Die a Hero

A guide to the best action movies

By Jim Kochanoff

Dedication

Dedicated to all the risk taking action characters, who fought insurmountable odds against overwhelming enemies in life threatening situations, yet always came out on top and managed to thrill and scare you all at once. How I wanted to be just like you!

Introduction

I knew I loved action movies when I dressed up as Arnold Schwarzenegger after watching the movie Commando.  I had the army fatigues, I painted my face with green zebra stripes and I even had a cigar because Arnold was constantly taking pictures in the media with one in his mouth. I thought I was amazing cool. I’m sure if someone looked at those pictures of me from my teens today, they would probably use a different adjective.

I love the adrenalin rush of a good action movie. The feeling that you get when you emulate the hero and believe you too could take out a hundred guys and not work up a sweat. I toyed with the idea of joining the military but realized that there was a lot of hard work involved with little of the glory in the movies. So I did the next best thing, I (with a partner) set up a recreational war games company in university.

It was fun to buy paintball guns, to camouflage masks and to rent an old military base to play out a boyhood fantasy with others with the same interests. There’s a certain pleasure with taking a guy out with a paintball and watching him walk off the field. I enjoyed the camaraderie in working with a team with a common goal (like capture the flag) and banding together to take down your enemy. Your nerves are on edge as you crawl through the woods in search of your foe. You get a perverse pleasure when you eliminate an enemy team member who had no idea that you were there. Unfortunately, dreams were replaced by reality, when I sold the business to my partner and moved out to Los Angeles to seek my fame and fortune.

Although my job could not match my fantasies in the action movies, I never lost my interest in those movies. After working several jobs in the television industry as a production manager, I tried my hand at my first novel about; you guessed it, action movies. It was called Men of Extreme Action and it chronicled the story of two aging action stars that have one final shot at glory. I have written several books since but it’s still my favorite and I was fortunate enough to attract an animation company who agreed to produce an animated pilot (see adventurebooks.ca for details and images.)

Like a lot of television and movie projects, it was never completed but my love of action movies never diminished. The book before you is why I think action movies are important. They may not get the respect of other movie genres but they have an impact. This book will describe why they are important to movie goers and the elements that stand out in a well executed action film. This book is aimed at the North American film audience and the characters that inspired me. That doesn’t mean that only good action movies come from American movie studios. However my list is mostly biased to those films which means if you have a favorite Bollywood action flick, it won’t make my list.

I will talk about the era of action movies and hopefully engage your opinion. You may or may not agree with some of my actor choices or movies that I believe set the standard of a good action film. The book will describe the era of action and if you want to argue with my choices, maybe just maybe, that shows that you too are a fan that cares about a good action movie.

"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Batman – The Dark Knight (2008)

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my two families, Stan and Peggy Kochanoff and Dr. Sam Ram for their love and support during my life. My mother, Peggy, gave me instant feedback on editing concerns for the book.

I want to thank my ‘bros’ Michael Bayer and Mike Ward for their feedback on my first draft. As fans of action movies, they were able pinpoint what it was lacking and what parts didn’t interest them.

Most importantly, I thank my wife Avai and my daughter Jaya for always making my life full of fun which keeps me writing. I may not wrestle villains against world domination but they create plenty of ‘action for my life.

Contents

Introduction

Definition - action movies

History of action films

Action categories

Spies

Comedy

Martial Arts

Adventure

War movies

Die Hard Scenarios

Sci-Fi

Girls with guns

Superheroes

Definition – action star

The 60’s - The building of Bond

The top 10 bond moments

Action element #1 – The car chase

The top 10 car chases

The 70’s – martial arts and guns

Bruce Lee

Clint Eastwood

Chuck Norris

Jackie Chan

70’s Notable movies

Action element #2 – Strength

Top 10 Martial Art Movies

The 80’s – the decade of excess

Sylvester Stallone

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Bruce Willis

Harrison Ford

Mel Gibson

Kurt Russell

Honorable Mention – Dolph Lundgren

80 Movies of Merit

Action element #3 – Special Effects

Top 10 Action Franchises

The 90’s – the peak and fall of action stars

Tom Cruise

Jean Claude Van Damme

Steven Seagal

Wesley Snipes

Jet Li

Keanu Reeves

Honorable Mention – Patrick Swayze, Chow Yun-Fat

Top 10 Action Partnerships

90’s Movie of Merit

Top 10 Action Villains

Action element #4 – High Body Counts

Women Warriors

Sigourney Weaver

Linda Hamilton

Angelina Jolie

Milla Jovovich

Female Movie of Merit

Top 10 Female Fights

Action element #5 – One Liners

Top 10 Action Television Shows

2000’s The Age of Action Realism and the Rise of Digital Actors

The Birth of Bourne

The Rise of Superheroes

2000 action stars

Jason Statham

Vin Diesel

Honorable Mention – Dwayne Johnston

2000’s Movie to Watch

Top 10 Action Movies

Top 10 Action Fight Scenes

Ingredients for the Perfect Action Movie

Thanks and Resources

Definition - action movies

An action movie is an escapism movie based on stunts, guns, fast cars, explosions and a whole lot of gun play for a fast paced not always plot heavy story. The genre began to develop on its own in the 70’s and was usually targeted towards a male audience from the early teens to the mid-30s. Many action filmmakers started in the 1990s to add female heroines in response to the times, glorifying the strong female lead.

Action movies are told through physical action as opposed to dialogue and usually involve individual challenges on the part of the hero. Guns, knives, explosions and a number of other violent means are used by the heroes and villains in the movie. Some of the movies in this book may not be considered strictly an action film but may have a memorable action sequence.

Usually the hero has some reservations about the type of violence he employs while the villain has no such reservations. Many darker action movies have the hero employing violent techniques usually in response to the villain(s). Action movie villains are usually in response to the type of climate of the current world events of the day. In past decades, villains have been spies left over from the cold war to mafia to drug cartels. With the more recent attacks by terrorist across the world, their use in action movies have been more common place.

While action films have been a reliable source of revenue for movie studios, relatively few action films garner critical praise. Many reviewers provide scathing commentary on the plot of these films. What critics fail to realize is that the typical viewer is more interested in the hero and his/her ability to battle a number of adversaries then a movie with a heavy message. Many action movies stars have real combat skills and these skills are a key selling point in the marketing of the movies.

Action films tend to be expensive, requiring big budget special effects and stunt work. They are regarded as mostly a Hollywood genre, although there have been a significant number of action films from Hong Kong which are primarily modern variations of the martial arts film. Because of these roots, Hong Kong action films typically center on acrobatics by the protagonist while American action films typically feature big explosions, car chases, stunt work and CGI special effects technology.

With the availability of CGI technology at a lower price, action cinema outside of Hollywood has been able to provide viewers with the same degree of spectacle as big budget American action films. Computer graphics are used to enhance the film making stunts less expensive, less time consuming and less dangerous, and permits swifter movement by actors and a new range of options for the director.

There is no lack of bad action movies – stories of wooden characters, little plot and poor effects. This book’s intent is to cover the best this genre has offered. It will detail memorable scenes of actors whose names and characters are synonymous with the genre. No matter their lack of award accolades, action movies create an adrenalin drive for the viewer that no other movie type can provide. As a teenager and as an adult, there is no greater fun than either talking about an amazing action scene or repeating a memorable action line.

This book will attempt to describe why a movie is an action flick and its value to the genre. You may not agree with all choices but hopefully you consider them and compare to your own.

The History of Action Movies

One could argue that the very first action movie was the 1903 classic, The Great Train Robbery. Exceedingly violent for the day, there are several on-screen deaths and every male character holds a gun. Effects were used such as the flash and smoke of the guns firing and the often duplicated scene in later movies, of a robber who fires his gun at the viewer in the last scene.

The action genre developed by the early swashbuckling films of the 30’s with the sword battles. The movie Captain Blood (you have to love the name) began the talking era and despite a slower beginning of the film, had plenty of swordplay, a sea battle (boarding another ship) and piracy. The movie introduced comic relief by an action lead which would become a device to break a tense moment in an otherwise serious action scene.

Once into the 40’s and 50’s, war and cowboy films contributed to the action archetype depicting a hero in desperate odds and fighting in bullet ridden battlegrounds. These movies emphasized the values of honor and sacrifice by the heroes which would influence the action stars of the future.

In the 60’s, the long-running success of the James Bond series helped popularize the modern day action film with spy adventures. Early Bond films were characterized by car chases, fist fights and elaborate action sequences. Bond would always escape from the most impossible dangers and fight many disposable henchmen. Creative gadgets were introduced that provided an endless supply of arsenal for Bond to utilize. The series established the concept of a hero who is able to deal with villains with a ready one-liner.

The "Action film" as a genre began to develop in the 1970s. Two distinct action movie types exploded onto the movie screen. Gritty detective stories and urban crime dramas began to fuse themselves with the new "action" style, leading to a string of maverick police officer films. The police dramas were the earliest films to present a car chase as an action set-piece. Dirty Harry can be considered the action film's first true archetype. The genre came about as a synthesis of the existing western and film noir genres, with some elements of the police procedural. Martial arts were introduced to western audiences in the 70’s as well. Asian influenced movies brought the physical combat of the martial arts into the mainstream popularizing many Asian and North American stars.

Action movies did not become a dominant form in Hollywood until the 1980s, when it was popularized by actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson. The summer blockbuster was often a product of the action genre. The film Die Hard was particularly influential on the development of the genre in the following decade. In the film, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office block. The film set a pattern for a host of imitators, like Under Siege or Air Force One, which used the same formula in a different setting.

The 90’s brought an era of sequels and hybrid action. Like the western genre, the spy-movies and urban-action films were starting to parody themselves, and with the growing revolution in CGI (computer generated imagery), the "real-world" settings began to give way to increasingly fantastic environments. The success of many Dirty Harry and James Bond sequels had proven that a single successful action film could lead to a continuing action franchise. Comic-book-inspired films like Batman and Spiderman, would pave the way for the new millennium, their many sequels competing for box office with big-budget productions

This book will focus a lot on the 80’s and 90’s which in my opinion was when action movies were at their peak of popularity.

Action Categories

Thought there was only one type of action movie? Think again. The action movie can be defined in many different categories. Many action films lean toward physical, agile fighting, such as Blade and The Matrix, while others lean toward common action conventions, like explosions and plenty of gunfire, such as Mission Impossible.  Some employ comedic character and situations while other characters are brilliant with their feet and hands. War movies have realistic action scenes and over the top special effects. Sci-Fi films employ futuristic technology and effects into its action sequences. Some action movies are based on comics or books while others have their creation from video games. Bond movies inspire a whole genre of spy movies that have been updated with the Bourne series. Finally adventure films have a great action sequences and some of the best tongue in cheek humor.

Whatever your flavor, here are descriptions of the main action themes:

Spies

Alfred Hitchcock almost single-handedly ushered in the spy-adventure genre, firmly establishing the use of action-oriented "set pieces" like the famous crop-duster scene and the Mount Rushmore finale in North by Northwest.

The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy. The James Bond film series is based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond (code designation "007") appearing in the novels of Ian Fleming. The franchise remains as one of the longest continually running film series in history and will have a chapter devoted to the Bond character later in this book

Other popular spy action movies include Mission Impossible (1996), based on the popular television series, starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The plot follows Hunt's mission to uncover the mole within the CIA who has framed him for the murders of his entire team. Two sequels followed this movie and a fourth is in talks.

xXx, pronounced "Triple X", is a 2002 action film starring Vin Diesel in the lead role as Xander Cage, a thrill seeking extreme sports enthusiast turned reluctant spy for the National Security Agency who is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential terrorists in Eastern Europe.

The most popular recent spy movies are the Bourne films are based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering from amnesia created by author Robert Ludlum. All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). The series is noted for its realism, in contrast to the growing use of CGI in the action genre.

Action comedy

Action comedies have been around for a long time – a sub-genre involving action and humor. This "buddy cop" relationship involves two men of different and conflicting personalities (sometimes they are different ethnicities or cultures). They are forced to work together to solve a crime and/or defeat criminals, sometimes learning from each other in the process. The two men are normally cops, but some films, such as 48 hrs (cop and an ex-con), that are not about two cops may still be referred to as a buddy cop film.

Normally one is "wilder" than the other: hot-tempered is paired with a more even-keeled partner who usually has more patience and experience. These films sometimes also contain a variation on the good cop/bad cop, in which one partner is kinder and law-abiding, while the other is a streetwise, "old school" police officer who tends to break (or at least bend) the rules. Another frequent plot device is for one of the men to be removed from his natural element, usually by being forced to operate in a different country. When this is done, the other man acts as a guide to the unfamiliar.

The action scenes within the genre are generally lighthearted and rarely involve death or serious injury. Many credit The Blues Brothers from 1980 as a precursor to today’s action comedy format. In the Blues Brothers, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi have a unique chemistry that has cultivated into other actors stepping in the role over the years. The film traced the character’s journey as they meet many of that day’s most famous Blue’s musicians. The film ends in a chase that cultivates in one of the largest number of accidents involving cop cars.

Action comedies became a popular trend in the 1980s when actors who were known for their background in comedy such as Eddie Murphy, began to take roles in action films. Beverly Hills Cop is a great example of fast talking cop who gets involved with some bad criminals. Buddy dramas such as 48 Hrs. (1988) teamed bad boy Eddie Murphy with cop Nick Nolte. Eddie Murphy’s comments in a redneck bar were comedic gold and raised his profile considerably.

In 1987, The Lethal Weapon series began starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a mismatched pair of LAPD detectives who are hell bent on protecting and serving despite their differences. The first film was considerably dark and violent but the series generally falls into the "buddy cop" plot device. The first Lethal Weapon is credited with setting new standards for urban action films (I personally think the 2nd Lethal Weapon movie is the best of the series.)

Bad Boys (1995) teamed Will Smith and Martin Lawrence together placing two fast talking actors in leading roles. Both of them were in television series at the time and the director often engaged the actors in discussions about how the dialogue and scenes could improve. The director allowed them to improvise while the cameras were rolling. The result is a fast talking fun action movie that established both actors – Will Smith tended to gravitate to big budget movies while Martin Lawrence continued to excel at cop movies with a fast talking lead who gets himself into trouble. Although doubling the box office, the Bad Boys sequel (2003) failed to capture the magic of the first movie.

The 1998 movie Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, created a three movie series (with some discussion of a fourth) which combines two very different styles of actors. Both actors are known for their humor but Jacki Chan is known for his fists while Chris Tucker is better known for his mouth. The two characters were very different from each other and started by the usual circumstance of disliking each other until utilizing the other’s talents to become successful heroes. The series firmly established Jackie Chan as a bankable North America action star while Chris Tucker seems to have rarely had success outside of this series.

Martial Arts

Martial arts have long traditions in training for combat and all have a very similar objective: defend oneself or others from physical threat. Martial arts refer to the art of warfare (derived from Mars, the Roman god of war). When originally coined in the 1920s, the term martial arts referred specifically to Asian fighting styles, especially the combat systems that originated in East Asia.

Martial art films contain many characters who are martial artists, or actors who train in preparation for their roles. Martial art films often rely more on stylized action or filmmaking tricks like wire work, and computer-generated imagery. Springboards can be used to increase the height of jumps. Martial art films romanticize the violence of hand to hand action and scenes are sometimes shot by what is the most visually exciting versus how real-life combatants would actually fight.

In martial art movies, Bruce Lee is considered to be the most influential martial arts of all time. He exploded upon the scene in the movie, Enter the Dragon. As a martial artist set to compete in a tournament against other fighters, the film is one of the most duplicated in the action genre. The setup is perfect, one fighter against many others of varying skills and abilities. Movies like the Karate Kid, Bloodsport and Mortal Kombat owe their plot development to this structure. Bruce Lee’s impact is discussed later in this book

Martial art movies would have no origins without the Hong Kong Scene which has been a breeding ground for successful Asian actors. Hong Kong movies revolve around dramatic themes such as brotherhood, honor, redemption and the effects of violence on the individual and society at large. It often features stylized shootouts with slow-motion scenes of barrages of gun fire with large-caliber automatic pistols. The Hong Kong style is unique because the actors tend to be martial artists who can deliver a punch or kick on or off screen.

Actors such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li and newcomer Tony Jaa have created a realistic action style that few North American actors can duplicate. Unlike most North America action stars, they performed most of their stunts which created a higher respectability in the eyes of action fans.

The latest trend in martial arts seems to be in choreography and wire work making them look pretty and disposable at the expense of realism. Often famous actors or musicians are cast in these films and perform beautiful moves to watch but would never be used in an actual street fight. Lately, a lot of hard core martial arts films seem to be made in Thailand.

Adventure

Adventure action films have done very well over the years with the genre undergoing

periodic revivals with figures like Robin Hood being re-cast for a new generation. Adventure films usually have great action sequences told with tongue in cheek humor.

In the 1980s, capturing the success of Saturday morning serial-style adventure was the best adventure film of all time, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

The movie pits Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford) against the Nazis, who search for the Ark of the Covenant, in an attempt to make their army invincible. The film has terrific action scenes, the opening sequence alone is widely spoofed and critics raved that the first scene had more action than many other entire movies. The humor is especially funny; a scene with Indiana Jones and a sword villain is foreshadowed as big fight that Indiana Jones ends with one bullet that caught audiences with surprise and laughter. There have been three following sequels in the series with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

Unfortunately, despite the success of Indiana Jones, there wasn’t another good adventure action series until The Mummy (1999). The movie mixes humor with horror (see flesh eating scarabs scene) as adventurer Rick O`Connell (Brendan Fraser) must stop the Mummy before his powers make him immortal and allow him to unleash a wave of destruction and death. There has been the sequel The Mummy Returns, the prequel, The Scorpion King and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Unfortunately the last sequel was ravaged by critics (I was disappointed – the first thirty minutes of the movie was so slow) and it seems that if other sequels are made, that there will be a different cast.

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) was based on the Disney theme park (one of my favorite rides as a kid – the opening drop was a blast) and became a major box office adventure series that continues to produce movies. It basically revived the private genre and the casting of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow created another wisecracking adventure character. It produced back-to-back sequels, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.

National Treasure (2004) was a surprise hit about a search for a lost treasure, loosely based on the myth of a code on the back of the Declaration of Independence and involving stealing the document, which leads to a trail of clues and a back-story intertwined with the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.

I have always felt the adventure/action genre should have more movies. Here’s hoping that a new franchise is on the horizon.

War movies

War films are concerned with warfare, usually around naval, air or land battles. Movies can focus on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles. Their stories may be fiction or based on historical events. More recent war films have had intense action battle scenes.

I have had the argument that war films are not action movies. Is realism allowed? Action movies tend to be over the top, escapism. If you want to emulate a scene in the movie, it’s likely an action scene. If the scene scares or depresses you, like many war movies based on true events, I’m less likely to consider it an action movie.

By the early 1960s war films had begun to inspire fictional adventure films such as The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Where Eagles Dare (1968), which used the war as the backdrop. The effects of the Vietnam War tended to diminish the appetite for fictional war films by the turn of the 1970s. American war films produced during and just after the Vietnam War often reflected the disillusion of the American public towards the war. Most films made after the Vietnam War delved more deeply into the horrors of war than movies made before it.

In the decades following the War, the American film industry produced many war films either critical of American involvement in Vietnam, depicting American war crimes or the negative effects of war on combatants. These films included works by the most prominent actors and directors in American film and garnering the highest accolades and commercial success including Apocalypse Now and Platoon. In Apocalypse Now are two special operations officers, one is sent into the jungle to assassinate the other, a rogue and insane Colonel. In Platoon,(one of my favorite war movies) a young recruit watches as one sergeant kills another and the movie earned its tag line as ‘the first casualty of war is innocence.’

One war film category that really fits the action mold is the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, the most known movies were were Missing in Action (1984) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). Unfortunately this genre of war films was overdone and became a cliché.

In the late 90’s, war films added ultra realistic action scenes. Saving Private Ryan in 1998 was voted the best battle scene of all time with its initial 24-minute sequence depicting the Omaha landings. Strength of war action movies is their realism – the action can be gory and graphic and doesn’t glamorize violence like other types of action movies. A good example of this is the movie Blackhawk Down (2001) based on a true raid in Somalia. The extraction was to take 30 minutes but due the unpredictability of war, extends to eighteen hours with many soldiers and civilians loss of life.

Die Hard Scenarios

Die Hard (1988) developed a formula that is most often duplicated in action movies and has spun off numerous imitators. Bruce Willis basically cemented his action credentials and movie longevity by playing John McLain, a cop at a Christmas party which becomes ensnarled in a terrorist’s takeover. His ability to get injured (i.e. walking bare foot through broken glass) created an action hero that looked different from the typical indestructible hero. His character was more real and movie audiences were able to better relate to the story.

The Die Hard scenario plays well to movie studios because scripts can usually be limited to a single location - a single building, plane, or vessel. The story follows how the location is seized by an enemy(s), but opposed by a hero who fights an extended battle within the location using stealth and cunning to attempt to defeat them. Among the many films that have copied this formula are Under Siege (terrorists take over a ship), stars Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries. It is Seagal's most successful film in critical and financial terms and led to the sequel, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (hostages trapped on a train).

Other successful examples of this formula include Sudden Death (terrorists take over an Ice Hockey stadium), Passenger 57and Air Force One (hostages are trapped on a plane), and The Rock (criminals or terrorists take over a prison). The idea of a hostile environment against an overwhelming number of bad guys is a classic action situation that will continue to play itself out in action movies to come.

Sci-Fi action

The most well known science fiction series such as Star Wars and Star Trek are not considered action movies despite some intense action sequences. Going back to the definition, the action must be the dominant form in the movie while these great franchises concentrated more on sci-fi and drama than action. Keanu Reeves and Harrison Ford both had major roles in action sci-fi films (The Matrix and Blade Runner, respectively), while Ford branched out into a number of other action genres, such as action-adventure films.

Blade Runner (1982) is probably not considered an action movie at first glance but its futuristic film noir look set in a dark, dirty future plays like a detective movie. The movie was poorly received when it came out, many film didn’t appreciate its original story. It has since become a cult classic and one of the best movies that hasn’t spawned of host of sequels (yet).

The film depicts Los Angeles in 2019 in which genetically engineered beings called replicants—visually indistinguishable from adult humans—are manufactured by a powerful corporation. As a result of a violent replicant uprising, their use on Earth is banned, and replicants are exclusively used for dangerous or menial work on Earth's "off-world colonies". Any replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police assassins known as "blade runners". The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding in Los Angeles and the semi-retired blade runner, Rick Deckard, who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment. There is a memorable final scene which involves the death of the replicant (Rutger Hauer) that compares our memories to ‘tears in rain.’

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film career will be covered later in this book but his action pedigree received its start from the sci-fi series, The Terminator (1984). In the film, machines take over the world in the near future, directed by the artificially intelligent computer Skynet. With its sole mission to completely annihilate humanity, it develops cyborg assassins called Terminators that carry the outward appearance of humans. A man named John Connor starts the resistance to defeat them and free humanity. The machines send a Terminator back in time to kill John's mother, before he is born, preventing the resistance from ever being founded.

In the sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), after the machines failed to prevent John Connor from being born, they try again attempting to kill him as a child with a more advanced terminator, the T-1000. As before, John sends back a protector for his younger self, a reprogrammed Terminator, identical to the one from the previous film. The plot change was brilliant as it turned the Schwarzenegger terminator from villain to hero and created a more deadly terminator that pursued them. Arnold continued to find other sci-fi success with Predator and Total Recall as some of his best.

Aliens (1986) stars Sigourney Weaver, the sole survivor from the first movie, Alien. Aliens is set fifty-seven years after the first film and is regarded by many film critics as a benchmark for the action and science fiction genres. In Aliens, Weaver's character returns to the planet where she first encountered the hostile Alien. This time she is accompanied by a unit of Colonial Marines. The addition of the marines and a multitude of alien creatures truly set this film up as one of the best action sci-fi movies. Because of the increased action scenes in the sequel, Weaver nicknamed her role "Rambolina", referring to Stallone’s Rambo series. Inspiration for the Aliens story came from the Vietnam War, a situation in which a technologically superior force was mired in a hostile foreign environment. The marine’s training and technology are inappropriate for the planet; they had a lot of firepower and very little wisdom. The attitude of the marines are portrayed as cocky, but when they find themselves facing a less technologically advanced but more determined enemy, the outcome is not what they expect.

The Matrix (1999) revolutionized science fiction with its inventive plot and special effects. Its bullet time effect has been replicated in many forms since its release. The film describes a future in which reality as perceived by humans is actually the Matrix: a simulated reality created by sentient machines in order to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Upon learning this, computer programmer "Neo" is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, involving other people who have been freed from the "dream world" and into reality.

Girls with Guns (or Women with Weapons)

Finally action films with strong female action leads! Although men have dominated this genre, females find themselves in the same gun-play, stunts and martial arts action as their male counterparts. Some of the best known female fighters are Angela Mao Ying, Moon Lee, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Cynthia Rothrock and are mostly in Asian films. North American audiences with female protagonists include Nikita (1990); Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001); and Kill Bill (2003/2004).

Terminator 2 gave rise to one of the strongest leading woman action heroines. Although the battle of the two Terminators is the focus of the movie, actress, Linda Hamilton preparing for battle is one of the strongest female action leads in film. Even when incarcerated in the institution, she uses a combination of smarts and her strong will to escape while being ridiculed by her male captors.

Sigourney Weaver has played an alien kicking actress whose on screen persona was stronger than the alien menace she fought in the Aliens series. Setting the way for female leads to come, she is the first female to have a multimillion action series built around that would set the stage for future actresses.

Angelina Jolie has mostly played dramatic roles but has secured many action roles in the Lara Croft two movies series (could have been three but the second wasn’t very good), Wanted Dead or Alive and Salt. She even met her future husband Brad Pitt on Mr. & Mrs. Smith which although not considered an action movie, nonetheless had some action sequences.

An actress, who isn’t as well known as the previous actresses, has had a lot of success in the action genre. Milla Jovovich may not be a household name but her Resident Evil movies and lead in the movie Fifth Element have created a bonafide action heroine.

For more information about these actresses and others, see a detailed breakdown of action heroines later in this book.

Superheroes

A superhero movie is an action, fantasy or science fiction film that is focused on the actions of one or more superheroes, individuals who usually possess superhuman abilities. These films are usually action-oriented, and the first film of a series usually focuses on the origin of the special powers including the first fight against the character's most famous archenemy. The plot typically revolves around the efforts of the superhero to thwart some dire peril of significant consequence. Most superhero movies are adapted from prominent comic books.

Superman (1978), the first major superhero feature film, proved a critical success and a commercial hit. The success of Superman wore into the 1980s, as more successful entries emerged throughout the decade, beginning with Superman II (1980) and ending with Batman (1989).These movies took some of the most popular superhero characters and signaled the start of a very successful wave of comic book adaptations.

The Crow (1994) became the first independent comic’s superhero film that established a franchise. The movie brought in a new realm of violence absent in previous popular superhero films, targeted at younger audiences and bridging a gap to the modern action film. This catalyzed the release of "darker" characters in comic book movies. Marvel soon released the first film to become a franchise, Blade (1998). Blade was a mix of action film and darker superhero as the title character had superpowers and carried an assault of weaponry.

The 2000s brought forward some of the most profitable superhero franchises in history. It began with the surprise hit of X-Men (2000) which also became a film franchise. Later, one of the largest blockbusters of all time was released with Spider-Man (2002). Computer generated graphics allowed superheroes to perform stunts and feats of strength like never before. With big ticket sales, several new superhero films were released, including Daredevil (2003), Hulk (2003), Hellboy (2004), Fantastic Four (2005), and Iron Man (2008).

Other series discarded the continuities of previously released films and began a reboot, most notably Batman Begins (2005). Currently, the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight (2008) is not only the highest grossing comic book film of all time; it is also the most nominated superhero film in Academy Award history with 8 nominations.

Definition – action star

An action movie star is known for his fights, shootouts, stunts, car chases and explosions. And his ability to get the girl. Or finish off the bad guy. An action star is a larger than life hero that performs larger than life actions. Action movie actors don’t always play the role of a hero, sometimes a villain (The Terminator) is how they make their impact.

Action stars normally have a talent – could be big muscles, fast with their guns or an ability to take on a much larger force. Sometimes action characters are born for the role; others are reluctant and spend the entire movie growing into role. Action stars have a sense of humor, an ability to see something funny in an otherwise tough situation. They must overcome a series of obstacle and must navigate through a number of harrowing situations. Heroes may fail but they never stop trying.

The action star actors that I will describe in this book will be primarily known for their action movies but not exclusively. Although many action stars have had success in drama and comedies, this book will focus on their action success. I won’t cover every action movie; but I will cover the ones that I think had the most impact with movie goers and on me.

Before each section are quick action facts on a particular actor or character. If you want more detail, several pages will be devoted to each of the main action stars detailing their biography. In order to define what action stars to cover, we first must ask ourselves one question.

What action character started it all?

James Bond

Action stats

Real name – Bond, James Bond

Nationality – British although his character has been played by men of other nationalities

Why he is an inspirational action star – cool with fists and hot with the ladies

Distinguishing features – Well dressed and refined.

My favorite action movie – Spy Who Loved Me (my first bond film)

Best Action lines – Shaken, not stirred

Best known theme - secret agents with high tech gadgets and villains who try to take over the world.

Best action sequence – see top 10 list at end of section

Interesting guest stars – everyone of his female costars and their interesting names

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

10/10 – Bond action scenes have influenced all future action movies

Interesting facts – a Billion dollar industry from video games to books with multiple product placements in the films

The 60’s decade – the beginning of Bond

Many people question when the first action star was created. Since the movies began, there have been heroes. But the 1962 movie Dr. No, created a character that has spawned the first and most recognized action star of all time. This franchise has generated over five billion dollars worldwide making it one of the most successful movie franchises of all time (only the Harry Potter series has grossed more money). That character is James Bond.

British Navy Commander James Bond was created by novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is famous for introducing himself as "Bond, James Bond" and for ordering his vodka martinis "shaken, not stirred"; his usual and characteristic formal clothing is a dinner jacket. Bond holds the code number 007; the "double-0" prefix indicates his discretionary license to kill in the performance of his duties. '007' was inspired by a bus route which ran from Canterbury to London, as the bus was the '007'. Bond's 00 number was awarded him because he twice killed in fulfilling assignments.

It was part of his profession to kill people. It was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon and he only kills when needed. Bond has a cavalier attitude toward his death, accepting that he most likely will be killed if captured, and expects MI6 disavowal of him. Bond is tough, ruthless, detached, and egotistical — a man of action given to few words. Physically, Bond is athletic, graceful, and quick-acting. Aesthetically, he thoroughly enjoys good food, fine liquor, and beautiful women.

He has been portrayed on film by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. The actors who have portrayed Bond have varied greatly in age. George Lazenby was 29 when On Her Majesty's Secret Service premiered, while Roger Moore was 57 when A View to a Kill was released. The franchise remains as one of the longest continually running film series (22 films thus far) in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to 2010.

