Among the many gifts the 1980s gave to western civilization was the 80s action movie. As the cinematic landscape evolved, aging out of the grim, nihilistic stories from ‘70s filmmakers impacted by Vietnam’s toll like Alan Arkin, Roman Polanski and Stanley Kubrick, the 80s brought forth hope, prosperity, and lots and lots of explosions. The best 80s action movies saw musclebound men with unceasing firepower blowing bad guys to Kingdom Come. We got one-liners, synth scores, mustachioed heroes in ill-fitting denim, and visions of dystopian futures often replete with suspicious robotics.
The 80s was a time of indulgence, of mullets, of slo-mo. While Steven Spielberg was creating timeless art that would endure for future generations, guys like John McTiernan and Paul Verhoeven were marinating in the decade’s pungent juices, bringing to life material in such a way as had never been seen before.
These are the most over the top 80s action movies. And no, Over the Top did not make the cut.
The Terminator (1984)
Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher (additional dialogue)
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Earl Boen
The thing about The Terminator is that it’s not just a great action movie and a great sci-fi movie—it’s also a great monster movie. When viewed through that lens, the film is elevated to one of the decade’s very best, regardless of its genre. Most remember the classic lines, Brad Fiedel’s awesome score, and the police station shootout. But lost in the discussion is the taut tension from start to finish—illuminated by the performances of Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. The urgency with which they operate sells the fear of this relentless cyborg as something very real. And fear is one of the film’s themes. It’s what drives the John Connor of the future to send Kyle Reese back to 1984, and it’s the overwhelming emotion Sarah Connor lives in until she finally has enough during the film’s climax. It’s about fear of the future and fear of machines, and it was years ahead of its time.
Predator (1987)
Director: John McTiernan
Writers: Jim Thomas, John Thomas
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham, Elpidia Carrillo, Shane Black, Richard Chaves, Kevin Peter Hall
If a more macho movie exists, I’ve not found it. Predator is the kind of film that makes you feel inferior as a man as its testosterone explodes through the screen and punches you in the mouth. From the hand-clasping, bicep-bulging first encounter between Dutch and Dillon, to Billy’s provocative chest slicing, to a mud-bathed Arnold’s primal, taunting howl, John McTiernan’s sci-fi action extravaganza so deftly accomplishes what it sets out to achieve. What begins as a simple rescue mission for an elite special ops squad of steroid-munching slayers in a Central American jungle, quickly goes awry when they discover they’re the ones being hunted. Hunted, that is, by a fierce alien who gets his kicks out of tearing the spines clean out of his human victims’ bodies. Though not as humorous as some of the decade’s other offerings, it boasts Schwarzenegger’s best-remembered lines—the ones penned with the flair of Shakespearian prose, like “Run! Go! Get to the choppah!!” and “C’mon, do it! C’mon, do it now! Kill me!” Between Stan Winston’s creature design work and the action culminating with the mano-a-mano finale, Predator is in a class all its own.
RoboCop (1987)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writers: Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner
Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer
RoboCop is a lot of things: a warning of a dystopian future, a social commentary, a superhero origin story, a critique of the human race. Ultimately, a great action flick resides at its core. The tale of Officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller), who is brutally shot up and killed in a future Detroit by a ruthless gang, and then resurrected as a cyborg policeman by Omni Consumer Products (which runs the police force), is what awesome ‘80s sci-fi was all about. As Murphy—or, RoboCop—performs his duty in ways other officers could only dream, he comes to remember those who killed him, discovering they’re more than just a band of violent criminals. Weller is awfully convincing as the near-indestructible part man/part robot. And Kurtwood Smith, of That ‘70s Show fame, is deliciously nefarious as gang leader Clarence Boddicker. As a shoot-em-up movie, few others of the decade feature as many bullets and as much blood and gore as this one. And it’s still relevant today as 21st-century fears are stoked (the machines are taking our jobs!).
