As one of the biggest action movie heroes of all time, Sylvester Stallone’s filmography is packed with tense thrillers that have kept viewers on the edge of their seats. While many will know Stallone as the underdog boxer Rocky Balboa, he’s portrayed many more heroes across insightful crime stories, gritty neo-noir tales, and even futuristic sci-fi thrillers. With a brooding physique and endless onscreen chemistry, Stallone’s thrillers are an essential aspect of his legacy as one of the biggest box office draws of all time.

There have been plenty of the Rambo franchise. As an actor, Stallone can deliver mindless popcorn entertainment and deeply thoughtful performances with equal measure, meaning he’s a performer with a role to fit all tastes. Audiences have long known they're in for a treat when Stallone’s name gets top billing on a poster, and even though critics have occasionally dismissed his work, his films are never boring.

10 Escape Plan (2013)

Sylvester Stallone as Ray Breslin

Although Sylvester Stallone and his longtime rival Arnold Schwarzenegger had already appeared together in The Expendables in 2010, Escape Plan was the duo’s first true feature-length pairing. While this would have been an action movie lover's dream come true in the 1980s, this prison break story about a security tester incarcerated in the world’s most secure and secretive facility did not have the same bite as either hero's best work. While Stallone and Schwarzenegger had great chemistry, Escape Plan paled in comparison to their glory days so many decades before.

Stallone played Ray Breslin, a man staging a prison breakout to test the facility's security who quickly realized he’s been framed and the imprisonment was real. While there are enough thrills to keep viewers engaged, and Stallone even starred in two sequels, this franchise does not have the same enduring appeal as series like Rocky, Rambo, or The Expendables. Escape Plan is well worth a watch for those looking to see Stallone and Schwarzenegger share the screen, but it won’t go down in history as the epic team-up audiences had been craving since the early 1980s.

9 Daylight (1996)

Sylvester Stallone as Chief Kit Latura

From Armageddon to Twister, the 1990s were a great time for disaster movies, and one of the most underrated from this era was Daylight with Sylvester Stallone. While this thrilling release rarely gets spoken about among the actor’s best work, it deserves more recognition for its tense and well-crafted exploration of a crisis situation. With Stallone as a disgraced former New York City Emergency Medical Services chief trying to save trapped survivors, Daylight followed the destructive consequences of an explosion that caused a Manhattan tunnel to collapse from both sides.

With an earnest and sympathetic performance, Stallone got to show off his more dramatic side as Kit pulled out all the stops and put his life on the line to try and get the trapped citizens out alive. Daylight was full of disaster action movie tropes and clichés, and although it was badly received at the time, looking back on it today, it more than holds up. Stallone’s career is full of unloved movies in need of retrospective praise, and despite having a pretty predictable narrative, it was a surprisingly poignant story with strong visuals and plenty of suspense.

8 Lock Up (1989)

Sylvester Stallone as Frank Leone

The prison movie Lock Up had one of the most haphazard production processes of any movie in Sylvester Stallone’s filmography and even started shooting before the script was finished (via Shock Cinema.) While this meant the results were uneven, at its best, Lock Up made for thrilling viewing as Stallone portrayed a convict nearing the end of his sentence whose shot at freedom was upended by a vindictive prison warden. Stallone played Frank Leone after he was suddenly transferred to the violent maximum-security facility known as Gateway Prison after his sentence was extended by five years.

While Stallone gave a great performance, it was Donald Sutherland as the sadistic Warden Drumgoole who truly stole the show. With a sinister presence, Drumgoole had a deep hatred for Leone and did everything in his power to ensure his suffering. While Lock Up was badly received at the time of its release, it had built up a cult following, and although it was a mixed-bag movie, it's often named a favorite by Stallone enthusiasts.

7 Assassins (1995)

Sylvester Stallone as Robert Rath

Assassins explored a clever game of cat and mouse between the nearly retired assassin Robert Rath (Stallone) and the man who killed his mentor Miguel Bain (Antonio Banderas.) With a script written by The Matrix screenwriters the Wachowskis, the duo were unhappy with the changes made to it and tried to have their names removed after it was rewritten by Brian Helgeland (via Collider.) While viewers never got to see the film as its creators originally envisioned it, the result was still an action-packed Stallone vehicle that represents some of his best work during the 1990s.

Stallone played a level-headed assassin being pursued by a stressed and sweaty Banderas in a high-stakes mission of life and death. From Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner and with Julianne Moore as the love interest, there were plenty of big names behind this relatively unknown piece of 1990s action movie fun. While Assassins was at times a little bit too convoluted for its own good, it more than delivered when it came to Stallone-centric thrills.

6 Cobra (1986)

Sylvester Stallone as Lieutenant Marion "Cobra" Cobretti

While the ultra-violent antics of the Rambo sequels were essential in carving out Sylvester Stallone’s place as a quintessential 1980s action hero, Cobra took these tenets and pushed them even further. By turning the dial up to eleven and giving audiences a guns-blazing, sunglasses-wearing, no-nonsense cop with his characterization of Lieutenant Cobra, Stallone delivered a cult favorite in which he never looked cooler.

