The films that raised the action floor, decade by decade.
the blueprint for every laconic hitman since
the car chase that reset the standard
the vigilante-cop template, and the argument about it
Best Picture, and the elevated-train chase
made for almost nothing, and it started everything
one night, one gang, and a whole visual language
before the franchise, a quiet film about a broken man
Murphy's biggest, and the action-comedy template
the purest distillation of 80s action
Carpenter's most purely fun film
a flop that spawned everything, and the Queen soundtrack
the buddy formula, fully formed
the most imitated action structure ever written
De Niro and Grodin, the two-hander everyone rewatches
indefensible and endlessly rewatched
Woo's operatic gunplay at its peak
Bigelow, and far stranger than its reputation
the effects leap, and the better film
made for about $7,000
the hospital sequence
*Die Hard* on a boat, done properly
Stallone on a mountain, and practical stunt work throughout
dumb on the surface, genuinely prescient underneath
the best-constructed chase film of its decade
Tarantino's script, Scott's direction, the Walken scene
uncomfortable, and superbly made
one idea, executed perfectly
Bay and Smith, and the buddy formula at full volume
*El Mariachi* with a budget, and the one people rewatch
the diner scene, the shootout
the best-directed Bay film
"get off my plane," and the 90s premise machine at its peak
critically dismissed on release, permanently quotable since
the peak of action absurdism
the film that made comic movies viable
the last great practical car chases
Chan and Tucker, a genuine phenomenon
Jackson and Spacey, a two-hander with a siege around it
Washington immobile for the whole film
the start of the biggest action franchise on earth
the action style everyone copied for a decade
digital night photography, perfected
the film that got Craig the Bond job
Scott's most stylised, and Washington's coldest
where the shaky-cam era really began
the marriage as a shootout, and a genuine phenomenon
the action grammar everyone copied
the phone call, and a second career for Neeson
Miike's most disciplined, and a 45-minute battle
synth, silence, sudden violence
where the franchise became what it is
a flop, and the best comic adaptation of its decade
the action floor was permanently raised
rebuilt American action from scratch
the church scene
bigger, longer, and the kitchen fight
Villeneuve, Deakins, and the tunnel
two stories, one revenge, Ford's second film
the stairwell fight
the world-building entry