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Lawrence Kasdan
Cast: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott, Alfred Molina, Ronald Lacey
George Lucas’ dream of adapting the Saturday morning serials he loved as a boy into an action-adventure flick was realized in 1981, when pal Steven Spielberg created a classic among classics. Lucas and Philip Kaufman conceived the story that would become Raiders of the Lost Ark, featuring perhaps the most iconic movie character ever seen in Indiana Jones. Set in 1936, the globe-trotting thrill ride, which sees Indy attempt to reach the Biblical Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do, is a blend of big set pieces and palatable humor, with a good bit of frights mixed in. Beautifully shot, with yet another pitch-perfect score from the great John Williams, Raiders endures as a motion picture experience whose imagery and action sequences—be it the marketplace skirmish, the fistfight under the propellers of a Nazi BV-38, or the horseback truck chase—are as indelible as any ever put to celluloid. Raiders’ place on the Mt. Rushmore of the genre is practically a given, no matter the decade.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Jeffrey Boam
Cast: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, River Phoenix, Michael Byrne
The third—and final, in the minds of many—installment of the Indiana Jones franchise is the most well-made of the three. It’s also the funniest by a wide margin. Set two years after the events in Raiders, the story introduces Indy’s father, Henry Jones Sr., played by the incomparable Sean Connery. The elder Jones is thrust into a world of action he’s not exactly fit for, resulting in some comically brilliant sequences. At the center of the film is the quest for Holy Grail—the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Once again, the Nazis are after it, believing it will lead to everlasting life in a gross misunderstanding of the Scriptures. Indy must rescue his father and then recover the Grail before it falls into Hitler’s hands. The journey there is brimming with spectacular set pieces, taking us from Venice to Germany to the deserts of Jordan. The film’s pacing and structure is Spielberg at his best and most commercial. Last Crusade has more in common with Raiders than it does Temple of Doom, thankfully, and with the benefit of a significantly larger budget and a cleaner presentation of the story, it might just be the better film.
Commando (1985)
Director: Mark L. Lester
Writer: Steven E. de Souza
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn Chong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells, Alyssa Milano, Bill Duke
Among the decade’s most absurd, yet most encompassing, is Commando. Arnold plays John Matrix, a retired special forces colonel whose daughter is kidnapped by a former comrade. If Matrix doesn’t comply with her abductor’s demands, she’ll be killed. You might think the only possible outcome for Matrix is a sour one. But this is a Schwarzenegger movie. He’ll break your neck, jump out of a plane into a swamp, drop you from a cliff, or hurl a steam pipe through your chest. He kills the baddies one by one, each a more creative offing than the last. Thankfully, in the end, he’s got a smorgasbord of military weaponry at his disposal, conveniently awaiting his arrival in a shed at the grounds his daughter’s being held upon. Explosions and automatic rifle fire ensue as this thing goes exactly where you hope it will. Complete with one-liners the world over and a steadily rising body count, it’s difficult not to giggle as you indulge in the poster child of ‘80s action cinema.
Aliens (1986)
Director/Writer: James Cameron
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn
What’s so fascinating about this franchise—the first two installments, anyway—is that the first is an all-time great horror movie, and the second is an all-time great action movie. While both maintain a sci-fi heart, the genre shift between them shouldn’t work, yet it does. And it somehow manages to feel like it’s part of the same universe, thanks to Ripley’s continued arc, the world-building, and the production design. After the events of the first film rendered her the lone survivor in a space mission gone awry, Ripley awakes from hypersleep after nearly sixty years and is recruited to help a unit of colonial marines make contact with, and fight off, the predatory Xenomorphs on the LV-426 moon. A master of action, James Cameron’s direction here is top-notch. He builds enough tension to make you nervous, then throws the whole thing into chaos as all hell breaks loose, forcing Ripley to face her fears and fight these space monsters once again. The second half is an acid blood-in-your-face thrill ride that never lets up, transporting you to the doomed colony in all its blue and darkly metallic hues. It’s a shame the franchise never got any better than this going forward.
Top Gun (1986)
Director: Tony Scott
Writers: Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr.
