The Best Action Scene of Every Year of the 21st Century So Far
Honestly, looking at the best action scenes of any period in cinematic history is very similar to looking at the best action movies of any period in cinematic history. You do sometimes get action scenes in movies that aren’t really action films (like the climax of Harakiri, for a random example), and then sometimes, it’s hard to single out just one action scene from a particularly consistent or action-heavy movie.
But here, the goal is to look at the best or most striking action sequence of every year of the 21st century to date. Sticking to one per year means there are some amazing action set pieces that won’t show up (apologies to Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in particular), but these conflict-heavy scenes are all themselves fighting each other for a place here. Some were, rather brutally, eliminated (sorry).
25
‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ (2000)
Yu Shu Lien vs. Jen Yu
Released one year after The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and that sci-fi classic both did a great deal to make martial arts cinema rise in popularity on an international scale at the turn of the 21st century. Focusing on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon specifically, this one is a wuxia film, so it’s a bit fantastical and also melodramatic, but it’s also never too heightened, or otherwise over-the-top in a detrimental way.
The story is also simple, seeing as it’s about a stolen sword making various individuals come together and clash, with the best action scene in the film also involving that sword (plus a host of other weapons cycled through continually). It’s far from the only great piece of action found in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but it’s pretty remarkable and the standout sequence in the film, being about as good as one-on-one/hand-to-hand fight scenes get.
24
‘Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack’ (2001)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Mothra
The title of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack kind of gives away what the best action in this movie depicts: namely, Godzilla going up against Mothra and King Ghidorah. The surprising part, at least if you’re a long-time fan of the series, is probably the fact that Ghidorah is one of the heroic monsters here, and this version of Godzilla is particularly malicious.
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack doesn’t skimp on the monster action, and has a surprisingly good narrative – and a neat spin on certain Godzilla conventions – outside the action set pieces. But getting to see some interesting variations on familiar characters have a big old smackdown at the end is ultimately representative of the film at its most exciting.
23
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ (2002)
The Battle of Helm’s Deep
While the biggest battle sequence in The Lord of the Rings came in the third movie, the most impressive might’ve been the Battle of Helm’s Deep in the second film, The Two Towers. It’s the point in the story where you really feel an escalation of things, because even though the stakes were high from pretty much the start of the trilogy, the battle for Middle-earth effectively begins here; Gandalf said as much, so take it up with him if you disagree.
The Battle of Helm’s Deep is an incredible sequence, and the scale of it all still impresses when you watch The Two Towers to this day.
It’s also interesting to note some of the differences between the battle in the book and how it was depicted in the movie, especially in terms of it being at the halfway point of The Two Towers on the page, and in the final act on screen. Either way, it works as an incredible sequence, and the scale of it all still impresses when you watch The Two Towers to this day, as the desperation and atmosphere found in the whole sequence are undeniable.
22
‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)
The Bride vs. the Crazy 88
Kicking off a rather massive revenge-focused saga, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is the half of the overall story that’s a little lighter on narrative and character development, but the most focused on action. That being said, there aren’t a ton of fight sequences spread throughout the movie, as you get a pretty great one early on, and then a huge fight scene at the end, which takes up much of the final act, that’s technically a few different action sequences rolled into one.
But it’s being counted here as the one scene, showcasing, broadly speaking, the Bride (not named as Beatrix at this point in the story) taking on the Crazy 88, and then having a showdown with the first target on her kill list, O-Ren Ishii, though we did see her take out her second target right at the start of the movie. Good old Quentin Tarantino and his fondness for telling stories a little out of chronological order.
21
‘Kill Bill: Vol. 2’ (2004)
Beatrix vs. Elle Driver
And then in Kill Bill: Vol. 2, the Bride (AKA Beatrix) has three more people to kill, but of those, there’s one she doesn’t get to fight, there’s one who she has more of a battle of words with, and then there’s Elle Driver, who she does fight in what’s technically the film’s longest action sequence. But it would be weird to call it the biggest action scene of the film, considering it takes place in a comically small area and uses it to mine both tension and dark humor.
