In 2019, we shared our list of the100 Essential Movies. We created this list not to call out what was “best”, but rather as a guide for aspiring cinephiles who may feel overwhelmed and not sure where to start in their journey. It wasn’t meant to be viewed in any particular order, and hopefully it would lead the reader to go down new rabbit holes where they could discover more obscure titles.
We’ve now returned with a new list of essential titles, this time focused solely on the action genre. We felt that action was a good place to start given its popularity and worldwide appeal with contributions to the genre from across the globe. While there are obvious inclusions here likeDie HardandMad Max: Fury Road, we hope you’ll also check-out older titles likeSafety Last!and international entries likeSholay. Again, this isn’t meant to be a list signifying what’s “best”, but rather how to get a baseline of cinematic knowledge in the action genre. And most of all, we hope you have fun with these movies. They’re a blast!
For additional curated recommendations from the Collider staff, check out our lists for thebest comedy films of the 21st century,best documentaries of the 21st century, andbest war movies of the 21st century so far.
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Directors:Michael Curtiz and William Keighley
Writers:Norman Reilly Raine, Seton I. Miller, and Rowland Leigh
Cast:Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette and Alan Hale Sr.
Any list of essential action movies requires this swashbuckler from Hollywood’s Golden Age. For better or worse, this is theRobin Hoodagainst which all otherRobin Hoods are made and judged. You probably know the story without having even seen the movie, butErrol Flynnmakes for a game leading man at the height of his powers, and the sword-fighting is top-notch. Looking back from today, the action inThe Adventures of Robin Hoodmay seem quaint, but it has all the hallmarks of action cinematography designed to thrill and exhilarate the audience. And when you throw in the beautiful technicolor, you have a classic that’s still vibrant and captivating. –Matt Goldberg
Aliens (1986)
Director:James Cameron
Writer:James Cameron
Cast:Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton, William Hope , Jenette Goldstein, Al Matthews
Ridley Scott’sAlienis a masterclass in sci-fi horror, but it’s the sequel which defined the Xenomorph universe as one which would become an essential part of American film — and it’s entirely becauseJames Camerontook Ridley’s monsters and put them inside a whole new genre, one that revealed the full possibilities ofAlienas a franchise. It’s also an incredible action film that moves fluidly from one disaster to the next, as survivor Ellen Ridley (Sigourney Weaver) accompanies a pack of space Marines (as well asPaul Reiseras the deliciously evil corporate flunky who proves to be just as much a villain as the Alien Queen). Every beat of the action that follows their arrival on LV-426 is compelling, brilliantly staged, and also more often than not rooted in character — entire books could be written on howAliensmakes something so very difficult look easy. –Liz Shannon Miller
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Directors:Joe and Anthony Russo
Writers:Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Cast:Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Karen Gillan, and Josh Brolin
Why It’s Essential:The Marvel Cinematic Universe actually began pretty light on action thanks to budget constraints (the set pieces inIron Manare hilariously small in hindsight), but the culminating MCU filmAvengers: Endgamecontains perhaps the biggest action scene of all time. The finale, of course, begins with an incredible 3 vs 1 fight pitting Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor against Thanos, only for every single hero in the entire MCU to show up and duke it out with Thanos’ army. What makes this action sequence grand isn’t the sheer number of characters (there are also a lot of characters in the Battle of Helm’s Deep), it’s the star-power of those characters.Avengers: Endgameis basically an entire movie made up of payoff, and that finale is the punchline to 21 movies’ worth of character arcs, to the point that you care deeply about every single character onscreen. It’s a truly unprecedented moment that resulted in one of the most memorable theatrical experiences in history. And while yes, most of the action was created using CG, the sheer originality of the whole final battle – and the fact thatAvengers: Endgamethe highest grossing movie of all time – more than qualifies it for this list. –Adam Chitwood
Director:Michael Bay
Writers:Ron Shelton and Jerry Stahl
Cast:Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jordi Mollà, Gabrielle Union, Peter Stormare, Theresa Randle, and Joe Pantoliano
Why It’s Essential: This is Michael Bay at the height of his power and his id. It is Michael Bay distilled down into his most dangerous form. It’s aMichael Baymovie stripped of all pretense of needing to appeal to anyone other than action junkies. The plot of cops Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami is the thinnest pretense for all kinds of wild escapades that eventually leads up to the duo and their pals invading Cuba on a rescue mission. It’s a movie that announces its third act turn with Marcus literally saying, “Shit just got real.” Yes, there are better Michael Bay movies, but as a titan of the action genre for better or worse,Bad Boys IIis his masterpiece. –Matt Goldberg
A Better Tomorrow (1986)
Director:John Woo
Writers:Chan Hing Kai, Leung Suk Wah, and John Woo
Cast:Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-fat, Emily Chu, Waise Lee, Kenneth Tsang, Shi Yanzi
It’s impossible to overstate how much impact Hong Kong action, andJohn Woo, in particular, had in inventing action movies as we know them today. Likewise, it’s impossible to overstate how formative Woo’s 1986 filmA Better Tomorrowhas been in the stylistic and storytelling devices that came to both define his career and dominate action cinema worldwide. Celebrated as a groundbreaking shift for action,A Better Tomorrowis credited as the film that sparked the wave of “Heroic Bloodshed” movies; operatic stories of duty and loyalty, punctuated by stylized, hyperviolent set-pieces. It also reinvigorated and reinvented Woo’s career, along withChow Yun-fat, who stole the film with his radiant, nuanced performance, preternaturally cool every step of the way.