Cast: Tom Cruise, Anthony Edwards, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Tom Skerritt
The early goings of Tom Cruise’s career saw him performing primarily in dramas—some heavier than others. Then came 1986’s Top Gun, which introduced moviegoers to the F-14A Tomcat and the sort of aerial acrobatics never before seen on film. Not since Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels had dogfighting aircraft so thrilled audiences on the big screen. The story of LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a daring U.S. Naval Aviator who heads to the elite Topgun Naval Fighter Weapons School makes up in action what it lacks in plot. We find Maverick romance his instructor (Kelly McGillis), butt heads with a rival called Iceman (Val Kilmer) and lose his best friend, Goose (spoilers!), all culminating with the ace rebel pilot’s return to the air in a battle with hostile Russian MiGs at the movie’s thrilling climax. Director Tony Scott puts you in the cockpit for intimacy, and outside it for a real sense of these fighter jets’ maneuverability. With Cruise producing the 2020 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, there’s little doubt the action sequences will be taken up (literally) a notch or two.
Superman II (1980)
Director: Richard Lester/Richard Donner
Writers: Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, and Tom Mankiewicz (uncredited)
Cast: Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Terrance Stamp, Sarah Douglas, Jack O’Halloran
Director Richard Donner was famously booted from the sequel to the 1978 hit, which made you believe a man could fly. While the first installment is still superior—certainly in its first two acts—the sequel’s climax, in which Christopher Reeve’s titular alien stud does battle on and above the streets of Metropolis (Manhattan) with the three Kryptonian insurrectionists, is what makes it a solid action flick. Though most of it was reshot by Richard Lester, best known for helming the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night and other comedic pictures, Superman II works best when the Man of Steel is playing savior to the sounds of John Williams’ triumphant score. It’s fun as a romance, but better as a tale about a hero recognizing that he cannot abandon his role on planet earth, no matter his deepest desires. All these years later, the cornball moments and dated special effects are overshadowed by Reeve’s dual Clark Kent/Superman performance and the delightful Gene Hackman, whose Lex Luthor is an utter joy every time he shows up on screen.
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Image via Lucasfilm
Director: Irvin Kershner
Writers: Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Alec Guinness
Still the top Star Wars film almost forty years later, this sequel to the cultural phenomenon works so well because its stakes are raised as the story progresses. The first movie introduces you to the universe and its characters, but it’s the second film that makes you care more deeply for them, leaving you hanging—almost literally—at the closing moments, eager to learn the fate of these space heroes. The drama is elevated from the first film to the second, but it’s the action that is leaps and bounds beyond what we saw in A New Hope. We’ve got snow battles, space chases, gunfights, and lightsaber duels where the emotional impact of each blow is far more meaningful than almost anything the franchise has offered since. The pacing of Empire is the best the saga has presented, as Luke’s journey to become a Jedi takes center stage, culminating with one of the great twists the cinema has ever seen. Taking full advantage of bigger budget, the visuals are wonderful, the expansion of the world providing a larger variety of aesthetic, making for a new kind of action escapism that sent fans into a frenzy in 1980.
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Image via Lucasfilm
Director: Richard Marquand
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas
Cast: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, David Prowse, Ian McDiarmid, Alec Guinness
It’s not on par with Empire, but as an actioner, Return of the Jedi still bests A New Hope in an honest assessment of the original trilogy. As Luke completes his evolution, we’re treated to an interplanetary trek from Jabba the Hutt’s lair to Endor, the forest moon inhabited by Ewoks (love ‘em or hate ‘em), where the speeder chase still stands out as one of the better sequences of the series. But the highlight of the film is its climax, which simultaneously sees Han and Leia fighting Storm Troopers on the ground, Lando endeavoring to blow up the new Death Star in space, and Luke fighting Darth Vader one last time as the Emperor does his best to turn the young Skywalker to the Dark Side. It’s a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the saga, one whose drama informs its thrills, in keeping with the tradition of its predecessors. When viewed through modern eyes, some of the effects appear dated, but the philosophy of Episodes IV, V, and VI, which puts character and story before all else, makes its action that much more potent.
