Real life can be quite boring. That’s why we’ve got movies! The best action movies are the ones that grab you by your shirt, pick you up, and shout in your face “look at this cool stunt we pulled off!” In the spirit of high-octane filmmaking, here are the 15 coolest action movies ever made.
Kill Bill (Both Volumes)
Quentin Tarantino knows how to direct a good action movie. While Kill Bill is technically split into two movies, it plays like a single long action film. Uma Thurman is equal parts sympathetic and awesome in this inspired love letter to kung fu cinema.
The Road Warrior
There had been cool car chases in cinema before The Road Warrior came out, but George Miller cracked the code to a very specific aesthetic with his Mad Max sequel. Mel Gibson holds on for dear life as irradiated wasteland freaks with towering mohawks and souped-up wasteland cars try to turn him into roadkill in this white-knuckle post-apocalyptic romp.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
About fifteen minutes in Ghost Protocol, you’re hit with a thought. “Man,” you think to yourself, “the Mission Impossible movies are really cool.” This fourth entry is the best so far in the long-running spy series, in no small part due to an extremely awesome stunt in which Tom Cruise actually scales the Burj Khalifa. That’s right, it’s not some kind of movie magic: the actor actually did that!
Die Hard
Some action movies work because the protagonist is an untouchable superhero. Others, like Die Hard, are enjoyable because their hero is a regular person who is determined to do the right thing. John McClane is just a normal detective who gets caught in an unbelievable situation when Hans Gruber and his cabal of terrorists take over Nakatomi Plaza. Bruce Willis’s career defining performance in the lead role makes Die Hard endlessly rewatchable.
Aliens
Director Ridley Scott took the template from the first Alien film and turned it on its head to create its lauded sequel. Aliens amps up the tension but trades in the claustrophobic horror of its predecessor for breathless action. Seeing protagonist Ellen Ripley go toe-to-toe with the alien queen in a robotic exoskeleton remains one of the genre’s best scenes.
Seven Samurai
Director Akira Kurosawa took everything he loved about westerns and used it to inform his beloved epic Seven Samurai. While the film’s tone and narrative are fully feudal Japan, the cinematography and the texture of the shots is all modern. Basically every “getting the team together” scene and every “sacrifice against all odds” film owe something to this monumental movie.
Speed
Keanu Reeves is at his best in the nail-biting thriller movie Speed. The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat with a unique premise. An unfortunate group on a bus becomes trapped when a terrorist threatens to blow them up if the bus drops below a certain… well, speed.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Ang Lee’s 2000 movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gave Western audiences another huge shot of Hong Kong action. People were thrilled by The Matrix (more on that later) a year prior, and Crouching Tiger gave them a more “authentic” wuxia outing, bolstered by some of the best actors to ever appear in a kung fu movie.
North by Northwest
Alfred Hitchcock helped to create the template for the modern action movie with North by Northwest. The iconic set piece involving a crop duster nearly hitting Cary Grant’s character remains one of the most jaw-dropping stunts in action movie history and helped define the genre traditions we’ve still got to this day.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Is there anything quite as cool as Indiana Jones leaping through a booby-trapped ancient ruin while looking for archeological relics? Raiders has aged well because it’s just a classic, pulp-style adventure with all the awesome swashbuckling action you could want from a movie about raiding tombs.
Enter the Dragon
Many folks in the West became fans of Bruce Lee when they first watched Enter the Dragon. This thrilling martial arts movie is basically a victory lap for Lee, who punches and kicks his way through bad guys in the most stylish way possible.
The Matrix
Keanu Reeves solemnly uttering “woah” as he discovers the extent of his powers in The Matrix presages a whole lot of over-the-top, leather-clad action to come. As Neo, Reeves slows time, dodges bullets, and kicks the snot out of every Agent Smith who tries to fight him. It’s easily the best movie the Wachowskis ever made, and it’s held up incredibly well over the past 25 years.
Terminator
Equal parts thriller and action movie, The Terminator sees Arnold Schwarzenegger’s terrifying robotic assassin chase down Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese through then-contemporary 80s America. It’s a tense, taut movie that was shot on a comparatively skimpy budget and still packs in plenty of thrills.
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Mad Max: Fury Road
Is it wrong to put the Mad Max franchise on this list twice? Well, if so, I don’t want to be right. Charlize Theron steals the show in Fury Road, which functions as part sequel and part reboot for the long-running apocalyptic franchise. If you like car chases, explosions, and high-speed action, this movie will blow your hair back and then some.
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Hard Boiled
John Wu is the master of stylish action, and nowhere is that on better display than in Hard Boiled. This explosive and engrossing action movie has some of the prettiest set pieces and cleanest choreography of any “gun fu” pictures. Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai both give standout performances, too.
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