It’s hard to believe now but numerous Hollywood film studios did not want to fund the novels for film, finding them "too British" or "too blatantly sexual". The initial James Bond fit the mold of an action hero perfectly, sometimes dark, Mr. Bond would not stop to discuss morals if killing a man meant getting him to his end goal.

Sean Connery (1962–1967)

A contest was set up to 'find James Bond', and six finalists were chosen and screen-tested. The winner of the contest was a 28-year-old model named Peter Anthony, who proved unable to cope with the role. The producers turned to Sean Connery, who ended up playing Bond for five consecutive films. Already balding, Connery wore a toupee in all his Bond films. Ian Fleming, originally doubted the casting, saying, "He's not what I envisioned of James Bond looks" adding that Connery (muscular, 6' 2", and a Scot) was unrefined. However, Fleming's girlfriend told him Connery had the requisite sexual charisma. Fleming changed his mind after the successful Dr. No premiere; he was so impressed, he created a half-Scottish, half-Swiss heritage for the literary James Bond in the later novels.

Connery played the character in seven Bond films: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Never Say Never Again (1983). All seven films were commercially successful.

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), more commonly known as Sean Connery, was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh to Euphemia "Effie" (born Maclean), a cleaning woman, and Joseph Connery, a factory worker and lorry driver. Connery claims he was called Sean, his middle name, long before becoming an actor, explaining that when he was young he had an Irish friend named Séamus and that those who knew them both had decided to call Connery by his middle name whenever both were present.

He joined the Royal Navy during which time he opted for two tattoos that reflect two of his lifelong commitments: his family and Scotland. After six decades, his tattoos still reflect those two ideas: One tattoo is a tribute to his parents and reads "Mum and Dad," and the other is self explanatory, "Scotland Forever."

Dr. No features the famous gun barrel sequence of the James Bond films. As Bond walks across the screen, he is viewed by the audience through the barrel of a gun trained on him by an unknown assailant. Bond wheels around and shoots directly at the gun/viewer, followed by the assassin's blood spilling down the barrel/screen. There have been several variants of the sequence regarding Bond's attire, posture, the sound of the gunshot, the color of the blood, the speed at which the blood falls, etc.

On the next film, From Russia with Love, the producers doubled the budget, and shot locales in Europe, which had turned out to be the more profitable market for Dr. No. The film was the first to feature Desmond Llewelyn as Major Boothroyd, who becomes Q in the third film. Llewelyn appears in a total of seventeen Bond films, the most for any actor playing the same role. The final confrontation between Bond and an assassin takes place on the Orient Express and Bond owes his life to Major Boothroyd’s deadly attaché case.

However, the gadgets took on a more spectacular profile in the film version of Goldfinger, and its tremendous success encouraged the following films to have Bond supplied with still more equipment. For instance, it became an expected scene in each film where Q would present and demonstrate Bond's assigned tools for the mission, and it was a near guarantee that each and every piece would be invaluable to Bond in the field.

After getting his assignment, Bond is often sent to Q Branch for the technical briefing in which he receives special equipment to be used in his mission. There are several running jokes in the lab. Established in Goldfinger is Q's continuing disgust at how his equipment is often lost, damaged or destroyed by Bond during missions. Another is how easily distracted Bond is in the lab ("Now pay attention") as Q rattles off details about the use of the equipment which Bond needs to commit to memory. There are also sight gags showing prototype equipment. In the field, however, Bond always remembers the details and takes full advantage of the tools supplied.

The violence of the second Bond film was decidedly pumped up from the previous film, with more than double the homicides. It also the first of the series to have virtually all the elements that appear throughout the series.

This film was the first to feature the main title sequences incorporate visual elements reflecting the film's theme and often silhouettes of nude or provocatively clad women set against swirling images that usually reflect the general theme of the film. For example, Thunderball features deep-sea diving and this is reflected in the associated opening sequence; the opening sequence for Casino Royale (2006) featured, appropriately, a casino motif. A contemporary artist usually sings during this sequence (starting with Goldfinger), and an instrumental version of the main track may also be featured during the film.

For the third film, Goldfinger, more humor was introduced into Bond's character and more double entendres were written. The lead female character name of Pussy Galore shows the type of humor the bond series was progressing to. Goldfinger is the most noted Bond film by popular culture. The use of a menacing laser, newly invented just years before and not widely known to the public, was a cutting edge demonstration of real technology, and a set-up to perhaps one of the most memorable lines of the Bond films:

BOND: Do you expect me to talk?

GOLDFINGER: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!

The premiere in the UK created a near riot. In America, it became the fastest-grossing film ever to date. It was the first Bond film to win an Oscar (category: Best Effects, Sound Effects). Ian Fleming died before getting to see the film.

Consequently the production of the fourth Bond film Thunderball was delayed by legal disputes between writers. Connery was eager to start but admitted in a pre-production interview that "My only grumble about the Bond films is that they don't tax one as an actor. All one needs is the constitution of a rugby player to get through 18 weeks of swimming, slugging, and necking. Thunderball was the most successful Bond film to date, based on total box office, earning nearly $US1 billion (inflation-adjusted to 2008 US dollars).

For the fifth Bond film with Connery, You Only Live Twice, Bond comes face-to-face for the first time with arch-nemesis Blofeld Number One in SPECTRE, the world's most powerful criminal organization. The title comes from a pseudo-haiku written by Fleming in the book, "You only live twice/Once when you're born/And once when you look death in the face." The Bond films are hugely popular in Japan and when the crew arrived for shooting, they were treated exuberantly. Glimpses of Japanese culture in the movie were progressive as were the martial arts and ninja sequences.

You Only Live Twice is the very first James Bond film to deviate from the plot premise of the Fleming source material. Although the film retains the title, setting the plot entirely in Japan and narrative were entirely screenwriter writings, and based in part on having already scouted locations such as Ninja castles and the volcanic mountains. Even though the posters for the movie boasted that "Sean Connery is James Bond", Connery announced that it was his last film as Bond. The producers had no desire to give up the franchise. He was then replaced by George Lazenby.

George Lazenby (1969)

Australian model George Lazenby became the new 007 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Timothy Dalton, a later Bond, declined: he claimed he was too young for the role. Lazenby had little acting experience beyond a series of chocolate advertisements. His screen tests were satisfactory, and he was offered a contract for seven films. However, convinced by his agent that the secret agent would be archaic in the 1970s, Lazenby left the series after one film. Despite finding continual work in film and television, he never achieved the same stardom as this film. Had he not listened to his agent, his career may have been different.

Lazenby's reviews were generally underwhelming. Many felt that he is physically convincing but looks foolish in his many loud costume changes and delivers his lines poorly. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a conscious attempt was made to establish continuity by showing scenes from several previous Bond films during the title sequence. Furthermore, when Bond is packing up items in his office, several mementos of previous cases, such as the breathing device from Thunderball, are shown, while the score plays musical motifs from those previous films. The death of his wife at the end of the film makes this one of the more serious in terms of tone. In some ways, it may explain why the character never has a serious romantic relationship again.

Sean Connery's return (1971)

After Lazenby turned down Diamonds Are Forever, the producers decided to return to the formula of Goldfinger. The story has Bond impersonating a diamond smuggler to infiltrate a smuggling ring, and soon uncovering a plot by his old nemesis Blofeld to use the diamonds and build a giant laser satellite that would be used to hold the world for ransom. In an attempt to bring Sean Connery back to the role, he received a remarkable contract: a record US$1.25 million salary, plus 12.5 percent of the gross profits and an additional US$145,000 per week overtime if filming extended beyond 18 weeks. Connery admitted: "I was really bribed back into it.

All good things must come to an end. The next bond would have an actor who had already had some television pedigree of playing a spy-like character (The Saint). This Bond would use humor more than any other Bond. This began the era of Roger Moore.

Roger Moore (1973–1985)

Moore was born in Stockwell, London, the only child of George Moore, a policeman, and Lillian "Lily", a housewife. Upon turning 18, shortly after the end of the world war two, Moore was conscripted for National Service. He was commissioned as an officer and eventually became a Captain. In his usual self-deprecating style, he claimed that his commission was because he physically fitted the stereotype of an officer, rather than having any outstanding ability or leadership skills. Moore served in the Royal Army Service Corps, commanding a small depot in West Germany. He later transferred to the entertainment branch. The young Moore first appeared in films during the mid to late-1940s as an extra.

In the early 1950s, Moore worked as a male model, appearing in print advertisements for knitwear (earning him the nickname "The Big Knit"), and a wide range of other products such as toothpaste – an element that many critics have used as typifying his lightweight credentials as an actor. His earliest known television appearance was in Drawing Room Detective, a one-off programme. It invited viewers at home to spot clues to a crime during a playlet.

Worldwide fame arrived after Moore was cast as Simon Templar in the adaptation of The Saint, based on the novels by Leslie Charteris. Moore said in an interview, that the role was supposed to have been meant for Sean Connery who was unavailable. The television series was made in the UK with an eye on the American market, and its success made Moore a household name - and in spring 1967, he eventually had reached the level of an international top star. It also established his suave, quipping style which he would carry forward to James Bond. The Saint ran from 1961 for six seasons and 118 episodes, making it (in a tie with The Avengers) the longest-running series of its kind on British television. However, Moore grew increasingly tired of the role, and was keen to branch out.

There was considerable surprise when Moore was unveiled as the new Bond in late 1972, since at 45 he was already five years older than Connery had been during the filming of Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Roger Moore's twelve years as James Bond earned him enough popularity (and credibility) among fans to earn many Bond fans' acceptance, despite the inevitable comparisons to Connery. Moore tried not to imitate either Sean Connery or his performance as Simon Templar in The Saint, and depicted Bond in a more light-hearteded and comedic way. Moore played Bond in Live and Let Die (1973); The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); The Spy Who Loved Me (1977); Moonraker (1979); For Your Eyes Only (1981); Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985).

Roger Moore's third film, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), became a turning point for the series as it was the first to include a completely original storyline, as Ian Fleming had given permission to use only the title of the novel. It was the first Bond movie I saw growing up and the scene where the car morphs into a submarine caught my imagination.

Moore showed interest in departing the series after 1981's For Your Eyes Only, but eventually persuaded him to return in 1983's Octopussy. Because he was rather old for the required action and the demands of the character (Moore was 55 at the time), stunt doubles were employed often (over a hundred stuntmen in total), and only the close-ups were Moore. Moore would only regret his last film, A View to a Kill (1985), which was poorly received by critics.

Critics thought this Bond more of a charmer, more debonair, more calculating in a somewhat detached but amused manner. He appears just as strong physically as Connery (at least in the early pictures), but not quite as graceful in action. Moore's adaptation applied more fantasy and humor than other Bonds. The series managed to stay afloat by adding contemporary material and new characters to shore up the dated Fleming plots.

To date, Moore is the longest-serving James Bond actor, having spent twelve years in the role (from his debut in 1973, to his retirement from the role in 1985), and made seven official films. He is also the oldest actor to play Bond: he was 45 when he debuted and 58 when he announced his retirement. Moore's James Bond was light-hearted, more so than any other official actor to portray the character. Connery's style, even in its lighter moments, was that of a focused, determined agent. Moore often portrayed 007 as somewhat of a playboy, with tongue firmly in cheek, but also as a very capable and seasoned detective. The humor served Moore and his fans well through most of his Bond tenure.

Timothy Dalton (1987–1994)

Timothy Dalton had been considered to replace Sean Connery in 1968, but he walked away from his screen test feeling, at the age of 22, that he was too young for the role. 12 years later, Dalton was approached again to possibly replace Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only but the producers did not have a script and he wouldn’t commit. Dalton was the first actor to be offered The Living Daylights but initially had to turn it down. Pierce Brosnan was then cast, but when his cancelled television show Remington Steele was renewed in 1986, he was prevented from continuing. Dalton was offered a revised production date which he was able to accommodate, and soon found himself in the shoulder holster for The Living Daylights.

Best known for his stage and television roles and trained in the British Shakespearean tradition, Dalton's Bond differs noticeably from his predecessors. The film returned to "realism" and a more credible plot, with less fantasy and gratuitous humor. The film's darker and more violent plot elicited calls for cuts by the British Board of Film Classification. Many praised Timothy Dalton's performance and his performing most of the stunts himself. But reviews for the film were mixed. Although a financial success, some thought that replacing the basic style and elegance of a Bond film with "realism" was a mistake.

License to Kill (1989) was the sixteenth official entry in the James Bond series, and the first one not based on an Ian Fleming novel. While enjoying a generally positive critical reception, it was controversial since it was the first James Bond film to be given a PG-13 rating in the United States, being noted as significantly darker and more violent than its predecessors. Due to these issues, as well as marketing problems including a last minute title change, License to Kill had poor US box office returns with just making USD$34,667,015, barely more than its estimated USD$32,000,000 budget, though it performed well overseas.

This turned out to be Timothy Dalton's final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role. Legal wrangling over control of the series and James Bond character created a years-long delay in production of the next Bond film, Dalton resigned from the role.

Pierce Brosnan (1995–2004)

To replace Dalton, the producers cast Pierce Brosnan, whom they had met on the set of For Your Eyes Only when he came to visit his wife, Cassandra Harris (who had a small part as Countess Lisl von Schlaf). Shortly after Remington Steele was cancelled in 1987, Brosnan's wife was diagnosed with cancer and he cared for her until she died in 1991. In the next three years he worked only occasionally, so by 1994 he was ready to take on the Bond role. He stated his hopes for remaking Bond: "I would like to see what is beneath the surface of this man, what drives him on, what makes him a killer.” He also relished the fact that Goldfinger was the first film he had ever seen and now he would get to play Bond.

Although little attention had been paid in the past to the Scottish background of Connery, Lazenby's Australian background, or the Welsh ancestry of Timothy Dalton, some British fans thought there was something odd about an Irishman playing Bond, and some referred to Pierce Brosnan as "James O'Bond". More importantly, Brosnan's GoldenEye was the first film of the series to be produced since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This cast doubt over whether Bond was still relevant in the modern world, as many of the previous films pitted him against Soviet adversaries. Gone is state-sponsored criminality, now replaced by Russian mobs and gangsters.

Some of the film industry felt that it would be "futile" to make a comeback for the Bond series, and that it was best left as "an icon of the past". Since the release of License to Kill, the world had changed drastically. GoldenEye was the first James Bond film to be produced since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of GoldenEye's innovations was the casting of a female M. In the film, the new M quickly establishes her authority, remarking that Bond is a "sexist dinosaur" and a "relic of the Cold War". However when released, the film was viewed as a successful revivification that effectively adapted the series for the 1990s.

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering world events and starting World War III. Tomorrow Never Dies performed well at the box office and earned a Golden Globe nomination. While its domestic box office surpassed GoldenEye, it was the only Pierce Brosnan Bond film not to open at number one at the box office since it opened the same day as Titanic.

Brosnan portrayed Bond in two more films, The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002), Though strong in its action scenes, production values, and acting, some critics found the final two Brosnan films to be too hyperkinetic with little time to savor the characters.

Brosnan was approaching his 50th birthday, and speculation began that the producers were seeking to replace him with a younger actor. Brosnan kept in mind that both aficionados and critics were unhappy with Roger Moore playing the role until he was 58, but he was receiving popular support from both critics and the franchise fanbase for a fifth installment. In July 2004, Brosnan announced that he was quitting the role, stating "Bond is another lifetime, behind me."

Daniel Craig (2006–present)

Casting involved a widespread search for a new actor to portray James Bond and bolstered by the success of the Jason Bourne franchise, the decision was made to "bring Bond back to his roots" by eliminating the increasingly silly gadgets and outlandish fantasy elements that had begun to define the series. A tougher, darker, and more realistic Bond was introduced that was more in line with the Bond of Ian Fleming's original novels. Thus, the 21st Bond film, Casino Royale (2006), was to be a reboot of the franchise, establishing a new timeline and narrative framework not meant to precede any previous film.

Speculation was high that the 37-year-old Daniel Craig was being seriously considered, and in October 2006 confirmed at a London press conference that he would be the sixth actor to portray James Bond. Controversy followed that decision, as it was doubted that the producers had made the right choice. Craig, unlike previous actors, was not considered to fit the tall, dark, handsome and charismatic image of Bond to viewers had been accustomed to. However, reviews for Casino Royale were favorable and the film became the highest grossing of the series. A critic commented, "Daniel Craig makes a superb Bond: leaner, less sex-obsessed, able to be hurt in body and soul, not giving a damn if his martini is shaken or stirred.”

The film is set at the beginning of James Bond's career as Agent 007, just as he is earning his license to kill. After preventing a terrorist attack, Bond falls for the treasury agent assigned to provide the money he needs to foil a high-stakes poker tournament. This film frees the Bond franchise from more than forty years of continuity, but allows the film to show a less experienced and more vulnerable Bond.

Quantum of Solace was released on October 2008 and it was the highest-grossing opening weekend Bond film in the US and Canada. Bond battles a wealthy businessman, a member of the Quantum organization posing as an environmentalist who intends to stage a coup in Bolivia to seize control of the nation's water supply. Bond 23 is to begin filming in late 2010.

Why is James Bond so popular?

Bond appeals to men and women alike. For men, it is the secret agent life of exotic locales and beautiful women. For women, it is the belief that an enigmatic man can save a female in trouble and against overwhelming odds bringing her and the world to safety. His character will continue to thrive as long as the character continues to develop to match the tastes of the audience of the day. Although James Bond’s most popular days in pop culture may be behind him, his well funded movies will continue to capture the audience as a truly international star.

Top 10 most memorable James Bond moments

10) Live and Let Die – boat chase - Filmed on the Louisiana bayou, 26 boats were built for the film and seventeen were destroyed during rehearsals. The speedboat jump scene over the bayou, filmed with the assistance of a specially-constructed ramp, unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time with 110 feet (34 m) cleared.

9) You Only Live Twice – fight at SPECTRE base –the world's most powerful criminal organization`s volcano base was constructed with a cost of $1 million and including operative heliport and monorail. The 45 meter (120′) tall set could be seen from 5 kilometers away, and attracted many people from the region. The base has been spoofed by the Austin Powers movies character, Dr Evil.

8) Goldeneye - Tank through city - The largest stunt sequence of the movie was the tank chase, which took around six weeks to film when Bond steals a Russian tank. To avoid destroying the pavement on the city streets of St. Petersburg, the steel tracks of the tank were replaced with the rubber-shoed tracks. A viewport was cut allowing a trained driver to maneuver the tank from a prone position while Pierce Brosnan sat in the driver's seat. The filming called for the destruction of so many Lada cars, that the production company were unable to provide all of them and had to flag down vehicles near their offices and offer the owner’s cash for their cars.

7) Casino Royale – Construction chase – Signaling a desire to return to the grittiness and non gadgets of previous bond films, Bond must chase his target through a construction site. Using the techniques of parkour (moving and leaping quickly past and over targets), Bond’s chase thorough the site to the embassy is an excellent action sequence. It has plenty of danger and kinetic energy before Bond kills his target and then blows up a part of the embassy to enable his escape.

6) From Russia with Love – helicopter/boat sequence - Regarded as Connery’s best Bond film, the helicopter (and boat chase scenes) were not in the original novel, but were added to create an action climax. A helicopter was hard to get—the special effects crew nearly got arrested trying to get one at a local air base. The helicopter chase was filmed with a radio controlled miniature helicopter. The sounds of the boat chase were replaced since the boats were not loud enough and the explosion got out of control and seriously injured three stuntmen.

5) Moonraker – parachute chase – The early scene involving Bond and the villain Jaws in which Bond is pushed out of the aircraft without a parachute took weeks of planning and preparation. Members of the U.S. championship skydiving team aided the stunt team with the planning and the team's master rigger designed a one-inch thick parachute pack that could be concealed beneath the suit to give the impression of the missing parachute. The skydiver cinematographer used a lightweight camera, bought from an old pawn shop and attached to his helmet to shoot the entire sequence. The scene took a total of 88 skydives by the stuntmen to complete it.

4) Die Another Day – Opening torture scene - Bond is captured, imprisoned and tortured. After fourteen months of captivity, Bond is traded on the Korean border in a prisoner exchange. The scene is fairly brutal for a bond film and one of the only times that Bond seems less than an invincible agent. Die Another Day became a controversial subject in eastern Asia. The North Korean government disliked the portrayal of their state as brutal and war-hungry while South Koreans boycotted many theatres where the movie was released.

3) Spy Who Loved Me – Car into sub scene – Considered Moore’s best Bond film, the scene epitomized the best use of gadgets that Bond had utilized to date. The main feature of the car was the ability to transform into a submarine and unleash depth charges and smoke screens. The car seen entering the sea was a shell, propelled off the jetty by a compressed air cannon. For its time, it effectively showed the type of effective tools that 007 had in his arsenal. Special notice goes out to the opening precredit scene of the movie. Mountains, a chase on skis and hurtling into a crevasses until saved by a parachute (labeled with the Union Jack of course), would create a template of a typical bond movie with a great action opening to draw in the viewer.

2) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – Death of Bond’s Wife – The most somber note of the Bond series that has been referred in many later films. Bond is about to leave the British secret service when his car is sprayed with bullets and his new wife is killed by a shot to the forehead. A stunned Bond cradles his wife’s lifeless body and the movie comes to a close. It’s the series most emotional ending: If you like your Bond movies with happy endings, don't watch it this one.

1) Gold finger – Laser scene - Bond is captured and Goldfinger has him tied to a table underneath an industrial laser, which slowly begins to slice the table in half. Lasers did not exist when the book was written (a buzz saw was used to try to kill Bond), but the filmmakers thought a laser would make the film feel more fresh. The dialogue was entertaining but the idea of an elaborate death trap instead of the villain simply killing Bond would be repeated again in many other Bond films. The laser scene has been wildly parodied in cartoons, television and movies.

Honorable mention

Thunderball – Underwater battle – The first action scenes ever filmed underwater, almost a quarter of action takes place under the surface of the ocean. The results were great; Bond fights bad guys with knives, spear guns and underwater scooters. The most impressive reaction came against live sharks when Connery actually stepped into a pool with them (only once) without any protection.

Action Element #1 – The car chase

This book traces the common elements of a good action movie. The car chase was one of the earlier established elements

Although the 70’s was when the real development of car chase sequences, there is a movie of note in the 60’s that created the car chase. The movie Bullit (1968) starring actor Steve McQueen is best-remembered for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco and is regarded as one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history. The movie is an average cop drama but the chase in this film was far longer and faster than what had been done before. Cameras were placed so that the audience felt as though they were inside the car. The scene had Bullitt (McQueen) in a green 1968 Ford Mustang, chasing two hit-men in a black 1968 Dodge Charger.

Steve McQueen was an accomplished driver and managed to perform the bulk of the driving stunt work. At the time of the film's release, the car chase scene generated a great amount of excitement. The Mustangs' engines, brakes and suspensions were heavily modified for the chase. The director called for speeds of about 75–80 mph (120–130 km/h), but the cars (including the ones containing the cameras) reached speeds of over 110 mph (175 km/h). Driver's point-of-view angles were used to give the audience the "feel" of the ride as the cars jumped the hills.

Filming the chase scene took three weeks, resulting in 9 minutes and 42 seconds of film. During this film sequence, the Charger loses six hubcaps and has different ones missing in different shots. As a result of shooting from multiple angles simultaneously to give the illusion of different streets, the speeding cars can be seen passing the same green VW bug four different times, and the same blue sedan with black top three times. The Charger also crashes into the camera in one scene and the damaged front fender is noticeable in later scenes.

Car chases became a staple of action movies, and films have been built entirely around car chases, often featuring high-powered, exotic vehicles. They are popular because the fast moving scenes generate a lot of excitement and action, due to the speed, potential for collisions and the debris resulting from the wreckage. The movie The French Connection further increased the realism. While previous chases had been filmed on closed roads and isolated highways, The French Connection placed the chase in the midst of busy traffic and pedestrians. One scene changes the setup by involving a car chasing an elevated train.

Expectations of car chases have grown over the years and car crashes have played an important role, with the destruction of any vehicle popular amongst viewers. The most typical car chase is when a car is being pursued by police cars. Because car chases became so common, many movie makers tried to introduce new twists to them. Chases involving buses, trucks, snowmobiles, tanks, and virtually every other type of vehicle (with or without wheels) have appeared in one film or another.

Probably the most complex type of car chase involves going the wrong way in moderately congested freeway traffic (e.g. Ronin, To Live and Die in L.A.). There are a number of films that feature complex large-scale chases involving a lot of vehicles in the pursuit. Notable examples including The Blues Brothers, The Transporter, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Mad Max 2. Another method of escalating a car chase scene is to have a character move from one vehicle to another and to fight in or on top of a moving vehicle. I’m not a big fan of The Matrix Reloaded (love the first Matrix film though) but the car chase scene is definitely the highlight of the movie.

Today, the use of computer-generated imagery is becoming increasingly popular and although costly, (with a careful eye, easily distinguished from a real car chase) eliminates any danger level. The movie, The Fifth Element, has a fun chase in a flying cop cars and taxis. It is truly a car chase with a third dimension.

While sometimes impressive, often it eliminates the realism of the chase scene, which can lessen the thrill factor. Like the improvement in digital actors, CGI vehicle chases can only get better.

Top 10 car chase movies

Action movies have set standards on how the car chase action scenes were defined. These movies not only set a standard but went several steps beyond.

10) The Blues Brothers – the largest crash up of police cars of any movie

9) The Italian Job - The prominence of the BMW Mini Cooper automobiles in the heist film have been called the film’s true stars.

8) Smokey and the Bandit – The ultimate chase film between truckers, trans ams and cops. The sequel used the most semi trucks I have seen in a movie.

7) Ronin – Driving backwards isn’t easy, especially with traffic coming at you. If you have a good sound system at home, there are great sound effects in the chase scene.

6) Matrix Reloaded – The freeway chase scene was filmed at a decommissioned Naval Air Station in California. The producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways specifically for the film.

5) Raiders of the Lost Ark – The scene where Indy has to move on the ground under the truck while fighting bad guys has been copied in many other movies.

4) Terminator 2 – Motorcycle chase scene by a large truck through the classic Los Angeles water ways.

3) The French Connection – Car chasing a train, also involves the danger of hitting pedestrians

2) Mad Max 2 – Road Warrior – So many types of vehicles, so many homicidal maniacs.

1) Bullitt – as described before – the movie instituted the car chase scene.

Honorable Mention

Opening sequence of The Transporter – the chase is fun but the specific nature of the driver is what really drives the Transporter character and makes him unique.

The 70’s decade of martial arts and guns

The seventies saw the development of action movies as a genre. Three very distinctive actors emerged whose influence can be felt even today. The first was deadly with his fists, the second deadly with guns, and the third a combination of the first two. These men have had a huge influence on the action movie industry during its early years. They were Bruce Lee, Clint Eastwood, and Chuck Norris.

Bruce Lee

Action stats

Real name – Lee Jun-fan

Nationality – American but with Hong Kong heritage

Why he is an inspirational action star – his martial arts movies effected viewers across the world

Distinguishing features – pound for pound, one of the best martial artists

My favorite action movie – Enter the Dragon

Best Action lines – Be formless... shapeless, like water (from his philosophy)

Best known theme – his philosophy and his physical fitness

My favorite action sequence – fighting against the guards with poles, sticks and nunchaku in Enter the Dragon. I bought my pair of nunchakus at a pawn shop after seeing this movies.

Interesting guest stars – Chuck Norris, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

10/10 – He has influenced the making of martial art movies

Interesting facts– Movies have been held in renown, his style of martial arts (Jeet Kune Do) is still practiced and many martial arts imitators (even with similar names) have tried to replicate his style. He died too young to fully capitalize on his potential.

Bruce Lee (November 1940 – July 1973) was a Chinese American and Hong Kong actor, martial artist, philosopher, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do concept. He is considered as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century. Bruce Lee was an unparalleled action star because unlike most actors, he was as powerful a fighter in real life as he was in the movies. His persona is unmatched by any other action star.

Lee was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world. He is noted for his roles in five feature length films, The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Bruce Lee; Enter the Dragon (1973), and The Game of Death (1978).

In 1966, China's launched the Cultural Revolution. Its aim was to rid China of all remnants of traditional thought so that it could radically modernize into a fully functioning Communist State. Persecution of Chinese traditions hit the field of Chinese martial arts and no one was safe. To avoid persecution by the Communist government, many Chinese martial arts masters fled overseas, while the remainder went into hiding or suffered harsh reprisals. Kung Fu continued to flourish overseas and many famous masters set up Kung Fu schools in British ruled Hong-Kong and Taiwan. Chinese cultural traditions became stronger in these expatriate Chinese communities than home in mainland China.

Because of the mass number of people fleeing communist China to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong neighborhood Lee grew up in became over-crowded, dangerous, and full of gang rivalries. Hong Kong was a tough place to grow up. Gangs ruled the city streets and Lee was often forced to fight. But Bruce liked a challenge and faced his adversaries head on. To his parents’ dismay, Bruce's street fighting continued and the violent nature of his confrontations escalated.

After being involved in several street fights, his parents decided that Bruce needed training in martial arts. The largest influence on Bruce Lee's martial development was his study of the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun. Bruce Lee began training in Wing Chun at age 13, classes generally consisted of the forms practice, chi sao (trapping hands) drills, wooden dummy techniques, and free-sparring. After a year into his training, some students refused to train with Lee due to his ancestry (his mother was of half German ancestry) as Chinese generally were against teaching martial arts techniques to non-Asians.

By his late teens, Lee's had more street fights and included beating up the son of a feared triad family. Finally Lee's father decided for him to leave Hong Kong to pursue a safer and healthier avenue in the U.S. A police detective told Bruce Lee’s father that if Bruce got into just one more fight, he would likely go to jail.

After some time in the United States, Lee began teaching martial arts. He called it Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce Lee's Kung Fu) and it was his approach to Wing Chun. Lee opened his first martial arts school in Seattle. A controversial match heavily influenced Lee's philosophy about martial arts. In a match that lasted three minutes of combat and his opponent conceded; Lee concluded the fight lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential. He viewed traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formal to be practical in chaotic street fighting.

Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". Lee felt that many martial artists did not spend enough time on physical conditioning. Bruce included all elements of total fitness— muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. He utilized bodybuilding and weight training techniques to develop muscular strength. Lee wanted to see just what the limitations and capabilities of the human body were. He would do two thousand punches a day, one thousand kicks a day, run three miles and then ride on his exercycle for fifteen miles. All of it was pushing to see what the human body was truly capable of.

In 1964, Lee appeared at the Long Beach International Karate Championships and performed repetitions of two-finger pushups (using the thumb and the index finger) and performed the "One inch punch". Here’s how it worked: Lee stood upright, his right foot forward with knees bent slightly, in front of a standing, stationary partner. Lee's right arm was partly extended and his right fist approximately an inch away from the partner's chest. Without retracting his right arm, Lee then forcibly delivered the punch to his partner while largely maintaining his posture. This sent the partner backwards and falling into a chair to prevent injury.

Lee emphasized what he called "the style of no style". He eventually evolved it into a philosophy and martial art he would call Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist. He would later regret the term because it implied specific parameters whereas the idea of his martial art was to exist outside of limitations. Lee was careful to emphasize that mental and spiritual preparation were fundamental to the success of physical training in martial arts skills. Lee was pound for pound, one of the strongest men in the world, and certainly one of the quickest.

