10 Great Action Movies

By: SM. Mehdi Hassan

Action movies have their own fans and some action movies are popular to people of all ages. Here, I have made a list of10 great action movie. I know that all of these movies were very popular and they are still popular to many fans. However, there are some other great action movies that I had to leave here since it is a list of 10 movies.

Brave Heart:

Image link: Brave Heart

Based on the life of William Wallace, the Scottish freedom fighter, Braveheart is one of the biggest block busters of Hollywood. The movie was also the highest collector of that year. On opening weekend, it earned $9,938,276. Produced, and directed by Mel Gibson (Mad Max, Lethal Weapon), this movie won academy awards for best picture, best director, best cinematography, best makeup, best sound editing. Mel Gibson played the character of William Wallace. It is one of his most outstanding performances. The film also made a serious political impact on Scotland. A statue of Gibson was placed in Stirling, Scotland.

Platoon:

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Platoon received academy awards for best picture, best director, best film editing and best sound. Also the actors were nominated for best supporting roles (Tom Berenger & Willem Dafoe), and the movie won nomination for best cinematography, best writing, and screenplay. The story is based on Vietnam War. It portrays the struggle of Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), an American soldier, who discovers the cruelty of war. Chris comes from an upper-middle class American family. While studying in college, he felt that his life was going no where. He decides to volunteer for the war. In one of the operations his staff sergeant kills an innocent woman and the platoon gang rapes a teenage girl. The movie ends when Chris wounds in a fight and carried by helicopters. Many movies were made based on the Vietnam War but Platoon is the first movie that reveals the brutality of war.

Speed:

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One of Keanu Reeves’ thumbs up performance and Sandra Bullock’s first big break movie Speed is a great action movie with lots of suspense and thrill. In this movie Keeanu plays the role of a S.W.A.T officer, Jack Traven, who goes after an extortionist named Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper). In the beginning of the movie, Howard Payne tries to extort money by threatening to kill people in an elevator. Traven and his colleague Harry foil his plan. However, Howard was able to escape from there. Next time, he puts bomb in a bus. He tells Traven that if the bus goes below fifty kilometer then it would explode. Traven gets on the bus and was able to save the passengers. The most exciting scene of the movie is when the bus jumps over a gap in an elevated freeway-to-freeway ramp.

Terminator 2:

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Terminator 2 is a sequel of Terminator. Released in 1991, this movie was the highest grossing film both in USA and around the world that year. Terminator was released in 1984. The movie is a sci-fi action movie. The story revolves around the war between man and machine. In a distant future, machines take over the world and humans fight against machines to regain their control. The rebel was lead by a person name John Connor. In Terminator, it was shown that machines send a robot in the past to kill John Connor’s mother but the attempt failed. In Terminator 2, the machine again sends a robot and this time a more superior one. On the other hand, John Connor also sends another robot to save him self in the past. The total movie cost $100 million. It earned $204.8 million in USA.

Star Wars:

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This science fictional saga became very popular in USA in the 80s. The first part of the movie was made in 1977 titled Star Wars which was later renamed as “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.” Written and directed by George Lucas and produced by 20^th Century Fox, the production cost of the movie was $11million but it collected $798 million world wide after being released in the theatres. Cashing on the success of the movie there were toys, video games and comic books which are still very popular. The total story is told in six films: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

The Bridge on the River Kwai:

Image link: The Bridge on the River Kwai

Made in 1957, The Bridge on the River Kwai is based on the novel of Pierre Boulle. Starred by Sir Alec Guinness, one of the most famous actors of Britain, the story of the movie is based on Second World War. Colonel Nicholson (Guinness), leader of a British regiment, hold captive by the Japanese army. Nicholson and his men were sent to build a bridge over the river Kwai that would connect all Burma. Nicholson meets the Japanese commander of the camp, Colonel Saito, and demands that they should be treated according to the Geneva Convention. At first Saito denies and punishes Nicholson and his officers heavily. Later, finding no other way, he gives in to their demands. The movie ends when the bridge was blown up by the allied demolition team on its opening day. The movie received numerous awards including academy awards for best director, best actor, best cinematography, best picture, best film editing, best music, best adapted screenplay.

Spartacus:

Image link: Spartacus

Spartacus was made in 1960, by famous director Stanley Kubrick. The movie was based on the novel titled “Spartacus” by Howard Fast. Famous Hollywood actor, Kirk Douglas played the character of Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as Marcus Licinius, the Roman General.

The production of the movie cost twelve million dollars and had 10,500 actors. The story is based on Spartacus the Roman gladiator, who later became the leader of the rebellion. For his performance in this movie, Peter Ustinov won academy award for best actor in a supporting role. In addition, the movie won Academy awards for best art direction-set decoration, best cinematography, best costume design and nominated for best film editing, and best music and best sound editing.

Pulp Fiction:

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An Oscar winning movie, Pulp Fiction, was directed by Quentin Tarantino. The movie got world wide popularity after its release in theatres. Jules and Vincent, two hit men work for Marcellus Wallace. On the other hand, two thieves, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, are intending to rob the hotel they are eating. A boxer, Butch Coolidge, is trying to flee from the town after killing the opponent boxer in the ring but he is reluctant to go leaving his dead father’s watch. Though here, you may think that the incident are not interrelated and it seems like a mess, you will get the thrilling experience after watching the movie and here in lies the attraction of this movie.

Die Hard:

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Not only the movie was a box office smash hit, but it also turned Bruce Willis into a famous Hollywood star. Die Hard is another notable one in the list of all time top action movies. The main plot of the movie is based on a novel named “Nothing lasts Forever,” written by Roderick Thorp. John McClane, a New York police, comes to Los Angles to spend the Christmas vacation with his family. At the Nakatomi Plaza, John along with his wife Holly joins a Christmas party. A group of terrorist enters the building in order to steal bonds worth $600 million. They take other people including John’s wife as hostages. Only John could flee from the robbers and now the responsibility of his wife and other hostage is on his hand. Full of suspense, and action, the movie was directed by John McTiernan and distributed by the 20^th Century Fox.

The Matrix:

Image link: The Matrix

‘The Matrix’ is a master piece in sci-fi action movie genre. Based on a supernatural plot, the movie contains a distinctive use of computer based 3D technology. A varied range of ideas including scientific, philosophical and religious were incorporated in the movie. The first part, Matrix, was released in 1999 and got world wide popularity within a very short time. The movie is about the fight for existence between humans and machines. A computer programmer and hacker Thomas A. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) goes under the nickname of Neo and finds that the world is controlled by an advanced artificial intelligence machine created by an evil cyber-intelligence. Neo joins with Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) to destroy the program. The movie got Academy Award in four categories.