A Better Tomorrowis known and celebrated for all these well-deserved accolades and historical accomplishing of filmmaking, but the most striking thing about it is how damn effective it is every time you watch it. That signature Woo style, which would practically explode out of the screen in his subsequent classicsThe KillerandHard Boiled(and especially in his American career), are more subdued here; the early signs of the architect of explosive grandeur that he’d become. But every element of the film is still heightened, infused with a sense of Shakespearean tragedy, as unafraid to strive for the profound in its exploration of brotherly love as it is to spray paint the walls with blood during its balletic shootouts. There’s noReservoir DogswithoutA Better Tomorrow,noThe Matrix, no action cinema as we know it. But it isn’t just a remarkable film because it changed movies, it’s just a downright remarkable film. –Haleigh Foutch
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Director: John Carpenter
Writers: Gary Goldman, David Z. Weinstein, W. D. Richter
Cast: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong
John Carpenter, who never met a genre he couldn’t “make one of the best, most defining texts” of, struck again inBig Trouble in Little China, a wildly entertaining, refreshingly silly, and downright transgressive piece of campy fantasy action-comedy. Every piece of contemporary action blockbuster filmmaking can be drawn back toBig Trouble’s playbook, especially the stuff we see in the MCU. Casual integration of fantastical, mythological elements in our otherwise grounded, corporeal world? A relentless pace of comedy that tends to call out what we normally take for granted in action films?Kurt Russellshowing literally every Chris “how to have fun in an action movie”?Big Trouble in Little Chinadoes it all with flair, panache, and a rollicking good time. Plus, it has the benefit of sneaky social commentary: Russell’s Jack Burton, despite being one of my all time favorite movie characters, doesnothingto further the narrative, to the point where he’s literally knocked unconscious at a climactic battle. If you literally removed him from the film, it would make it more clear how much this film belongs toDennis Dun, Jack’s friend who has a clear goal, want, and arc to go through — and is a leading Asian performer in a predominantly white-centered genre. By technically centering a white character and making it painstakingly, hilariously clear how useless he is, Carpenter’s sense of textual muckraking is matched only by his sheer, joyful skill in action-comedy crafting. -Gregory Lawrence
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Director:Paul Greengrass
Writer:Tony Gilroy
Cast:Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, Gabriel Mann, Joan Allen
Love it or hate it,Paul Greengrass’2004 spy sequelThe Bourne Supremacyhad such a resounding impact on action blockbusters that, nearly 20 years later, we’re still seeing the aftermath play out in sloppy, choppy fight scenes trying to catch Bourne’s wave. But here’s the thing.The Bourne Supremacyrules, and it’s not the film’s fault that folks have spent a decade and a half trying to bootleg its swag.
