The 10 Best ‘80s Action Movies

Everything was bigger in the 1980s. Chalk it up to an economic boom in the U.S., to reactionary turns under the Reagan and Thatcher administrations, to the slick wheeling and dealing of super producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Whatever the reasons, moviegoers wanted to see big guns, big muscles, and bigger explosions on the big screen, and action movies were happy to deliver.

Even better, action movies delivered that mayhem at a level of excellence and consistency we have not seen since the end of the decade. Which means that it’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight to try to limit ourselves to 10 ten best action movies of the ‘80s. We’re going to include movies that are great by any standard alongside movies that are really great at blowing stuff up. And if we miss a few of your favorites, well, feel free to keep the explosions going in the comment section. Just make sure you drop a stone-cold one-liner when you shoot us down.

Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior (1981)

As this list will show, things get big and bloated as the 1980s go on. But the first movie on this list is lean and mean and all the better for it. The success of 1979’s Mad Max gave director George Miller, working with co-writers Terry Hayes and Brian Hannant, means to certainly expand on the post-apocalyptic world for his sequel. Yet, even as Mad Max 2 takes the characters fully into a wasteland only hinted at in its predecessor, it still retains the restraint that made the first movie so striking.

The Road Warrior (as it was called in the U.S., to avoid confusing viewers who didn’t see its predecessor) finds former cop Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) wandering the desert, having lost not just his wife and child, but all of civilization. Along with the odd Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), Max befriends a group of settlers, and comes to their aid when they are menaced by Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson), the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla. Between its vivid characters, intense setting, and expertly-shot fight sequences, Mad Max 2 more than stands alongside its big-budget counterparts of the era.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

First Blood is one of Sylvester Stallone‘s best movies. It’s a tense thriller and a sympathetic look at a Vietnam vet who gets hassled by cops on a power trip, who don’t take kindly to a drifter in their midst. It’s a great film, but not for this list. For this list, we turn to the sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II, an inferior movie in every way, except for one: it is an incredible, unbelievable, utterly ridiculous action movie.

Where First Blood showed how war left John Rambo an empty shell of a man, with no place in civil society, First Blood Part II flushes all that away to let him win the Vietnam War for America. Upon learning of POWs still in Vietnam, Rambo suits up and goes back to fight, slaughtering all who stand in the way. Morally reprehensible and narratively implausible though it may be, First Blood manages to entertain, thanks to the tight script, credited to Stallone and James Cameron, and George P. Cosmatos maximalist direction.

Commando (1985)

By no standard is Commando the best action movie of the 1980s. But by every metric, it is the most action movie of the 1980s. The screenplay by master of the excessive form Steven E. de Souza, working on a story by Matthew Weisman and comic book scribe Jeph Loeb, is filled with all sorts of nonsense, that begins—but by no means ends—with naming Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s character John Matrix—and director Mark L. Lester brings it to life in all its absurd glory.

The movie begins with Matrix seemingly left his life of violence behind him, living in tranquility with his daughter Jenny (Alyssa Milano). But when members of his former unit start dying, and especially when Jenny gets kidnapped, Matrix must go back into action. And go into action he does, battling an entire army led by his former compatriot Bennett (Vernon Wells) and by General Arius (Dan Hedaya), the dictator of fictional Latin American country Val Verde, whom Matrix helped depose. Glorious, explosive nonsense follows.

Police Story (1985)

For Americans, no ’80s action movie list would be complete without the names Schwarzenegger and Stallone (it is complete without Norris, as you can see). But when we take the entire world into consideration, then the list must include the name Jackie Chan, easily the most exciting and innovative screen action star of the decade. And in 1985, Chan released perhaps his best movie, Police Story, a film so rich with action that one of its most jaw-dropping sequences involves the main character simply answering phone calls.

Of course, nothing is simple with Chan, a genius of the form who combined Buster Keaton style physical comedy with Bruce Lee’s big-screen prowess. Those skills are fully on display in Police Story, directed by Chan from a script he co-wrote with Edward Tang. The story of Police Story is pretty simple, as it focuses on Sergeant Chan Ka-Kui of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force breaking up the grip that master criminal Chu Tao (Chor Yuen) holds on the city, getting in trouble with his girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) and Chu Tao’s secretary (Brigitte Lin) along the way. But the basic plot leaves plenty of room for the thing we really want to see in a Jackie Chan movie: incredible stunts performed in perfect clarity by the star himself.

Aliens (1986)

In Alien, a group of working-class space-truckers found themselves outmatched by a xenomorph, a perfect organism. In Aliens, humanity fights back, thanks to the bold, brash, and unbelievably-armed space marines. Yes, they mostly die horribly, their guns unable to match the hordes of xenomorphs. But still, they look really cool doing it.

