10 Best Action Scenes of the 20th Century, Ranked
In the beginning, there was nothing, and then, there was action. Sort of. What is now understood as the action genre, with all its conventions and spectacle, wasn’t really a thing when feature films first started taking off. There was one very noteworthy silent film from 1926 (more on that in a bit) that can be identified as an action movie, and then another all-timer in 1954 (its time will also come), and now action movies are everywhere.
The 21st century has had some movies with great action sequences for sure, especially in the likes of The Raid, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Mad Max: Fury Road, but to stay a bit closer to the dawn of cinema, here are the best action scenes from the 20th century. There will be omissions here, and a rundown of the best action scenes isn’t the same as a rundown of the best action movies, but what follows is a hopefully not-too-terrible event to highlight some of the very greatest.
10
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
The Lobby Shootout
If you want a hot take, The Matrix Reloaded might well have even more impressive action than The Matrix (1999), even if the first movie in the series is easily the best overall. And also, The Matrix Reloaded came out a few years into the 21st century, so it can’t be counted here, but The Matrix managed to come out just before the turn of the century, and might well be the last great action film of said century, as a result.
It’s a film that moves smoothly and with remarkable confidence, having some action early on, then laying out some mind-bending yet comprehensive sci-fi concepts, and then ramping up the action again for the film’s final act. You can’t go wrong with any of the fights here, be they of the hand-to-hand or firearm-heavy variety, but the best of the best is probably the famed lobby shootout, which is impossibly cool, stylish, and unforgettable stuff.
9
‘Harakiri’ (1962)
The Final Fight
Sure, Harakiri is more of a drama than an action film, but it’s not lacking in action entirely. Most of the film unfolds slowly, with an emphasis on dialogue and various flashbacks that shed light on why a despondent man wishes to take his life via seppuku, but not before explaining his tragic past to a group of samurai who may have had some role in his misery.
It might well have more to do with the build-up to the eventual action even more than the action itself here, but either way, Harakiri has one incredible climax, and it still feels raw and brutal 60+ years on from release. It’s easily one of the most intense and harrowing samurai-themed movies ever made (being a pretty brutal deconstruction of the samurai and the ways they’re sometimes remembered), and the impact the brief – yet bloody – action has here can’t be denied.
8
‘The General’ (1926)
Everything, but Especially the Train Crash
Even though The General might’ve been the first great action movie, or at least the first feature-length movie that can be recognized today as an action film, it feels a bit weird to say it kick-started the genre. That’s because it weirdly didn’t do very well back in 1926, being one of those “You guys aren’t ready for that, but your kids are gonna love it” kind of movies. As the decades marched on, it eventually got the sort of credit it deserved.
It’s about a man saving the woman he loves and getting his train back after both are taken from him in the midst of the Civil War. Since much of The General feels like one extended chase, it’s hard to single out just one scene as the best, but if saying “the whole movie” isn’t acceptable, then… eh, may as well pick out a spectacular bridge collapse/train crash near the film’s climax, which is often described as the most expensive shot of the silent era.
7
‘Hard Boiled’ (1992)
The Hospital Shootout
If you’re after a fantastically paced action movie that ends up feeling a good deal shorter than it actually is, look no further than Hard Boiled. It starts out pretty exciting, with the first half being rather generous with its action scenes, but then the second half is something else entirely, with the final act (or even a little more) being set in and around a hospital, and basically feeling like non-stop action.
There’s tons of shooting, jumping around, and then eventually a massive explosion to cap it all off. Hard Boiled is perhaps the most over-the-top movie of John Woo’s pre-Hollywood stuff (Face/Off is, ultimately, his craziest), but it’s the right kind of over-the-top. It’s all about the action, and making that action look as spectacular as possible, and it’s borderline-alarming how efficiently Hard Boiled does just that.
6
‘The Blues Brothers’ (1980)
The Climactic Car Chase
There are a few ways to describe The Blues Brothers, since it’s a real “throw it all in and call it a day only after there’s nothing left to throw” kind of movie. It’s a crime film, an action movie, a fantastic comedy, and also a musical, all at once. It has deadpan humor, moments that are kind of surreal, parts that feel like a live-action cartoon, and then also a deep respect for rhythm, blues, and soul music.
The car chases in The Blues Brothers are just incredible. The one in the mall is fantastic, but it’s the big car chase near the end that’s probably the most impressive overall.