Following up Doug Liman’s hitThe Bourne Identity, Greengrass implemented his signature documentary stylings onto an action-thriller and wound up with some of the most kinetically invigorating, unforgettable fight scenes of the 21st Century so far. Along with fight coordinatorJeff ImadaandMatt Damon’s committed physical performance, Greengrass’ frenetic framing approach imbued Bourne with a combat style that felt singular, specific, and wholly convincing as a walking weapon of mass carnage. There are, admittedly, ashit-tonof cuts, but they’re intentional and elegantly orchestrated, never to hide weak choreography or performance, but to deliver maximum impact and efficient storytelling. And on the note of storytelling,Supremacyfeatures one of the most shocking, grim inciting incidents I can remember in recent blockbusters. That bold choice gives the film a quiet, grief-stricken melancholy closer to something likeGet Carterthan the many, many bombasticBourneimitators that have followed, and the willingness to confront the human cost of killing amidst the adrenaline-pumping action gives it an emotional impact that almost hits as hard as Bourne himself. –Haleigh Foutch
Con Air (1997)
Director:Simon West
Writer:Scott Rosenberg
Cast:Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson, Rachel Ticotin, Danny Trejo, M. C. Gainey, Nick Chinlund, Dave Chappelle, Monica Potter, Jose Zuniga
There is something glorious about the wayCon Airjustgoes for it, an ’90s action legend just for the fact that producerJerry Bruckheimerlooked back at his previous blockbuster successes — their penchant for blending absurd stunts with sharp comedy, the mammoth star-studded casts — and decided to just crank the knob on those qualities to 11. To be clear, with a lesser castCon Airmight have been regulated to the bargain bins of history, but just look at that list above. Only two years prior,Nicolas Cagehad won an Oscar for his nuanced portrayal of a dying alcoholic inLeaving Las Vegas, and here he is with a mullet, demanding that Nick Chinlundput the bunny back in the box. Plus,John CusackstealingColm Meaney’s sports car so he can tear after a goddamn plane alone is an all-timer moment, andJohn Malkovichis operating at peak Malkovich energy. Really, this movie is peakeverything, especially onceTrisha Yearwood’s cover of “How Do I Live Without You” starts to play over the wreckage of Las Vegas left over after the climatic battle.Con Airjust explainsso muchabout its place and time, and it does so at full volume. –Liz Shannon Miller
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Director: Ang Lee
Writers: Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai
Cast: Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Sihung Lung, Cheng Pei-pei
In the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the visual style and narrative tropes of Chinese and Hong Kong wuxia films broke through in the United States in a big way. You can see this big influence in big American films likeThe Matrix, theMcGCharlie’s Angelsfilms, and, uh,Kung Pow! Enter the Fist. But in the first year of our new millennium, we got a pure, unvarnished, unfiltered version of this time-tested genre, a piece of filmmaking both pure in its old-fashioned romanticism and contemporary in its reckoning with gender.Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonis an exceptionally beautiful martial arts action film, full ofMichelle Yeohbeing the best human being, love stories that will simply arrest your heart, and astonishing wire-fu action sequences choreographed impeccably byYuen Woo-ping.Ang Leecombines what we primarily knew about him as a director before this film — sensitive, patient explorations of emotional repression and revelation — with the genre-exploring impulses of his last film, neo-westernRide with the Devil. As such,Crouching Tigermight be the most uncommonly interior film on the list; even its swordplay sequences, lensed in gripping long takes often literally flying in the air, are manifestations of its characters’ interior demons and desires spilling past the point of stability. For an essentially exploratory action film, and a pitch-perfect example of the wuxia genre’s beautiful past and expansive future,Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragondeserves your attention and then some. -Gregory Lawrence
Die Hard (1988)
Director:John McTiernan
Writer:Jeb Stuart and Stuart E. de Souza
Cast:Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton, Alexander Godunov, Clarence Gilyard, Hart Bochner, James Shigeta, Paul Gleason, and De’voreaux White
Why It’s Essential:I mean,Die Hardis the GOAT, right? It may not be your own personal favorite action movie, or even mine, but you can’t argue with its significance, as it continues to loom large over the genre 32 years later.Die Hardhas everything you could possibly want in an action movie, starting with a badass lead performance fromBruce Willisthat changed the course of his career and introduced “yippee-ki-yay"into the cultural lexicon. We love John McClane because weareJohn McClane, and it’s that everyman quality that makes the character so memorable. He’s not a superhero, he’s just a cop with a family who’s a magnet for trouble. Naturally, he gets more than he bargained for when Hans Gruber (brilliantly played byAlan Rickman) and a dozen of his heavily armed goons seize control of Nakatomi Tower and take McClane’s wife (Bonnie Bedelia) hostage. Cue barefoot shootouts galore, and a killer ending that will go down in history as one of the all time greats.
Die Hardis iconic for so many reasons – its character work, its sense of humor and its practical effects, for starters – but the reason it has stood the test of time as more than just an action masterpiece is, strangely enough, its holiday cheer. Families used to gather ‘round and watchIt’s a Wonderful Life, and many surely still do, but I feel likeDie Hardhas become the new Christmas classic, at least for adults. Sure, the two most recent sequels threatened to erode the legacy of this franchise, but the original trilogy is as close to perfect as it gets, and that first film represents the gold standard of the genre. Yippee-ki-yay, indeed! -Jeff Sneider