That’s the magic trick of Aliens, a film that manages to feel of a piece with Ridley Scott‘s “haunted house in space” movie while also serving as the paradigmatic action flick. James Cameron gives a masterclass in efficiently introducing colorful characters, making the various Marines who join Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) feel distinctive with just a few seconds of screen time. He then continues to create set pieces that thrill, allowing the xenomorphs to remain terrifying, even as they get chewed up by chain gun fire. Ironically, Aliens manages to increase the threat of the xenomorphs precisely because they’re fighting soldiers in an action flick.

Lethal Weapon (1987)

The buddy cop genre had existed long before the ’80s, with variations like the forerunner buddy cop movie Freebie and the Bean, the buddy criminal flick Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and the buddy cop/criminal outing 48 Hrs. setting the stage. But Lethal Weapon brought all the pieces together, fully realizing what previous movies only hinted at.

Director Richard Donner and writer Shane Black come together to tell the story of by the book veteran officer Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover, only 41 at the time, yet already too old for that shit), forced to team with troubled Vietnam vet Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) to take down a drug smuggling operation based on Riggs’ former paramilitary unit. The combination of street grit and military action gives Lethal Weapon an energy all its own, one carried along by the rat-a-tat banter of the two leads, just as propulsive as any machine gun fire.

Predator (1987)

By now, pairing xenomorphs and Predators has become a tired and obvious trope. But back in 1987, the first Predator movie set the stage by taking the model Cameron set in his film and amping it up to 1000. The first half of Predator takes the introduction of the Space Marines in Aliens and expands it to a glorious symphony of violence, as a special forces team led by musclemen Dutch (Schwarzenegger) and Dillon (Carl Weathers) lays waste to Latin American rebels and an entire jungle.

From there, however, director John McTiernan, working from a script by Jim Thomas and John Thomas, shifts gears, turning toward sci-fi horror. The mighty American military men find themselves under attack by what we now know today as a Yautja, an alien hunter who challenges itself against the strongest opponents. The conceit allows Predator to play like the ultimate action movie, making its big, buff heroes so imposing that they draw challengers from the stars.

Robocop (1987)

Like Aliens and Predator, Robocop mixes science fiction into the action movie mix. But unlike those movies, it has a satirical edge that adds depth to the mayhem, even as it critiques it. The first Hollywood movie from Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven, working from a script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, Robocop is both a satisfying action movie about police officer who becomes a literal crime-fighting machine and an indictment of America’s love for retributive violence.

Set in the near future, Robocop stars Peter Weller as Alex Murphy, a good cop and family man who gets transferred from his relatively quiet precinct to the apocalyptic Old Detroit. After being slaughtered by gangster Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith), Murphy gets repurposed into Robocop, a tool of unethical company OCP masquerading as a powerful force for good. Verhoeven has no use for subtlety, making Robocop’s attacks on corporate America and our lust for violence clear. But Verhoeven also knows how to shoot a memorable action scene, making Robocop an entertaining lecture.

Bloodsport (1988)

With yet another Street Fighter movie failing to live up to expectations, the 1988 Cannon release Bloodsport looks better every year. Bloodsport may star Jean-Claude Van Damme, the most physically adept but dramatically inert of the ’80s action heroes; it may draw inspiration from a totally made-up event concocted by fabulist Frank Dux; and it may be nothing more than a series of one-on-one fight scenes cobbled together – but Bloodsport manages to be pure entertainment, something no other tournament movie seems to get right.

Directed by Newt Arnold and written by Christopher Cosby, Mel Friedman, and Sheldon Lettich, Bloodsport follows Dux (Van Damme) as he participates in the underground fighting tournament Kumite. In between the bouts, Dux encounters reporters and government operatives, and befriends a galoot of an American wrestler (Donald Gibb), all building to a showdown with the deadly Chong Li (Bolo Yeung). Bloodsport isn’t deep or complex, but apparently its clean and entertaining model is almost impossible to emulate.

Die Hard (1988)

Nearly every other movie on this list features a musclebound hero, someone so built and ripped that we immediately clock them as the person who will still be standing at the end. That alone was enough to make Bruce Willis‘ take on New York cop John McClane surprising, even if modern viewers don’t know him mostly as a comedy star, as Die Hard‘s first audiences did. Director John McTiernan, working from a script by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, turned Willis’ unlikely status into the movie’s greatest strength, making it an action movie about one normal guy’s very bad day.

As every obnoxious uncle can tell you, Die Hard is a Christmas movie about McClane flying to Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles in the hopes of reconciling with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) over the holidays. His plans run into a snag when a group of baddies, led by the magnetic Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) lay siege on the plaza, for reasons not initially apparent. From those impossible odds, McClane must battle his way through, stymied by everything from broken glass to cynical federal agents. All the way to the end, we doubt Willis in a way that we’d never doubt Arnold or Sly, making Die Hard among the most thrilling action movies of all time.