Cobra made for nail-biting viewing straight from its opening supermarket hostage scene, and everything culminated in its climactic showdown with a deranged serial killer. As a hero who was more than willing to go above the law in the pursuit of justice, Cobra's vigilantism made it more violent and over-the-top than any other movie Stallone made in the 1980s. While it’s easy to criticize Cobra as a film without much substance, the way it condensed action movie tropes down to their barest ingredients was irable.

5 Nighthawks (1981)

Sylvester Stallone as Sergeant Deke DaSilva

Following the success of the Rocky franchise, Sylvester Stallone showcased a desire to explore a more gritty, neo-noir-style release with Nighthawks. This clever movie starred Stallone as Sergeant Deke DaSilva in a story whose menacing undercurrent showcased his talent as a serious actor with the chops to pull off a sinister political thriller that unpacked the dark underbelly of urban society. As a member of a newly formed anti-terrorist squad, Nighthawks saw DeSilva on the trail of a pair of lethal European terrorists.

Nighthawks featured an astounding performance from Rutger Hauer as the psychopathic terrorist Wulfgar, a true homicidal maniac responsible for the deaths of hundreds. With high stakes in a tense game of cat and mouse, Stallone proved he was capable of excelling in complex roles with real social and political relevance. Although Stallone would embrace franchise and blockbuster action movies throughout the 1980s, Nighthawks hinted he was capable of pushing past this typecasting when the role required it.

4 Cliffhanger (1993)

Sylvester Stallone as Ranger Gabe Walker

After a run of three consecutive flops with Rocky V, Oscar, and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Sylvester Stallone was in dire need of a hit when he starred in Cliffhanger in 1993. Getting firmly back into classic action hero mode, Stallone teamed up with Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin for a mountaineer heist story that gave audiences what they wanted. While critics were less kind toward Cliffhanger, the movie took in over $255 million (via Box Office Mojo) and proved Stallone was still a box office draw with the right role.

While the sheer ridiculousness of the Rocky Mountain setting and outrageous gadgetry may feel dated today, Cliffhanger was still one of Stallone’s most fun releases in the 1990s. John Lithgow also proved himself a formidable foe as the psychotic British intelligence agent robbing $100 million from the U.S. Treasury. Overall, Cliffhanger was just about everything a viewer could want from a Stallone movie, and it holds up quite well today.

3 Cop Land (1997)

Sylvester Stallone as Sheriff Freddy Heflin

Sylvester Stallone has often been unfairly grouped with the long list of action stars with questionable acting talent, yet looking at his entire body of work there are numerous examples of his dramatic skills. One of the most impressive instances of this was Cop Land, a thrilling crime drama where Stallone held his own against legends like Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Harvey Keitel. As Sheriff Freddy Heflin, Stallone was the emotional core of the film as he uncovered injustices and stood up against crooked cops.

Stallone portrayed a small-town sheriff uncovering corruption within his police force and standing his ground as one of the few morally upstanding cops left. As a much more grounded character than what’s seen in the average Stallone film, he shed his action-hero persona for a much more realistic presentation of the challenges of police work. Cop Land was one of Stallone’s finest achievements as an actor and a testament that even after several decades as a star, he still had the potential to surprise audiences with new aspects of his dramatic skills.

2 Demolition Man (1993)

Sylvester Stallone as Sergeant John Spartan

Demolition Man has only become more relevant in the years since its release and was one of Sylvester Stallone’s most interesting movies. Set in the future year of 2032, the world envisioned in Demolition Man predicted virtual meetings, self-driving cars, and even non- social greetings. With Stallone as John Spartan, a no-nonsense 1990s cop cryogenically frozen and awoken in a radically different world, the light satire and clever commentary of Demolition Man make it a fun and thrilling watch today.

However, the best thing about Demolition Man was Wesley Snipes' incredible performance as Spartan's archenemy Simon Phoenix, a deranged criminal whose violent ways shocked the peace-loving, utopian society he unwittingly found himself in. With an early performance from Sandra Bullock and plenty of clever worldbuilding, it’s a shame that Demolition Man didn’t get the franchise treatment, as its unique identity and thoughtful concepts could have sustained plenty of sequels.

1 First Blood (1982)

Sylvester Stallone as John J. Rambo

While the later Rambo films fully embraced action movie carnage, the original First Blood was a more grounded thriller with plenty to say about veterans and the dire consequences of PTSD. Based on the novel by David Morrell, Stallone played John Rambo, a former Vietnam War special agent using his combat and survival skills to evade a massive manhunt in the forests of a small Washington town. With triggering flashbacks and plenty of high-stakes action, First Blood was a major hit at the box office and went on to have four sequels and even an animated kids' TV series.

While Stallone first gained worldwide recognition as Rocky Balboa, his characterization of John Rambo would become equally iconic. As a thrilling and tense story that highlighted the very real issue of a soldier’s unresolved trauma, the emotional resonance behind the story of First Blood made it stand out. In a career filled with thrilling movies, First Blood encapsulated everything that was great about this aspect of Sylvester Stallone’s action-hero persona.

Sources: Shock Cinema, Collider, Box Office Mojo