They Live (1988)

If Nada (Roddy Piper), the anonymous everyman at the heart of They Live, met Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas), Nada would’ve broken his hands beating the shit out of the guy. The timing would’ve worked, too. Wall Street, that paean to ‘80s greed, came out in 1987, one year before this blue collar drifter found himself in a transient camp set up next to the keys to an awful secret.

That secret is capitalism, with Carpenter’s pissed-off view on Reaganomics writ not just large, but intergalactic. They Live is relentlessly, unhappily topical, an old movie that’s always actually about today. The rich get fantastical gadgets and luxe homes. The rest are turned into grist for a mill that won’t even pay inflating rents. And they’re too exhausted, too kettled and anxious to fight back. The ones that do are crawling uphill under heavy fire — but hell, even if we don’t know their names, at least they’re trying.

Midnight Run (1988)

The action buddy comedy was codified with the 1982 release of 48 Hrs., starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. The tentpole is probably 1987’s Lethal Weapon. But the movie that best leaned into making the buddy movie into something joyfully stupid is Midnight Run. Its other big win for the future history of cinema? This is the movie that took America’s go-to heavy, Robert De Niro, into new territory.

De Niro plays off co-star Charles Grodin as sincerely as a Scorsese movie, letting Grodin joyfully lead both their characters into nutball situations. The addition of a road trip plot gives the proceedings a Cheech & Chong feeling in places, carrying us through a plot that grows like kudzu from its humble beginnings. It’s De Niro’s first time playing the straight man in a comedy, and he nails it so well that he was nominated for a Golden Globe. From such humble beginnings comes his ability to charm us, make us laugh, and terrify us in the same minute. The movie unlocked a whole new way to watch the legendary actor on screen.

La Femme Nikita (1990)

Luc Besson makes unforgettable movies. Whether they’re a financial success, or even good, is beside the point. He’s got a remarkable eye for a shot, presenting his characters as stylish, competent, and alienated all at once — an exemplar of the early French cinéma du look film movement. La Femme Nikita released four years before Leon: The Professional, and is still so sharp to look at, it’s easy to assume it came later.

Nikita (Anne Parillaud), a street kid turned black widow assassin, is the modern benchmark for movies that let their leads girlboss their way into the boys’ club genre of murder-as-entertainment. She ran in high heels to ensure future women warriors like Charlize Theron could be treated as the threats they are. Possibly the biggest compliment of all was this film getting the Kurosawa treatment: Point of No Return, with Bridget Fonda in the lead, was rushed into American theaters 3 years later. The original is, naturally, better.