I say that with a note of bemusement because I remember seeing director Marco Brambilla's debut feature when it made its cinema debut back in 1993 and thinking it was a pile of plastic, out dated, self-referential myth making of the highest order. Just the other night I found myself re-watching Demolition Man and, wait for it, actually enjoying it immensely.

Otherwise, a movie’s Tomatometer score was not a factor, so long as the plot was kicked forward in a hail of bullets, car chases, fist fights, and martial arts wizardry.A GLOBAL pandemic can lead a man to make some curious viewing decisions. In the interest of keeping the Essential Movies as tight and pure as possible, we excluded the genres of war, sports, Western, and samurai. These are the badass movies that make audiences feel cooler from having seen them. They spawned franchises, pushed back against time, defined and even expanded the genre. These are the action movies whose influence can be seen in the films that followed. Internationally, we reach as far as Hong Kong ( Police Story, Hard-Boiled), Australia ( The Road Warrior), England ( Kingsman: The Secret Service), France ( La Femme Nikita), Indonesia ( The Raid: Redemption), Korea ( The Villainess), and beyond. Not to mention some action genre crossovers: sci-fi ( Equilibrium), horror ( They Live), and, of course, comedy ( Beverly Hills Cop). We have the classics ( Die Hard, The French Connection), modern fan favorites ( Hardcore Henry, John Wick), superhero blockbusters ( Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and plenty from the macho ’80s ( Commando, First Blood).

Which sounds like a lot, but when you’re considering thousands of action movies, it’s only the most thrilling, the most exciting, the most brutal, and the influential who make the cut!Īction is a wide-open genre and term, and we endeavored to include something from every era, style, and movement of action movies.

Welcome to our guide to the most Essential Action Movies! Where everyone enters…and only 140 leave.

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