His philosophy mirrored his fighting beliefs, though he was quick to claim that his martial arts were solely a metaphor for such teachings. He believed that any knowledge ultimately led to self-knowledge, and said that his chosen method of self-expression was martial arts. My favorite quotation of his reflects his fighting philosophy.

- "Be formless... shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend..."

Lee’s movie career

Lee's father was a famous Cantonese Opera star. Bruce was introduced into films at a very young age and appeared in several short black-and-white films as a child. Lee had his first role as a baby who was carried onto the stage. By the time he was 18, he had appeared in twenty films.

When he arrived in the United States, Lee had abandoned thoughts of a film career in favor of pursuing martial arts. However, Lee was invited for an audition, where he impressed the producers with his lightning-fast moves that he earned the role of Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet. The show lasted just one season, from 1966 to 1967.

In 1971 Bruce pitched a television series of his own tentatively titled The Warrior. However, Lee's concept was retooled and renamed Kung Fu, and the role of the Shaolin monk in the Wild West, was awarded to then non-martial artist David Carradine. Not happy with his supporting roles in the U.S., Lee returned to Hong Kong. Unaware that The Green Hornet had been played to success in Hong Kong and was unofficially referred to as "The Kato Show", he was surprised to be recognized on the street as the "star" of the show.

Lee was then offered a film contract to star in two films produced by the production company Golden Harvest. Lee played his first leading role in The Big Boss (1971) which proved to be an enormous box office success across Asia and catapulted him to stardom. He soon followed up with Fist of Fury (1972) which broke the box office records set previously by The Big Boss. For his third film, Way of the Dragon (1972), he was given complete control of the film's production as the writer, director, star, and choreographer of the fight scenes. In 1964, at a demonstration in California, Lee met karate champion Chuck Norris. In Way of the Dragon, Lee introduced Norris to moviegoers as his opponent in the final death fight at the Coliseum in Rome, today considered one of Lee's most legendary fight scenes.

In late 1972, Lee began work on his fourth movie, Game of Death. He began filming some scenes including his fight sequence with 7'2" American Basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former student. Production was stopped when Warner Brothers offered Lee the opportunity to star in Enter the Dragon. This film would skyrocket Lee to fame in the U.S. and Europe. However, only a few months after the film's completion and 6 days before its release, the supremely fit Lee mysteriously died. There was no visible external injury; however according to autopsy reports, his brain had swollen considerably.

Enter the Dragon would go on to become one of the year's highest grossing films and cement Lee as a martial arts legend. The movie sparked a brief fad in the martial-arts, epitomized in such songs as "Kung Fu Fighting" and TV shows as Kung Fu.

The director of Enter the Dragon attempted to finish Lee's incomplete film Game of Death. Lee had shot over 100 minutes of footage, including outtakes, for Game of Death before shooting was stopped to allow him to work on Enter the Dragon. Lee's character (clad in the now-famous yellow track suit) takes on a series of different challenges on each floor as they make their way through a five-level pagoda. In a controversial move, the film was finished using a look-alike and archive footage of Lee from his other films with a new storyline and cast. However, the cobbled-together film contained only fifteen minutes of actual footage of Lee.

The family curse theory was extended to his son Brandon Lee, who died 20 years after his father, in a bizarre accident while filming The Crow at the age of 28. It was released after his death and gained cult status. The Crow was completed with the use of computer-generated imagery and a stunt double in the few but critical scenes that remained to be filmed. Brandon Lee was buried beside his father. The parallels between father and son and their last movies are eerie.

If Bruce Lee was known for his lethal fists, another actor was better known for his use of lethal force. Clint Eastwood is best known for his deliverance of memorable lines that viewers would continue to use even today.

Clint Eastwood

Action stats

Real name – Clinton Eastwood

Nationality – American, San Francisco

Why he is an inspirational action star – no-nonsense movie whose film persona follows him into real life.

Distinguishing features – .44 Smith & Wesson Model 29 (Dirty Harry)

My favorite action movie – Sudden Impact

Best Action lines – Go Ahead. . . Make my Day!

Best known theme – Anti hero – fighting criminals and an inefficient law system

My favorite action sequence – The opening coffee scene from Sudden Impact

Interesting guest stars – Sondra Locke, leading lady and actual former wife

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

8/10 – He has managed to branch into many serious roles although his action lines will always define him.

Interesting facts - Eastwood composed the piano compositions for In the Line of Fire and one of his songs can be heard over the credits of Gran Torino.

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is primarily known for his alienated, morally ambiguous, anti-hero acting roles in violent action and western films. Following his role on the long-running television series Rawhide, he went on to star as the Man With No Name in the Dollars trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry film series. These roles have made him an icon of masculinity.

Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (Runner) Eastwood, a factory worker. He was a large baby (11 pounds and 6 ounces) and was named "Samson" by the nurses in the hospital.

Eastwood’s acting career was very rough in the beginning. He was initially criticized for his speech and awkward manner; he was soft-spoken and his performance in front of people was cold, stiff and awkward. He was told that he was not naturally disposed to being a leading man. He lacked creative imagination in the improvisations and although he had a sense of humor and was successful with women off-screen, it didn't transcend into his early acting.

During this period, Eastwood began working out hard in the gym and attended further acting classes. Eastwood displayed an early toughness in real life when on one evening Eastwood, his wife, and another couple had gone to dinner and were threatened at gunpoint before entering the restaurant by a gang of thugs. Although his friends turned to flee, Clint stood his ground and growled, "Go on and pull that trigger, and I'll kill you before I hit the ground". The thugs ran off. On another occasion, Clint caught the attention of a group of sailors who taunted him. One of them landed a punch to Eastwood's face, but Eastwood surprised them, putting two of the men in hospital and injuring the others.

1971 proved to be a professional turning point in Eastwood's career. It was his portrayal of the hard-edged police inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry that propelled his career at the box-office. Dirty Harry is Eastwood's most memorable character. The character is a fictional San Francisco Police Department inspector and appeared in five films Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). Dirty Harry has been credited with inventing the "loose-cannon cop genre" that is imitated to this day. Eastwood's tough, no-nonsense cop touched a cultural nerve with many who were fed up with crime in the streets.

From his debut, Eastwood created a template for a new kind of movie cop: someone who does not hesitate to cross professional and ethical boundaries in pursuit of his own vision of justice, especially when the law is poorly served by an inept bureaucracy. The "Dirty Harry" archetype does not shy away from killing; all of the Dirty Harry films feature Callahan killing criminals. He justifies such conduct by saying that it "gets results" in cutting down crime. This rationale rarely impresses his superiors, who have threatened Callahan with suspension and firing many times.

Callahan's signature weapon is a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver, which he uses in all of the films. The gun's prominence in the films instantly popularized it. He said he shot .44 Special loads, because it gave him "better accuracy and control in a gun this size". In one film, Harry's partner, refers to Harry's gun as a "pocket-cannon".

The nickname Dirty Harry, comes from the fact that Callahan gets stuck with "every dirty job that comes along." Callahan has little use for the official rules of police conduct, dismissing them as "red tape" and loathes the court system that lets the criminals get away with their crimes. For Callahan, everything is black and white: there are good guys and there are bad guys, and the bad guys must be punished. This creates a conflict between Callahan and the court systems, which frequently causes a vicious cycle: he catches bad guy, the courts release them because he did not comply with procedure, forcing him to catch them again.

Callahan adheres absolutely to his own code of ethics. He is completely incorruptible, is devoted to protecting and avenging the victims of violent crime and when pursuing criminals, tries to minimize the danger for innocent bystanders as much as possible. Even so, his fight against criminals is ferocious and merciless and he shows no hesitation or remorse at killing them. He is routinely depicted in virtually all of the films as being a superb marksman and formidable hand-to-hand combatant.

Before he became known for his ‘Make my Day!’ Line from Sudden Impact, he had another distinct line. Early in Dirty Harry he takes on a gang of robbers and utters his famous “Did he fire six shots or five?” He repeats the same line at the end against the killer Scorpio with the added “Are you feeling lucky, punk?”

He's also ready to oppose his peers when necessary. For example, in Magnum Force he resolves to bring to justice a renegade cabal of police officers who act as a self-appointed death squad. At first Callahan does not appear to disapprove of the renegades' methods. When a superior shows him a morgue full of dead bodies, tells him the crimes the victims committed and the fact that "someone is trying to put the courts out of business", Callahan answers: "So far you've said nothing wrong." He only goes against the group when one of them, in a moment of panic, kills Callahan's friend.

The fourth Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact (1983), is widely considered to be the darkest, "dirtiest" and most violent film of the series. Also, it was the highest-grossing film of the franchise, making Eastwood a viable star for the 1980s. His most famous line "Go ahead, make my day," comes from this movie.

The third seventies star may not be the same household name as the first two, but has had a terrific career with amazing longevity. His name is Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris

Action stats

Real name – Carlos Ray Norris

Nationality – American, Oklahoma

Why he is an inspirational action star – tough guy with strong beliefs in religion and the military

Distinguishing features – facial hair - beard

My favorite action movie – Invasion USA

Best Action lines – It's not that you deserve to die, but you don't deserve to live – Good Guys Wear Black

Best known theme – rescue missions to Vietnam

My favorite action sequence – fight in the Coliseum against Bruce Lee – Way of the Dragon

Interesting guest stars – Academy Award winner Louis Gossett, Jr.

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

9/10 – In movies and television, he is known for his action roles.

Interesting facts – Norris runs World Combat League as well as a series of cable TV infomercials promoting Total Gym home fitness equipment.

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist, actor and media personality. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has created a persona of a “tough guy" image. Norris appeared in a number of action films, such as Way of the Dragon. He played the starring role in the television series Walker, Texas Ranger from 1993 to 2001.

Norris was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, the son of Wilma and Ray Norris, who was a mechanic, bus driver, and truck driver. Norris' paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother were Irish descent, while his paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather were Cherokee Native Americans. Norris describes his childhood as nonathletic, shy, and scholastically mediocre. Other children taunted him about his mixed ethnicity, and Norris daydreamed about beating up his tormentors.

He joined the United States Air Force in 1958 and was sent to South Korea. It was there that Norris acquired the nickname Chuck and began his training in Tang Soo Do, an interest that led to black belts in that art and the founding of the Chun Kuk Do ("Universal Way") form. Norris was discharged in 1962 and opened a chain of karate schools.

In 1968, he won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion title, which he held for six consecutive years. In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the Fighter of the Year award by Black Belt Magazine. When Chuck Norris eventually retired, he had a karate record of 183-10-2.

In 1970, his younger brother Weiland was killed in Vietnam. Norris later dedicated his Missing in Action films to his brother's memory. At a martial arts demonstration in Long Beach, Norris met the soon-to-be famous martial artist Bruce Lee. In 1972 he acted as Lee's nemesis in the movie Way of the Dragon (titled Return of the Dragon in its U.S. distribution), which is widely credited with launching him toward stardom. In Asia, Norris is still known primarily for this role.

Norris' first starring North American role was 1977's Breaker! Breaker!, Norris is a trucker who infiltrates a desert town to save his brother, who is imprisoned by the town's corrupt judge. Subsequent films such as Good Guys Wear Black (1978), The Octagon (1980), An Eye for an Eye (1981), and Lone Wolf McQuade (this character would provide the inspiration for the Walker, Texas Ranger series) proved his increasing box office bankability. In 1984, Norris starred in Missing in Action, the first of a series of Prisoner of war rescue fantasies themed around the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. Over the next four years, Norris became a most prominent star, appearing in eight films, including Code of Silence, The Delta Force, and Firewalker.

Invasion USA (1985) symbolized the 80’s action movies with the combination of guns with physical violence. Bruce Lee was known for his deadly fists and Eastwood known for his big guns, Norris used both to take down his enemies. Invasion USA has Norris battling hundreds of Latin American guerrillas and the violence produces a high body count.

Norris made history in 1997 when he was the first Westerner in the documented history of Tae Kwon Do to be given the rank of 8th Degree Black Belt Grand Master. However, Norris appears to have been misled about this as there were at least two other U.S. Black Belts awarded TKD 8th Dan several years prior.

By the close of the 1980s, Norris's star appeal seemed to fade away. He reprised his Delta Force role and made several more largely ignored films before making a transition to television. In 1993, he began shooting the series Walker, Texas Ranger, which lasted eight years and continued in heavy syndication on other channels.

In 2005 Norris founded the World Combat League (WCL), a full-contact, team-based martial arts competition. Each team (consisting of 5 men and 1 woman) is from a different city or region, and the league intends to grow to more cities in the United States and have both European and Asian leagues.

Norris created the martial art Chun Kuk Do, which includes elements from every combat style he knows. Like many other martial arts, Chun Kuk Do includes a code of honor and rules to live by. Some of my favorite rules from Chuck Norris's personal code are:

1. I will forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements.

2. I will look for the good in all people and make them feel worthwhile.

3. If I have nothing good to say about a person, I will say nothing.

A fourth action star is known for his humor within action movies. Although not considered to be a big action star of the 70’s, Jacki Chan movie career did begin in this decade but it really wasn’t really until the 90’s that North American audiences began to appreciate his action talents.

Jackie Chan

Action stats

Real name – Chan Kong-sang

Nationality – Chinese (Hong Kong)

Why he is an inspirational action star – plan and performs his own stunts – some have almost killed him

Distinguishing features – his sense of humor

My favorite action movie – Police Story

Best Action lines –We can kill each other later - Forbidden Kingdom

Best known theme – humorous stunts and hilarious outtakes

My favorite action sequence – climactic fight scene in shopping mall - Police Story

Interesting guest stars – Chris Tucker (Rush Hour series), Owen Wilson (Shanghai series)

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

7/10 – Jackie Chan has diversified into comedy and family films in addition to action pedigree

Interesting facts – owns a line of clothing bearing a Chinese dragon logo, Sushi restaurant chain, Jackie's Kitchen, other ventures include Jackie Chan Signature Club gyms, and a line of chocolates, cookies and nutritional oatcakes.

Jackie Chan (born 7 April 1954) is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, filmmaker, comedian, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer.

In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has appeared in over 100 films and received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Chan is also a singer, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred.

Chan was born in Victoria Peak, in the former Crown colony of Hong Kong, as Chan Kong Sang (meaning "born in Hong Kong") to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamed Pao Pao (Chinese: meaning "Cannonball") because he was such a big baby, weighing 12 pounds. Since his parents worked for the French Consul to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district.

In 1960, his father immigrated to Australia, to work as head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy. Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics. He eventually became part of the Seven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students.

At the age of 17, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon. Due to commercial failures in his early films and trouble finding stunt work, in 1975 Chan starred in a comedic adult film, All in the Family, the only film he has made to date that did not feature a single fight scene or stunt sequence. In 1976, he worked as a construction worker and a fellow builder named Jack took Chan under his wing. This earned Chan the nickname of "Little Jack" which was later shortened to "Jackie" and the name Jackie Chan stuck with him ever since.

In 1976, Jackie Chan received a telegram from a film producer in the Hong Kong film industry who had been impressed with Jackie's stunt work. He was offered an acting role in a film and planned to model him after Bruce Lee. The film was unsuccessful because Chan was not accustomed to Lee's martial arts style. Chan's first major breakthrough was the 1978 film Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Chan was allowed complete freedom over his stunt work. The film established the comedic kung fu genre, and proved to be a breath of fresh air for the Hong Kong audience.

Chan then starred in Drunken Master, which finally propelled him to mainstream success. The film displayed a tongue-in-cheek flair that would define Chan’s trademark style, physical genius and comedic charm. There’s no complicated plot and the film is a series of sketches with plenty of action. Much humor is found in the master-student relationship as Chan tries to learn the Eight Drunken God Styles.

The film Police Story is set in a modern period and was a huge success in East Asia. It won the Best Film award at the 1986 Hong Kong Film Awards and led to many sequels. According to Chan's autobiography, the film is his best in terms of action. The film contained many large-scale action scenes, including an opening sequence featuring a car chase through a shanty town, Chan stopping a double-decker bus with his service revolver and a climactic ending fight scene in a shopping mall. This final scene earned the film the nickname "Glass Story" by the crew, due to the huge number of panes of sugar glass that were broken. During a stunt in this last sequence, in which Chan slides down a pole from several stories up, the lights near the pole had heated it considerably, resulting in Chan suffering second-degree burns to his hands, as well as a back injury and dislocation of his pelvis upon landing.

Chan’s first Hollywood film was Battle Creek Brawl in 1980. Chan then played a minor role in the 1981 film The Cannonball Run, which grossed US$100 million worldwide. Despite being largely ignored by audiences in favor of established American actors like Burt Reynolds, Chan was impressed by the outtakes shown at the closing credits, inspiring him to include the same device in his future films. After the commercial failure of The Protector in 1985, Chan temporarily abandoned his attempts to break into the US market, returning his focus to Hong Kong films.

In 1987, Chan played "Asian Hawk", an Indiana Jones-esque character, in the film Armour of God. The film was Chan's biggest domestic box office success to date, grossing over HK $35 million. Jackie Chan rekindled his Hollywood ambitions in the 1990s, but refused early offers to play villains in Hollywood films to avoid being typecast in future roles. For example, Sylvester Stallone offered him the role of Simon Phoenix, a criminal in the futuristic film Demolition Man. Chan declined and the role was taken by Wesley Snipes.

Chan finally succeeded in establishing a foothold in the North American market in 1995 with a worldwide release of Rumble in the Bronx, attaining a cult following in the United States that was rare for Hong Kong movie stars. The success of Rumble in the Bronx led to a 1996 release of Police Story 3 in the United States under the title Supercop. Jackie's first huge blockbuster success came when he co-starred with Chris Tucker in the 1998 buddy cop action comedy Rush Hour grossing US$130 million in the United States alone. This film made a star of Jackie Chan, in Hollywood.

Despite further success with Shanghai Noon in 2000, Rush Hour 2 in 2001 and Shanghai Knights in 2003, Chan became frustrated with Hollywood over the limited range of roles and lack of control over the film-making process. Even so, Chan's next release was Rush Hour 3 in 2007. The filming of The Forbidden Kingdom, Chan's first onscreen collaboration with fellow Chinese actor Jet Li, was released in 2008.

In 2009, Chan left Los Angeles to begin filming The Karate Kid, a remake of the original in Beijing.

Stunts

One of the reasons Jackie Chan stands out amongst fellow action stars is that he performs most of his own stunts, which are choreographed by the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. He has stated in interviews that the primary inspiration for his more comedic stunts were films such as The General directed by and starring Buster Keaton. Since its establishment in 1983, Chan has used the team in all his subsequent films to make choreographing easier, given his understanding of each member's abilities. Chan and his team undertake many of the stunts performed by other characters in his films, shooting the scenes so that their faces are obscured.

The dangerous nature of his stunts makes it difficult for Chan to get insurance, especially in the United States, where his stunt work is contractually limited. Chan holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Stunts By A Living Actor", which emphasizes "no insurance company will underwrite Chan's productions, in which he performs all his own stunts". In addition, he holds an unrecognized record for the most number of takes for a single shot in a film, having shot over 2900 retakes for a complex scene involving a badminton game in Dragon Lord.

Chan has been injured numerous times attempting stunts; many of them have been shown as outtakes or as bloopers during the closing credits of his films. He came closest to death filming Armour of God, when he fell from a tree and fractured his skull. Over the years, Chan has dislocated his pelvis and broken his fingers, toes, nose, cheekbones, hips, sternum, neck, ankle and ribs on numerous occasions. Promotional materials for Rumble in the Bronx emphasized that Chan performed all of the stunts, and one version of the movie poster even diagrammed his many injuries.

Some notable movies in the 70’s that effected the action genre

Death Wish series, 1974–1994

Charles Bronson (November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor best known for his "tough guy" image, who starred in such classic films as The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, and the popular Death Wish series. He was most often cast in the role of a police officer or gunfighter, often in revenge plot lines.

Bronson's most memorable roles came when he was over the age of 50, in Death Wish (1974). He played Paul Kersey, an architect who served in the Korean War and lives in New York City. Three street punks break into his apartment and beat up his wife and rape his daughter, spray-painting both of them "just for fun." His wife later dies of her injuries, and his daughter is left catatonic. Paul's life is ripped apart and becomes a crime-fighting vigilante by night.

Paul begins patrolling the streets, killing street criminals. While his obsessive search for street justice sickens him at first, he begins to enjoy it and the public sees Paul as a hero. The city would have a political nightmare if they actually arrested him. When Paul was injured after another hunt for muggers, an officer confronts him, revealing his willingness to make a deal to throw away Paul’s weapon if he will leave New York. Paul completes his part of the deal, moving to Chicago (as seen at the end of the first Death Wish).

The role was different from the Dirty Harry series in which this hero is the judge, jury and executioner. The first films were more violent than action but would affect later action movies as it set the tone for heroes to deal out justice as they saw fit. It was a highly controversial role, as his executions were cheered by crime-weary audiences. After the famous 1984 case of Bernhard Goetz, Bronson recommended that people not imitate his character. This successful movie spawned sequels over the next 20 years, in which Bronson also starred. His great nephew, Justin Bronson, was scheduled to star in a remake of Death Wish (and Sylvester Stallone had rights to the property as well), but the film has not yet seen the light of day.

Death Wish remains a milestone in cinema history, considered the first urban film to depict a civilian taking up arms against criminals. While this concept existed in many previous westerns, Death Wish was the first to place it in a modern setting. The film had unexpected resonance in cities like New York and Los Angeles, where crime had reached incredible levels during the early-to-mid 1970s. Moviegoers applauded Kersey whenever he shot criminals down and cinemas enjoyed record ticket sales during the movie's run.

In the series' later years, Death Wish became a subject of parody for its over-the-top violence and the advancing age of Bronson (An episode of The Simpsons showed a fictional ad for Death Wish 9, consisting of a bed-ridden Bronson saying "I wish I was dead"). However, the Death Wish franchise remained lucrative and drew support from fans of exploitation cinema.

The Warriors

The Warriors is a 1979 American cult action/thriller film and based on the novel of the same name. The Warriors is a street gang of many races and ethnicities based in the western neighborhoods of Coney Island, on the edge of Brooklyn. Their gang uniform consists of a red-orange vest embroidered with the Warriors' logo on the back. The gang has an overall Native American theme, and their logo consists of a death's head with an Indian war bonnet shaped like eagle wings. This theme is accented by the Indian-style bead necklaces and armbands worn by some members. Their main stomping ground and base turf is among the many amusement park areas of Coney Island, particularly the landmark that is the Wonder Wheel, a now-iconic symbol synonymous with Coney Island and The Warriors.

Watching The Warriors today makes some people cringe by its cheesiness. I’ve watched it several times and gangs like the Baseball Furies (gang members with painted faces, baseball jersey and bats) and the Punks (gang members on roller skates) would make viewers laugh today in comparison to today’s violent gang members. But for the time, these caricatures set the gangs apart and gave the warriors very different foes to battle against. In some ways the action is almost like a comic book because despite of the violence, very few people die.

The stunt coordinator put the cast through stunt school to help create realistic fights in the film. The entire film was shot on the streets in New York City and they would shoot from sundown to sunrise. While they shot in the Bronx, bricks were tossed at the crew. Filming of a scene at Avenue A was canceled because there was a double homicide nearby. For the big meeting at the beginning of the film, there were real gang members in the scene with off duty police officers so that there would be no trouble.

Actual gang members wanted to challenge some of the cast members but were dealt with by production security. The actors playing The Warriors bonded early in the shoot, on and off the set. The film is famous for the famous line, "Waaaaariors, come out to plaaaay".

The Warriors opened in February 1979 without advance screenings or a decent promotional campaign and grossed $3.5 million on its opening weekend. The following weekend the film was linked to sporadic outbreaks of vandalism and three killings - two in Southern California and one in Boston - involving moviegoers on their way to or from showings. In reaction, 200 theaters across the country added security personnel. In recent years, The Warriors has acquired the status of a cult film, along with a re-examination of its standing with some film critics.

Action Element #2 – Strength

This next element of a good action movie is the hero’s and villain’s strength. Strength can manifest itself in several ways.

Strength can be the height, weight and physical size of a hero's dimensions. Schwarzenegger was a body builder before acting and used his dominant size as a force against his opponents. Other later actors like The Rock, have a dominate height advantage and usually tower over others in their fight scenes. Villains usually are bigger or physically stronger than heroes. In Bloodsport, Jean Claude Van Damme must fight a bigger, stronger more dangerous opponent in the climatic fight scene. This helps frame the conflict and like David vs. Goliath, the hero will have to bring the villain down to size.

Often the hero’s strength comes from his ability to fight, hence why the martial arts have been such a successful stable of the action genre. Fighters like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li may not tower over their opponent but their fighting ability was great leveler. These fighters would often have to fight a much larger number of opponents as their obstacle to achieve their end goal.

Some heroes have a superior ability with firearms (Dirty Harry, The Killer) and must use their superior marksman ship to survive. Many times the criminals they face are not as good with a weapon as they are but increase the danger with the superior numbers. This forces the hero to not make any mistakes as even one miss could make them vulnerable to another’s weapon.

In some cases like Die Hard, it’s a combination of abilities that show the heroes strength. A hero may have to use stealth and traps to whittle down his opponents defenses as any direct contact would be suicide. Heros like the Bourne series can use their physical surrounding as weapons turning ordinary objects like toasters and phone books into deadly weapons.

In recent superhero movies, the heroes must employ superhuman strength against opponents with other unique abilities. In many cases the hero may also apply strategy if the superhuman strength he/she is fighting is particularly lethal.

During the story arc, the hero must fight with the strength that will bring a successful end to the challenges he must face.

Top 10 martial art movies – in each movie, the hero must use martial arts to survive

10) Bourne Identity – not considered a martial arts movie, but has believable realistic fight scenes using great hand to hand skills.

9) Mortal Kombat – although this format has been used over and over, the villains and hero fights scenes are fun and memorable. I remember the soundtrack played at every karate competition six months after the movie.

8) Five Deadly Venoms – Cool names and fight styles with great choreography and some sequences last several minutes without a cut.

7) Kill Bill – owes it influence to previous martial arts movies but updates to present day with great fight sequences and humor.

6) Fist of Legend - The final battle in Fist of Legend features some of the best flying kicks, lightning-fast punches, and statue and bench destruction (even Jet's Li`s slaps are potent).

5) Legend of Drunken Master – As a master of "drunken boxing", the final battle in a factory – Chan uses dexterity and grace and combines punches and kicks with physical comedy.

4) The Matrix – the essence of the movie is that only the mind can restrict the types of martial arts used. With the help of wire work, scenes like the dojo scene to the end Subway battle are a joy to watch.

3) Police Story – Chan is my favorite martial artist and the only one to make my list twice This movie illustrates why.

2) Bloodsport – I loved the setup and different styles of the fighters. Even when Jean Claude Van Damme is not fighting, the scenes are great to watch.

1) Enter the Dragon – Even now, it stands the time for Bruce Lee`s mastery of the martial arts.

Honorable mention – Ong Bak – Some of the chase/action scenes made my jaw drop, realism at it best and stunts deserved the multiple replays from different camera angles.

The 80’s decade of excess – big explosions and high body counts

The eighties brought the heyday of action movies and a new group of action stars. The eighties were so full of good action movies and stars making this the largest section of the book. There are many action actors that had box office impact in the eighties. This chapter will start with a group of three actors that literally defined the action movie industry in the 80’s and created a template that has been copied hundreds of times over by other actors. They even went into business with each other, having ownership in the Planet Hollywood chain of international theme restaurants and filling the franchises with lots of their movie memorabilia. Along they have had very different backgrounds, they achieved incredible box office success that any stars since then have been hard to match. These action stars are Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.

Sylvester Stallone

Action stats

Real name – Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone

Nationality – American, New York City

Why he is an inspirational action star – director and writer for the Rocky and Rambo series

Distinguishing features – Muscles and firearms

My favorite action movie – Rambo: First Blood 2

Best Action line – Mission... accomplished. [thrusts knife into table]- John Rambo

Best known theme – pain of war, down and out fighter

My favorite action sequence – stealth fight scene in jungle – Rambo: First Blood 2

Interesting guest stars – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis (The Expendables)

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

8/10 – although he has tried a few comedies, action is his bread and butter

Interesting facts – former Planet Hollywood owner

Sylvester Stallone (born July 6, 1946), nicknamed Sly Stallone, was one of the biggest box office draws in the world from the 1970s to the 1990s, Stallone is an icon of machismo and Hollywood action heroism. For me, he defined the action heroes stereotype of the 80’s – low on dialogue, big on fighting against insurmountable odds. He has played two characters that have become a part of the American culture: Rocky Balboa, the boxer who overcame odds to fight for love and glory, and John Rambo, a courageous soldier who specialized in violent rescue and revenge missions.

Stallone's use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps. Philadelphia has a statue of his Rocky character placed permanently near the museum. The Rocky franchise would not be treated as an action franchise although the third and fourth installments certainly employed action villain stereotypes with Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren as adversaries. In 2005, Stallone also inducted wrestling icon Hulk Hogan, who appeared in Rocky III as a wrestler named Thunderlips, into the WWE Hall of Fame. Stallone claims to have got his body fat percentage down to his all time low of 2.8% for Rocky III (most people body fat percentage between 15-20%.)

Stallone’s major action franchise success began as Vietnam veteran Rambo in the action movie First Blood (1982). His origin included training in the Special Forces (Green Berets) and was re-deployed to Vietnam. He was captured by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border and held at a POW camp, where he and other American POWs were repeatedly tortured. Rambo escaped captivity, but was later re-deployed.

Upon his return to the U.S., Rambo discovered that many American civilians hated the returning soldiers, and he himself was subject to humiliation and embarrassment by having anti-war "hippies" throw garbage at him, calling him "baby killer". His experiences in Vietnam and back home resulted in an extreme case of post-traumatic stress disorder. At the same time, inner questions of self identity and reflectiveness cause Rambo to lash out at society rather than handling difficult situations in a "civilized" manner. This is where First Blood picks up from.

The first installment of Rambo was both a critical and box office success. The critics praised Stallone's performance, saying he made Rambo seem human as opposed to the way he is portrayed in the book of the same name. Three Rambo sequels Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988) and Rambo followed. Although box office hits, they met with much less critical praise than the original. The Rambo movies are a billion dollar franchise internationally. In my opinion, Part II defined the series. The action is superb and one scene where he is camouflaged in mud and you see his eyes open, defines the power of the Rambo character.

It was during this time period that Stallone's work cultivated a strong overseas following. He also attempted other action movies such as Cobra (1986) and Tango and Cash (1989) did solid business domestically but overseas they did blockbuster business in foreign markets. I was never a big fan of Cobra but it had a good tag line – Crime is disease. He is the cure. He had another hit with Cliffhanger which was a moderate success in the U.S. but more successful worldwide. Later that year, he had struck gold again with the futuristic action film Demolition Man and his string of action hits continued with 1994's The Specialist. I was never a big fan of the Specialist, and in my opinion, this was the start of the decline of his action film output.