It sounds like a tonal nightmare, but The Blues Brothers just works. And it’s the kind of thing that’ll appeal to pretty much everyone, seeing as some people might not like musicals, or action movies, or crime films, but you’re unlikely to find anyone who dislikes all those things. Also, the car chases here are just incredible. The one in the mall is fantastic, but it’s the big car chase near the end that’s probably the most impressive overall, largely because of the ridiculously large numbers of vehicles crashed just for the sake of it; because it looked cool.
5
‘Seven Samurai’ (1964)
Battling the Bandits
Seven Samurai does take its time getting to the action, but it’s a bit of a Harakiri situation, where the stuff that isn’t action-focused does help you care more about all the fighting once it does actually go down. Also, both movies can be described as samurai films, though Seven Samurai isn’t quite as dark or downbeat. It’s certainly heavy at times, though, just without quite as much full-on nihilism.
Most of the final act is dedicated to a battle against bandits that the rest of the movie was all about preparing for. So, you get to know the characters, what’s at stake, and the layout of the village that needs defending, and so everything is in line when combat ultimately comes around. It’s textbook stuff nowadays, sure, when you’re making a simultaneous action movie and epic, but Seven Samurai did it so long ago, and did indeed influence so many similarly grand movies that followed in its footsteps.
4
‘The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter’ (1984)
Everyone’s Teeth Getting Knocked Out
If The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter was titled like an episode of Friends, it would be “The One Where Everyone Gets Their Teeth Knocked Out.” And it would earn that title, because the final showdown in this revenge-fueled kung fu movie has a bunch of Buddhist monks who’ve all been trained to de-fang their usual “opponents” (wolves) rather than kill them, and so they use this approach when taking on human opponents, too.
It ends up being one of the most painful-looking fights in martial arts cinema history, but also very spectacular in its own (exceedingly bloody) way. Elsewhere, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter satisfies as a pretty great martial arts movie all-around, but the climax is the part that does really need to be seen to be believed, and it remains an all-timer of a sequence as far as kung-fu films go.
3
‘War and Peace’ (1965-1967)
The Battle of Borodino
Mostly a war epic, with some historical drama and a bit of romance thrown in, War and Peace is obviously expansive (it goes for seven hours, after all), and thereby has the time to do lots of things genre-wise. All that being said, it’s not really an action movie, even though it has some noteworthy battle scenes, but you can find good action in movies that aren’t necessarily classified as action films.
With War and Peace, the best battle sequence occurs in the movie’s third (of four) parts, with close to 90 minutes being dedicated to the lead-up, aftermath, and everything in between of the Battle of Borodino, which was fought as part of the Napoleonic Wars in 1812. The number of extras used here has to be seen to be believed, and the battle is captured with wild camerawork and some overall surprisingly inventive visuals. It’s awe-inspiring, exciting at times, and yet also harrowing in depicting, in uncompromising fashion, a single battle that ended up claiming tens of thousands of lives in just one day of fighting.
2
‘Police Story’ (1985)
The Shopping Mall Climax
What’s this, only one Jackie Chan movie/scene? The guy who was basically the king of the martial arts genre post-Bruce Lee and at the top of his game throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and some of the 1990s (before making a jump to Hollywood)? Yes, sorry. But that movie is Police Story, which is far from the only Jackie Chan movie you should watch if you’re into action cinema, but it might be the best one to start with.
Also, Police Story escalates well, and all the action before the climax is great, of course, but part of that escalation involves saving the very best until last, and the whole shopping mall fight sequence is incredible stuff. So much glass is broken, all the hits look surprisingly painful, everything moves fast yet remains visually coherent, and then it’s all capped off with one of the most startling stunts Jackie Chan ever pulled off (call it Pole-ice Story instead, if you want).
1
‘Heat’ (1995)
Post-Heist Street Shootout
One of the loudest scenes of all time, Heat has perhaps the greatest heist/shootout sequence in cinema history, as can be expected from something that’s also about as iconic as heist movies get. There is a proficient criminal leading a heist, and a determined detective on his tail, and they collide first quietly (with a famous diner scene) and then more explosively, with the aforementioned shootout.
It’s a heist that spills out onto the streets of Los Angeles, when the robbers don’t get away as cleanly as planned, and so suddenly, L.A. turns into a battleground for a few brutal (and, again, extremely loud) moments. The whole movie is epic in scale and consistently exciting, but Heat does peak with this particular action sequence, and few films have ever come close to depicting shootouts in quite so visceral a manner. For this kind of on-screen action, Heat is as good as it gets.
