Action movies have excitement on lock. No genre of movie can get pulses racing and fists pumping like action can. Car chases, gunfights, and hand-to-hand combat are all the elements that make for exciting entertainment, and they all feature in some of the most thrilling action movies in film history.
What makes these action movies more exciting than any others is certainly subjective, but there’s no denying they are all effectively made. They’re all action classics from the 20th and 21st centuries, with some of the genre’s biggest stars and filmmakers well represented among them. Some could qualify as the greatest films ever made, while others are indelible favorites, but they’re all exciting as hell.
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‘Die Hard’ (1988)
Image via 20th Century Studios
“Suspense, excitement, adventure on every level.” That’s one of the taglines used to describe Die Hard and its truth in advertising. This 80s action classic directed by John McTiernan brought excitement back to the genre after the decade had been dominated by muscular supermen who could shrug off bullet wounds like bug bites. Casting Bruce Willis, best known at the time for the television series Moonlighting, gives the movie an action hero with real vulnerability. Pitting him against a skyscraper full of armed assailants turns that vulnerability into intense excitement.
The action sequences are all staged perfectly, continually putting John McClane (Willis) on the back foot as he tries to save his wife’s Christmas party from Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his team of thieves, and then makes him walk over glass with that foot. The success of Die Hard would inspire multiple films that would attempt to repeat its formula of one man against an army of villains in an isolated location, though none could ever match its excitement. To quote another tagline, it will blow you through the back wall of the theater.
7
‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991)
Image via Tri-Star Pictures
Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of the indestructible supermen who were superseded by the Willis’ of the world. His most famous role made him quite literally indestructible, as he played the relentless villain of James Cameron’s The Terminator. After both men spent the rest of the 80s cultivating their action careers, they retraced for the sequel, which reprogrammed Schwarzenegger to be the hero and upped the excitement quotient exponentially. The Terminator was a tense sci-fi slasher action thriller but Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a blockbuster on a whole other level.
Tapping into Schwarzenegger’s finely tuned star power and putting him as the protector gives the sequel a lighter tone and gives Cameron room to bring in an even badder villain. The T-1000 (Robert Patrick) was originally planned for the first film, but Cameron quickly scrapped it because the technology wasn’t available yet. The groundbreaking CGI used to make the liquid metal killer is one part of what makes Terminator 2 such a well-oiled machine of excitement. The other parts are a motorcycle versus semi-truck chase sequence, a nonstop third act that’s all action, and Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton competing to see who can be the biggest badass.
6
‘Hard Boiled’ (1992)
John Woo has a filmography filled with exciting action movies. From his heroic bloodshed classics like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer, to his Hollywood hits Hard Target and Face Off. His action direction is second to none, and his undisputed action masterpiece is Hard Boiled. It was his final action film made in Hong Kong before moving to Hollywood, and it’s an exciting culmination of that phase of his career. The title is appropriate given the film’s clear noir influences, with a jazz-loving detective intent on taking down a criminal syndicate.
That detective is Tequila (Chow Yun-fat), and while the film itself is inspired by classic crime thrillers, it’s all exciting action, featuring the most blistering gunfights in Woo’s career. Any one of the three major action sequences, fromthe tea house opening to the hospital climax, are more exciting than entire action movies, but cumulatively make Hard Boileda masterpiece of ballistic exhilaration.
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‘Speed’ (1994)
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‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (2007)
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‘Unstoppable’ (2010)
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‘The Raid Redemption’ (2011)
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‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)
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