In 1995, he played the comic book based title character Judge Dredd who was taken from the British comic book 2000 AD. His overseas box office appeal saved the domestic box office disappointment of Judge Dredd and the same happened with the 1996 disaster film Daylight.

Stallone put together the actors for the movie The Expendables, for which he will star, write and direct. Joining him in the film will be a who’s who of action actors including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, and Stone Cold Steve Austin, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. It had some decent action scenes but its story fairly average.

Stallone is underappreciated in the movie industry because many of his main roles have been of men of few lines. What most people don’t realize is his writing and directing ability. His debut as a director came in 1978 with Paradise Alley, which he also wrote and starred in. In addition, he directed Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky Balboa, Rambo and Cobra. He has co-written the first three Rambo films and Cliffhanger.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Action stats

Real name – Arnold Schwarzenegger (a name that long has to be real)

Nationality – Austrian

Why he is an inspirational action star – always wanted to make an impact in America, governor of California

Distinguishing features – Bulging biceps and cigar

My favorite action movie – Commando

Best Action line – I’ll be back! - Terminator

Best known theme – A robot from the future

My favorite action sequence – battle island climax in Commando

Interesting guest stars – director James Cameron helped Arnold produce three of his best movies (Terminator 1 & 2, True Lies)

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

8/10 – he’s had a few successful comedies but action is how is defined

Interesting facts – he was a millionaire before he got into movies, his net worth is estimated between 100-200 million.

My favorite action star growing up was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Part of his appeal to me was his physique; he looked like a person who could hurt you. But the main reason I enjoyed his movies was his dry deliver of classic action lines. Clint Eastwood might have the most famous action line with “Make my Day!” but Arnold had more memorable classic action lines than any other action star.

Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon, noted for his lead role in such films as Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator. He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnold Strong" and "Arnie" during his acting career, and more recently the "Governator".

Early in his career, Schwarzenegger wanted to move from bodybuilding into acting, achieving it when he played the role of Hercules in 1970's Hercules in New York. Credited under the name "Arnold Strong," his accent in the film was so thick that his lines were dubbed after production. His second film appearance was as a deaf and mute hit-man for the mob in The Long Goodbye (1973), which was followed by a much more significant part in the film Stay Hungry (1976), for which he was awarded a Golden Globe for New Male Star of the Year. Schwarzenegger has discussed his early struggles in developing his acting career. "It was very difficult for me in the beginning – I was told by agents and casting people that my body was 'too weird', that I had a funny accent, and that my name was too long. You name it, and they told me I had to change it. Basically, everywhere I turned, I was told that I had no chance."

Schwarzenegger drew attention and boosted his profile in the bodybuilding film Pumping Iron (1977). Schwarzenegger auditioned for the title role of The Incredible Hulk, but did not win the role because of his height. Later, Lou Ferrigno got the part of Dr. David Banner's alter ego.

Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was the sword-and-sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian in 1982, which was a box-office hit. This was followed by a sequel, Conan the Destroyer in 1984, although its box-office performance was disappointing.

In 1984, he made the first of three appearances in his signature role in science-fiction thriller film The Terminator. The movie is described as very violent, sometimes sadistic, yet a solid action picture. Arnold plays a villain, a seemingly unstoppable cyborg assassin or terminator who has been sent back from the year 2029 by intelligent computer-controlled machines bent on the extermination of the human race. The Terminator's mission is to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) whose future son, John Connor, leads a resistance against the machines. A human, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), is also sent back from the future by John Connor himself to protect her.

The Terminator was originally envisioned as a small, unremarkable man, giving it the ability to blend in more easily. O. J. Simpson was on the shortlist but Cameron did not think that "such a nice guy could be a ruthless killer.” Schwarzenegger was offered the role of the human soldier Reese. However, they realized that he would be better suited as the Terminator, which as a result became large and muscular. Michael Biehn was also on the shortlist for the Terminator, and not the hero Kyle Reese. The idea of a more average-looking terminator and Schwarzenegger as the hero would be revisited for the sequel.

Schwarzenegger's roles reflected his droll, often self-deprecating sense of humor (including sometimes famously bad puns), separating his roles from more serious action hero fare. His alternative-universe comedy/thriller Last Action Hero featured a poster of the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day which, in the fictional alternate universe, had Sylvester Stallone as its star.

Following his arrival as a Hollywood superstar, he made a number of successful films: Commando (1985), Raw Deal (1986), The Running Man (1987), Predator (1987) and Red Heat (1988). Commando was the movie that made me love action movies. In my opinion, it is the consummate action movie. In the book, 101 Action Movies You Must See Before You Die, Commando’s Arnold Schwarzenegger graces the cover.

Arnold plays John Matrix, a retired soldier, single parent and a former special forces Colonel who once led an elite unit. Matrix sole mission in the movie is to rescue his daughter from kidnappers who are trying to force him to commit a political assassination. The action was fun but the dry deliver of action one-liners defined Schwarzenegger in later action films. For example:

“Let off some steam.”

“I let him go.”

“He’s dead tired”

“I like you, I’m going to kill you last”

“I lied!”

Although you need to see the scene to truly appreciate the action one liner, this movie sets the standard for lines that viewers would repeat to each other after the movie.

The film is synonymous with action films of the 80’s; over the top action against a superior number of enemies (many would watch today as say it is unrealistic). For the critics, the movie is literally riddled with continual errors from cutouts of soldiers, to a car that appears dent then fixed then dented again to a visible springboard to propel enemy soldiers.

Another Schwarzenegger classic, Predator is an example of good action movie setup. It has a strong hero with good action lines (‘Stick around!’ as he throws a knife to impale his enemy or ‘I don’t have time to bleed’ after a soldier is shot), great supporting cast of soldiers (like the great cast of marines from Aliens) and a bad ass monster as a predator from another planet that hunts them one by one. The Predator is an extraterrestrial species that trophy hunts other dangerous species for sport, including humans and its counterparts, Aliens. The Predators are depicted as large, sentient humanoid creatures that possess advanced technology, such as active camouflage and energy weapons, and are capable of interstellar travel.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator, the idea being that the physical action star would use his martial arts skills to make the Predator an agile, ninja-esque hunter. When compared to Schwarzenegger, Weathers, and Ventura, actors known for their bodybuilding regimens, it became apparent a more physically-imposing man was needed to make the creature appear threatening. Eventually, Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by actor Kevin Peter Hall. Hall, standing at an imposing 7 foot 2, had just finished work as a sasquatch in Harry and the Hendersons. He was trained in the art of mime and used many tribal dance moves in his performance, such as during the fight between Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Predator at the end of the first movie.

The Running Man exposed Arnold to a science fiction action theme that he returned many times with great success. My favorite was Total Recall (1990) which netted Schwarzenegger $10 million and 15% of the gross, and was a widely praised, science-fiction script, based on the Philip K. Dick short story. Arnold most widely received film of this genre was 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which was the highest-grossing film of that year. His next film, True Lies (1994) was a highly popular spy film, and saw Schwarzenegger, reunited with The Terminator director James Cameron.

Unfortunately, this was the peak of Schwarzenegger’s action movie run. He still had success at the box office with action movies, but his choices were no longer as memorable. In 1996, he filmed the action thriller Eraser (1996) and the comic book-based Batman & Robin (1997), where he played the villain Mr. Freeze. Following the critical failure of Batman & Robin, Schwarzenegger's box office prominence went into decline.  He returned with the supernatural action film End of Days (1999), later followed by the action films The 6th Day (2000) and Collateral Damage (2002) all of which failed to do well at the box office. In 2003, he made his third appearance as the title character in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which went on to earn over $150 million domestically.

Schwarzenegger appeared as a digital actor to be appearing in Terminator Salvation as the original T-800 model. Because of his age and political aspirations, it is doubtful if we ever see him in another action film except as a cameo appearance (The Expendables).

Bruce Willis

Action stats

Real name – Walter Bruce Willis

Nationality – German (father was soldier) but moved to New Jersey

Why he is an inspirational action star – realistic depiction of an reluctant action star

Distinguishing features – his humor

My favorite action movie – Die Hard

Best Action line – Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!

Best known theme – An unwelcome party crasher

My favorite action sequence – swinging from a firehouse through a glass window – Die Hard

Interesting guest stars – Willis has appeared in four films with Samuel L. Jackson (National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Unbreakable)

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – he’s had success outside of action in drama, sci-fi and comedy.

Interesting facts – owns motion picture production company, Cheyenne Enterprises. He owns several small businesses including The Mint Bar and The Liberty Theater and is a co-founder of Planet Hollywood. Willis is the international face of Belvedere SA's Sobieski vodka in exchange for 3.3% ownership in the company.

Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955), better known as Bruce Willis, is an actor and producer. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles. He is well known for playing the Western-inspired role of John McClane in the Die Hard series, which were critical and financial action successes. He has also appeared in over sixty films, including Pulp Fiction, Sin City, 12 Monkeys, Armageddon, and The Sixth Sense. Motion pictures featuring Willis have grossed over 3.05 billion at North American box offices, making him the seventh highest-grossing actor in a leading role.

Willis left New York City and headed to California to audition for several television shows. He auditioned for the role of David Addison Jr. of the television series Moonlighting (1985–89), while competing against 3,000 other actors for the position. The starring role, opposite Cybil Shepherd, helped to establish him as an actor. However, it was his then-unexpected turn in the film Die Hard that catapulted him to fame. He performed most of his own stunts in the film, and the film was known for its realistic action. Instead of most action films where the hero is relatively unscathed by his enemies, Willis is constantly injured throughout the move, one scene has him running through broken glass in his bare feet and leaving bloody footprints.

The Die Hard series is four action films centered on the character of John McClane, a New York City detective who finds himself fighting a group of terrorists in each episode. Willis has been described as “perfect as the wisecracking John McClane” and “an excellent casting choice as a sardonic action hero.” In 2007, Entertainment Weekly ranked Die Hard the greatest action film of all time.

He is a foul-mouthed, wisecracking, no-nonsense New York cop with an itchy trigger finger, an aversion to Euro trash terrorists, and a never-say-die spirit. John McClane was originally based on the fictional character Detective Joe Leland from the novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, and is somewhat based on and inspired by Dirty Harry. Die Hard villain Hans Gruber describes him as an "American Cowboy" and as a John Wayne.

McClane's marriage is in a constant state of crisis, his vigilantism and disregard for authority have put him in danger of losing his job more than once, and he is a chain-smoker who is described as "two steps away from becoming a full blown alcoholic," which McClane jokingly upgrades to only "one step".

The trailer for the first Die Hard film states, "The last thing McClane wants is to be a hero, but he doesn't have a choice." In the second film, he is told "You're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time," to which he replies, "The story of my life." In the fourth film, he says he gets involved in dangerous situations "because there is nobody else to do it."

Bruce Willis has had a remarkable ability to have success in other genres of film including comedy and drama. However, like many actors, his career has had a series of highs and lows. In 1994, he had a supporting role in Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed Pulp Fiction, which gave a new boost to his career.

He went on to play the lead roles in Twelve Monkeys (1995) and The Fifth Element (1997), two great sci-fi movies. Twelve Monkeys shows a very bleak portrayal of the future. The Fifth Element is the opposite, a fun romp in a futuristic setting with excellent action sequences in flying taxis and a great gun battle with alien raiders in an intergalactic cruise ship.

There are a number of underappreciated action movies by Willis, the war movie Tears of the Sun, is a 2003 American war film, depicting a U.S. Navy SEALs rescue mission amidst a civil war in the West African country of Nigeria. Willis commands a team sent to rescue a U.S. citizen from the civil war en route to her jungle hospital. I had heard nothing about the film and it was decent movie. Sin City (2005) follows an aging police officer (Willis) who protects a young woman from a grotesquely disfigured serial killer. The visuals alone set up as a unique action film with a comic book feel. Lucky Number Slevin is an eclectic film about two feuding crime lords and a mysterious hitman known as Mr. Goodkat (Willis). Not a commercial action hit (more cerebral than guns), but the film was interesting in the twists, humor and sudden violence of the film.

Willis did a cameo in an empty church (taking the name Mr. Church) alongside former Planet Hollywood co-owners and 80's action stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2010 film The Expendables. There is some talk of him being the bad guy in the sequel and a fifth Die Hard movie.

Harrison Ford

Besides the big three of action actors in the eighties, there is a list of others who made a considerable impact in their roles in action movies. One actor, who is probably better known for his dramatic roles, has starred in some terrific action franchises. This actor is Harrison Ford.

Action stats

Real name – same

Nationality – American, Chicago

Why he is an inspirational action star – not physically imposing buy always finds a way – more of a thinker

Distinguishing features – whip and fedora hat

My favorite action movie – Raiders of the Lost Ark

Best Action line – Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

Best known theme – an archeologist who always finds his artifact

My favorite action sequence – opening sequence to Raiders of the Lost Ark

Interesting guest stars –Sean Connery as his father – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – he’s been successful with drama as well as action.

Interesting facts - Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his family when acting wasn’t paying the bills

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is best known for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. He is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. His four-decade career also includes roles in several other Hollywood blockbusters, including Apocalypse Now, The Fugitive, and Air Force One.

As of 2008, the United States domestic box office grosses of Ford's films total almost $3.4 billion, with worldwide grosses surpassing $6 billion, making Ford the third highest grossing U.S. domestic box-office star.

Ford's work as a carpenter would land him one of his biggest roles. In 1975, George Lucas hired him to read lines for actors being cast for parts in his movie, Star Wars (1977). However, Lucas was eventually won over by Ford's portrayal and decided to cast him as Han Solo. Star Wars became the highest-grossing film in history and established Harrison Ford as a superstar. He went on to star in the successful Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).

Ford's stardom as an action leading man was solidified when he starred as Indiana Jones in the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Indiana Jones is an archeologist and adventurer set in the mold of the old cliff hanger serials. One of the best action movies of all time, the opening sequel has more action and suspense in the first fifteen minutes than many films has in their entire run. Working through the underground passages, he must dodge several traps, poisoned darts and spiked walls. The idea of Jones being chased by a boulder, the idol mechanism in the opening scene, and deadly traps later in the film were inspired by several Uncle Scrooge comics. The movie pits Jones against the Nazis, who search for the Ark of the Covenant, in an attempt to make their army invincible. Initially, the film was rejected by every major studio in Hollywood, as most executives thought that the story was too over the top and would be exceedingly expensive to produce.

The famous Well of Souls scene required 7,000 snakes, though the only poisonous snakes on set were the cobras. To shoot the scene where Indiana comes face-to-face with the cobra, a glass sheet was put between Ford and the animal, which is partially visible in the film when the light hits it at a certain angle. Unlike the character he portrayed, Ford does not actually have a fear of snakes. The fight scenes in the town were filmed by improvisation as Ford was suffering from sickness and did not want to shoot a fight scene between Indiana and a swordsman. To expedite the scene he asked if Indiana could “just shoot the sucker." The fight scene was scrapped and the gag of Indiana quickly gunning down the swordsman was filmed. It truly was one of the best laughs in the film because of its surprise.

Another great action sequence begins with Jones fighting a German mechanic on a moving plane and riding a horse after a convoy of vehicles. The chase took over two weeks to film and has Indy jumping from vehicle to vehicle while fighting scores of German soldiers.

He reprised the role for the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), which turned Ford into a blockbuster phenomenon. He recently reprised the role in the fourth film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) which has its moments but mostly pales in comparison with the first three. The film received generally mixed reviews but was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008. He later said he would like to star in another sequel "if it didn't take another 20 years to digest".

Another memorable Ford action film was when he starred as Rick Deckard in the cult sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982) and is described in sci-fi action. The 1990s brought Ford the role of Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), The Fugitive (1993), and Air Force One (1997). Ford brings a different element to these movies which makes him a different type of action star. Through a mix of dignity and intelligence, his action star characters try to outwit and outthink his enemy. Especially in The Fugitive, the action comes of the test of wills, instead of guns and violence.

Many of Ford's major film roles came to him by default through unusual circumstances: he won the role of Han Solo while reading lines for other actors, was cast as Indiana Jones because Tom Selleck was not available, and took the role of Jack Ryan due to Alec Baldwin's fee demands (Baldwin had previously played the role in The Hunt for Red October). Because of his age, his roles have declined but I would be surprised if there is not another Indiana Jones or Jack Ryan movie.

Mel Gibson

Action stats

Real name – Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson

Nationality – American, State of New York but moved to Australia at age 12

Why he is an inspirational action star – suicidal character who would take huge risks

Distinguishing features – long hair and ability to relocate his shoulder to escape straitjacket

My favorite action movie – Lethal Weapon 2

Best Action line – Every man dies. Not every man truly lives. Braveheart

Best known theme – Driving his partner to an early retirement

My favorite action sequence – final car chase sequence in The Road Warrior

Interesting guest stars – Danny Glover – incredible partner chemistry

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – he’s had success outside of action in drama and as a director.

Interesting facts– Gibson is a property investor, with multiple properties in Malibu, California, several locations in Costa Rica, a private island in Fiji and properties in Australia.

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, (born January 3, 1956) is an American Australian actor, film director and producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson was the sixth of eleven children, and the second son of Hutton Gibson and Irish-born Anne Patricia (née Reilly). Gibson's first name comes from Saint Mel, fifth-century Irish saint, while his second name, Colm-Cille, is shared by an Irish saint and is name of the parish where Gibson's mother was born and raised. Because of his mother, Gibson holds dual Irish and American citizenship. Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

Gibson gained favorable notice from film critics when he first entered the cinematic scene as well as comparisons to several classic movie stars such as Steve McQueen and likened to “a combination Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart.” Gibson's physical appearance made him a natural for leading male roles in action projects such as the "Mad Max" and the "Lethal Weapon" series of films.

The release of Mad Max in 1979 brought Gibson to mainstream attention. Mad Max is an Australian action film about a futuristic society, which has degraded into a repressive, controlled state. Its narrative based around the traditional western genre, Mad Max tells a story of breakdown of society, murder and vengeance. It has had a lasting influence on apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.

The director was a medical doctor working in a hospital emergency room, where he saw many injuries and deaths of the types depicted in the movie. He believed that audiences would find his violent story to be more believable if set in a bleak future. The film was shot over a period of twelve weeks around Melbourne, Australia. The concept of the movie was that people would do anything to keep vehicles moving and that nations would not consider providing infrastructure for alternative energy until it was too late. Thirty years later and we could still learn this lesson.

Mel Gibson, a complete unknown at this point, went to auditions with his friend. Gibson went to auditions in poor shape, as the night before he had got into a drunken brawl with three men at a party, resulting in a swollen nose, a broken jaw line, and various other bruises. Mel did not expect to get the role and only went to accompany his friend. However, the casting agent liked the look and told Mel to come back in two weeks, telling him "we need freaks." When Gibson returned, he was not recognized because his wounds had healed almost completely.

Due to the film's low budget, only Mel Gibson was given a jacket and pants made from real leather. All the other actors playing police officers wore vinyl outfits. The police cars were repeatedly repainted to give the illusion that more cars were used; often they were driven with the paint still wet. Although the film had the actors' Australian accents dubbed with American accents and had limited appeal in North American, it spawned several sequels.

The sequel Mad Max 2 was his first hit in America (released as The Road Warrior). It was a worldwide box office success that launched Mel Gibson’s career. The film follows a community of settlers forced to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders as Max tries to rediscover his humanity when he decides to help the settlers.

Noteworthy elements of the film include widescreen photography of Australia's vast desert landscapes; sparing use of dialogue throughout the film; punk mohawked, leather bondage gear-wearing bikers; and fast-paced, violent battle and chase scenes. The film's comic-book punk style popularized the genre in film and became a cult classic: fan clubs and "road warrior"-themed activities still occur into the 2000s. The film's depiction of a post-apocalyptic future has been widely copied by other filmmakers, the gritty junkyard society of the future look is taken for granted in the modern sci-fi action film.

Mad Max 2 begins with a prologue back-story; a narrator informs us that the world has "crumbled and...the cities have exploded;" uprisings and social disorder due to energy shortages have destabilized the country; and that "two mighty warrior tribes" had gone to war. The crumbling remnants of the government attempt to restore some form of order, but life have become a "whirlwind of looting and a firestorm of fear, in which 'men began to feed on men.'"

The final chase scene contains some of the most exciting stunts and car crashes ever put on screen. The film transplants "Western" frontier movie concepts to post-apocalyptic desert wastes. In place of horses and stagecoaches are cars, motorbikes, trucks, and custom-made vehicles which are hot-rodded with superchargers and geared up for highway battles with armor plating, mounted pneumatic-dart weapons, and reinforced frames.

Max's powerful black-painted muscle car is customized for use as a police Pursuit Special from the first Mad Max film. The car is depicted with a supercharger protruding through the hood and its black body is scarred and scratched from Max's journeys in the wasteland. The precious contents of the Pursuit Special's petrol tanks are protected from thieves with an explosive "booby trap." A sheathed knife is hidden on the underbody of the vehicle, to provide Max with a concealed weapon to kill anyone who attempts to force him to disarm the booby trap.

Mad Max 2 was well received by critics and is regarded by many as one of the best films of 1981.

Playing Max Rockatansky for the third time in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985 earned Gibson his first million dollar salary. Although the movie grossed more money and had a larger budget, it didn’t seem as innovative as the Road Warrior movie. However the movie does have its share of interesting characters and the action scene in the Thunderdome between Max and Blaster (a silent, mentally-impaired bodyguard), is very creative .

Gibson’s other action franchise was the popular buddy cop Lethal Weapon series, which began with the 1987 original. In the film series, he played LAPD Detective Martin Riggs, a recently widowed Vietnam veteran with a death wish and a penchant for violence and gunplay. He is partnered with a reserved family man named Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover). The first Lethal Weapon, along with Die Hard, is credited with setting new standards for urban action films.

The movie is entitled Lethal Weapon because Martin Riggs is literally a lethal weapon. The former Special Forces soldier has become a suicidal killing machine after the death of his wife. The main story arc of the entire series is about the redemption and recovery of Martin Riggs and how Murtaugh and his family provide a focus for Riggs to rebuild his shattered life. The running gag about Murtaugh's forever delayed retirement is crucial to the longevity of the series and to the gradual healing of Riggs. By the fourth installment Riggs has rebuilt his life and no longer needs the constant support of Murtaugh. Murtaugh earns more than a long overdue retirement, he earns a friend for life.

From the early pre-production stages of Lethal Weapon, the final fight sequence was to be unique. The assistant director had an avid interest in unusual forms of martial arts, and the result was the hiring of three technical advisors, each a master of a particular martial arts style. The first expert wanted to show how lethal Riggs really was and taught the actors the movements of Capoeira (Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music, and dance). The sparring is marked by fluid acrobatic play, feints, takedowns, and extensive use of leg sweeps, kicks, and head butts. A second technical advisor brought jailhouse rock, a collection of different fighting styles that have been developed within US penal institutions. The third technical advisor specialized in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a self-defense system that focuses on grappling and ground fighting.

The filming was spread over four complete nights, shooting from dusk to dawn, resulting in an edited sequence that would last only minutes on screen. City officials hung Christmas decorations on Hollywood Blvd. a few months early so that the scenes shot for this film, looked like they happened at the end of the year.

Although I enjoyed the fight sequences in the film, I never enjoyed the final fight scene. The scene was at night with a fire hydrant spewing water onto the lawn which caused visibility problems. I found the editing and cutting of scenes too jarring and I had a hard time following the fight.

After the success of Lethal Weapon, there were three sequels, Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Lethal Weapon 3 (1993), and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998). Lethal Weapon 2 is actually my favorite of the series. Gibson and Glover respectively reprise their roles and have to protect an irritating federal witness (Joe Pesci), while taking on a gang of South African drug dealers, who are hiding behind diplomatic immunity. There is still darkness in the movie, but the humor of the movie is amped up. From Pesci’s annoying character to bombing a toilet seat to Rigg’s constantly relocating his shoulder, the movie is funnier than the first and the characters are more developed. Overall, the Lethal Weapon series is one of the best examples of the buddy cop formula and a pretty solid action movie series.

Kurt Russell

Action stats

Real name – Kurt Vogel Russell

Nationality – American, Massachusetts

Why he is an inspirational action star – anti-authority with a dry sense of humor.

Distinguishing features – eye patch

My favorite action movie – Escape to New York

Best Action line – it's all in the reflexes – Big Trouble in Little China

Best known theme – escaping from dangerous situations

My favorite action sequence- the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face a number of dangerous challenges and battle kung-fu masters. Big Trouble in Little China

Interesting guest stars – Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

5/10 – much of his early success was with Disney but when he does an action movie it tends to be memorable (exception Soldier)

Interesting facts - It was long reported that the final written words of Walt Disney were Kurt Russell's name scribbled on a piece of paper. Russell confirmed that he had seen the paper himself, but did not know what Disney was trying to convey.

Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American television and film actor. In the 1970s, he signed a ten-year contract with the Walt Disney Company, where he became the "studio's top star of the '70s." Russell was born on March 17, 1951, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Louise Julia (née Crone), a dancer; and Bing Russell, a character actor, best-known for playing Deputy Clem Foster on Bonanza. Russell is one of the very few famous child stars in Hollywood who has been able continue his acting career past his teen years.

Russell, like his father before him, had a baseball career. In the early 1970s, Russell played second base for the California Angels' (now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) Double-A minor league affiliate, the El Paso Sun Kings. During a play, he was hit in the shoulder by a player running to second base; the collision tore the rotator cuff in Russell's right/throwing shoulder. Before his injury, he was leading the Texas League in hitting, with a .763 batting average. The injury forced his retirement from baseball in 1973 and led to his return to acting.

He auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars but lost the role to Harrison Ford. During the 1980s, Russell was cast in several films by director John Carpenter, including anti-hero roles such as former air force hero-turned robber Snake Plissken in the futuristic action film Escape from New York, the horror film The Thing (1982), and the dark kung-fu comedy/action film Big Trouble in Little China (1986). Both Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China have since become cult films. Both films may look dated to watch now but they are a lot fun to watch.

Escape from New York is set in the near future in a crime-ridden United States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security prison. Ex-soldier and legendary fugitive "Snake" Plissken (Kurt Russell) is given 24 hours to find the President of the United States, who has been captured by inmates after Air Force One crashed on the island.

Carpenter originally wrote the film in the mid-1970s as a reaction to the Watergate scandal, but no studio wanted to make it because it was too violent, too scary and too weird. It was also inspired by the film Death Wish which was very popular at the time. He did not agree with this film's philosophy but liked how it conveyed "the sense of New York as a kind of jungle. He shot most of it in St. Louis, Missouri, where significant portions of the city were used in place of New York City.

The film's financial backer preferred either Charles Bronson or Tommy Lee Jones to play the role of "Snake" Plissken to Carpenter's choice of Kurt Russell, who was trying to overcome his "lightweight" screen image which arose from his roles in several Disney comedies. Carpenter refused to cast Bronson on the grounds that he was too old, and because he worried that he could lose directorial control over the picture with an experienced actor. At the time, Russell described his character as "a mercenary, and his style of fighting is a combination of Bruce Lee, The Exterminator, and Darth Vader, with Eastwood's vocal-ness." All that matters to Snake is "the next 60 seconds. Living for exactly that next minute is all there is."

Snake Plissken is a former U.S. Army Lieutenant, serving under Special Forces Unit Black Flight, with two Purple Hearts. He was the youngest soldier to be decorated by the U.S. President for bravery during campaigns in Leningrad and Siberia in World War III against the USSR. Some time later, he turned to a life of crime, probably due to the perceived betrayal of the United States government. In Kansas City around 1993, Plissken gets cornered by police, and his partner was brutally tortured and killed by sadistic law enforcers within the United States Police Force.

Possibly as a result of the Kansas City incident, it was widely believed in the criminal community that Plissken was dead. This is a running gag in Escape from New York: "I heard you were dead" (an homage to the John Wayne film Big Jake). In Escape from L.A. the recurring joke is changed to "I thought you'd be taller." Snake has a tattoo of a snake on his stomach, possibly as a reference to the Clint Eastwood’s character as the Man with No Name, on whom Snake is partly based, who had metal snakes on the grip of his pistol.

Snake was arrested and sentenced to life in New York maximum security prison, the entire island of Manhattan, surrounded by an impenetrable wall and left in an anarchic state. The President was captured by the Duke of New York, the de facto leader of the prisoners. Snake is offered a full pardon if he would go in and rescue the President. The President carried technical information that would allow the USA to be the dominant world power, but in 24 hours it would be useless. The time limit is enforced by implanting microscopic explosive capsules in Plissken's throat, which would detonate at the deadline. Plissken rescued the President with the help of his friends who all die during the escape except Plissken and the President. As the President began his broadcast speech, Plissken walked away, deliberately shredding the time-critical information tape.

In 1986, Kurt starred in Big Trouble in Little China, a dark kung-fu comedy/action film in which Russell played a truck driver caught in an ancient Chinese war. While the film was a financial failure, it has since gained a cult audience. Kurt Russell is truck driver Jack Burton, who helps his friend Wang Chi rescue Wang's green-eyed girlfriend from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown. They go into the mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named Lo Pan. Centuries ago, Lo Pan was put under a curse, and the only way that he can break it and become human again is to marry a woman with green eyes and then sacrifice her. Lo Pan is served by an ancient and evil secret society known as the "Wing Kong", as well as a trio of mystical beings known as the "Three Storms" – named Thunder, Lightning and Rain. Jack and Wang are aided in their quest by lawyer Gracie Law a tour bus-driving sorcerer named Egg Shen Wang's friend Eddie Lee and the "Chang Sings", another secret society that oppose the Wing Kong. The group eventually succeed in liberating the women from the underground lair and escape in Jack's truck

Although the film was originally envisioned as a Western set in the 1880s, a screenwriter was hired to rewrite the script extensively and modernize everything. The studio hired Carpenter to direct the film and rushed Big Trouble in Little China into production so that it would be released before a similarly themed Eddie Murphy film, The Golden Child, which was slated to come out around the same time. The project fulfilled Carpenter's long-standing desire to make a martial arts film. The film was a commercial failure, grossing $11.1 million in North America and well below its estimated $25 million budget. It received critically mixed reviews that left Carpenter disillusioned with Hollywood and influenced his decision to return to independent film-making. I believe that Kurt Russell’s most fun action hero is the Snake character.

Kurt has starred in many other action movies such as Tango and Cash, Stargate, Tombstome and Executive Decision. The Snake Plissken character is his most well known action star and even though I wasn’t as fond of the sequel Escape from LA, I still enjoyed the character. Here’s a sample piece of dialogue from Escape from LA.

(facing four gunmen at once) I'm gonna give you assholes a chance. What do you say we play a little Bangkok rules? (picks up a tin can) Nobody draws until this hits the ground. (throws can up, draws, kills all four before it lands) Draw.

Honorable mention

Many people won’t even consider this actor in the same league as the previously mentioned action stars, but I always liked his presence and the fact that he is literally the largest of the well known action stars.

Dolph Lundgren (born Hans Lundgren on 3 November 1957) is a Swedish actor, director, model, and martial artist. Well known for his tall stature and level of fitness, at his peak, Lundgren stands at 196 centimeters (6 ft 5 in) and weighed 111.5 kilograms (245 lb). Lundgren was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He has two sisters and a younger brother (named Johan) who reside in Sweden.

