16 Best Action Movies

The Best Action Movies according to GreatestMovies.org.

screenshot action sequence

The list

16 Inception
This action thriller taking place in the people’s dreams was one of the biggest hit in 2010. The Director behind The Dark Knight trilogy puts together another shadowy world and this time with Leonardo DiCaprio in the main role.
Year: 2010 | Director: Christopher Nolan

15 Gone In 60 Seconds
60 seconds is the time i takes to lose a car and never see it again. This movie (that came as a remake in 2000) includes also perhaps the greatest car chase ever in a movie. 
Year:1974 | Director: H. B. Halicki

14 The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity is the first and probably the best movie in the Bourne trilogy that are based on novels by Robert Ludlum. Matt Damon plays the, former CIA, super agent who after an unsolved incident got CIA as his enemy. 
Year: 2002 | Director: Doug Liman

13 The Terminator
The Terminator part one included Arnold Schwarzenegger as the cyborg sent from the future to change history by assassinating the mother whose son are to be an important man in the war against the machines.
Year: 1984 | Director: James Cameron

12 Beverly Hills Cop
The police Axel Foley got a mission that takes him from the big city slum in Detroit and are replaced with the grandeur of Beverly Hills. Eddie Murphy in his hey days delivers it and Harlod Faltermayer contribute with a classic soundtrack.
Year: 1984 | Director: Martin Brest

11 Dirty Harry
This is the first and the best in the sequels that had Clint Eastwood in front as the macho cop Harry Callahan. Unless a serial killer receives a demanded ransom he threatens to strike again and Callahan is no wonder the man who gets the lousy job as the courier.
Year: 1971 | Director: Don Siegel

10 The Dark Knight
The Batman movies become one of the biggest hype on the 2000s and the movie that captured most fans of all was this one. This time The Dark Knight, or Batman as we traditionally know him, meets a ruthless combatant in the Joker, memorable portrayed by Heath Ledger. 
Year: 2008 | Director: Christopher Nolan

9 The Getaway
Steve McQueen brings his coolness to this movie about a bank job. The mix of drama and action and a few humorous scenes plus great acting from the leading actors McQueen and Ali MacGraw creates a sexual atmosphere.
Year: 1972 | Director: Sam Pekinpah

8 Thief
James Caan's character is a thief, specialized in safecracking, who want to live an ordinary life but he refuses a retirement until he will have a good economy for the rest of his life. This is an equation that can’t be solved without risks.  
Year: 1981 | Director: Michael Mann

7 Top Gun
Tom Cruise plays Maverick who is one of the new talented recruits on Air Force Fighter Weapons School. The adrenaline is high in the air and the story on the ground is geared up well.
Year: 1982 | Director: Tony Scott

6 48 Hrs.
The story is not so bad and the dialogue between the cop played by Nick Nolte and the convict played by Eddie Murphy is superb. The movie has also been known as the first showing a contrasting duo working together solving crimes, but arguing even more. 
Year: 1982 | Director: Walter Hill

5 Die Hard
When John McClane arrives in Los Angeles to meet his wife at a Christmas party in the Nakatomi Plaze sky scrape he does so almost simultaneously with some German terrorists who occupies the building.
Year: 1988 | Director: John McTiernan

4 Runaway Train
Two prisoners Manny (Jon Voight) and Buck (Eric Roberts) are escaping from a prison in the cold winter. They succeed in finding an escape by a train, but the runaway train turns out to be a trap.
Year: 1985 | Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy

3 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
A high-tech cyborg arrives from another time to assassin a certain John Connor, who is destined to become an important man in the rebellion against the machines in the future. The special effects in Terminator 2 were before its time and the movie was overshadowing its predecessor. 
Year: 1991 | Director: James Cameron

2 The Matrix
The action scenes of Matrix with slow motions and visual effects set a new standard for the genre. Neo lives in a world which is dominated by the machines, but one night some people knocks at his door and wants to show him the real world.
Year: 1999 | Director: Lana Wachowski & Andy Wachowski

1 Heat
Al Pacino as the good guy and Robert de Niro as the crook are good qualifications for a great action movie and the result could well match the expectations. The story includes both excitement and deep character studies.
Year: 1995 | Director: Michael Mann

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