Explosions, deep-tissue scarring, broken bones, and meaty bullet holes have never looked more glorious or grand. Each new action film every year has always bee trying to top the last year's novelties and trends. The result is that they keep getting wackier or more inventive. Still, only a few of them remain unmatched and unparalleled for the elaborate, detailed, or artistic value they add to their respective movies.
These actions scenes have withstood the test of time or have stood out a lot more from their contemporaries. Some of them aren't even from action movies themselves but their innovation is just too good to not be a filmmaking cornerstone or subject of study. So to prove that not all action movies or action scenes are dumb, here are 10 of the most breathtaking ones in cinema.
THE MATRIX - LOBBY SHOOTOUT
Well, this one is dumb fun but context matters here and The Matrix pretty much has free rein to make the action as absurd as possible since the movie takes place in virtual reality. With that out of the way, this scene right here is likely what convinced the world that Keanu Reeves is the patron saint of guns in action movies.
Neo's lobby assault with Trinity made liberal use of the slow-motion camera and debris falling like breadcrumbs amidst a torrent of lead. There was no real danger for the two of them as they were fighting low-level virtual grunts but this shootout remains the coolest out of all action movies with guns, lots of guns. After this film, most other movies just started aping slow-motion action scenes without producing anything outstanding.
HARD BOILED: HOSPITAL SHOOTOUT
Before The Matrix showed action movie fans how to properly simulate bullet interaction with the environment (and with people), there was Hard Boiled by John Woo. It's a Hong Kong cinema movie about a hardened cop with lots of repressed rage and issues after losing his partner.
There was one scene in Hard Boiled that inspired tons of Hollywood directors on how to film action correctly and that's the hospital shootout. It followed the protagonist from an over-the-shoulder point of view like in a video game but the movie magic happened when they started pulling the trigger. After that, the whole environment just gets ripped apart by the storm of bullets with the end result being a mess that would have given janitors a heart attack.
THE RAID: REDEMPTION - CORRIDOR FIGHT
Now on to fisticuffs. Not many Hollywood movies can beat Asian cinema in this category and for that matter, The Raid: Redemption is just stunningly brutal and vivid with how it portrayed a one-versus-many corridor fight scene. The hero of the movie, Rama, was trapped in a corridor with a wounded comrade and was surrounded by multiple armed thugs.
How'd he get out of that sticky situation? By advertising the Indonesian Pencak Silat martial arts in the most effective way possible. Turns out a police baton could be a lot more dangerous than a machete in the right hands, especially at dislocating ts.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER - ELEVATOR FIGHT
That isn't to say Hollywood isn't without its creative action scenes. If there was to be a crowned holder of that title among MCU movies, then it no doubt should be that oft meme'd elevator fight scene in Captain America: Winter Soldier. It's about as ridiculous as The Matrix's lobby fight scene.
Still, props to the Russo brothers for introducing something relatively fresh to particular sequence also made it more memorable than most fight scenes in the MCU.
JOHN WICK - RED CIRCLE CLUB SHOOTOUT
Keanu Reeves just had to prove again to Hollywood that he can top whatever the heck he did back in 1999 with The Matrix, specifically in John Wick. He didn't even need a slow-motion camera to look awesome. All it took was some hard gun training, minimized camera cuts, and some fine disco beats.
All this took place in the Red Circle Club shootout sequence in the first John Wick movie. Wick's gunplay acrobatics paired with realistic action and club music just put most gunfight scenes to shame. It was hard even for the subsequent John Wick films to top that one. Goes to show what can be done with a dedicated stunt team and some oblivious ravers.
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON - TREETOP SWORDFIGHT
Sometimes an action scene doesn't need spastic movement or explosive jerks in order to become iconic. Sometimes a lack of regard for the rules of gravity, clever use of harnesses, and some beautiful Chinese aesthetics should be enough. That's what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gave us all when they ushered in that hypnotizing bamboo treetop swordfight.
It was a mystical sight to behold and something truly peculiar as a fight without solid footing is generally avoided in action movies. Fun fact, the choreographer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the same one as in The Matrix. That's why there's plenty of similarities in the Kung-Fu fight scenes between the two.
CHILDREN OF MEN - LONG-TAKE WARZONE SHOT
Children of Men is one of the best dystopian movies out there and even today, there's nothing quite like it. The combination of a unique story, eerily familiar atmosphere, and of course, distinguished filming techniques make it a class of its own. One such style it kept incorporating was the daring and difficult long-take shots with no camera cuts.
In the most intense and pivotal moment of the movie, which is an action scene, Children of Men went above and beyond with a long-take shot of a raging warzone with people dying around the protagonist as he escorts a baby and its mother to safety. Really, it's hard to find a movie that has done the same or something of the same level.
OLDBOY - HALLWAY FIGHT
For those wanting to see the most realistic but serious fight scene in cinema, look no further than Oldboy's legendary long-take fight scene with no cuts. For context, the protagonist was about to leave a heavily guarded compound when he's stopped near the exit by more than a dozen thugs. Thankfully, they were just lightly and he had a claw hammer so it was a bit fair.
How did it go? He managed barely. Got stabbed, bruised, and bloodied and even showed signs of clumsiness and exhaustion because like the thugs, he was just a mere human being-- albeit a little crazier. It's by far the most accurate movie representation of typical non-combatant fights in real life.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD - FURIOSA'S ESCAPE
If you're wondering why there hasn't been a car chase sequence here from the Fast and Furious franchise or something, that's because they all pale in comparison to what Mad Max: Fury Road played with. A bunch of mutant post-apocalyptic death-mobiles with a heavy metal guitarist at the helm is just too much and takes the cake.
That's what made Furiosa's escape from Immortan Joe all the more spectacular. There were Warboys dropping like flies and cars getting squashed like grapes amidst a typical Australian Tuesday. Max was there but he was but a mere audience to the fiery spectacle of vehicular destruction.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS: BATTLE OF HELM'S DEEP
While Frodo and Sam were busy munching on Lembas and teaching Gollum to play fetch, "other" heroes of The Lord of The Rings movies were busy waging war. Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli, and Legolas' journey culminated into the most climactic fight of the franchise, the Battle of Helm's Deep.
It was raining, the good guys were vastly outnumbered, and Gandalf went off somewhere so he could come back with a dramatic entrance just because. No other last stand or melee battle in the history of cinema has been more epic than the Battle of Helm's Deep.