Lundgren holds a 3rd Dan (3rd Degree Black Belt) in Kyokushin (full contact) karate. He won the European championships in 1980 and 1981 as well as a heavyweight tournament in Australia in 1982. He was also captain of the Swedish Kyokushin Karate team, and was a formidable challenger at the 1979 World Open Tournament. Lundgren has also studied fencing, boxing, judo, goju-ryu, and taekwondo.

He graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology. He has a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney (1982). He was awarded a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, but quit after two weeks to pursue acting. He speaks more than five languages: Swedish, English, German, French, Spanish, some Japanese, and some Italian.

Lundgren completed his mandatory military service in Sweden at the Amphibious Ranger School. During his service at the elite marine unit, he suffered an injury which had him reassigned and separated from his unit. Lundgren was selected to serve as the Team Leader of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Modern Pentathlon Team during the Atlanta Games, where he coordinated planning and other details between the team and the United States Olympic Committee. He is actively involved in promoting the image of the sport.

In 1985, Lundgren made his feature film debut in the James Bond film A View to a Kill with a very minor role as a suited KGB henchman named Venz. The role was suggested to the producers of the Bond film by his girlfriend at the time, Grace Jones. Then he beat 5,000 other hopefuls to land the breakthrough role of Ivan Drago, Sylvester Stallone's opponent in Rocky IV (1985). He was initially turned down for the role because he was too tall. In order to improve his physique and athletic abilities for the role of Drago, he trained intensely in bodybuilding and boxing shortly before the film was shot. In an interview with his co-star, Sylvester Stallone said of Lundgren: "During Rocky IV, Dolph had hit me so hard I had swelling around the heart and had to stay in intensive care at St. John’s Hospital for four days."

Since then, he has starred in more than 40 pictures, all of them in the action film genre. Dolph received his first lead role as the mighty He-Man in Masters of the Universe (1987), based on the popular children's Mattel toys. He starred as a reformed Spetsnaz in Red Scorpion, and then as Marvel Comics character Frank Castle, in the 1989 film The Punisher. The Punisher comic was very popular at the time and the movie had a solid base of fan support. Unfortunately the movie was unmemorable and the concept has been rebooted several times but the Punisher character has never taken off with movie audiences. It’s too bad because the early comic concept was quite good.

In the early 1990s, Lundgren appeared in films such as Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), opposite Brandon Lee, Universal Soldier (1992), opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Johnny Mnemonic (1995) alongside Keanu Reeves.

In recent years, he has turned more to directing and the movie The Defender in 2004 marked Lundgren's directorial debut, following up with films such as The Mechanik (2005), Missionary Man (2007), and Command Performance (2009). Lundgren returned to the director's chair with the thriller Icarus, a neo film noir in the spirit of The Professional and A History of Violence.

Lundgren just co-starred alongside Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, and many others in the action film The Expendables in 2010. The movie will likely get Lindgren some name recognition again with North American audiences; most of his recent movies now are straight to video. I've only watched a few of them but none have stood out.

80’s movies of merit

Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action film starring Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, and Clancy Brown. The film has inspired a franchise that includes film sequels and television spin-offs. The concept of the film presents that there are immortals among us, leading normal lives, struggling to stay alive for the time of "the gathering", in which they will battle to be the last. They can be killed only by decapitation, with other injuries quickly healing though not necessarily perfectly (certain immortals are scarred by old wounds). The movie is set between several time periods, but concentrates on 1985 in New York, as "the gathering" begins.

The protagonist is Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. The villain is known as The Kurgan, or in more modern times as Victor Kruger. They and a number of minor characters are Immortals and are incapable of having children. Their destiny (as explained to Connor during the film) is to fight until only several of them remain. They take each other's heads in combat and become engulfed by a painful ecstasy, while they are enveloped by a torrent of wind, a blinding light and a form of lightning.

Once their number has fallen to but a few, they will "feel a pull to a faraway land", to fight for "the prize", known as "the quickening". It is not stated if they fully understand what "the prize" actually is - it is only said that if The Kurgan wins, it will lead to an age of darkness. This concept of battling to be the last immortal is the origin of one of the film's most memorable quotes - "There can be only one."

The prize itself, as revealed at the end of the movie is twofold. Firstly, the winner has the ability to "feel" the thoughts of heads of state, scientists and diplomats all over the world, and is capable of acting through them, subtly changing world events. Secondly, they are able to have children, as well as finally grow old and die like any other living thing.

Later films would expand various aspects of the above, such as stating that by killing other immortals, the killer receives the knowledge and experience the dying immortal possessed.

The sequel is probably the worst of any movie sequels in existence and is widely ignored.

The Killer (simplified Chinese: literally "Bloodshed of Two Heroes") is a 1989 Hong Kong action/crime film written and directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-Fat. A Hong Kong assassin, Ah Jong (Chow-Yun Fat), is on his last job for the Triad (a criminal organization), but accidentally damages the eyes of a young nightclub singer named Jennie with a muzzle flash in a shootout. After the attack, Ah Jong begins to watch Jennie perform at the nightclub and escorts her home when she is attacked by thugs. Jennie and Ah Jong begin to fall in love during his frequent visits at her apartment. Driven to help her secure the money for a sight-saving corneal transplant, he accepts one final hit. A police detective, Li Ying, spots Ah Jong completing the job but Ah Jong escapes. The Triad double crosses Ah Jong and instead of paying him, sends assassins to kill him.

On its release the film was not a commercial success in Hong Kong, but was highly praised on its American release, and is hailed as one of the most critically acclaimed action films ever, with reviewers praising the action scenes and its over-the-top style. The film became Woo's stepping stone to make Hollywood films and has been a strong influence on many western directors.

John Woo has described The Killer as being about "honor and friendship", "trying to find out if there is something common between two people" and as a "romantic poem". The structure of the film follows two men on the opposite side of the law who find a relation to each other in their opposition of a greater evil, Wong Hoi, the leader of the Triad. Li and Ah Jong's relationship was influenced by the Spy vs. Spy comics from Mad Magazine.

John Woo draws on animal symbolism throughout the entire film. He filled the church with doves and pigeons, employing doves to represent the spirits of the people. This was the first film where Woo used the dove symbolism and has used it to similar effect in Hard Target and Face/Off. A cat is also used when Ah Jong first meets Jennie on her visit home, and secondarily with Li's partner Chang tries to catch Ah Jong in Jennie's apartment. In Chinese culture, a sign of a cat coming into a home symbolizes an omen of ruin and poverty for its habitants. Both Chang and Jennie meet negative outcomes in the film.

Woo had over 90 days to shoot The Killer which was nearly double the amount of time that the average Hong Kong film was shot in the late 1980s. The final action scene took 36 days to shoot and was shot at a remote building made to look like a church. The original ending of the film involved Jennie waiting at an airport for Li to give her the money and for them to travel to the United States. Due to Sally Yeh's tight filming schedule, the scene was not filmed and replaced with the current ending of Ah Jong playing the Harmonica.

The Killer is an important and influential film for Western filmmakers. In the United States, directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino developed films that were influenced by The Killer. Rodriguez's films El Mariachi (1992) and Desperado (1995) contain stylistic homages to The Killer. In the film Jackie Brown, Tarantino wrote dialog referencing The Killer.

Action Element #3 – Special effects

Action movies are known for their special effects, adding to the dramatic nature of the fight scenes. In early years, the effects were produced manually while today, computer generated effects have become more cost effective. Effects are not the only thing unique to action film, but a cool effect can definitely add to an action sequence if done properly. Unfortunately the opposite can also occur if more time is spent on the effects then on the story or characters. Here are my top ten action special effects:

10) Squibs have been used in action movies to simulate bullet impacts on inanimate objects. Items such as sand, soil, or wood splinters may be attached to the squib to simulate the "splash" that occurs when bullets pierce different materials. Although squibs were once used even for the simulation of bullet hits on actors, it has been largely phased out in favor of devices that are safer for the actor, such as miniature compressed gas packs. These alternate devices are often still referred to as "squibs" even though they do not use explosive substances. The devices (whether explosive or not) are coupled with small balloons filled with fake blood and often other materials to simulate shattered bone and tissue.

9) Morphing - is a special effect that changes (or morphs) one image (or character) into

another through a seamless transition. Most often it is used to depict one person turning

into another through technological means or as part of a fantasy or surreal sequence.

Common examples include Terminator 2 when the T-1000 changes from a medal creature into a human cop. It is an effect today that tends to get overused.

8) Miniatures are created by the use of scale models. These models are often combined with high speed photography to make gravitational and other effects scale properly. Miniature effects often use stop motion animation – the ability of things to look like they are moving by filming the changes one frame at a time. Use of scale models in the creation of visual effects by the entertainment industry dates back to the earliest days of cinema. Models and miniatures are copies of people, animals, buildings, settings and objects. Miniatures or models are used to represent things that do not really exist, or that are too expensive or difficult to film in reality, such as explosions, floods or fires. Movies such as Star Wars made extensive use of miniatures with space ships and the Death Star and even films today such as Lord of the Rings use many miniatures.

7) Blue/green screen - Blue was generally used for special effects because it is complementary to human skin tone. In the digital world, however green has become the favored color because digital cameras retain more detail in the green channel and it requires less light than blue. The choice of color is up to the effects artists and the needs of the specific shot. The green background is favored over blue for outdoors filming where the blue sky might appear in the frame and could accidentally be replaced in the process. Movies like Sin City and 300 were shot entirely on a "digital backlot" using blue/screen technology and blending live actors with computer generated surroundings.

6) Fighting styles – a physical effect that action directors utilize to emphasize action

sequences. For example, Parkour is the physical discipline to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment and aiming to get from A to B the fastest. Skills include jumping and climbing, to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment. It is practiced in urban areas because of suitable public structures available such as buildings and rails. See the opening to bond film Casino Royale and the movie District B13. Another example is Gun fu (gymnastic gun play) is the style of sophisticated close-quarters gunplay seen mainly in Hong Kong action movies. It resembles a martial arts battle played out with firearms instead of traditional weapons. The focus of Gun fu is its visually appealing style and the usage of firearms in ways that they were not designed to be used. Shooting a gun from each hand, shots from behind the back, as well mixed with hand-to-hand combat maneuvers.

5) Bullet time- a digitally enhanced simulation of variable speed characterized both by

its extreme transformation of time (slow enough to show normally imperceptible and

unfilmable events, such as flying bullets – i.e. The Matrix) and space (the ability of the camera angle—the audience's point-of-view—to move around the scene at a

normal speed while events are slowed). The first movie to use the Bullet Time technique

was Blade, where bullets were computer-generated and digitally implemented.

4) Wire Work – From movies like The Matrix to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, wire work makes impossible moves look graceful. In many action martial movies, wire work makes the battle into an aerial ballet; a fight can be graceful as well as deadly. Wire work has enabled the martial arts to become a choreography dance between two opponents.

3) Explosions – There is no effect more cliché in an action movie. In the 80’s, blowing up buildings, boats, cars and planes was a common climax to every action movie. Directors would often shoot an explosion from many angles so that the viewer could review the same explosion several times (getting more bang from your expensive explosion buck).

2) Digital actors –This has changed action movies by the addition of the role of digital

actors or CGI characters. In superhero movies, digital characters performed stunts that no

human could complete. A cast of thousands of extras was replaced with a crowd of

digital performers who will repeat the scene as many times as the director requires. There

is some concern among real actors that one day digital actors could replace them.

1)Slow motion - Slow motion is used widely in action films for dramatic effect or

to stress a moment in time. Japanese director Akira Kurosawa was a pioneer using this technique in his 1954 movie Seven Samurai. The technique is especially associated with explosion effect shots and underwater footage. If there is an overused film technique in action films, it is slow motion.

Top 10 Action Film Franchises

Criteria includes that there were three films with the same character and the films should have averaged $100 million each. However, strength of action character outweighs box office.

10) Mad Max - Road Warrior (excellent car chase scenes – 3 films with talk of a fourth.

9) Mission Impossible (everyone knows the theme music – 3 films with a fourth to come)

8) Lethal Weapon (Mel Gibson is the only action star to make the list twice – Sgt Martin Riggs was in 4 films)

7) Jason Bourne (realistic action – 3 films with a 4th possible)

6) Rambo (Stallone set the action standard and has made 4 films with this character)

5) Die Hard (Willis created a genre within a genre – character John McClain has been in 4 films to date)

4) Terminator (Swartznegger's only action series – 3 films with the fourth with a CGI double)

3) Indiana Jones (with the most recognizable action sequence of all time – 4 films)

2) Dirty Harry (some of the best action lines – Eastwood’s Callahan had 5 films)

1) James Bond (easy choice – action series has been around the longest with 22 films and 6 actors)

90s – The peak and fall of action stars

Because action movies were so popular in the 80’s, there were a number of popular action stars who followed with hits in the late eighties but their stars really peaked in the early 90’s. Unfortunately by the end of 90’s most action stars and movies had suffered a severe decline. The actors who received considerable notice in the 90’s include Tom Cruise, Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Segal, Wesley Snipes, Jet Li and Keanu Reeves among others.

Tom Cruise

Action stats

Real name – Thomas Cruise Mapother IV

Nationality – American, Syracuse

Why he is an inspirational action star – quick thinker and master planner

Distinguishing features – perfect teeth

My favorite action movie – Mission Impossible 2

Best Action line – We just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into hell. Now let’s see what chance it has. – Mission Impossible 2

Best known theme – misdirection

My favorite action sequence- his most well known scene of hanging by cables without setting alarms – Mission Impossible

Interesting guest stars – Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – he is known for his Mission Impossible franchise as well as some other action roles but has been successful in drama and some comedy

Interesting facts– well known by his links to the Church of Scientology

Although by far one of the smallest action stars, Tom Cruise has one of the largest box office. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards. His first leading role was the 1983 film Risky Business, which has been described as "A Generation X classic, and a career-maker" for the actor. After playing the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and financially successful 1986 film Top Gun, Cruise continued in this vein, playing a secret agent in a series of Mission: Impossible action films in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to these heroic roles, he has starred in many other successful action films such as Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004) and War of the Worlds (2005). In 2006, Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity.

Cruise was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Mary Lee, a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. Cruise's paternal great-great-grandfather, emigrated from north east Wales, to Louisville, Kentucky in 1850. Tom Cruise's oldest sister, Lee Anne, was born in Louisville. His older sister Marian and younger sister Cass were also born in Syracuse.

The Mapother family eventually moved to Ottawa, Ontario, so Cruise's father could take a position as a defense consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces. In grade six, Cruise became involved in drama, his first play was called IT, in which Cruise won the co-lead and toured with five other classmates. When Cruise was twelve, his mother left his father, and took Cruise and his sister Lee Anne with her. Besides Ottawa, Cruise lived in Kentucky, and New Jersey. In all, Cruise attended eight elementary schools and three high schools. He briefly attended a seminary in Cincinnati (on a church scholarship) and aspired to become a Catholic priest. After his leading role in Risky Business, his life was forever changed and it would lead to a slew of action roles including movies like Top Gun, his most famous series, Mission Impossible.

Mission: Impossible (1996) action thriller starred Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The plot follows Hunt's mission to uncover the mole within the CIA who has framed him for the murders of his entire team. Ethan Hunt is an agent of an Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team, an unofficial branch of the CIA. The team assembles for a mission in Prague to prevent an American diplomat from selling the non-official cover list, a comprehensive list of all covert agents in Eastern Europe. The mission goes hopelessly wrong, seemingly resulting in the death of every team member except Hunt.

Paramount Pictures owned the rights to the television series and had tried for years to make a film version but had failed to come up with a viable treatment. Tom Cruise was a fan of the show since he was young and thought that it would be a good idea for a film. He chose Mission: Impossible to be the first project of his new production company and convinced Paramount to put up a $70 million budget. The goal of the script was to "constantly surprise the audience". The scene in a glass-walled restaurant with a big lobster tank in the middle and three huge fish tanks overhead was Cruise's idea. There were 16 tons of water in all of the tanks and there was a concern that when they blew, a lot of glass would fly around. The director tried the sequence with a stuntman but it did not look convincing and he asked Cruise to do it despite the possibility that the actor could have drowned.

The script that Cruise approved called for a final showdown to take place on top of a moving train. The actor wanted to use the famously fast French train (the TGV) but rail authorities did not want the stunt performed on their trains. Cruise took the train owners out to dinner and the next day was allowed to use it. For the actual sequence, the actor wanted wind that was so powerful that it could knock him off the train. Cruise had difficulty finding the right machine that would create the wind velocity to look visually accurate before remembering a simulator he used while training as a skydiver. The only machine of its kind in Europe was located and acquired. Cruise had it produce winds up to 140 miles per hour so it would distort his face. Most of the sequence, however, was filmed on a stage against a blue screen.

The filmmakers delivered the film on time and under budget with Cruise doing most of his own stunts. The most memorable and spoofed action sequence occurs at Langley headquarters when Hunt must infiltrate the agency to extract the non-official cover list. He is on a set of wires that lower him to the floor without touching it – at one point he is lowered too low and barely prevents himself from touching the floor and setting off the alarm.

In 2000, Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of the Mission Impossible films, releasing Mission: Impossible II. The film was directed by Hong Kong director John Woo and branded with his Gun fu Style, and it continued the series' blockbuster success at the box office, taking in almost $547M in worldwide figures, being the third highest grossing film of the year.

In the second film, Hunt is given the task of retrieving a deadly genetically engineered virus from a rogue IMF agent. The studio expressed concern over the safety of filming Ethan Hunt's entrance in the film, where he is rock climbing. Cruise refused to drop the idea because he thought it was the best way to reintroduce the character. There was no safety net as he filmed the sequence, but he did have a harness. He tore his shoulder when performing Hunt's jump from one part of the cliff to another

In the third movie, Hunt, now a training officer for IMF, plans a quiet life with his fiancée before he is called back into service to rescue a former student captured during a mission in Germany. He is forced to once again go rogue in an attempt to track down the ruthless arms dealer who has contacts with an individual within IMF. I never liked the ending in the third movie – Cruise has his wife meet all of his co-workers at his secret office and everyone is over the top silly and sappy.

Cruise confirmed that he will star in a fourth Mission: Impossible film, slated for release in December 2011.

I wasn’t a big fan of the Mission Impossible series – I don’t know if was Cruise’s smaller stature of an action star or the sometime confusing aspects of the series plots, I always found the films a bit off. Nonetheless millions of people would disagree as the box office for the trilogy was 1.4 billion. In 2008, Cruise appeared in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Jack Black. This performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination. It was an excellent action movie satire and although Tom Cruise played no action scenes, his acting as an over the top producer showed his ability to play in an action comedy. As of 2009, Cruise's films have grossed over $6.5 billion worldwide.

Jean Claude Van Damme

Action stats

Real name – Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Vaerenbergh

Nationality – Belgian

Why he is an inspirational action star – his roundhouse kicks

Distinguishing features – able to do the splits

My favorite action movie – Bloodsport

Best Action line – You're discharged... sarge. Universal Soldier

Best known theme – underdog fighter

My favorite action sequence- final fight sequence in Bloodsport

Interesting guest stars – Dolph Lundgren

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

9/10 – action roles are where he is known although the movie JCVD tries to show his darker side

Interesting facts – he has been married five times – twice to the same woman

Jean-Claude Van Damme (born Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Vaerenbergh, 18 October 1960) is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Van Damme is perhaps best known for his martial arts action movies. His most successful films include Bloodsport (1988), Universal Soldier (1992), Hard Target (1993), and Timecop (1994). Due to his physique and his Belgian background, he is sometimes known as "The Muscles from Brussels."

He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a Shotokan karate school. His styles consist of kickboxing, Shotokan karate, Muay Thai, and Taekwondo. He eventually earned his black belt in karate, later winning the European Karate Association's middleweight championship. He started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title.

At the age of 16 he took up ballet, which he studied for five years. According to Van Damme, ballet "is an art, but it's also one of the most difficult sports. If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport."

In 1980, Jean-Claude caught the attention of the European martial arts community. Professional Karate Magazine publisher tabbed Jean-Claude Van Damme as an upcoming prospect. However, Jean-Claude's ambitions now focused in the direction of movie acting. Van Damme retired from martial arts competition. His final fight record was 18–1, with all wins being knockouts and the loss being a decision after two rounds.

In 1982, Van Damme relocated to America in the hope of becoming an action star. After a small part in Missing In Action, Van Damme was next cast in the movie No Retreat, No Surrender, as the role of the villain, Ivan the Russian. His breakout film was Bloodsport, shot on a 1.5 million dollar budget; it became a U.S. box-office hit in the spring of 1988. It is considered a genre classic by martial arts film enthusiasts for showcasing a large variety of international fighting styles, ranging from Kung Fu to Jeet Kune Do and Muay Thai. It remains my favorite Van Damme movie, mainly because of fighters and their different fighting techniques.

Based on supposedly real-life events which took place between 1975 and 1981, Bloodsport tells the story of an American man named Frank W. Dux (played by Van Damme), who was trained from his youth in the ways of Ninjutsu by a Japanese master of the art. Primarily to honor his mentor out of gratitude and respect, Dux leaves for Hong Kong to participate in the Kumite — an illegal and underground, freestyle, single-elimination and occasionally deadly full-contact martial arts tournament to which the world's best martial artists are clandestinely invited every five years.

The rules of the tournament are "anything goes," and that there are three ways to win:

- Knock your opponent unconscious;

- The opponent submits and shouts "matté;" or

- The opponent is thrown out of the fighting area.

The movie showcase numerous physical feats such as Van Damme’s trademark helicopter-style, jump spinning heel kicks, and his ability to perform a complete split. I tried my first split after watching the movie and realized that I would never get close.

He then starred in the higher budgeted movie Cyborg. His last role for 1989 was Kurt Sloane in the successful Kickboxer. In this movie, his character fought to avenge his brother who had been paralyzed by a Thai kickboxing champion.

In 1990, Van Damme had two decent action movies in Death Warrant and Lionheart which continued to showcase his martial art abilities. I disliked Double Impact (1991) which featured Van Damme in the dual role of Alex and Chad Wagner, two brothers fighting to avenge the deaths of their parents. I am not a fan of movies where an actor has to play two roles of himself. This movie reunited him with his former Bloodsport star, Bolo Yeung.

He then starred opposite Dolph Lundgren in the action movie Universal Soldier (1992) as soldiers who killed each other in Vietnam but are reanimated in a secret Army project along with a large group of other previously dead soldiers. It’s too infrequent to see two action stars going head to head and it did well at the box action overseas while spurring poor sequels and television movies.

Van Damme followed with Nowhere To Run and Hard Target in 1994. Hard Target had good action scenes but the weak script did play well to Van Damme strengths and critics ravaged him for his poor acting. However his next movie, Timecop was a huge success, grossing over $100 million worldwide and became his most financially successful film. In the film, Van Damme played a time traveling cop, who tries to prevent the death of his wife. It was decent movie, maybe less action scenes than some earlier moves but a good concept that was developed from a comic book and became a television series.

In 1995, the hockey movie Sudden Death came out, it was shot during the 1994–95 NHL lockout. I liked the movie but it was considered a failure and began the decline of Van Damme’s career. After his role in the poorly received Street Fighter, his projects started to fail at the box office. The Quest (1996), which he directed; Maximum Risk (1996) and Double Team (1997) were box-office flops. After the filming of the 1998 movie Knock Off, Van Damme was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after becoming suicidal and started treatment to stabilize his mood.

His last theatrical released movie was Universal Soldier: The Return. All his movies after this, up until 2008's JCVD, had been direct to video releases. In a 2009 interview promoting his film JCVD (of which Time magazine said "He deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar"), Van Damme indicated he experienced a period of homelessness "sleeping on the street and starving in L.A."

Van Damme was offered a lead role in Sylvester Stallone's upcoming film The Expendables. Stallone called Van Damme personally to offer him the role, but Van Damme turned it down, citing that he "doesn't want his career going down that route."

Steven Seagal

Action stats

Real name – Steven Frederic Seagal

Nationality – American, Michigan

Why he is an inspirational action star – for his brutal breaking bones

Distinguishing features – ponytail

My favorite action movie – Under Siege

Best Action line – Bet you can’t drop us all badass (crook taunts) Seagal shoots him . You’re right, but I get an A for effort.  Above the Law

Best known theme – fighting government corruption, saving the environment

My favorite action sequence- final fight scene in Above the Law

Interesting guest stars – Michael Caine

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

9/10 – action roles are his identity

Interesting facts – he’s a musician (band named Thunderbox), has his own energy drink (Lightning Bolt) and his own show on A&E - Steven Seagal: Lawman

Steven F. Seagal (born April 10, 1952) is an American action movie actor, producer, writer, martial artist, guitarist, energy drink entrepreneur, and deputy sheriff. Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, where he lived until he was five years old. His mother, Patricia, was a medical technician, and his father, Samuel Steven Seagal, a high school math teacher.

A 7th-dan black belt in aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an aikido instructor in Japan. He became the first foreigner to operate an aikido dojo in Japan. Seagal returned to the U.S. in 1983 with senior student Haruo Matsuoka. They opened an aikido dojo, initially in Burbank, California, but later moved it to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which he ran until the two parted ways in 1997. It was during that period that Seagal first found himself in contact with Hollywood. Initially, he worked as the martial arts co-ordinator for the films The Challenge (1982) and Never Say Never Again (1983) starring Sean Connery.

Most action stars have to start small with supporting roles before their breakout opportunity. Not Steven Seagal, he made his film debut in 1988 in Above the Law (titled Nico in Europe). It was a good debut; the martial arts were realistic and especially violent. You also don’t get many tough action heroes with a pony tail. It’s one of his better movies and it set up the formula for him for his later films. There is much illusion to his CIA and aikido backgrounds and the film had a political feel unlike most action stars. The title refers to the CIA who thinks they are above the law. Seagal has clarified the purpose of his films: “Above the Law was a politically conscientious movie.”

Following its success, Seagal made three more movies – Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice – that were box office hits, making him an action hero. Since then, Seagal has become a major action star, mainly due to his films of the 1990s, such as Under Siege (1992) where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback. It was my favorite Segal movie and had all the components of a good action movie. The plot follows a band of mercenaries boarding an American battleship during her final voyage to steal its arsenal of nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles. Some people call Under Siege – Die Hard on a boat but there are some definite differences in the characters. Die Hard’s McClane is beat to a pulp throughout the movie from walking barefoot across glass and is covered by blood and dirt by the end of the movie; Ryback (like all Seagal characters) is barely scratched. McClane is horrified and swearing throughout the movie while Ryback is confident and calm.

Seagal then directed On Deadly Ground (1994). This film, in which he also starred, emphasized environmental and spiritual themes, signaling a break with his previous persona as a genre-ready inner-city cop. Following the general critical disappointment of On Deadly Ground, Seagal filmed a sequel titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995), and cop drama The Glimmer Man (1996). In 1996, he had his first supporting role, in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision (1996), which featured him in a starring role, but kept secret the fate of his character, who was killed in the film's first act.

In total, his movies have earned in excess of $923 million worldwide. Unfortunately most of recent films have declined in quality and now go straight to video. In 2010, Seagal appeared in his first theatrically released film in nearly a decade, as the main villain in Machete.

Seagal is currently a Reserve Deputy Chief of the Sheriff's Office in the community of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Seagal has a second home in Louisiana, and spends several months a year there. He has a certificate from Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST), an organization that accredits California police officers. His premiere of his reality television series, Steven Seagal: Lawman, drew 3.6 million viewers, ranking as best season opener for any original A&E series ever.

If you want to know more about Steven Seagal, the book Seagalogy by the film critic Vern is a study of films by Steven Seagal with some funny and interesting facts on Seagal’s career.

Wesley Snipes

Action stats

Real name – Wesley Trent Snipes

Nationality – American- Orlando, Florida

Why he is an inspirational action star – one of the few action stars that isn’t white or Asian

Distinguishing features – his sunglasses

My favorite action movie – Blade 2

Best Action line – Ever play Roulette? No. Always bet on black.  Passenger 57

Best known theme – Vampire killer

My favorite action sequence- opening scene to Blade

Interesting guest stars – Sylvester Stallone, Sean Connery

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

5/10 – the Blade series is his most famous but he has been successful in drama and comedy

Interesting facts – Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for failure to file federal income tax returns.

Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist. He has starred in numerous action-adventures, thrillers, and dramatic feature films and is well known for his role as Blade in the Blade trilogy. Snipes has been training in martial arts since age twelve, earning a high ranking 5th dan black belt in Shotokan Karate. He has also trained as a student of Capoeira and in a number of other disciplines including various styles of kung fu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Snipes was born in Orlando, Florida, the son of Marian, a teacher's assistant, and Wesley R. Snipes, an aircraft engineer. He grew up in the Bronx, New York City. Snipes attended the famed Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing, but moved to Florida before he could graduate. After graduating in Orlando, Snipes returned to New York and attended the State University of New York at Purchase, before being asked to leave the prestigious Acting Conservatory his junior year.

A 23-year-old Snipes was discovered by an agent while performing in a competition. In 1987, he appeared as Michael Jackson's nemesis in the music video "Bad" (he is seen in only the long version of the video).

Snipes' performance in the music video "Bad" caught the eye of director Spike Lee. Snipes turned down a small role in Lee's Do the Right Thing for the larger part of Willie Mays Hayes in Major League, beginning a succession of box-office hits for Snipes. Another important role for Snipes was the powerful drug lord Nino Brown in New Jack City.

Passenger 57’s success made Snipes a popular action hero icon. Although the movie is far from a classic, there is one action line “Always bet on black,” when asking the villain if he played roulette, that symbolizes his success. Up until this point, the best well known action heroes were white or Asian. Although Snipes is more known for his roles in action films like Passenger 57, Demolition Man (playing the villain against Sylvester Stallone), U.S. Marshals (a sequel of The Fugitive) and Rising Sun (with Sean Connery), his most famous action franchise is Blade.

Blade is a 1998 vampire action film, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character Blade. Snipes plays Blade, a half-human and half-vampire who protects humans against vampires. Blade grossed $70 million at the U.S. box office, and $131.2 million worldwide. Two sequels, Blade II and Blade: Trinity, were subsequently produced. LL Cool J was the first choice for playing Blade, but Wesley Snipe very much made the character his own

At the start of Blade, a seductive woman brings an unsuspecting man to a strange nightclub. As the scene progresses, the man realizes something is amiss in the club yet cannot quite discern why. However, his fears are soon confirmed when blood begins to pour down from the sprinkler system (signifying blood raining from the heavens, one of the signs of the apocalypse, as profiled in "The Book of the Damned"). Then it is revealed that the club's patrons are vampires. Unable to escape from the hideous creatures which have now surrounded him, the young man seems doomed until one of the vampires notices an individual who has just entered, whom he calls "The Daywalker."

Blade enters the main dance floor, wreaking havoc amongst the vampire crowd. He immediately begins a no-holds-barred slaughter of the vampires, using a combination of martial arts and firearms to pick them off. It’s a pretty cool sequence and with the music, the action plays quite well. The movie has a high visual style with extreme camera angles, exaggerated shadows and extreme close-ups. Blade’s weaponry causes the vampires to disintegrate into ash. Nearly every ten minutes there is a fight on screen that is bloody and brutal.