Die Hard (1988)
Director: John McTiernan
Writer: Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza
Cast: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedevil, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, Alexander Godunov
The movie that spawned endless copycats—wherein a protagonist faces an impossible task in some confined space—is still the best. The things about the film that sounded inane at the time turned out to be its most endearing qualities. Things like a comic actor cast to play the hero cop, squeezing all the action into a single office building, and setting the whole thing on Christmas Eve. It was 1988 when the world was introduced to John McClane, a New York cop in Los Angeles hoping to rekindle the flame with his wayward wife at her company’s Christmas party. And then German terrorists show up in an attempt to get $640 million richer, taking hostages in the process. But McClane eludes their reach, moving free within the tower. What follows is a creatively constructed shoot-em-up romp teeming with pithy quips and bloody bare feet. It’s a great hero versus a great villain where the stakes are literally high and the fun might be tops of the decade. In fact, it can be argued that a pair of John McTiernan’s films—Die Hard and Predator—are the two purest action flicks of the 1980s.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Director: George Miller
Writers: Terry Hayes, George Miller, Brian Hannant
Cast: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Vernon Wells, Kjell Nilsson, Emil Minty, Virginia Hey
Until 2015’s Mad Max Fury Road exploded into cinemas, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior was almost unanimously considered the best of the franchise. If the first installment is something of a meandering bore, and the third just too odd overall, the middle film prevails as evidence that you don’t need much story or character development to achieve something in the genre. After the death of his wife and child in the first film, Max has now taken to the Australian wasteland to wander with his trusted canine sidekick on an unending quest for fuel. But when he meets a gyro captain and is told of an oil refinery, Max has a new mission. Only, vicious bikers and leather/metal-bound Marauders patrol these roads, raping and murdering their way through the land. The car/motorcycle/semi-truck chase sequences in this movie are the very best of the decade—its grittiness on a dusty brown and bone dry canvas standing in stark opposition to George Miller’s 2015 take on the Mad Max mythos. One gets the sense that Miller did what he could at the time, then fully realized his vision in 2015. But the stunts, the car flips, and the sheer brutality of The Road Warrior still holds up all these years later.
Escape from New York (1981)
Director: John Carpenter
Writers: John Carpenter, Nick Castle
Cast: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Adrienne Barbeau, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton
Set way in the distant future of 1997, when Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison thanks to the skyrocketing crime rate, the president crash lands on the island after Air Force One is hijacked by terrorists. And that’s when we meet our eye-patched hero Snake Plissken, a former Special Forces soldier imprisoned for a brazen attempt to rob the Federal Reserve. If Snake can rescue the president from the hands of crime boss Duke, he’ll be granted a full presidential pardon. To increase the urgency, if he doesn’t do it in twenty-four hours, explosives implanted in Snake’s neck will detonate. John Carpenter’s bleak depiction of a future New York overrun with felons and trash is the stage for a race against the clock, complete with gun battles, explosions, and forced fights to the death before bloodthirsty crowds. Though this one premiered very early in the decade, it proved all you need is a high concept, a nothing-to-lose protagonist, and some detailed world-building, and you’ve got yourself something special.
Lethal Weapon (1989)
Director: Richard Donner
Writer: Shane Black
Cast: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey
The king of all buddy cop movies, Lethal Weapon paired suicidal loose cannon Martin Riggs with 50-year-old, by-the-book family man Roger Murtaugh, to great effect. Mix Shane Black’s clever dialogue with Richard Donner’s seasoned direction, and then pit Mel Gibson’s manic charisma against a Danny Glover pushed to the mental brink, and this is what you get. These new partners are as different as a couple of cops can be, but as they work together to crack a drug-smuggling case, they begin to bond. Through all its humor, there’s an intensity to the movie—both its story and its central characters. The action is wild—from Riggs’ Christmas tree lot shootout to the climactic front lawn fight in the rain—but it’s the depth of these two characters that elevate Lethal Weapon to more than just another action film. There’s something at stake, even for a broken widower looking for a reason not to blow his brains out. And his learning to trust his new friend brings him a hope he feared he’d lost.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Director: John Carpenter
Writers: Gary Goldman & David Z. Weinstein (adaptation by W.D. Richter)
Cast: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Hong, Victor Wong, Carter Wong, Suzee Pai
The campiest movie on this list, John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China is also some of the most fun. Kurt Russell stars as truck driver Jack Burton who, after winning a bet against his buddy Wang in San Francisco’s Chinatown, accompanies him to pick up Miao Yin—Wang’s bride to be—from the airport. But when she’s kidnapped there by some punks, Wang is desperate to get her back. He and Jack soon find themselves in the middle of a martial arts battle between two warring Chinatown gangs, which ends with some supernatural activity and Jack abandoning his precious truck. From here, the movie is bonkers until the credits roll, loaded with high flying fights and self-aware silliness. Russell is your typical perturbed tough guy hero with an inflated ego and a one-liner always ready—a guy thrown into the middle of someone else’s story who now just wants his truck back. Carpenter’s camp is intentional, and when it works, it’s quite funny. A cult classic that’s very much in the style of its era, you can’t go wrong with this one for some mindless escapism.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Director: Martin Brest
Writer: Daniel Petrie Jr.
