theron) and her group of guardians, a gang of motorcycle cosplayers and the War Boy army in the desert at 200 km per hour is action cinema at its most daring. There is not a single moment when the viewer does not feel that this continuous clash of metal and bones is real, that it entails real risks for characters and actors. “It was literally like going to war,” said stunt coordinator Guy Norris. Fury Road is the turbocharged version of an action movie.
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