Lights … camera … ahhhh, action.
The big screen is made for those edge-of-your-seat moments that transport us far, far away from our ordinary lives.
Here’s a salute to five great action movie sequences – let’s start at 1980 to narrow the field a bit – that made the theatrical experience more than worth the price of admission.
- “Raiders of the Lost Ark” - The opening sequence. Yes, it’s a series of scenes, rather than one particular moment. But it runs together in a mad dash of pure ingenuity that has yet to be duplicated.
- “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” – The final battle. It’s where genius action choreography and state of the art CGI meet – and everyone’s a winner as a result.
- “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” Pick ‘em – Sarah Conner breaks out of the mental ward/The new Terminator chases Ah-nold across LA. Tough to beat in terms of perfectly modulated thrills.
- “Return of the Jedi” – The forest chase. Some theatrical memories cling to you forever. I’ll never forget the sense of awe when those forest speeders zoomed across the screen. Plus, those pesky Ewoks hadn’t appeared just yet.
- “Saving Private Ryan” – The first scene. Maybe the biggest punch to the stomach ever delivered on film.
(Honorable mentions go to the car chase in “Ronin,” the snow assault in “The Empire Strikes Back” and the balcony/balloon sequence in “Spider-Man.”)
(Photo: Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) dodges one of many booby traps in the exhilirating opening sequence from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”)
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s hard to really argue those choices.
Some folks will all the same, Mikey … but that’s part of the fun!
some good choices. obvious ones but good nonrtheless. i will try to think of some other good ones. actually surprised that you didn’t include braveheart though.
My honorable mention: Car chase scene in To Live And Die in LA. One of the best movies to come out in the 80’s. By the time that scene comes to a close I felt like I was wrecked.
It’s hard to find five favorites in almost 30 years of great movies- maybe you should have done the list by decade. At any rate, here are my five faves that no one has mentioned yet:
1. Hard Boiled – hospital shootout at the end
2. The Two Towers – battle of Helm’s Deep
3. The Rock – Sean Connery tearing up the streets of San Francisco with a Hummer, heh heh
4. Glory – the final charge on Fort Wagner
5. The Rundown – the big final action sequence is fantastic: brilliantly edited and directed, and it throws everything but the kitchen sink into the mix: bible-quoting Scottish bagpipers, whips, rampaging bulls, and Christopher Walken ranting about Oompa Loompas. Pure brilliance.
And Peter Berg also gets an Honorable Mention from me for that great shootout with the terrorists at the end of The Kingdom.
what baffles me is that you don’t have one scene from a Michael Bay film now that is blasphemy!
If I could decipher a Michael Bay action sequence, I’d list it here.
And yeah, Berg is a really underrated talent, although “Hancock” underwhelmed. “The Rundown” was the first time he was someone of note.
1. Hard-Boiled: Teahouse Shoot-out
2. Hard-Boiled: Hospital Shoot-out
3. Hard-Boiled: Warehouse Shoot-out
Hell, let’s just take the whole film as one giant action scene.
Any of the action sequences from the Raiders.
Love the chase sequence in Live and Die in LA.
Aliens, the alien attack in the med-lab and the subsequent chase through the air ducts.
I don’t know if this would be classified as an action sequence but the bathroom death of Di’Orfino,(sp?) and Emery in Full Metal Jacket. Creepy scene.
Off the top of my head those are the ones that stay with me.
Snow walkers in Empire….tsk.. tsk…tsk…
My problem with that battle in Return of the King is that by the time the film gets there, I’m exhausted from all the preceding battles; the last one just becomes tedious.
Can’t argue with the rest, though, even if I prefer the rawness of the first Terminator.
I’d also nominate Kill Bill Vol. 1, Chapter 5, Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves. The choreography and staging of that sequence is a lesson in how to do action scenes. Would that more directors emulated Tarantino (at least in this regard) than Greengrass.
And for extended scenes, I recently re-watched Band of Brothers and if a made-for-cable film counts, I nominate the sequence from episode 4, “Replacements,” when the allies are trying to take Nuenen. The push into town, and the subsequent retreat, is brilliantly portrayed, using a burning German half-track as a reference point so we never lose track of where people are in relationship to each other.
1. The Killer – Final shoot out.
2. Spider-Man 2. The fight scene on the train.
3. Star Wars. Death Star attack.
4. Enter the Dragon. Lee wipes out everyone.
5. The Matrix. Final chase to the apartment.
HM: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Truck chase sequence.
Tombstone. Shootout at the OK Corral.
True Lies. Arnold opening foot chase at the party /Fighting off the Keys.
Phantom Menace (I know, shoot me). Lightsaber duel.
Die Hard. The dad from Family Matters gets a surprise/”Take this under advisement.”
The Dark Knight. The Chase for Harvey Dent.
Love the Times Square fight in Spider-Man. The Raiders opening was great, but the truck sequence is what sticks with me. Leads to the ultimate Indiana Jones line – “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”
As long as we’re talking Peter Berg, some of his over-sensationalized scenes in “Friday Night Lights” are worth mentioning, though they are sports related. The final game sequence, with the halftime prayer and the afterward was pure adrenaline. Throw in some Explosions In the Sky for a teary ending. Yet another book that couldn’t be completely captured on film.
So much great action in the Kill Bills, but I found it really tiresome when taken in all at once.
Great selections, all. I think I discounted “Star Wars” hastily … so many iconic moments in that film … and in the original trilogy, for that matter.
I like Wallace’s pep ralley to the troops in “Braveheart.” I’ve seen it so many times and each time I feel like jumping out of my seat, rushing out the door and knocking over the first Brit I meet. It would be a long run from Colorado and I’d probably be too tired to inflict any damage once I found a Brit, plus he or she could always temper me with a free beer – I am Scottish after all and we can’t pass up a free pint or a free anything for that matter.
PS I totally agree with all your picks! And come to think of it, perhaps my pick isn’t really an action scene, it’s a “call to action” scene. But I like it nonetheless. It’s got guts and inspiration.
Hm.
I concur that distilling a Top 5 from 3 decades is a challenge.
But a worthy one for this blog.
Kudos to the posters recognizing the Woo films and the Berg films, and particularly Spielberg’s direction.
~ Dagnabbitt
By RETURN OF THE KING battle scene do you mean Pelennor Fields or the Black Gate?