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny Cox, Steven Berkoff
The award for best fish out of water action comedy of the decade goes to Beverly Hills Cop, and it’s not much of a competition. Eddie Murphy is Axel Foley, a Detroit police officer who, after his friend is killed, heads to Beverly Hills to track down the perpetrator. What follows is your classic tale of culture clashing, as we get to view the ritzy Los Angeles lifestyle through the eyes of an outsider from a side of the tracks that feels like a world away. This was the heyday of Murphy, whose comedic sensibilities and charisma could carry any film, no matter the genre. Here, he proved he was fit to chase down bad guys while outwitting the LAPD and gabbing his way into and out of any circumstance. This first—and best—installment of the series deftly blends its laughs with its thrills and turned Murphy into an entertainment megastar.
They Live (1988)
Director/Writer: John Carpenter
Cast: Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster
“I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubble gum.” If you’ve heard that line but you’re unsure of its origin, it comes from this precious cinematic gift. It’s spoken by former pro wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in a role that demonstrated his ambitions outside of the ring ought to be taken very seriously. Though much of this movie—about a drifter who discovers a pair of sunglasses that reveal which individuals are humans and which are space aliens—is tongue-in-cheek, it’s at its best when it gets earnest. Even if John Carpenter was trying to say something about the idol of consumerism, the biggest takeaway from this gem is the greatest, grittiest, lengthiest, flesh-punishing fistfight ever filmed. Piper and the inimitable Keith David beat the ever-living snot out of one another in a parking lot for what feels like an eternity, all stemming from Piper’s wanting David to put on the pair of sunglasses, and David refusing. All these years later, it endures as an historic scene, and alone makes They Live a worthy ‘80s contender.
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Director: John Milius
Writer: John Milius, Oliver Stone
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Max von Sydow, Sandahl Bergman, Mako
Look no further for the genesis of Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action star than Conan the Barbarian. John Milius’ epic adventure sees the young titular character witness the murder of his entire village (his parents included), become enslaved, and then grow into a musclebound gladiator fighting other monstrous men to the death. Upon winning his freedom, Conan sets out on a mission of revenge against Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), the man who killed his parents. Featuring more sorcery than you can shake a sword at, this is hard-R fantasy at its bloodiest and most savage. Schwarzenegger didn’t need to be a seasoned thespian to convince an audience he was this powerful warrior of Hyborian mythology. Beyond the sword clanging and snake shooting is an adrenaline-pumping score by Basil Poledouris that so fits the tone and the world, you’ll want to oil yourself up and slay the first serpentine beast you can find.
Batman (1989)
Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren
Cast: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Jack Palance, Robert Wuhl, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough
Long before the superhero genre became the biggest trend Hollywood had ever seen, Tim Burton gave us a version of the Caped Crusader as only he could. Batman ’89, as it’s come to be known, is both an origin story of the Dark Knight and his arch-nemesis, the Joker. Michael Keaton remains one of the best to ever don the cape and cowl, though his casting led to some blowback at time. And Jack Nicholson’s goofy psychopath in clown makeup is an indelible performance, to be sure. The movie’s action is both campy and thrilling, as Batman fights his way to a final confrontation with the Joker, and heartily breaks his no-killing rule whenever necessary. With a memorable score by Danny Elfman and a Gotham City successfully designed to be another character in the film, the Burton iteration, with all its style and flair, is one of a kind in the pantheon of Batman films that may never cease to see production.