Blade was one of the first successful comic book based films to be released after the disastrous performance of Batman & Robin. Its success convinced Marvel to develop the X-Men film series as well as the Spider-Man film series. It did well for comic series that had little of the brand recognition of the others.

Blade 2 was the best of the series earning the biggest numbers. Pairing Blade with one set of vampires against another made for some great chemistry and action scenes. A more developed strain of vampirism (dubbed the "Reaper virus") is sweeping through their ranks, giving its carriers fearsome new characteristics. Far stronger than common vampires, the Reapers have three-way jaws, leech-like suckers and un-stakable hearts encased in a thick layer of bone, making them invulnerable to any weapon barring sunlight. In order to combat the virus, the vampires strike an uneasy treaty with Blade, proving to him that the Reapers are the greater evil and once they finish the vampire population, they will doubtlessly descend on humankind. Whilst Blade may hate vampires, the Reapers are far more dangerous and neither side can attack them without uniting first. Blade teams up with the Bloodpack, a group of vampire warriors and assassins who were originally assembled to kill Blade.

Unfortunately despite the pairing of the vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers with Blade against the ultimate vampire villain of Dracula, the third Blade movie, Blade Trinity wasn’t as good as the previous two. The fight scenes are chopped into so many cuts that they lack rhythm and the story is entertaining but hardly engaging. In 2010 Wesley Snipes said he would be interested in portraying Blade again.

Jet Li

Action stats

Real name – Li Lian jie

Nationality – Chinese, Beijing

Why he is an inspirational action star – some his action characters have receive immense critical acclaim

Distinguishing features – fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage

My favorite action movie – Fist of Legend

Best Action line – You have freed me traveler, now go free yourself. Forbidden Kingdom

Best known theme – portraying famous people in history

My favorite action sequence- Final fight scene in Lethal Weapon 4: Jet Li vs. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover (laugh if you want)

Interesting guest stars – Jackie Chan

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

7/10 – his skills are formidable yet not as appreciated by North American audiences

Interesting facts – Everything he has ever wanted to tell the world can be found in three of his films: the message of Hero is that the suffering of one person can never be as significant as the suffering of a nation; Unleashed shows that violence is never a solution and Fearless tells that the biggest enemy of a person is himself.

Although he has never received the same North American attention as Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, in Asia he has been a huge action star.

Li Lianjie (born April 26, 1963) better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese martial artist, actor, film producer, wushu (Chinese martial arts) champion, and international film star who was born in Beijing, China and who has currently taken up Singapore citizenship. Li's father died when he was two years old, leaving the family to struggle on its own, with Li being the youngest of two boys and two girls.

Li was eight when his talent for wushu was noticed at a summer course at school, and he began his practice there. He began on the Beijing Wushu Team, an athletic group organized to perform martial arts forms during the All China Games. As a member of the team, he went on to win fifteen gold medals and one silver medal in Chinese wushu championships. According to Li, once, as a child, when the Chinese National Wushu Team went to perform for President Richard Nixon in the United States, he was asked by Nixon to be his personal bodyguard. Li replied, "I don't want to protect any individual. When I grow up, I want to defend my one billion Chinese countrymen!" which earned him much respect in his homeland.

Li is a master of several styles of wushu, especially Changquan (Northern Longfist Style) and Fanziquan (Tumbling fist). He has also studied some of wushu's main weapons, such Sanjiegun (Three section staff), Dao (Broadsword), Jian (Straight sword) and many more.

The fame gained by his sports winnings led to a career as a martial arts film star, beginning in mainland China and then continuing into Hong Kong. Li acquired his screen name in 1982 in the Philippines when a publicity company thought his real name was too hard to pronounce. They likened his career to an aircraft, which "takes-off" quickly, so they placed the name Jet Li on the movie posters. Soon everybody was calling him by this new name, which was also based on the nickname, "Jet," given to him as a young student, due to his speed and grace. After retiring from wushu at age 17, he made his debut with the 1982 film Shaolin Temple. He went on to star in many critically acclaimed martial arts epic films, including Once Upon A Time In China series,  portraying folk hero Wong Fei-hung and Fist of Legend (1994), a remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury.

Li starred in the 1995 film High Risk, where Jet Li plays a Captain who becomes disillusioned after his wife is murdered by crime lords. He pairs up with a wacky sell-out actor and proceeds to engage in a series of violent battles in a high-rise building (similar to Die Hard). This movie is notable in that director had such a terrible experience working with Jackie Chan in his previous film City Hunter that he chose to make Jet’s partner a biting satire of Chan. Jet Li would later publicly apologize to Chan.

In 1998, he made his American film debut in Lethal Weapon 4 which also marked the first time he had ever played a villain in a film. He agreed to do Lethal Weapon 4 after the producer promised to give him the leading role in his next film, Romeo Must Die (2000) which was a box office hit.

Li turned down Chow Yun-Fat's role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) because he promised his wife that he would not make any films during her pregnancy. He also turned down a small role in The Matrix trilogy, based on his belief that the character did not require his skills and that the films were iconic and stunning enough without him.

In 2001, he appeared in two more Hollywood films: The One and Kiss Of The Dragon opposite Bridget Fonda which did moderately well at the box office. In July 2001, Li agreed to produce and star in an action film with Jackie Chan but their collaboration didn’t surface until 2006. In 2002, the period martial arts epic film Hero was released in the Chinese market. This film was both a commercial and critical success and became the highest-grossing motion picture in Chinese film history at the time. In 2003, he acted in Cradle 2 The Grave alongside rapper DMX and fellow martial artist Mark Dacascos. In 2004, Li lent his likeness, voice and provided motion capture work for the video game Jet Li: Rise to Honor.

Li departed from his usual martial arts action films with the 2005 dramatic film, Unleashed (a.k.a. Danny the Dog), where he portrays an adult with the mentality of a child who has been raised like an animal. Although his martial arts skills were utilized extensively, it was a somber film with more depth than had been previously seen in Li's films, and co-starred dramatic actors Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman. It is better acted than most typical action movie and while it may not be jam packed with action sequences, it is a good movie.

In 2006, the martial arts film epic Fearless, was released worldwide. Although he will continue to make martial arts films, Fearless is his last wushu epic. In Fearless, he played Huo Yuanjia, the real-life founder of Chin Woo Athletic Association, who reportedly defeated foreign boxers and Japanese martial artists in publicized events at a time when China's power was seen as eroding.

Li's 2007 Hollywood film, War, re-teamed him with actor Jason Statham, who previously starred with him in The One. War raked in a disappointing $23 million at the box office, becoming one of Li's lowest grossers in America; however, it was a hit on video, accumulating nearly $52 million in rental revenue, more than doubling its box office take. With the exception of Romeo Must Die and the worldwide release of Hero, most of Li's American films have been only modest hits.

Li and fellow martial arts veteran Jackie Chan appeared together onscreen for the first time in The Forbidden Kingdom, which was released to critical and commercial success in 2008. The film was based on the legend of the Monkey King from the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West. Li also starred as the lead villain in the fantasy action film The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor and starred in The Expendables.

Like Bruce Lee, Jet Li has strong beliefs on the philosophy of the martial arts. Here is some of his thoughts:

A weapon isn`t good or bad, depends on the person who uses it.

Love is more powerful than kicking ass

I never say to myself I'm the best fighter in the world. If someone learns martial arts solely to pick fights on the street, to lean on it as a keystone weapon in conflicts, to use it to bully and intimidate others - then that person, in my opinion, cannot be considered a true martial artist

Keanu Reeves

Action stats

Real name – Keanu Charles Reeves

Nationality – born in Beirut, Lebanon but grew up in Canada

Why he is an inspirational action star – not imposing physically but performing physically impossible stunts

Distinguishing features – trench coat and sunglasses

My favorite action movie – The Matrix

Best Action line – L.A.P.D.!! There's a BOMB on your BUS!!  Speed

Best known theme – bringing reality to the masses

My favorite action sequence- Lobby scene from The Matrix. The guns, the over the top martial arts and music make this scene a classic.

Interesting guest stars – Patrick Swayze

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – he been successful in action, romance and drama

Interesting facts – In high school, Reeves excelled more in hockey than in academics, and was a successful goalie. His team nicknamed him "The Wall," and voted him MVP. He never obtained his high school diploma.

Keanu Charles Reeves was born September 2, 1964 and is a Canadian actor. Reeves is best known for his action roles in Point Break, Speed, and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix.

Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the son of Patricia Bond, a costume designer and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, Jr., a geologist. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Reeves' father worked as an unskilled laborer and earned his GED while imprisoned in Hawaii for selling heroin. He abandoned his wife and family when Reeves was three years old. "Keanu" in Hawaiian means the coldness. Reeves moved around the world frequently as a child and he lived with various stepfathers, growing up primarily in Toronto.

Reeves began his acting career at the age of nine, appearing in a theater production of Damn Yankees. Reeves' first studio movie appearance was in the Rob Lowe ice hockey film Youngblood, in which he played a Québécois goalie. He hit popularity in the unexpectedly successful 1989 comedy, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which, along with its 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, typecast Reeves as a spaced-out teen. Much of his portrayal in the press and much of the response to his acting in the early 1990s still mentioned his portrayal of the airheaded Ted.

During the early 1990s, Reeves started to break out of his teen-film period. He appeared in high-budget action film Point Break, for which he won MTV's "Most Desirable Male" award in 1992. This film’s action scenes will be described later in a section devoted to Patrick Swayze. In 1994, Reeves' career reached a new high as a result of his starring role in the action film Speed. His casting in the film was controversial since, except for Point Break, he was primarily known for comedies and indie dramas. He had never been the sole headliner on a film.

In Speed, Keanu plays an LAPD officer, Jack Traven, who becomes the focus of a bomber and extortionist. A bomb is set on a city bus that Traven boards and must keep moving above 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) or the bomb will explode. I really liked the tension in the movie, there is only one villain and not a lot of gun play, but the structure is so good that the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat. The setup is simple, if the bus drops below 50, it will explode. The bomber will detonate the bus manually if anyone gets off the bus, or if the ransom is not delivered on time. Jack locates the bus and jumps aboard, but the bomb has already been armed.

When Jack identifies himself as a police officer, one man draws a gun, and accidentally shoots the driver. Another passenger, Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock), takes the wheel. Jack negotiates for the wounded bus driver to be evacuated from the moving bus. However, when the bomber witnesses a terrified passenger trying to get off as well, he detonates a small bomb under the steps, where she is crushed to death beneath the wheels.

They drive to the Los Angeles International Airport where they can safely maintain their speed by driving in circles on the runway and being a restricted airspace, the police can operate without the bomber seeing them from the news helicopters. Jack goes under the bus on a sled in an attempt to defuse the bomb, but when the sled loses control, he tries to grab hold of the bus and accidentally ruptures the fuel tank with a screwdriver.

Jack discovers that the bomber is monitoring the bus with a hidden camera. Jack's colleagues loop the footage being transmitted so that the passengers can be evacuated safely to another bus. Jack and Annie are the last to evacuate, after which the bus crashes into a fully fueled cargo plane and is destroyed. There is a third act (first act was in an elevator) in the subway, but the bus scene really is gripping and loads of fun.

Reeves' career choices after Speed were eclectic: despite his successes, Reeves continued to accept supporting roles and appear in experimental films. He made news by refusing to take part in Speed 2: Cruise Control, which was a good film to skip. It wasn’t until 1999 science fiction-action hit The Matrix, playing the role of Neo that Reeves cemented his action credentials

Actor Will Smith turned down the role of Neo to make Wild Wild West, due to skepticism over the film's ambitious bullet time special effects. He later stated that he was "not mature enough as an actor" at that time, and that if given the role, he "would have messed it up". Nicolas Cage also turned down the role because of "family obligations". Prior to the casting of Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock turned down the role of Trinity and Sean Connery also declined the role of Morpheus.

The film depicts a future that is a simulated reality created by sentient machines to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Upon learning this, computer programmer "Neo" is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, involving other people who have been freed from the "dream world" and into reality. Neo a choice between two pills: A blue pill that would return him to his old life, and a red pill that would allow him to learn the answers he seeks.

Neo is trained as a member of the rebellion. A socket in the back of Neo's skull connects him to the Matrix and allows knowledge to be uploaded directly into his mind. In this way, he learns numerous martial arts disciplines, and demonstrates his kung fu skills by sparring with Morpheus in the rebels' self-contained virtual reality environment, impressing the crew with his speed. Further training introduces Neo to the key dangers in the Matrix itself. He learns that fatal injuries suffered within the simulated reality will also kill one's physical body in the real world. He is warned that the Agents he previously met are powerful sentient computer programs whose purpose is to seek out and eliminate any threats to the Matrix simulation.

The Matrix has had a strong effect on action film-making in Hollywood. It set a new standard for cinematic fight scenes by hiring acclaimed choreographers from the Hong Kong action cinema scene, well-known for its production of martial arts films. The success of The Matrix put those choreographers and their techniques in high demand by other filmmakers who wanted fights of similar sophistication.

Following The Matrix, films made abundant use of slow-motion, spinning cameras, and, often, the bullet time effect of a character freezing or slowing down and the camera dollying around them. The Matrix's signature special effect has also been parodied numerous times, in comedy films, in animated TV series and in video games. The famous lobby scene is considered to be one of the greatest action scenes in film history.

After the first Matrix film, there were two Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions proved to be box office successes and kept Reeves in the spotlight. Unfortunately, even with the cool car chase scene in the 2nd Matrix, the films never captured the first films innovative magic.

Honorable mention

Some actors may not have the same body of work as the previous action stars but deserve some recognition for their work.

Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best-known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost. He was born on August 18, 1952, in Houston, Texas, the second child of Patsy Yvonne Helen, a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze, an engineering draftsman.

Until the age of twenty, Swayze lived in Houston where he pursued ice skating, classical ballet, and acting in school plays. He played football for his high school and was hoping to receive a football scholarship to college until a knee injury ended his career. Swayze's first professional appearance was as a dancer for Disney on Parade. Swayze became known to the film industry after appearing in The Outsiders as the older brother of C. Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe. He was considered a member of the Brat Pack. Swayze, Howell reunited in Red Dawn the next year.

Red Dawn (1984) was set in an alternate 1980s in which the United States is invaded by the Soviet Union and its Latin American allies. However, the onset of World War III is merely in the background and not fully elaborated. The story follows a group of American high school students who resist the occupation with guerrilla warfare, calling themselves Wolverines, after their high school mascot.

Swayze's breakthrough role came with his performance as dance instructor Johnny Castle in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, alongside his Red Dawn co-star, Jennifer Grey. After Dirty Dancing, Swayze found himself heavily typecast and appeared in several flops, of which Road House was the most successful. Road House (1989) starred Patrick Swayze as a bouncer at a seedy roadside bar who protect a small town in Missouri from a corrupt businessman. James Dalton (Swayze) is a professional "cooler" (i.e. specialized doorman, or bouncer) with a mysterious past who is enticed from his current job in New York City by a club owner to take over security at his club/bar, the Double Deuce. I think a lot of people identified with the Dalton character and the movie has certainly lived on in video. The fight scenes are lots of fun and bad guys fairly stupid but relentless.

In 1991, he starred alongside Youngblood cast mate Keanu Reeves in his major action hit, Point Break. Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), is a rookie FBI agent investigating a string of bank robberies by a gang known as the Ex-Presidents. Pursuing the theory that the criminals are surfers, Utah goes undercover to infiltrate the surfing community. Utah develops a complex friendship with Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), a charismatic leader of a gang of surfers, As he masters the art of surfing, Utah finds himself increasingly drawn to the surfers' adrenaline-charged lifestyle and Bodhi's philosophies.

Watching Bodhi's group surfing, Utah suspects they are the Ex-Presidents and his suspicions are confirmed by Bodhi casing a bank. Utah stakeouts the bank and the Ex-Presidents appear. A furious chase ensues through the neighborhood, culminating in Utah having a clear shot at Bodhi. But he is unwilling to shoot him and Bodhi escapes.

Bodhi and Utah leave in the plane. Once airborne and over their intended jump point, Bodhi puts on parachute and jumps from the plane, leaving Utah. Despite no other parachutes being available, Utah jumps from the plane, managing to intercept Bodhi before he lands and use his parachute so they can both land safely.

Swayze felt that Bodhi was a lot like him and that they both shared "that wild-man edge." The Bodhi character wasn`t a man of action, but a man of thought who choose action as a way of expressing his beliefs. Two months before filming, Swayze trained with former world class professional surfer Dennis Jarvis on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Shooting the surfing sequences proved to be challenging with Swayze cracking four of his ribs. For many of the surfing scenes he refused to use a stunt double as he never had one for fight scenes or car chases. He also did the skydiving scenes himself and the film's aerial jump instructor found that the actor was a natural. The actor ended up making 55 jumps for the film.

At the 1992 MTV Movie Awards, Point Break was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" for the second jump from the plane. When Utah catches up with Bodhi and holds a gun to his head, Bodhi refuses to pull the rip cord and Utah must decide between dropping his gun (so he can hold on and pull the rip cord) or letting the two fall to the ground. The scene was tested by the Discovery Channel series MythBusters. It was determined that Utah and Bodhi would not have been able to free-fall for 90 seconds (as in the film), nor would they have been able to hold a conversation in mid-air. However, it was determined that, by streamlining his body, Utah could have conceivably caught up with Bodhi after jumping from the plane.

Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and despite treatments, died on September 14, 2009.

In the late 80`s into the early 2000, Asian actor Chow Yun-Fat, appeared in a number of action films. Chow Yun-fat, born May 18, 1955) is an actor from Hong Kong. He is best known in Asia for his collaboration with filmmaker John Woo in heroic bloodshed genre films A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard-Boiled; and to the West for his role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Chow was born in Hong Kong, to a mother who was a cleaning lady and vegetable farmer, and a father who worked at a Shell Oil Company tanker. He grew up in a farming community in a house with no electricity. He woke up at dawn each morning to help his mother sell herbal jelly and tea-pudding on the streets and in the afternoons he went to work in the fields. At seventeen, he quit school to help support the family by doing odd jobs - bellboy, postman, camera salesman, taxi driver. His life started to change when he responded to a newspaper advertisement and his actor-trainee application was accepted by the local television station. He signed a three-year contract with the studio and made his acting debut. With his striking good looks and easy-going style, Chow became a heartthrob and a familiar face in soap operas that were exported internationally.

It did not take long for Chow to become a household name in Hong Kong following his role in the hit series The Bund in 1980. The Bund was about the rise and fall of a gangster in 1930s Shanghai. It was one of the most popular TV series ever made in Hong Kong and was a hit throughout Asia.

Although Chow continued his TV success, his goal was to become a big screen actor. His occasional ventures onto the big screens with low-budget films, however were disastrous. Success finally came when he teamed up with director John Woo in the 1986 gangster action-melodrama A Better Tomorrow, which swept the box offices in Asia and established Chow and Woo as megastars. It was the highest grossing film in Hong Kong history at the time, and it set the standard for Hong Kong gangster films to come. Taking the opportunity, Chow quit TV entirely. With his new image from A Better Tomorrow, he made many more 'gun fu' (close quarters gunplay) or 'heroic bloodshed' films. These films involved stylized action sequences and dramatic themes such as brotherhood, duty, honor, redemption and violence. They include Prison on Fire (1987), The Killer (1989) referenced earlier in this book, Hard Boiled (1992) and City on Fire an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.

Chow is best known for playing honorable tough guys, whether cops or criminals, but he also starred in comedies like God of Gamblers which he plays suave charmer, broad comedian and action hero. He is known for his gun play not his martial arts. The film surprised many, became immensely popular, broke Hong Kong's all-time box office record, and spawned a series of gambling films.

The Los Angeles Times proclaimed Chow Yun-Fat "the coolest actor in the world."] Being one of the biggest stars in Hong Kong, Chow moved to Hollywood in the mid '90s in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to duplicate his success in Asia. His first two films, The Replacement Killers (1998) and The Corruptor (1999), were box office disappointments. Unable to play down the Asian stereotype, Chow took advantage of it by accepting the role of Li Mu-Bai in the (2000) film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It became a winner at both the international box office and the Oscars. In 2003, Chow came back to Hollywood and starred in Bulletproof Monk in yet another Asian stereotyped role of a martial art expert.

Chow had often wished to be regarded as a serious dramatic actor in Hollywood. Unfortunately, he often landed in roles that stereotyped him as an Asian action hero.

Top 10 most memorable action partnerships – live and die together. Most action stars work alone but these characters work together usually for several movies.

10) Tango and Cash – the only partnership movie in this top ten that didn’t play for laughs but teamed well known action stars Stallone and Russell as narcotics detectives (smooth cop teamed with scruffy cop.)

9) Blues Brothers – although more comedy than action – this partnership has lasted beyond the death of John Belushi (Jake Blues). Akroyd (Elwood Blues) would join with John’s brother Jim Belushi in the mostly forgotten sequel Blues Brothers 2000.

8) Men in Black – two movies that pit Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as government agents that kick a lot of alien butt. Tommy Lee is the mentor to Will’s initial days on the job.

7) Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights – The teaming up of Jackie Chan (fast fighting) and Owen Wilson (fast talking). Will there ever be a Shanghai morning?

6) Sherlock Holmes - two intelligent detectives, one sensible, one slightly eccentric, teamed up. It usually been a partnership of deduction but since the 2009 release, Sherlock and Watson have an action relationship as well.

5) Bad Boys – Will Smith makes the list a second time with cop partner, Martin Lawrence. Although Smith is the cool cop, both Lawrence and Smith come off with wise cracking comments as their decisions take them from one conflict to another.

4) Charlie’s Angels proved that it didn’t just have to be male partners to make the list. This trio of beautiful women work well as a team to fight and defeat their male and female foes.

3) 48 hours – the pairing of a crook (Eddie Murphy) and a cop (Nick Nolte) seemed to have the chemistry of partners that shouldn’t work well together, but do.

2) Rush Hour – Jackie Chan and Chris Turner hit comedic gold and action fun in three pairings of the movies that keep making more and more money. I’ll be very surprised if a fourth isn’t attempted.

1) Lethal Weapon series – The pairing of Mel Gibson/Danny Glover is the ultimate action partnership. Although the retirement of Danny Glover is cliché, the two actors created a partnership of wise meeting crazy, caution meeting action that has never been duplicated with the charm and fun of these two.

90`s Movie honorable mention – Fight club

Fight Club is a 1999 American film adapted from the 1996 novel of the same name. It is not a typical action film and is more a social commentary on the male psyche. It has some very memorable guidelines on Fight Club rules. The film stars Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job in American society. He forms a "fight club" with soap salesman Tyler Durden, played by Pitt.

It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. The movie was seen as an omen for change in American political life, and its visual style was ground-breaking. It underperformed at the box office but found later commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film.

The violence of the fight club serves not to promote or glorify physical combat, but for participants to experience feeling in a society where they are otherwise numb. The fight represents a resistance to the impulse to be "cocooned" in society. Norton believed that the fighting between the men strips away the "fear of pain" and "the reliance on material signifiers of their self-worth", leaving them to experience something valuable.

The fight scenes were heavily choreographed, but the actors were required to "go full out" to capture realistic effects like having the wind knocked out of them. The makeup artist studied mixed martial arts and pay-per-view boxing to portray the fighters accurately. Makeup designed an extra's ear to have cartilage missing, citing as inspiration the boxing match in which Mike Tyson bit off part of Evander Holyfield's ear. Makeup devised two methods to create sweat on cue: spraying mineral water over a coat of Vaseline, and using the unadulterated water for "wet sweat". The singer Meat Loaf, who plays a member of the fight club wore a 90-pound (40 kg) fat harness that gave him large breasts for the role. He also wore eight-inch (20 cm) lifts in his scenes with Norton to be taller than him.

Following Fight Club's release, several fight clubs were reported to have started in the United States. A "Gentleman's Fight Club" was started in Menlo Park, California in 2000 and had members mostly from the high tech industry. Teens in Texas, New Jersey, Washington state, and Alaska also initiated fight clubs and posted videos of their fights online, leading authorities to break up the clubs. In 2006, an unwilling participant from a local high school was injured at a fight club in Arlington, Texas, and the DVD sales of the fight led to the arrest of six teenagers. On July 2009, a 17-year-old who had formed his own fight club in Manhattan was charged with detonating a homemade bomb outside a Starbucks Coffee shop; the New York City Police Department reported the suspect was trying to emulate "Project Mayhem" from the movie. Movies don’t usually have this kind of impact on its audience so many years after their release.

The fight club attracted men with similar temperaments; they congregated in basements to engage in bare-knuckle fighting. They must follow a very strict set of rules:

1. You don't talk about fight club.

2. You don't talk about fight club.

3. When someone says stop, or goes limp, even if he's just faking it, the fight is over.

4. Only two guys to a fight.

5. One fight at a time.

6. They fight without shirts or shoes.

7. The fights go on as long as they have to.

8. If this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight.

Later in the book, two new rules are added. The first new rule is that nobody is the center of the fight club except for the two men fighting. The second new rule is that the fight club will always be free.

In some ways, the preamble of the fight resembled how a drill sergeant would treat his new recruits. This one line described their initiation. “Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

Early narration by Edward Norton pretty much summed up the whole movie and the reason for these men to join the fight club.

“This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.”

Top ten action villains – these guys will give you chills or worst. . . .

10) General Zod – Superman 2 – Unless your age forty or older, you’ve probably never heard of this villain. A common habit of villains is to proclaim themselves god of whatever planet they are conquering. None took this role more seriously than General Zod. Being banished from Krypton, and having all the power of Superman, he kills some astronauts on the moon, tries to destroy the White House and proclaims himself ruler of Earth. He and his fellow villain wear jumpsuits that would make you laugh if you didn’t know that they would break your neck. I personally think that this was the best of the Superman movies and Terrence Stamp (Zod) is a natural bad guy.

9) Lord Humungus (or hockey mask from Road Warrior) is the violent, yet charismatic and articulate leader of a "vicious gang of post-holocaust, motorcycle-riding vandals" who "loot, rape, and kill the few remaining wasteland dwellers. Styling himself the warrior of the wasteland, Humungus has huge pectorals and a bald, sutured scalp. Humungus' face is never seen, as he wears a hockey goalie's mask with leather biker paraphernalia.

8) The Borg is a race of cybernetic organisms depicted in the Star Trek universe. They are scary because they act as one, if you kill one another replaces it. Aside from being the main threat in the movie Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg has become a symbol in popular culture for any juggernaut against which "resistance is futile". The Borg is cybernetically enhanced humanoid drones of multiple species, organized as an interconnected collective, the decisions of which are made by a hive mind. They operate forced assimilation, a process which transforms individuals and technology into Borg, and controlling individuals by implanting or appending synthetic components.

7) Agent Smith – The Matrix Agent Smith is the evil guardian of a computer system that keeps the minds of humans trapped in a “fake” reality. Smith possesses the ability to take control over the simulated body of any human wired into the Matrix. As an Agent, Smith is able to bend the rules of the Matrix (such as gravity and the limitations of the human body), giving him speed and strength beyond ordinary human capability. He and other Agents can dodge bullets flawlessly, punch through concrete with their bare hands, and jump impossible distances. They are capable of any martial arts technique, body-leaping, and self-cloning in the Matrix.

6) Hannibal Lecter - Before watching Lecter in action, not many had heard of a fava bean or chianti with a side of brain. The thing about the good doctor (psychiatrist) is that not only was he creepy, he was also brilliantly devious. He is a cannibalistic serial killer and a pure sociopath. He has been parodied and reference many times in popular culture and brings new meaning to the term ‘dinner guest.’

5) The Joker is the icon smiling villain of Batman. He is a master criminal, a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy. In the movie, The Dark Knight, he tells conflicting stories about how he acquired the scars, which involve child abuse and self-mutilation. He can kill people with a variety of methods, in the film he makes a speech, murders a man with a pencil and then returns to the conversation.

4) Terminator T-1000 - cyborg assassin, shape-shifter and even able to duplicate voice patterns. The T-1000 is made of "liquid metal", it can use its ability to quickly liquify and assume forms in innovative ways, including fitting through narrow openings, morphing its arms into solid bladed weapons, walking through prison bars, and extrude small, simple items from itself. The T-1000 is impervious to mechanical damage, such as being dismembered, shot with bullets, or attacked with explosive devices. Wounds close almost immediately, and any detached parts simply flow back into its body. Only extremely high temperatures can disassociate its molecular structure and permanently destroying it. It is the ultimate killing machine with a single purpose and no remorse.

3) Darth Vader - Vader was one of the best villains on screen – how many children have tried to replicate his light saber battle. He built Death Stars, commanded legions of Storm Troopers and had a bad-ass voice. He is a dark, foreboding, and ruthless figure and mercilessly attempts to destroy the Rebel Alliance. His powerful bass voice, imposing armored figure, and cold mechanized breathing, have become oft-parodied trademarks of the character. Darth Vader's iconic status has made him a synonym for evil in popular culture. He was the considered the master of the light saber that has become an icon weapon of children (mostly boys) around the world. Many people would argue that he isn’t an action villain but is science fiction. I believe that his light saber fights are the most duplicated action fights of all time.

2) Predator – They trophy hunt other dangerous species for sport, including humans and its counterparts, Aliens. Predators have greater height than humans, arthropod-like mandibles and long, hair-like appendages on their heads. Their bodies are resilient to damage, capable of recovering from multiple gunshot wounds and radiation doses. They are much stronger than humans by shattering solid concrete with their bare hands. They are skilled climbers, and will readily move through trees or across rooftops in pursuit of prey. Their blood is luminescent phosphor green in color. A Predator's hunting helmet increases its ability to see in a variety of spectrums, ranging from the low infrared to the high ultraviolet, allowing them to see things with greater detail.

1) Aliens – Their main goal is the propagation of their species and the destruction of life that pose a threat. Like wasps or termites, aliens have a single fertile queen breeding a caste of warriors. Adult aliens have great physical strength. They have elongated, cylindrical skulls of silicon but possess no visible eyes. The aliens' inner jaws are powerful enough to smash through bone and metal. Alien blood is an extremely potent acid and is capable of corroding on contact almost any substance. They begin their lives as an egg, which hatches a parasitic larval form. This face hugger then "impregnates" the host and after a gestation period of several hours, erupts violently from the chest resulting in the death of the host. Due to the transfer of DNA during the gestation period, the alien takes on some of the basic physical attributes of the host.

Action Element #4 – High Body counts

Action movies are different from other movie genres because a larger number of bad guys (usually deserving) are eliminated. Unlike the war and disaster movies, the bad guys are removed up-close and personal, gory and sometimes with humor.

Top body counts by character

Some of the movies are not well known with North American audiences (Lone Wolf and Cub, Akira) while others did poorly at the box office (Shoot’em Up, Equilibrium). Hot Shots! Part Deux is a spoof of all the high body count action movies and it’s fitting that its scores so high on the chart. Please note that the body count of the movie is likely greater but this is the counted number of bodies that the main character in the movie has taken out.

For example, the character of John Preston has the third most on-screen kills in a single movie ever with 118, which is exactly half of the movie's total of 236.