It’s also brutal, sort of in the over-the-top way that the big action sequence in the first Kill Bill was, though it’s more intimate and scrappy at the same time. It’s one of the highlights of either volume of Kill Bill, and maybe it’s a bit boring to select both movies back to back here, but oh well. The scene with Beatrix fighting Elle just works really well, for what it is.
20
‘Kingdom of Heaven’ (2005)
The Siege of Jerusalem
A war movie about the Crusades done on an undeniably epic scale, Kingdom of Heaven has some spectacular battle sequences regardless of what version you watch, though the director’s cut is essential if you want the non-action scenes to make sense. It’s one of the more infamous theatrical vs. director’s cut cases out there, with 45-ish minutes of added scenes being absolutely vital in providing the narrative with some actual context.
But to stay positive, the whole sequence depicting the three-day siege of Jerusalem is stunning, even if it arguably does the whole Ridley Scott thing of not necessarily being entirely historically accurate. If you’re after spectacle, though, Kingdom of Heaven does work as something that captures the immensity of one part of the overall Crusades, and it inevitably saves its biggest and best set piece for the film’s final act.
19
‘Casino Royale’ (2006)
The Parkour Chase Sequence
Typically, the James Bond movies focus on spy stuff, but they’re also pretty action-packed by the standards of the spy genre, especially so with some of the more recent ones. Enter Casino Royale, which is a high point of the overall long-running series, as well as an adaptation of the very first James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming (also, the one that saw the debut of Daniel Craig in the lead role).
Casino Royale has its most brutal action sequence right near the start (though its most brutal scene involves torture, rather than fighting, and comes a bit later), though its best action scene, involving a long chase complete with parkour, also happens in the first act. It’s one of a few key sequences that suggested a new energy and feel for 007 going forward, and even if Skyfall is probably the only subsequent Daniel Craig movie to come close to Casino Royale, this new direction headed in certainly felt exciting at the time.
18
‘Death Proof’ (2007)
The Climactic Car Chase
Another Quentin Tarantino film, Death Proof doesn’t have a ton of action throughout, but finishes with enough of a bang to potentially be considered an action movie… sort of. It’s about a killer targeting two groups of women with his stunt car, succeeding in taking out the first group, but then running into problems when the second group manages to fight back and turn the tables on him.
It’s very satisfying to see, even if you do have to wait through quite a bit of not much happening in order for the payoff to really pay off as strongly as possible. Death Proof is still worth it for the whole chase sequence that concludes the film, and though it’s a lesser Tarantino movie, it turns out “lesser Tarantino” is still pretty dam good overall.
17
‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
The Truck Chase Scene
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Yeah, yeah, it’s The Dark Knight. It’s here, and that was probably predictable, but it does need to be stressed how much of an improvement this was on the already solid Batman Begins, especially when it came to action. The hand-to-hand fights feel a lot more intense (and can be followed) in this one, and it’s also the film where Christopher Nolan, more than he had before, seemed to really cement his commitment to highlighting practical effects over anything else… sometimes to his detriment, as the lack of soldiers in certain Dunkirk scenes might illustrate.
But with The Dark Knight, pretty much all the technical stuff impressed, and the digital effects that might’ve been used didn’t – and still don’t – stick out. The sequence where Batman chases down the Joker’s truck is probably the highlight of the movie action-wise, since you really feel a sense of momentum throughout the whole scene, and then it’s capped off with the whole truck flipping over forwards in an undoubtedly spectacular fashion.
16
‘Redline’ (2009)
The Final Race Sequence
Some people sometimes get weird when you place animated movies alongside live-action ones, but Redline does deserve to be talked about as a great (and underrated) action movie, regardless of whether it’s animated. It uses animation to do things that would be much harder to pull in live-action, depicting some wild – and seriously speedy – science fiction sort of car races, which Speed Racer (2008) did try to do in live-action, sure, but perhaps not quite as successfully.
There’s just something about the execution of the big race scenes in Redline that blows almost any other movie about car racing out of the water. It’s also hard to single out the best of the race sequences, but you might as well settle for the one near the end of the movie, where the stakes are the highest and the final mad drive to the finish line is the closest.
