Best 80s Action Movies: 10 Films That Built the Genre
Eighties action worked because the stunts were real, the locations were real and the heroes could be hurt. Die Hard is the perfect example and arguably the best action film ever made, because it takes one building, one man with no shoes and gives him something to lose. Aliens is the best sequel of the decade. Robocop is the smartest film here, disguised as the dumbest. Start with those three and you have the decade, and the template every modern blockbuster is still borrowing from.
Die Hard (1988)
One building, one cop, no shoes. John McTiernan builds the geography so clearly that you always know where everyone is, which is why the tension never slackens.
Alan Rickman's first film role. He is doing something genuinely funny in it that nobody has matched since.
Aliens (1986)
Cameron follows a horror film with a war film and gets away with it because Ripley is a real character rather than a delivery system for lines. The last forty minutes are relentless.
Robocop (1987)
Verhoeven's satire about privatised policing, delivered with cartoon violence so that the studio would fund it. Almost every joke in it has come true.
Predator (1987)
A men on a mission film that turns into a monster film in the middle, with the best build up to a creature reveal in the genre. McTiernan again, the year before Die Hard.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Spielberg's pace here is still unbeaten. Watch how quickly a scene establishes what it needs and gets out. The truck chase is all practical and it shows.
The Terminator (1984)
Cameron's low budget original is scarier than the sequel and closer to a horror film. The relentlessness comes from the size of the budget rather than despite it.
First Blood (1982)
Not the film its sequels turned it into. A quiet, sad story about a veteran nobody will leave alone, with one of the eighties' most surprising endings.
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Shane Black's script invented the tone that action comedies still run on. Underneath the buddy structure it is genuinely about a suicidal man.
Police Story (1985)
Jackie Chan's best, and the deep cut for anyone who thinks the decade belonged to Hollywood. The shopping mall finale is real stunt work with real injuries.
Escape from New York (1981)
Carpenter's low budget dystopia, more atmosphere than action, with Kurt Russell's best performance and a synth score doing half the work.
- The decade's advantage was practical stunts, real locations and heroes who could be hurt.
- Start with Die Hard, then Aliens, then Robocop for the smartest film wearing the dumbest costume.
- For deep cuts, watch Police Story and First Blood, which is not the film its sequels made it.
- Watch for geography. These films always tell you where everyone is, which is why the tension holds.
The whole idea
Watch one movie this week. Talk about it Friday.
We pick one film. You watch it alone, on your own time. Friday at 7:30pm PT you get ten minutes on Zoom with one other person who watched it too. No club, no homework, no small talk.
See this week's pick $5Common questions
- What is the best 80s action movie?
- Die Hard (1988). It is the most complete piece of construction in the genre and the film every modern action screenplay is still measured against.
- Why do 80s action movies hold up so well?
- Practical stunts and real locations give the images weight, and the heroes are vulnerable, which creates tension that digital spectacle struggles to reproduce.
- What 80s action films are underrated?
- First Blood (1982), which is a serious drama rather than the action series it spawned, and Police Story (1985), which has stunt work nobody in Hollywood was attempting.