1

150

Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf and Cub:

White Heaven in Hell)

1974

2

141

Smith (Shoot 'Em Up)

2007

3

118

John Preston (Equilibrium)

2002

4

103

Topper Harley (Hot Shots! Part Deux)

1993

5

96

Tetsuo (Akira)

1988

6

87

Rambo (Rambo)

2008

7

81

John Matrix (Commando)

1985

8

78

Ken (A Better Tomorrow II)

1987

9

77

Blade (Blade II)

2002

9

77

Tequila (Hard Boiled)

1992

10

76

The Bride (Kill Bill: Vol. 1)

2003

The movie with the highest total body count of all time is Lord of the Rings – Return of the King. While no one main character has more than 17, the total number in the film is 836 (the vast majority of them are Orcs). For more information, please go to http://www.moviebodycounts.com/

Women Warriors

Although men have dominated the genre, females find themselves in the same gun-play, stunts and martial arts action as their male counterparts. The female action lead has especially seen success in Hong Kong action films involving gun-play, stunts and martial arts action. Some of the best known female fighters are Angela Mao Ying, Cheng Pei-pei, Moon Lee, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Cynthia Rothrock. Unfortunately despite their obvious fighting ability, their names and movies are not well known with North American audiences.

The strong female heroine owes some of her development to actress Pam Grier in movies like Foxy Brown (1974). In the movie, she handles guns, cars and a small airplane like her male counterparts. She seeks retribution for the death of her boyfriend and uses all of her assets from her sexuality to her physical dominance to bring her justice to those who deserve it. Her justice includes actions that no male action star would try, from posing as a prostitute, hiding a gun in her afro, fighting a bar filled with karate kicking lesbians and a particular gruesome act of castrating one of the main villains. Her influence would be felt with strong female action leads in the late 80’s and 90’s. The following actresses have had the largest impact on North American view.

Sigourney Weaver

Action stats

Real name – Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver

Nationality – American, Manhattan, New York

Why he is an inspirational action star – first female to have an action franchise

Distinguishing features – her height

My favorite action movie – Aliens

Best Action line – Get away from her, you BITCH! - Aliens

Best known theme – fighting aliens from burrowing inside of you

My favorite action sequence- Final fight scene with queen alien in Aliens

Interesting guest stars – Michael Biehn

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – her franchise is impressive but has much success in other genres

Interesting facts – She has won two Golden Globe Awards for the films Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl.

Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver (born October 8, 1949) is best known for her roles as Warrant Officer (later Lieutenant) Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), James Cameron's Aliens (1986) and in the rest of the Alien film series, as well as Dr. Grace Augustine in Avatar (2009), the highest-grossing film in history.

Certain female actresses stand out as action stars during these decades. Sigourney Weaver has played an alien kicking actress whose on screen persona was stronger than the alien menace she fought in the Aliens series. Setting the way for female leads to come, she is the first female to have a multimillion action series built around that would set the stage for future action females.

Weaver was born in New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Inglis, an English actress, and the NBC television executive Sylvester "Pat" Laflin Weaver. She began using the name "Sigourney Weaver" in 1963, aged fourteen, after a minor character (Sigourney Howard) in the novel The Great Gatsby. Weaver attended a prep school, where she was made fun of all the time for being a nerd and for her height. Sigourney was reportedly 5′ 10½″ tall by the age of 14, but she only grew another inch during her teens to her adult height of 5′ 11½″. Weaver graduated from Stanford University, with a bachelor of arts degree in English in 1972, and earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale University School of Drama in 1974.

She has been called 'The Sci-Fi Queen' by many on account of her many science fiction and fantasy films. She first appeared as Ripley in Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien. She reprised the role in three sequels, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection. She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for portraying Ripley in Aliens, one of the very few actresses so honored for a role in a science fiction movie. The film's title refers to an extraterrestrial creature which stalks and kills the crew of a spaceship. The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It also launched Weaver's acting career by providing her with her first lead role, and the story of her character Ripley's encounters with the Alien creatures. While Alien is basically a horror movie and its action scenes are limited, it set the scene for the best action alien movie with Aliens.

Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and is set fifty-seven years after the first film. It is regarded by many film critics as a benchmark for the action and science fiction genres. In Aliens, Weaver's character Ellen Ripley returns to the planetoid where she first encountered the hostile Alien. This time she is accompanied by a unit of Colonial Marines.

Aliens' action-adventure tone was in contrast to the horror motifs of the original Alien. Following the success of The Terminator (1984), which helped establish Cameron as a major action director, 20th Century Fox green lit Aliens with a budget of approximately $18 million. It was filmed in England at a decommissioned power plant.

Cameron was enticed by the opportunity to create a new world and opted not to follow the same formula as Alien, but to create a worthy combat sequel focusing "more on terror, less on horror". Sigourney Weaver had doubts about the project, but after meeting Cameron she expressed interest in revisiting her character. 20th Century Fox, however, refused to sign a contract with Weaver over a payment dispute and asked Cameron to write a story excluding Ellen Ripley. He refused on the grounds that Fox had indicated that Weaver had signed on when he began writing the script. With Cameron's persistence, Fox signed the contract and Weaver obtained a salary of $1 million, a sum equal to thirty times what she was paid for the first film. Weaver nicknamed her role in the Alien sequel "Rambolina", referring to John Rambo of the Rambo series.

Inspiration for the Aliens story came from the Vietnam War, a situation in which a technologically superior force was mired in a hostile foreign environment. Their training and technology were inappropriate for the environment. The inability of superior American firepower to conquer the unseen enemy in Vietnam led to one conclusion; a lot of firepower and very little wisdom, don’t work. The attitude of the Marines in the movie is portrayed as cocky and confident of their inevitable victory, but when they find themselves facing a less technologically advanced but more determined enemy, the outcome is not what they expected.

The premise of the movie has Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of a space freighter, rescued and revived after drifting for fifty-seven years in hypersleep. Ripley learns the planetoid where her crew first encountered the Alien eggs, is now home to a terraforming colony, who they have lost contact with. A unit of marines is sent to investigate, and offers to restore Ripley's flight status and pick up her contract if she will accompany them as a consultant.

The heavily-armed expedition find the colony seemingly abandoned. The marines determine that the colonists are clustered in the nuclear-powered atmosphere processing station. There they find a large Alien nest filled with the cocooned colonists. The Aliens attack and kill most of the unit, the surviving humans barricade themselves inside the colony complex. The damaged processing station becomes unstable and will soon detonate.

Ripley rescues a small girl from the hive in the processing station, where the two encounter the Alien queen and her egg chamber. Ripley destroys most of the eggs, enraging the queen. Closely pursued by the queen, Ripley escapes moments before the colony is consumed by the nuclear blast. Back on their spaceship, Ripley’s narrow escape is interrupted when the Alien queen attacks, stowed away on the ship's landing gear. Ripley battles the queen using an exosuit cargo-loader which is the ultimate action heroine scene where two mighty females battle over their children.. The two of them tumble into a large airlock, which Ripley then opens, expelling the queen into space.

The series continues the theme of Ripley continually encountering males who try to silence her and to force her to submit to their wishes. Whenever she attempts to warn the board members of the Alien danger, she is met with officious disdain. Aliens was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including a Best Actress nomination for Sigourney Weaver.

Linda Hamilton

Action stats

Real name – Linda Carroll Hamilton

Nationality – American, Maryland

Why he is an inspirational action star – Rambo mother who trains her son for future war

Distinguishing features – paranoia

My favorite action movie – Terminator 2

Best Action line – The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope, because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life ... maybe we can too.

Best known theme – Running from Terminators

My favorite action sequence- Fighting and escaping from the mental institution – Terminator 2

Interesting guest stars – Michael Biehn, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – Sarah Connor may be her most popular character but she has done many dramatic and romantic roles

Interesting facts – Her identical twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren was Linda's double in Terminator 2

Terminator 2 gave rise to one of the strongest leading woman action heroines. Although the battle of the two Terminators is the focus of the movie, actress Linda Hamilton’s role in preparing for battle makes her one of the strongest female leads. Even when incarcerated in the institution, she uses a combination of smarts and her strong will to escape while being ridiculed by her male captors.

Linda Carroll Hamilton (born September 26, 1956) is an American actress who portrayed Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day Hamilton was born in Salisbury, Maryland to a physician father who died in a car accident when she was five. Hamilton has an identical twin sister, one older sister and one younger brother. She has said that she was raised in a "very boring, white Anglo-Saxon" family, and "voraciously read books" during her spare time. She studied for two years at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, before moving on to acting studies in New York City. While attending Washington College, her acting professor told her she had no hope of earning a living as an actress.

Hamilton's role in The Terminator, costarring Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1984 helped define her strongest role and action character, Sarah Connor. She begins the movie as a damsel in distress but through the harrowing chase sequences, her character develops to become the much tougher Sarah Connor (both physically and mentally) in the sequel. The movie was an unexpectedly huge commercial as well as critical success.

In The Terminator, Sarah Connor is a young Los Angeles waitress who finds herself inexplicably pursued by a relentless cyborg killer. She learns she is in danger from a televised report of two other identically-named Los Angeles women being shot to death earlier that day. She is rescued from the Terminator by time-travelling soldier Kyle Reese. At the end of movie, Reese's death deeply saddens her, his sincerity and courage inspires Sarah to carry on and develop the necessary skills and abilities that would make her a suitable mentor and teacher to John. After these events, Sarah becomes a fugitive from society. It is mentioned that Sarah was a legend among members of the resistance, teaching her son to fight and organize while they were still in hiding prior to the war.

Hamilton went back to the big screen with the sequel titled Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991. The film was a smash at the box office, grossing over $500 million, and becoming the highest grossing film of the year. Hamilton underwent intense physical training to emphasize the character's transformation from the first film. The movie takes place ten years after the events of Terminator and Sarah has been institutionalized. In the years between films, she has transformed herself from the mousy, timid woman seen at the beginning of the first movie into a muscled, ferocious warrior. The first image of her in the film is of her doing chin-ups on her hospital bed.

After the death of Kyle Reese, her fixation on the disaster and her fanatical desire to keep her son safe has made her slightly mentally unstable and very violent. She dropped off the grid to better protect herself. She lived a semi-criminal life among various outlaws and survivalists and attempted to teach her son the skills he would need to lead the resistance. Sarah was captured and sent to a mental hospital after she attempted to destroy a computer factory.

Several times at the hospital, she has tried to improve her behavior in hope of getting to see her son, but her caregivers do not believe her. Her activities and claims of fighting evil robots from the future led to her being deemed incurable. Sarah stabs her doctor in the knee with his pen, and attempts to escape multiple times. During her final escape attempt, Sarah encounters the initial Terminator and flees in terror. But she decides to go with him when he utters the first thing Reese had said to her: "Come with me if you want to live."

Sarah finds it nearly impossible to accept that the Terminator is benevolent; throughout the film, she remains hostile towards it and what it represents, while her own son develops a bond with it, resembling a father-son relationship. While in Mexico, watching John do a high-five with the Terminator, Sarah loses her hostility towards the machine and begins to see it as the closest thing John has to a would-be father.

In a moment of desperation, Sarah attempts to murder one of the computer researchers who works at Cyberdyne Systems and she loses touch with her humanity, becoming eerily similar to the Terminator itself. At the end of the movie, Sarah fully respects the Terminator and offers her hand in friendship to a comrade and brother warrior before his final sacrifice.

Her identical twin sister Leslie Hamilton Gearren was Linda's double in Terminator 2. Hamilton received two MTV Movie Awards for her role in the film, one for Best Female Performance and the other for Most Desirable Female. Hamilton reprised this character, Sarah Connor, for the theme park attraction T2 3-D. Although dated now, the ride film shows how a future movie should have been done which Terminator Salvation just didn’t capture.

Angelina Jolie

Action stats

Real name – Angelina Jolie Voight

Nationality – American, Los Angeles, California

Why he is an inspirational action star – sexy and deadly

Distinguishing features – her lips

My favorite action movie – Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Best Action line – This is where I start to have fun  Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Best known theme – A female relic hunter that will use her brains and brawn to get what she wants

My favorite action sequence - running/chase scene between vehicles on highway - Salt

Interesting guest stars – Brad Pitt

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

6/10 – She’s had her greatest box office success with action movies but as done well in other films as well.

Interesting facts –She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress playing the sociopathic Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Angelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. On her father's side, Jolie is of Czechoslovakian and German descent, and on her mother's side she is French Canadian.

After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother were raised by their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions and moved with them to Palisades, New York. As a child, Jolie regularly saw movies with her mother and later explained that this had inspired her interest in acting; she had not been influenced by her father. When she was eleven years old, the family moved back to Los Angeles and Jolie decided she wanted to act and trained for two years and appeared in several stage productions.

At the age of 14, she dropped out of her acting classes and wore black clothing, dyed her hair purple and went out moshing with her live-in boyfriend. Two years later, she returned to theatre studies and graduated from high school. She has referred to this period with the observation, "I am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk kid with tattoos".

She recalled her time as a student and her feeling of isolation among the children of some of the more affluent families. Jolie's mother survived on a more modest income, and Jolie often wore second-hand clothes. She was teased by other students who also targeted her for her distinctive features, for being extremely thin, and for wearing glasses and braces.

She began to learn from her father, as she noticed his method of observing people to become like them. Their relationship during this time was less strained, with Jolie realizing that they were both "drama queens". Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie has been long estranged from her father. The two tried to reconcile and he appeared with her in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). In July 2002, Jolie filed a request to legally change her name to "Angelina Jolie", dropping Voight as her surname.

Jolie appeared in five of her brother's student films, made while he attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts, but her professional movie career began in 1993, when she played her first leading role in the low-budget film Cyborg 2, as Casella "Cash" Reese, a near-human robot, designed to seduce her way into a rival manufacturer's headquarters and then self-detonate. In her first Hollywood picture, Jolie starred as Kate "Acid Burn" Libby in the movie Hackers (1995).

Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie's films to date had often not appealed to a wide audience, but Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) made her an international superstar. Angelina Jolie was perfect for the role of Lara Croft, an adaptation of the popular Tomb Raider videogame that has sold over 35 million units, making it one of the best-selling video game series of all time.

The original game has a series of 3D tombs and other locations, through which the player must guide Lara. On the way, she must kill dangerous creatures or other humans, while collecting objects and solving puzzles to gain access to an ultimate prize. Tomb Raider, uses third-person shooter mechanics. The player's camera follows her, usually over her shoulder or from behind. Each game has introduced new weapons and moves; standard moves in Lara's range of abilities include the somersault, a roll, climbing techniques, the ability to swim, a swan dive manoeuvre, and a handstand.

The storyline is usually driven by the quest for a powerful artifact, with Lara in a race against a sinister shadow league who wants to obtain the relic for their own purposes. These artifacts usually possess mystical powers and may be of supernatural, or even alien, origin. Often the antagonist uses the artifact to create terrifying mystical monsters, creatures, and mutants which Lara must defeat throughout the journey.

Jolie was required to learn a British accent and undergo extensive martial arts training to play the title role of Lara Croft. In the game, she appears with brown shorts, a green or blue sleeveless top, holsters on both sides of her hip for dual wielded pistols and a small brown backpack. Over the course of the game series, her 3D model has undergone gradual graphical improvements, as well as enlarged (and later reduced) breast size. Ten years after the release of the original game and viewed as a feminist icon or sexual fantasy, Lara is still one of the most recognizable video game characters.

She was generally praised for her physical performance in Tomb Raider, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews. The movie was an international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star. Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003. The sequel, while not as lucrative as the original, earned $156 million at the international box-office. Although the first movie was no classic, the second one was much worse and seems to have doomed this franchise from becoming a trilogy.

Jolie has the rare ability to appear in many popular action roles. She appears in the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The film tells the story of a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. Jolie starred as Jane Smith opposite Brad Pitt. The film received mixed reviews, but was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The movie earned $478 million worldwide, one of the biggest hits of 2005. Jolie co-starred in the 2008 action movie Wanted, an adaptation of a graphic novel. The film received predominately favorable reviews and proved to be an international success, earning $342 million worldwide. I liked the movie and she was the best part of it.

Although Jolie is well known for her roles outside of the action genre, she certainly has used her beauty and athleticism to carve out a recognizable action star. Recently, she has starred in the action movie Salt (2010) which did well and certainly cements her position as one of the most bankable female action stars.

Milla Jovovich

Action stats

Real name – Milica Nataša Jovović

Nationality – in Kiev, Ukrainian

Why he is an inspirational action star – a more deadly killer than her male counterparts

Distinguishing features – her face (former model)

My favorite action movie – The Fifth Element

Best Action line –  It's nothing personal, but in an hour or two, you'll be dead. Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Best known theme – Zombie killer

My favorite action sequence - battle in the mansion- Resident Evil

Interesting guest stars – Bruce Willis

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

7/10 – She one of the few females action stars with four action films in a series (Resident Evil)

Interesting facts –Jovovich’s husband is film writer and director Paul W. S. Anderson, who directed all Resident Evil movies.

Milla Jovovich (born Milica Nataša Jovović, December 17, 1975) is a Russian/Serbian-born American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".

Jovovich was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, the daughter of Bogdan Bogdanovich Jovović, a Serbian pediatrician, and Galina Loginova, a Russian stage actress. In 1981, when Jovovich was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union for political reasons and moved to London. They subsequently lived in Sacramento California before settling in Los Angeles; Jovovich's parents divorced soon after. Jovovich's father was incarcerated for participating in an illegal operation concerning medical insurance; he was given a 20-year sentence in 1994, but was released in 1999 after serving five years in an American prison.

Jovovich attended public schools shortly after arriving in the United States, and learned fluent English in three months. During school, many of the students had teased her because she had immigrated from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Jovovich said, "I was called a Commie and a Russian spy. I was never accepted into the crowd." At age 12, Jovovich left school to focus on modeling. She was featured in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements. As a young teenager, she claimed to be rebellious, engaging in drug use, shopping mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud.

Jovovich began her action career when she acted alongside Bruce Willis in the science fiction film The Fifth Element (1997). She portrayed Leeloo, an alien who was the "supreme being". Jovovich said she "worked like hell: taking part in eight months of acting classes and karate practice prior to filming. Jovovich also co-created and mastered an over 400-word alien language for her role. She wore a costume that came to be known as the "ACE-bandage" costume, a revealing body suit made of medical bandages. Jovovich was nominated for "Favorite Female Newcomer" at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and "Best Fight" at the MTV Movie Awards. Jovovich's portrayal of Leeloo garnered a video game and a planned action figure, but the figure was never released due to licensing problems. In a 2003 interview, Jovovich said Leeloo was her favorite role to portray.

In 2002, she began her true action dominance by starring in the video game adaptation, horror/action film Resident Evil, which spawned three sequels: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) and Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010). Based on the video game series of the same name, she portrayed Alice, the film's heroine who fights a legion of zombies created by the evil Umbrella Corporation. In Resident Evil Alice is shown as an "ass-kicking amnesiac" and since then she has been an "iconic figure, becoming far more skilled and rugged. She is primarily portrayed in Apocalypse and Extinction as "a supremely efficient killing machine", while in the first film, she is shown first recognizing her abilities as a highly trained yet human security operative.

Alice's superhuman abilities, as well as the use of various styles of martial arts and gun play have made her an almost super hero style of character. Jovovich had accepted the role of Alice because she and her brother had been fans of the video game franchise. Jovovich had performed almost all the stunts in the film and had trained in karate, kickboxing, and combat-training.

In 2004, Jovovich reprised the role of Alice in the sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The role required her to do fight training for three hours a day, in addition to the three months prior to filming in which she had gun and martial arts training. Apocalypse received even more negative reactions from the critics than the first film. Following the release of the film, Jovovich was unhappy with the results. She noted during an interview that her action films take care of the commercial part of her career, while she acts in "independent little films" to appease her artistic side.

In 2006, Jovovich's film, the science fiction/action thriller Ultraviolet, was released. She played the title role of Violet Song jat Shariff, a role that also involved heavily choreographed fight sequences and Gun Kata, a fictional martial art combining statistical analysis and gunplay. It was not screened for critics, but when reviewed, it was critically panned, grossing $31 million worldwide. The action scenes weren’t bad but the story was non-existent.

In 2007, Jovovich reprised her role as Alice in Resident Evil: Extinction, the third of the Resident Evil series. It opened stronger than its predecessor, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, but in a 2006 interview, Jovovich said that she would not appear in another action film "for a long time", expressing a desire to portray more diverse roles, but she added that talks of another sequel in the Resident Evil franchise were a "real possibility". Jovovich returned for her role as Alice, in the fourth movie of the Resident Evil series Afterlife. It was the highest grossing of the series thanks largely to higher 3D sales. I would be surprised if there is not a fourth sequel released.

In addition to action heroines, there are some very movies that would please the most action oriented female. One of the best female action movies is Kill Bill.

Kill Bill is a two-part film released in 2003 and 2004 by writer-director Quentin Tarantino, and starring Uma Thurman as The Bride. Originally conceived as one film, it was released in two separate 'volumes' due to its running time of approximately four hours. This is an epic-length stylistically excessive violent revenge film, with homages to earlier film genres, such as Hong Kong martial arts films and Italian spaghetti westerns. Filming took place in California, Texas, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Mexico.

Kill Bill is one story, divided into two volumes with five chapters each, presented in a nonlinear narrative style, as is common among Tarantino's films. The Bride (Uma Thurman) is a former assassin and lover of a man named Bill, her former boss. Pregnant, and wanting to move beyond the life of an assassin to raise the child, she left him, and was about to marry another man. Bill and his other assassins, the four Deadly Vipers, arrive at the wedding chapel and massacre everyone. She attempts to tell Bill that the baby is his, but he shoots her in the side of her head, leaving her in a coma.

She awakens from the coma in a hospital ward four years later, and is horrified to discover she is no longer pregnant, leading her to assume her baby is dead. She escapes from the hospital and travels to Tokyo, Japan, where she confronts a Deadly Viper turned Yakuza leader, O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu). The Bride is forced to fight off the entire gang, killing or wounding almost everyone, before scalping O-Ren in the snow.

The Bride arrives at the house of the next viper, Vernita Green (Vivian A Fox) and  agrees to a knife fight later that evening, but Green attempts to kill her with a gun hidden in a cereal box. The Bride throws a knife, killing Green instead. This scene actually opens the movie and the rest is told through flashback.

In the opening of Kill Bill Volume 2, Bill ventures to the California desert to warn his brother Budd (Michael Madsen), another former Deadly Viper, that the Bride will come for him next. The Bride arrives at Budd's trailer that night, but Budd shoots her in the chest with rock salt and injects her with a sedative. Budd calls Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and offers to sell her the Bride's sword then buries the Bride alive with a flashlight in a grave.

She lies in her grave, and uses her training to break out of the coffin and dig her way up to the surface. The Bride arrives on a hilltop overlooking Budd's trailer, and sees the one-eyed Elle Driver arriving in her sports car. In another violent fight scene, she plucks out Elle's remaining eye, leaving blinded Elle to writhe in the trailer.

There is a final climatic battle where the Bride disables Bill with the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, secretly taught to her by instructor. The movie is really an over the top battle between very deadly female fighters – a must watch for fans of action heroines.

Top 10 female fights – these scenes showed the strength of female fighters

10) Total Recall - Arnold Schwarzenegger may be the star but the battle between Sharon Stone (wife) and Rachel Ticotin (girlfriend) was an incredible fight.

9) 2 Days in the Valley – two big league actresses, Charlieze Theron and Teri Hatcher, in a fight that made a lot of teenage boys happy.

8) Charlies`s Angels- the fight scene with the creepy Crispin Glover in the alley is the best part of the movie.

7) Heroic Trio – Three great Asia fighters, Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui and Maggie Cheung in a part classic kung fu, part comic book movie. Look for the henchman with the decapitating bucket

6) Underworld - Selene (Kate Beckinsale) opening scene with guns and fighting werewolves – and she looks very good doing it.

5) La Femme Nitkita - a female assassin so effective it has spawned two television series with the same name. Her initiation mission, killing a diplomat in a crowded restaurant and escaping back to the Centre, is the film's highlight

4) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - An epic martial arts movie that to date is the only martial arts movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The real stars of the movie are Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang who share several amazing sword fight scenes

3) The Matrix – Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) with “Bullet Time” crane kick, the scorpion kick, running around the walls makes the most of the elevator scene.

2) Aliens – The climactic battle with Sigourney Weaver and the Queen of Aliens is about two angry mothers.

1) Kill Bill – every fight is good but the battle in Japan with Uma Thurman in a yellow track suit (homage to Bruce Lee) is a showstopper.

Action Element #5- One Liners

Action movies set the bar for memorable one liners; the most famous have become part of our culture. Action lines are fun and terrifying all in the same breath, they sum up the mood in a few short words. It was very tough to narrow down the choices. Here are my top ten action action lines.

10) I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. . . and I’m all out of bubble gum. They Live

9) I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.  Taken from one of most popular war movies of all time, Apocalypse Now, and spoken by Marlon Brando.

8) I lied! There are many great action lines from the movie Commando from the king of dry action lines, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Before he drops a kidnapper over a cliff, he asks a question – Do remember when I said I would kill you last? The kidnapper responds enthusiastically. Yes, matrix you did! Arnold smiles. I lied!

7) It is better to burn out, than fade away. – Highlander. Kurgan is killing all the highlanders and sets up the climactic battle with Connor MacLeod. It is one of the best fantasy action films of all time.

6) I ain’t got time to bleed- Predator. Former governor Jesse Ventura had a more memorable line than the star Schwarzenegger.

5) I’ll be back. Arnold makes back on the list with his Terminator’s classic line. He actually says it several times during the series. His other line from Terminator 2 ‘Hasta la vista baby’ is great because it crosses over between the Spanish and English language.

4) Say hello to my little friend! The movie Scarface was not an action movie but the final scene I consider an action sequence and was extremely violent and graphic for its day. The film and its star, Al Pacino, have a cult following and the line is in reference to the main characters use of a rifle grenade launcher.

3) Yippy Kai Yay Mother f***er! The Diehard series had a defining line in Willis rallying against his enemies. In the fourth film, the line was censored out to keep away from an R rating.

2) Bond, James Bond. The line heard around the world and spoken by many different actors who played the role. Bond has a preference for vodka martinis, and his instruction on how it must be prepared, "Shaken, not stirred", became another catchphrase.

1) Go ahead, punk, make my day. - Sudden Impact. Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry will live forever for his classic line spoken as a criminal interrupts Clint at a coffee shop. If you ask anyone to repeat a famous action – this is the one people remember the most.

Honorable mention

Clint Eastwood has another famous line although it is more of a paragraph from his original ‘Dirty Harry’ movie. Most people have heard some version of this:

I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?

I hate to leave Sylvester Stallone off the list so I include this line from the movie Cobra as he is taking to a criminal who has taken over a grocery store.

‘I blow the whole place up.’ criminal

‘Go ahead. . . I don`t shop here.’ Cobrettie responds

Top 10 action television shows

10) Knight Rider - A lone crime fighter battles the forces of evil with the help of an    indestructible and artificially intelligent supercar. The action scenes were limited but it set the action genre with other shows about a soaped up helicopter (Air Wolf) and a motorcycle (Street Hawk).

9)  Buffy the Vampire Slayer – she fights vampires and prevents the apocalypse, but what matters is the personal interaction. Most people who really like the show don’t watch it for the fighting. Buffy the character is much more interesting than Buffy the action figure.

8) Supernatural - Follows the brothers as they hunt demons and other figures of the paranormal. The show has remarkable humor that makes the action much more fun.

7) Hercules/Xena Xena – similar shows and therefore combined into one – both involve a mighty warrior leading others on many adventures helping people and slaying mythical monsters.

6)  Battlestar Galactica - After losing the war against the Cylon robots, the Battlestar Galactica crew speed toward the fabled 13th colony, Earth. Both series were good against a cool enemy, space ship battles and laser fire instead of bullets.

5) Walker, Texas Ranger Walker - a martial artist and his partner are Texas Rangers. They make it their business to battle crime in Dallas and all around the State of Texas. Walker would take out the bad guy with his fists and/or guns.

4) Miami Vice - The adventures of the vice squad detectives of the Miami Police Department. Set the standard for cool action.

3) The A-Team - Four Vietnam vets, framed for a crime they didn't commit, help the innocent while on the run from the military. There are lots of explosions and flying bodies.

2) Alias - Sydney Bristow is an international spy recruited out of college and trained for espionage and self-defense. Undoubtedly the strongest female action star on television with well written episodes with more depth than most action shows.

1) 24- Number one by a long shot – No television action star is more violent than Jack Bauer. Federal Agent Jack Bauer has the highest body count of any action star on television. As a member of the L.A. Counter Terrorist Unit, Jack must stop bombs, viruses, assassination attempts, and usually save someone he cares about at the same time. Every season of this series has 24 episodes, each unfolding in real time following a consecutive hour in one very bad day. He has many bad days.

2000s – The age of action realism and the rise of digital actors

As action movies declined by the late 90’s and into early 2000’s, one of biggest problems was the lack of realism. The new action movie norm had become an excuse to use some expensive stunts. In the 80’s, movies could get away with this; today’s viewers want something more. Too many action movies during this time had disposable bad guys and paper thin plots. Only a certain fan base can keep coming back to these films. Too many directors use action scenes with wild cuts that make the pace fast but hard to follow. Once disengaged, the viewer rarely returns. The action film had become no longer an escape from reality, but exaggeration of the genre and the constant noise has contributed to its decline. Fortunately, the age of Bourne would breathe new life into the action genre.

In the films, the character of Jason Bourne, portrayed by Matt Damon, is a much simpler character than the one described in the novels. Jason Charles Bourne (real name David Webb) is a fictional character in the novels of Robert Ludlum and subsequent film adaptations. He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity (1980) and the novel was first adapted for television in 1988. Matt Damon would physically look less an action hero than any previous action star. He played amnesiac assassin in the hit action thrillers The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). When Damon was signed on as the ass-kicking amnesiac Jason Bourne, no one would have predicted that Damon would become the decade's best mix of brawn and brains. Bourne’s realistic fighting style breathed much needed fresh air into a sagging action genre. The description ahead is not about actor Matt Damon but about the Jason Bourne character that audiences enjoyed.

In the film, Bourne was born in Nixa, Missouri. He joined the Army, eventually volunteering for Special Forces, becoming a Green Beret and attaining the rank of Captain. It was here that he was offered the opportunity to volunteer for Operation Treadstone, under which he endured behavioral modification, involving sleep deprivation, repeated submerging in water, gagging and binding. His final test was to kill a man, after which he was informed that his transformation into Jason Bourne was complete. He initially refused to shoot the unknown man, but after persuasion he capitulated and killed the subject.

Bourne was highly trained in the CIA's protocols and trade crafts. His skills include expertise in hand-to-hand combat, firearms, knives, and explosives, handling numerous vehicles, and speaking fluent English, French, Russian, German, and Spanish. Once his training was complete, Bourne was deployed as a covert assassin. He completed his missions mechanically, without knowledge of his subjects' identity or the crimes they had allegedly committed. On a job in France, he had a sudden attack of conscience when he saw his target in the company of his children. Bourne aborted his mission, and was shot in the back twice while attempting to escape. He awakens with his memory gone.

