Uwais stars as a rookie cop who must battle his way through a drug lord’s goons to escape a dangerous high rise. The Raid lets its action tell the story; there are no frivolous romances or other subplots to detract from the artful violence. The Raid would spawn an arguably even better sequel, but the original is a must-watch thanks to its simplistic genius. It won several film festival awards, and a Best Supporting Actor win for Yayan Ruhian at the Indonesian Movie Awards. While Fallout features a surprisingly compelling end-of-the-world plot, it’s the set pieces that distinguish the film. Series star Tom Cruise throws himself into one amazing stunt after another, as if he’s desperately trying to win the favor of audiences. Earning widespread critical acclaim, Fallout is currently the top-earning Mission: Impossible film and the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career. Although the plot is secondary in a movie like this, Crouching Tiger tells a surprisingly engaging story involving unspoken love, extensive flashbacks, and vengeance. The film was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2000, winning more than 40 awards and receiving 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It won four: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography. While Paul Greengrass’s shaky-cam and quick-cut directing style would go on to be aped by far too many movies, it’s used to great effect here, helping lend a sense of urgency and grittiness to the action. Damon earned an Empire Award for his lead performance, while The Bourne Supremacy’s stunt team won a Taurus Award for its work on the film’s exhilarating Moscow car chase. It’s a basic setup that allows director Pete Travis to cut loose with a brisk 95 minutes of stylized ultraviolence that easily surpasses the terrible 1995 Judge Dredd adaptation starring Sylvester Stallone. Despite positive reviews, Dredd was a box office failure but has since become a popular cult favorite. Whereas the original Terminator was more of a sci-fi thriller with action elements, director James Cameron goes all out in the action department with T2, as Schwarzenegger and his co-stars shoot their way through one set piece after another. Speaking of co-stars, Linda Hamilton pretty much steals the movie as a buff, battle-hardened Sarah Connor. Terminator 2 is beloved by critics and fans alike and got a ton of awards recognition. In all, it was nominated for six Academy Awards and won four of them, including a well-deserved win for visual effects. It follows outlaw Max Rockantansky (Tom Hardy) as he helps a hardened warrior (Charlize Theron) save a group of young women from an evil warlord. Fury Road is nearly two hours of some of the most incredible car chases, and practical effects ever put to film. This awards juggernaut has been honored by numerous critical publications and received 10 Academy Award nominations. It won six in total, including Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design. Cruise is a delight (especially when his character dies in hilariously brutal ways), but it’s Blunt who steals the show as the seasoned warrior Rita Vrataski. In addition to establishing Blunt as an action star and helping lift Cruise out of a career slump, Edge of Tomorrow won several awards, including Best Actress for Emily Blunt at the Critics’ Choice Awards. Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as Ripley, who emerges as a reluctant hero when she must survive on a space colony overrun by the terrifying xenomorphs. From the compelling supporting characters to the epic final fight against the Alien Queen, Aliens represents the pinnacle of a great action movie. Aliens is an awards outlier in that it’s the rare action movie to earn an acting Oscar nomination (Sigourney Weaver for Best Actress). Weaver didn’t win, but the film still took home two awards: Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects. Somehow, it all works, and even though the film rewards longtime fans with callbacks to past installments, you can also enjoy it as an adrenaline-pumping standalone experience. Fast Five’s most significant accomplishment is revitalizing an entire franchise (both commercially and critically). And it also won a BMI Film Music Award for Brian Tyler’s score and a Teen Choice Award for Best Action Movie. Nolan famously uses practical effects whenever possible in his films. That commitment is on full display in Inception’s set pieces, including a dizzying hallway fight and an avalanche shootout. Inception is the rare action movie to receive numerous Academy Award nominations. It received eight nominations in total, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and won four: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. For as much as the Wachowskis innovated with their use of groundbreaking special effects and philosophical concepts that had viewers questioning their realities, they also heavily influenced action filmmaking as a whole. The Matrix popularized spinning cameras and bullet time while moving Hollywood toward adopting Hong Kong cinema techniques like wire-fu. In addition to several BAFTA wins and nominations, The Matrix won four Academy Awards: Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Though competent, Willis’s John McClane portrays an everyman who beats the bad guys but goes through hell doing so. It helps that he’s facing off against Rickman’s Hans Gruber, easily one of the greatest villains in cinematic history. Die Hard spawned several sequels of varying quality and earned four Oscar nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Sound. While on-screen animal violence is never OK, what follows this cruel act is cool. Reeves punches, flips, and headshots his way through one stylish action scene after another, including a nightclub shootout that stands as one of the decade’s best action scenes. While both John Wick sequels up the ante in the action department, they also get a bit bogged down by the franchise’s increasingly bizarre assassin universe. The original strikes an excellent balance between the two and is the place to start.