The character of Bourne in the films is a very quick-thinking, linear type of person who moves quickly and brutally towards his goal. He gives the impression of someone who has been severely traumatized and who is suffering from paranoia. He is tormented by fragment memories of his past. He is highly adept at hand-to-hand combat. He shows an immediate ability to utilize lateral thinking to solve problems. He sometimes uses improvised weapons, for example using a pen to stab an assassin in The Bourne Identity and using a book and a towel in The Bourne Ultimatum. He is shown using tactical improvisation such as using a fan, torch light and tape to fake his location (The Bourne Ultimatum) and gas, a toaster and a magazine to cause an explosion (Bourne Supremacy). He is also proficient with firearms, explosives, electronics and evasive protocols.

In The Bourne Identity Jason Bourne attempts to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tries to track him down for failing to carry out an officially unsanctioned assassination and then failing to report back in afterwards. Along the way he teams up with a woman named Marie who assists him on the initial part of his journey to learn about his past and regain his memories.

The director approached a wide range of actors for the role of Bourne, including Russell Crowe and Sylvester Stallone, before he eventually cast Damon. The director found that Damon understood and appreciated that, though The Bourne Identity would have its share of action, the focus was primarily on character and plot. Damon, who had never played such a physically demanding role, insisted on performing many of the stunts himself. He underwent three months of extensive training in stunt work, the use of weapons, boxing, and eskrima (weapon-based fighting with sticks). He eventually performed a significant number of the film's stunts himself, including hand-to-hand combat and climbing the safe house walls near the film's conclusion.

The Bourne Supremacy continues the story of Jason Bourne, and focuses on his attempt to learn more of his shadowy past as he is once more enveloped in a conspiracy surrounding the CIA and Operation Treadstone. It occurs two years after the events of The Bourne Identity, and involves Bourne again remembering his past while chasing down a killer who eliminates his girlfriend Marie from the first movie. I enjoyed the movie and it certainly maintains the grittiness of the series but the shaky camera work made some action scenes difficult to watch. In one car chase scene, I swear I couldn’t follow some of camera cuts which borderlined motion sickness.

The Bourne Ultimatum continues the saga of Jason Bourne as he escapes from authorities in Moscow and travels to Paris, London, Madrid, Tangier and New York City to uncover his real identity, while the CIA continues to send assassins after him. One thing I have consistently enjoyed about the Bourne movies is the film endings; they all have a well deserved memorable conclusion. The financial and critical success of Bourne Ultimatum has led to speculation that another Bourne film might be produced.  The Bourne Legacy has a 2012 release date.

The rise of super powers

Superhero movies with intense action scenes have been created by the ability of digital actors – performing stunts not humanly possible. Unlike action movies with wire work where actors could perform impossible moves – digital actors could perform stunts that wire work could not replicate. Spiderman (2002) brought the renaissance of superhero movies bringing a decade of success of action oriented movies with people with special abilities. The visual effects supervisor for the movie planned to make many of the stunts computer generated, as they would have been physically impossible. The director called the scenes of Spiderman swinging through the buildings of New York, ‘ballet in the sky.’ The complexity of such sequences meant the budget rose from an initially planned $70 million to around $100 million. When executives were shown shots of the computer generated character, they believed it was actually actor Tobey Maguire performing stunts. The age of digital actors as action stars had begun.

Probably one of the best examples of Superhero action heroes and digital action stars has been the X-men movie series. With a team of heroes, villains and students, this trilogy has been the best example of super powered fight scenes. The most popular action character has been Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman. At 6'2 1/2 (1.83 m), Jackman stands a foot taller than Wolverine, who is said in the original comic book to be 5' 3". The filmmakers were frequently forced to shoot Jackman at unusual angles or only from the waist up to make him appear shorter than he actually is, and his co-stars wore platform soles. Jackman was also required to add a great deal of muscle for the role, and in preparing for the fourth film in the series, he bench-pressed over 300 pounds. An instant star upon the film's release, Jackman later reprised his role in 2003's X-Men 2, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, 2009. Jackman has used his popularity to take on other action movies while the X-Men series has spawned the most potential spin-offs of any superhero series.

With high ticket and DVD sales, several new superhero films were released every year in the 2000s, including Daredevil (2003), Hulk (2003), Hellboy (2004), The Punisher (2004), Batman Begins (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), Ghost Rider (2007), Iron Man (2008) and many sequels. Currently, the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight (2008) is not only the highest grossing comic book film of all time, it is also the most nominated superhero film in Academy Award history with 8 nominations including best supporting actor for Heath Ledger and also one of the highest grossing films of all time. Many more superheroes such as Thor, Captain America and The Avengers are slated for release

Superhero movies have become cool again and brought back the sense of humor not seen since the eighties. More of cult hit than the financial blockbuster of the Spiderman or    X-men, Kick Ass (2010) was a parody of the superhero genre. It was my favorite movie of 2010 and the film tells the story of an ordinary teenager, Dave, who sets out to become a real-life superhero calling himself "Kick-Ass". Dave gets caught up in a bigger fight when he meets Big Daddy, a former cop who has trained his 11-year-old daughter to be the ruthless vigilante Hit-Girl. Kick-Ass has generated some controversy for its profanity and violence performed by a child actor. There is a fight scene between Hit-Girl and a drug dealer’s gang in which the violence is excessive, she curses profusely and the music plays the scene like a comedy. Yet somehow the movie works and action scenes are quite good. There haven’t been too many superhero movie that haven’t done well, expect lots more with more elaborate action scenes to come in the 2nd decade of 2000.

The 2000’s were a unique decade in that the age of breakout action stars had ended. In some ways, I think that action movies may have become less important to the movie going audience. But like any decades, some new action stars appeared and made an impact.

Jason Statham

Action stats

Real name – Jason Michael Statham

Nationality – English, London, England

Why he is an inspirational action star – a strong silent type who can drive and fight his way out of trouble

Distinguishing features – bald head and chiseled chin

My favorite action movie – The Transporter

Best Action line – The deal's the deal. The Transporter

Best known theme – a driver with rules

My favorite action sequence - oil fight in bus warehouse- The Transporter

Interesting guest stars – Jet Li

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

8/10 – He’s done some dramatic roles (The Bank Job is decent) but action is his calling

Interesting facts – He was a member of Britain's National Diving Squad and finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992.

Jason Michael Statham (born 12 September 1972) is an English actor and martial artist, known for his roles in director Guy Ritchie crime films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; Revolver; and Snatch. Statham appeared in supporting roles in several American films, such as The Italian Job, as well as playing the lead role in The Transporter, Crank, The Bank Job, War (opposite martial arts star Jet Li), and Death Race. He normally performs his own fight scenes and stunts and is an expert of martial art kickboxing.

Statham was born in Sydenham, London, the son of a lounge singer and dressmaker-turned-dancer. He grew up initially following in his parents' footsteps to master the art of street theatre. He also played high school football (1978–83), but his real passion was diving - in particular, he finished 12th in the World Championships in 1992. He was also a member of Britain's National Diving Squad for twelve years. Statham's life in media began when he was spotted by a talent agent specializing in athletes while training at London's Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Afterwards, he became a model for the clothing brand Tommy Hilfiger.

While working for the clothing company French Connection, he was introduced to fledgling British director Guy Ritchie who was developing a film project and needed to fill the role of a street-wise con artist. After learning about Statham's past, Ritchie cast him to play the role of "Bacon" in Ritchie's breakout 1998 hit, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The movie was well received by both critics and audiences, which helped catapult the unknown actor into the public eye. Statham's second collaboration with Ritchie came in the 2000 film Snatch. Cast alongside popular actors Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro, the movie earned more than $80 million in box-office revenues. Statham was now able to break into Hollywood and appeared in two movies in 2001: Ghosts of Mars and The One.

Statham was offered more film roles and in 2002 was cast as the lead role of driver Frank Martin in the action movie The Transporter, in which his background in martial arts enabled him to do most of his own stunts.  This movie and action character is one of my favorite action films of the 2000’s. The initial car chase scene sets the tone of the movie with Frank and his eclectic rules – he argues with the criminals he is driving in the middle of a bank heist. Even though Frank is a criminal, you start to like the character.

Frank Martin is a highly regarded, highly skilled driver known only as "The Transporter." The title character is a former Special Forces officer who, disillusioned with his former leadership, now lives on the French Mediterranean Coastline with a lucrative second career. He will transport anything, no questions asked, from Point A to Point B.

He operates by a set of rules:

1. Never change the deal.

2. No names.

3. Never open the package.

4. Never make a promise you can't keep.

Frank has been hired to transport "Three men, 254 kilos." When not three but four men get into his car, fresh from a bank heist, Frank refuses to move, stating, "The deal's the deal," holding fast to Rule #1. After one gang member is killed by the others, Frank leaves with the remaining robbers. On delivery to their destination, they foist new money on Frank to drive further. He refuses, again adhering to Rule #1

Later in the movie, Frank is hired to deliver a package to an American gangster known only as "Wall Street" in his BMV. Breaking one of his rules, Frank opens the package, it is revealed to be a young woman tied up and gagged, by the name of Lai. Initially, Frank simply delivers the package, but when "Wall Street" attempts to kill Frank, Frank takes Lai back to his house, where she explains that there is a large container full of Chinese people. Frank attempts to retrieve a truck full of immigrants. Frank is aided by a French Police inspector Tarconi. Initially, Tarconi is assigned to investigate the path of destruction that Frank is leaving, but he ends up aiding in the recovery of the containers full of human slaves.

My favorite fight scene is in a warehouse with mechanical equipment and buses. Frank is able to fight a large number of criminals in close quarters. His ability to cover himself with oil to prevent his opponents from touching him is very fun scene to watch.

A sequel, Transporter 2, followed in 2005 and a Transporter 3 was released in 2008. Neither movie seemed to capture the same fun as the first (I really didn’t like the second one) but the character of Frank Martin is hard not to like even in these sequels.

Vin Diesel

Action stats

Real name – Mark Sinclair Vincent

Nationality – American, New York City

Why he is an inspirational action star – most threatening by his silence

Distinguishing features – deep voice and welding goggles

My favorite action movie – The Chronicles of Riddick

Best Action line – You keep what you kill. The Chronicles of Riddick

Best known theme – A killer who is always fleeing authorities

My favorite action sequence - Prison escape sequence (the teacup) - The Chronicles of Riddick

Interesting guest stars – Samuel L. Jackson

Action meter – how important are action roles to the actor

7/10 – He’s made for action but has had some success in comedy

Interesting facts – Diesel has played Dungeons & Dragons for over twenty years and wrote the foreword for the book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. He reveals that he had a fake tattoo of his character's name, "Melkor," on his stomach while filming xXx.

Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18, 1967) is an American actor, writer, director and producer. Vin Diesel was born in New York City, the son of Delora, a psychiatrist and astrologer. He has a twin brother named Paul, a younger brother Tim, and a sister Samantha. Diesel is biracial and has Italian and black ancestry. Diesel has never met his biological father, and was raised by his African-American stepfather, Irving, an acting instructor and theatre manager.

He made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children's play Dinosaur Door. His involvement in the play came about when he, his brother and some friends had broken into one of New York City's leading Off-Off-Broadway theaters with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the Theater's Artistic Director, who instead of calling the police, handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show. He remained involved with the theatre throughout adolescence, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. Diesel is noted for his recognizable deep voice, he has said that his voice broke naturally at around age 15, giving him a mature sounding voice on the telephone.

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, he said that he changed his name to "Vin Diesel" while working as a bouncer at the New York City nightclub Tunnel, because in that business, one's real name is not usually given out. The name "Vin" is simply a shortened version of "Vincent". He received the nickname "Diesel" from his friends who said he ran off diesel, referring to his non-stop energy.

Diesel's first film role was an uncredited appearance in the 1990 film Awakenings. He then produced, directed, and starred in the 1994 short film Multi-Facial, a semi-autobiographical film which follows a struggling actor stuck in the audition process, because he is regarded as either "too black" or "too white. He made his first feature-length film, 1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he was self-cast as a gang boss whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival, leading to an MTV deal to turn it into a series.

He was then cast in Steven Spielberg's 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan on the poignancy of his performance in Multi-Facial. He earned critical acclaim for voice work as the title character in the animation film The Iron Giant (1999).

He got his breakthrough role as the anti-hero Riddick in Pitch Black (2000), The Chronicles of Riddick, and the animated movie The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury. Riddick is a Furyan, and one of the last of his kind. He is notable for his "eyeshine" ability, which allows him to see in the dark. His eyes are more sensitive to light, requiring him to wear welding goggles to protect them from bright light.

Riddick is in excellent physical condition and is an exceptional fighter and seems stronger, faster, possessing more acute senses, immense stamina, and recovering more quickly than most humans from injuries. He is shown on more than one occasion dislocating his limbs for brief moments with only slight signs of discomfort. In general, Riddick possesses an abnormally high pain threshold and psychologically channels what pain he does feel into anger.

Despite his harsh upbringing and violent attitude, Riddick has been shown to have a certain knack for deduction. He is also able to quickly judge the quality and find even seemingly minor flaws in most weaponry, down to very specific details. In one case, Riddick concluded that the prized dagger was "a half gram too heavy on the back end" after an inspection lasting all of a couple of seconds. While he may be a ruthless killer, Riddick can help people in need only if they don't slow him down or make him vulnerable. In addition to raw analytical power, Riddick is an astute judge of character, especially in the dark side of human nature. A killer himself and resident of almost one hundred maximum security facilities, he is often able to predict an individual's negative impulses before they act on them.

Riddick is well trained with any kind of weapon that he can get his hands on, but his weapon of choice is undoubtedly a knife. Silent, quick, and deadly, in Riddick's hands the knife is a weapon that is a swift ender of lives. But it should be noted that Riddick is an efficient killer even if he doesn't have a weapon. His hands can be just as deadly as a knife or gun.

In addition to his Riddick character, Diesel attained action hero super stardom with the box office hits The Fast and the Furious (2001) and xXx (2002). In xXx, Diesel plays Xander Cage, a thrill seeking extreme sports enthusiast, stuntman and rebellious anarchist turned reluctant spy for the National Security Agency who is sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate a group of potential terrorists in Eastern Europe.  In the 30th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons issue of Dragon Magazine, they examine the fact that Diesel played Dungeons & Dragons and reveal that he had a fake tattoo of his character's name, "Melkor," on his stomach while filming xXx.

Diesel was originally offered the lead in 2 Fast 2 Furious but turned it down. He was also offered the chance to reprise his role from xXx in xXx: State of the Union but turned it down as well. It’s too bad because the film’s mediocre showing seems to have killed the franchise. He again played Dominic Toretto in the fourth film of The Fast and The Furious series, titled Fast & Furious (2009) which did well at the box office.

In recent years, he hasn’t had many strong action movie showings, the movie Babylon A.D. is one to skip. His best action character, Riddick, is in development for a third movie called Dead Man Stalking. If it is half as good as Chronicles, it should be a must see.

Honorable Mention

Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), better known by his former ring name The Rock, is an American actor and retired professional wrestler. At 6 foot 4, 225 pounds, he is definitely one of the larger action stars. Johnson was a collegiate football player, and in 1991, he was part of the University of Miami's national championship team. He later played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League, but was cut two months into the season. This led to his decision to become a professional wrestler, like his grandfather, Peter Maivia and his father Rocky Johnson.

He gained mainstream fame as a wrestler in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), from 1996 to 2004, and was the first third-generation superstar in wrestling history. Johnson was quickly given a push, and after two years he won the WWF Championship, and became one of the most popular wrestlers within the company for his engaging interviews and promos. In 2001, he began acting and occasionally returned to the ring.

Johnson started with his first leading role in 2001, in The Scorpion King. It is a prequel to The Mummy series, following the story of Mathayus the Scorpion King, the character featured in The Mummy Returns. The events of The Scorpion King take place 5,000 years before those in The Mummy Returns, and reveal Mathayus' origins and his rise to power as the Scorpion King. It is a decent start for his career and although not a classic action film, it has lots of fun. For this film, he received the highest salary for an actor in his first starring role, earning $5.5 million.

He has since appeared in action movies such as The Rundown, Walking Tall, and Doom. The Rundown is underappreciated action film with lots of good humor with his costars Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken. Johnson plays a bounty hunter who must head for Brazil to retrieve his employer's renegade son. It made a modest return so a sequel is probably unlikely. In Doom, Johnston would eventually turn into a bad guy. Unfortunately like most video games movies, it didn’t do very well with critics and marginal at the box office.

Of all the action stars of the 2000’s, Johnston has the potential to become the most well known at the cinema. Johnston’s career has mostly drifted towards the action comedy genre and drama although he has the physique and persona to be a strictly action star, time will tell if will do many strictly action films. In movie Faster, in late 2010 is a return to action form in which he takes revenge against those murdered his brother. His size and ability for humor would make him a perfect actor for an action film series that so far has eluded him.

Honorable mention – movie to watch

Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003) is onrush of chase scenes, hand-to-hand combat and acrobatics, sometimes shown multiple times from different angles, inventive moves and lack of CGI and wire-fu. The movie burst onto the international action scene and took a lot of moviegoers by surprise. A friend of mine had free tickets to this movie which had a one night showing at the local theatre. I had no expectations and when we walked into the theatre, the place was packed. I have never watched a movie in which the viewers were so into the film. The plot is average but the actions scenes are phenomenal because everything is real and amazingly performed.

The action movie starred Tony Jana, a martial artist, actor, choreographer, stuntman and director. The movie was Jaa's break-out role as a leading man starring his martial arts abilities. Jaa developed an interest in Muay Boran, an ancient style of martial arts called Muay Thai (Thailand national sport) known for brutal knee and elbow strikes and worked and trained for 1 year at the art with the intention of developing a film around it.

Jaa did all the stunts without mechanical assistance or computer-generated effects and it showcased his style of extreme acrobatics and speedy, dance-like moves. Injuries suffered in the filming included a ligament injury and a sprained ankle. Intricate moves are often shown twice to allow viewers to appreciate the movements of Jaa. Highlights include a chase through an alley that shows Jaa sliding under a truck while doing the splits, fights with numerous opponents in a bar and a final battle with over twenty enemies. One scene in the film involved fighting with another actor while his own trousers were on fire. "I actually got burned," he said in a 2005 interview. "I really had to concentrate because once my pants were on fire the flames spread upwards very fast and burnt my eyebrows, my eyelashes and my nose. Then we had to do a couple more takes to get it right."

If you want to see a movie with unbelievable stunts that are real, this film is for you. As Hollywood embraced the wire enabled stunts of The Matrix and other Hong Kong films, this movie brought back a realism not seen since the days of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Unfortunately in May 2010, Jaa became a Buddhist monk at a Buddhist temple in Thailand. It is undisclosed how long he will remain at the temple. A 2nd (2008) and 3rd (2010) Ong-Bak films have been made and released.

Honorable Mention

Although the film is unlikely to make the impact of early action films, The Expendables is an ensemble action film written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. Filming was in Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. The film pays tribute to the blockbuster action films of the 1980s and early '90s, as the film includes action veterans from those decades (such as Stallone himself, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, and Bruce Willis).

The story deals with corruption, murder of American hostages and betrayal of foreign policies. The U.S. secretly assembles a squad of highly trained military personnel to overthrow the dictator who has caused devastation in South America for over 20 years. The team sets out on its mission to complete the assassination. but realize that there will be no outside help. They rely on their own resources to fight not only the dictator’s army but also the governments that set them up.

The budget for the film was going to be in excess of $100 million, but was lowered to $80 million. The budget drop would cause some expensive action sequences to be cut. During the shooting of the film Stallone suffered a hairline fracture in his neck after a very realistic fight scene with Steve Austin. Stallone needed to have emergency surgery and a metal plate inserted in his neck following the scene

Jean-Claude Van Damme was personally offered a role by Stallone, but turned it down. A role originally conceived for Wesley Snipes was later replaced by former NFL player Terry Crews. Steven Seagal was asked to play a cameo role, but turned down the offer due to negative experiences with the producer.

The role of the man who hires the Expendables, Mr. Church, was very difficult to cast. Initially offered to Schwarzenegger, he declined in favor of a smaller cameo due to his political career. The role was then offered to Kurt Russell whose agent replied that he was not interested in "ensemble acting at the moment." Stallone spent several months after principal photography determined to find a big action name for the part. Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger shot their scene in the Hollywood Presbyterian church in Los Angeles, marking the first time all three have appeared together on screen.

The Expendables will either make action movies popular again or illustrate why they have declined. After watching it, I can see it doing well with hopeful sequels. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel there was anything unique with the action scenes or the character development. The villains are nothing special but hopefully in a future sequel (if they can get everybody together again) they can build on the team dynamics.

Top 10 action movies

This is a very subjective list – everyone could have a different ten. However each movie is a great example of how action movies should be made with all the ingredients for a memorable experience that made you cheer for the hero and root against the enemy.

10) Speed – best example of Die hard on a bus – a fun ride that had you wary of taking public transit.

9)  Under Siege – Seagal`s best work that took the Die hard formula to a new level.

8)  Road Warrior – its bleak view of the future has been copied in many films since.

7) Aliens – the best sci-fi action movie ever made – the alien has been one of the scariest villains ever made.

6) The Matrix – the first film set standards for awesome action scenes that the only limitation is your mind.

5) Rambo: First Blood Part II – Rambo movies literally epitomize one of most recognized international action characters.

4) Die Hard – Willis’s character is the most accident prone hero making for realistic action scenes.

3) Enter the Dragon – set the standard for Asian martial arts movies.

2) Terminator 2 – the best switch of villain to hero in a movie that trumps the original.

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark – simply the most fun and entertaining action movie of all time.

Top Ten most memorable action/fight scenes – these are scenes that people talk about over and over.

10) Spiderman vs. Doctor Octopus (Spiderman 2) – this was the best part of the

Spiderman series – it had an emotional aspect that many action movies don’t have when the people Spiderman try to protect try him from Doc Ock when they know they could be hurt.

9) The Abandoned Church Standoff (The Killer) – A graceful shootout with plenty of imagery to go along with the muzzle flashes, exploding religious iconography and shattering stained glass. The director John Woo choreographed action scenes with complex, acrobatic movements; impressive single shot camera work; hypnotic slow motion sequences and dual firing pistols.

8) The Climatic Battle (Avatar) – The 3D immerses the viewer but there is elegance to how the Na’vi fights against the human gunships. The tide turned when the animals of Pandora join in the battle and stampede the advancing human army.

7) Bank robbery – Downtown Shoot out (Heat) - Shot in an up close documentary style, this scene is a very realistic action scene, the police in this scene (led by Al Pacino) use tactics and fire carefully, whereas the criminals (led by Robert De Niro) spray bullets all over the place just looking for an exit.

6) Hospital scene (Hard Boiled) – Second Hong Kong and director John Woo film to

the list. This epically long action scene literally takes up the last forty-five minutes of the

film and is filled with slo-mo, duel pistols, and doves.

5) Opening club scene (Blade) – Part music video, part blood bath as it flows from the overhead sprinklers; this is the coolest vampire killing scene bar none. The effects for slaying vampires were great as the body would literally dissolve in flames to ash.

4) Lobby scene (The Matrix) - Even without bullet time, this scene still stands out for how stylized it is. From the constant walls and columns being blown off to the mix of Kung fu and gun play, watching this scene today reminds you why it was copied so many times.

3) The Battle of the Pelennor Fields (Lord of the Rings – Return of the King) –The

battle was the largest and most important of the Lord of the Ring films and stands out

because of the sheer volume of participants and strange beasts involved. The battle is

magnificent but many complain that the ending comes too quickly when the Army of the

Dead arrive.

2) Normandy Invasion (Saving Private Ryan) - the initial 24-minute sequence

is the "best battle scene of all time" The scene cost US$12 million and involved up to

1,500 extras, twenty to thirty actual amputees were used to portray US soldiers maimed

during the landing.

1) Opening sequence – Raiders of the Lost Ark – Easily the most recognized action

sequence in the history of movies. The rolling boulder has been parodied so many times

that viewers automatically identify with the film.

Ingredients to make the perfect action movie

We all enjoy a ride, especially one that not only thrills us but tells a good story. A mix of drama, character development and of course action gives us the best action movie. I’ve tried to provide the necessary action elements of a good action movie throughout this book. Unfortunately most action movies don’t take the time to create a story that makes sense. The following ingredients are what I believe will make a great action movie.

A) There must be a plot. Duh. But an engaging plot that creates circumstances, believable and entertaining, is important to have a good action movie. There has to be something of value to make you care about the story and characters – it could be a love story, survival, rescuing a family members. Terminator 2 – Judgment Day gives us a plot on a grand scale, where human life hangs in the balance. But it is the relationship between the machine, John Connors and his mother that holds your interest and makes you care about the action scenes. The best plots come out of character choices, making whatever happens, interesting to watch.

Recent action movies seem to be reducing any sort of character development, and instead become really long chase sequences that stretch over the movie's entire length, (for example, see Terminator 3). If you compare Terminator 2, where you really care about the characters, to Terminator 3, where the characters are barely established before we go off on a movie-long chase, you can see how action movies have changed.

Kill Bill is another example; there are enough character moments that you actually care about who's involved in the action. Volume 2 transcends that to the point where the action is periphery, the real drama is in the characters interacting with each other.

B) A hero you care about - One of the best action films that plays off character development of the hero is The Professional. What would be the main focus of any other movie, the rivalry between Leon and the Gary Oldman character, is pushed to the side, and instead we focus on the relationship between Leon and Mathilda. Their relationship is what makes the movie work, not the guns or violence. But you care about the escape of hero at the end because of how his character is developed.

Action movies need plenty of action, but it's no good without understanding your hero. The action in the movie The Fugitive is blended perfectly with drama and most of the action is hide and seek rather than punch and shoot. The film makes both the hunter and the prey characters likeable, so it makes the action fun. Sometimes it's how the action is used, not necessarily the quantity of it, that shapes characters in action flicks. It may sound simple, yet many action films have very forgettable, cookie-cutter and unimaginative heroes.  If we don’t care about the hero, all the action in the world can’t save the movie.

C) The Value of Villainy - A great hero alone cannot make a great movie without his opposite. Often they don’t have to be absolutely evil; you can feel sympathy for the villain as well. Like the hero, the audience must also have a connection, albeit negatively, with the villain’s lack of humanity. Your villain has to be developed like your hero, otherwise you don’t care when he gets his just reward in the end. Some of the best villains include Darth Vader, the liquid-metal Terminator, Agent Smith, the Predator, and Die Hard’ had a great villain in Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. Almost every single good action film has a strong, scary villain.

D)And … Action! Intelligence aside for the moment, an action movie is not an action movie unless it has some big shiny objects in the form of car chases, gunfights and a few good old-fashioned explosions. Action doesn’t have to run from start to finish but when the action is there, it has the audience on the edge of its seat.

Good action movies should be realistic and have believable stunts. Too many action stars are indestructible who go against incredible odds, countless enemies and end up without a scratch. These type of 80’s action stars are no longer interesting for the majority of viewers. Today's movie goers like the Bourne franchise with its realistic action and violence which is thrilling yet somewhat believable. The movie Taken is good example of one man against many as a father tries to rescue his daughter but the manner in which he chases down the villains feels real. Good action heroes understand the price of violence and regret death, bad action movies play on high body counts with little character remorse.

E) A believable and rewarding ending – Now that the story has come full circle, you need an end scene. This can be a happy or sad scene, the choice is yours. This scene doesn't need violence; it needs emotion, and this scene must be related to the development of the hero that completes your action movie. Ending are hard – the better the action movie, the harder it is to create a rewarding payoff. Action movie ending are rarely unpredictable but can be satisfying none the less. Keep it short and make sure that all characters have naturally developed to a suitable conclusion. Nothing’s worse than a character(s) that hasn’t at least changed as a result of the challenges he/she has fought.

Good luck – If you follow these five steps, chances are have a good foundation to make an action movie that many will want to see.

Final words

I want to leave one final thought with you. I assume that by reading this book that you

also love action movies.

What is your favorite action movie? What do think your choice represents about you?

Thinks about the characters that you love to watch – do you see or wish to see some of

their character in you?

Resources to thank

This book could not have been done without the resources of Wikipedia. To the thousands of people who report the details on movies, action stars and related movie topics, I thank you very much. The websites of Rottentomatoes.com and ign.com are places to look for action movie information.

I also recommend the following books:

Actions Speak Louder – Violence, Spectacle and the American Action Movie by Eric Lightenfeld

Seagalogy – A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal by Vern

101 Action Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider

To all the action movies I watched, I truly enjoyed resourcing my topic!

For those who like action movies, please read my book Men of Extreme Action. It`s a spoof of the action movie industry and a fun read. www.adventurebooks.ca

Big egos. Big explosions. Big box office. Two aging action stars are forced to become partners in one last chance to save their sagging careers. Action movies are dangerous business, especially when a real-life rival tries to end their careers, permanently! Action stars Wolfe and Steele have lived off their past glories and now must take a major dose of reality to remain employed and alive!

Table of Contents

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The History of Action Movies

This book will focus a lot on the 80’s and 90’s which in my opinion was when action movies were at their peak of popularity.

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Action Categories

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Martial Arts

In martial art movies, Bruce Lee is considered to be the most influential martial arts of all time. He exploded upon the scene in the movie, Enter the Dragon. As a martial artist set to compete in a tournament against other fighters, the film is one of the most duplicated in the action genre. The setup is perfect, one fighter against many others of varying skills and abilities. Movies like the Karate Kid, Bloodsport and Mortal Kombat owe their plot development to this structure. Bruce Lee’s impact is discussed later in this book

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Die Hard Scenarios

Sean Connery (1962–1967)

Dr. No features the famous gun barrel sequence of the James Bond films. As Bond walks across the screen, he is viewed by the audience through the barrel of a gun trained on him by an unknown assailant. Bond wheels around and shoots directly at the gun/viewer, followed by the assassin's blood spilling down the barrel/screen. There have been several variants of the sequence regarding Bond's attire, posture, the sound of the gunshot, the color of the blood, the speed at which the blood falls, etc.

George Lazenby (1969)

Sean Connery's return (1971)

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Roger Moore (1973–1985)

Timothy Dalton (1987–1994)

Pierce Brosnan (1995–2004)

Daniel Craig (2006–present)

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Stunts

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My favorite action star growing up was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Part of his appeal to me was his physique; he looked like a person who could hurt you. But the main reason I enjoyed his movies was his dry deliver of classic action lines. Clint Eastwood might have the most famous action line with “Make my Day!” but Arnold had more memorable classic action lines than any other action star.

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Best Action line – It's nothing personal, but in an hour or two, you'll be dead. Resident Evil: Apocalypse

In The Bourne Identity Jason Bourne attempts to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tries to track him down for failing to carry out an officially unsanctioned assassination and then failing to report back in afterwards. Along the way he teams up with a woman named Marie who assists him on the initial part of his journey to learn about his past and regain his memories.

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Best Action line – The deal's the deal. The Transporter

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Best Action line – You keep what you kill. The Chronicles of Riddick

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