Kurt Russell is iconic, Hollywood royalty, and one of the most admired actors in showbiz. The family man and all around good guy still manages to land roles in mainstream movies such as The Fast and the Furious franchise even though he’s now in his 70s, and recently he starred alongside partner of nearly 40 years, Goldie Hawn, as St. Nick in The Christmas Chronicles 2. It may seem a world away since Disney launched his career as a young boy, but Kurt Russell still has plenty of gas left in his tank. Since very few actors have come close to Russell’s level of respect, let’s take a look at nine of his essential performances to see how he did it.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
After winning a bet with his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) accompanies Wang, making sure that he pays up his debt, to an airport to meet Wang’s girlfriend, Miao Yin (Suzee Pai). A street gang named The Lords of Death kidnap Miao Yin, and Jack and Wang track them back to Chinatown. There they are thrown into a war against good and evil that has spanned centuries, led by an immortal being that needs to sacrifice a girl with green eyes to become "of flesh and blood." However, Jack Burton doesn’t take any crap!
If you love martial arts, Chinese folklore, monsters and demons, good old-fashioned romance, San Francisco, and an American hero that isn’t quite as competent as he thinks, then Big Trouble in Little China was made for you. A box office bomb that was hard to market and was unfortunately released two weeks before Aliens, it has since gone on to become a cult classic. Russell is perfect as the clumsy, self-centered anti-hero who stumbles through problems and fights by the skin of his teeth.
Escape from New York (1981)
The United States has become a crime-ridden nightmare, so to even the score, Manhattan Island has been turned into a massive, maximum-security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked and purposely crashed into the prison, Lieutenant "Snake" Plissken (Kurt Russell), former Special Forces turned criminal, is offered a deal to save the President John Harker (Donald Pleasence) in return for freedom. The catch, he has only 22 hours, as he has been injected with a micro-explosive set to detonate, if he should fail. On top of that, he has to battle through the worst that America has to offer, thousands of lifers.
This is arguably Russell’s most iconic character, which also bore the sequel, Escape from LA. Russell’s Snake Plissken has influenced pop culture from video games to cyberpunk, and the softly spoken anti-hero helped the movie to four Saturn Award nominations. Directed by John Carpenter, this was one of five that both Carpenter and Russell worked together on.
Overboard (1987)
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Spoiled heiress Joanna Stayton (Goldie Hawn) hires local carpenter Dean Proffitt (Kurt Russell), a widower and father of four boys, to remodel the closet on her luxury yacht, but then refuses to pay. When Dean watches the next-day news of a woman saved from the water and suffering from amnesia, he realizes it’s Joanna Stayton and decides to pretend that he is her husband so that she can work off her unpaid bill for him. Meanwhile, her real husband, Grant Stayton III (Edward Herrmann), hosts a party and celebrates his wife’s loss and her money. Can Dean keep up the lie, or will his morals get the better of him, or indeed his heart?
The onscreen chemistry is obvious. Overboard may have lacked punchy dialogue, but Russell and Hawn make a great team. The movie has gone on to make cult status and spawned many remakes all over the world. It makes light of the worst in people and the financially unstable, and creates a comedy that becomes warm and endearing, for a widower just looking out for his boys. It’s one of those perfect '80s movies.
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Traveling by stagecoach on the way to Red Rock, Wyoming, John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his bounty, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), cross paths with Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson). As the weather worsens, they all seek shelter in a mountain pass stopover. More strangers are already inside, making a total of eight travelers held up by the blizzard. It’s not long before The Hangman announces, "One of them fellas, is not what he says he is." Deception, greed, and murder is now on everyone’s mind. Who is going to survive?
Quentin Tarantino’s American revisionist Western is the usual Tarantino: sharp, witty dialogue, imaginative violence, non-standard story progression, and a bunch of hefty performances by its cast. Tarantino’s work has, is, and probably will always be divisive, but Tarantino’s creative genius is clear to all, and The Hateful Eight is no exception.
Backdraft (1991)
Chicago firefighting brothers Stephen (Kurt Russell) and Brian McCaffrey (William Baldwin) struggle to see eye to eye, and Brian has always lived in the shadow of his older brother Stephen. After a number of fires that have occurred which resemble the work of a convicted pyromaniac, Donald Rimgale (Robert De Niro), is called in to investigate. It soon becomes apparent that more than just arson is at work, and the brothers must learn to work together to help protect Chicago, their relationship, and the very fire department that they represent.
Backdraft makes the unstoppable fire seen in the movie The Towering Inferno look tame in comparison. Realism is thrown out of the window for a dramatic representation of fire being almost alive, clever, waiting, and ready to strike with a backdraft, but no question that the movie is a thrilling ride of special effects and heroism. It garnered three Academy Award nominations, and is one of director Ron Howard’s most visually stunning movies.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell), a small town sheriff, is tasked with saving three townsfolk who have been taken by a suspected tribe of cave dwellers. A small posse of four is rounded up, consisting of Indian War veteran John Brooder (Matthew Fox), and Arthur O'Dwyer (Patrick Wilson), the husband of one of the abducted who is suffering from a broken leg. Tempers flare within the group as O’Dwyer’s prejudices surface, and O’Dwyer becomes more of a hindrance than a help and is left behind to recover. When the tribe is finally found, the posse learn that dinner time is going to be a very different experience from now on.
Set in the 1890s West, Bone Tomahawk is an ingenious mashup of Western and horror. Russell and Fox are full of grit as opposing forces working together. Ultraviolent horror scenes make for a bizarre and unique style of movie that certainly isn’t for all. It’s a slow-burn plot for sure, but by the end it’s edge-of-the seat survival, and a rare movie that’s as honest as it is unglamorous. Its limited release didn’t do its offbeat view of the West any justice. So go watch it!
Tombstone (1993)
After gaining vast praise and a healthy reputation, retired lawman Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) decides to settle down in Tombstone, Arizona. Now wealthy, Wyatt and his two brothers, Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton), make an investment in a saloon. Here they make their first encounter with the outlaw gang, the Cowboys, led by ‘Curly Bill’ (Powers Boothe). Wyatt is pressured by the local townsfolk to get rid of the Cowboys, but he is no longer a lawman. His brother Virgil decides enough is enough and becomes the town’s new marshal. Tensions mount, boiling over with the gunfight at the OK Corral. Finally, tragedy sees Wyatt gather a posse and ride for revenge. Have the Cowboys now realized they have bitten off more than they can chew?
Tombstone may lack a revisionist’s eye for realism like movies such as The Revenant, but as a modern Western it’s one of the best. Its ensemble cast is led by Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Doc Holliday, Wyatt’s old friend and a man who is slowly dying of tuberculosis. Although it’s only lightly based on the real events of the OK Corral and Wyatt’s subsequent vendetta posse, it is a movie full of characters featuring the who’s who of the Wild West, and Russell’s best Western to date.
Death Proof (2007)
Mike McKay (Kurt Russell), a Hollywood stuntman, shows up at a bar where three friends are celebrating Julia’s (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) birthday. She is a local DJ who made a radio announcement offering a free lap dance, from her friend Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), to anyone who calls Arlene "Butterfly." Stuntman Mike claims the dance, and also offers to give another friend, Pam (Rose McGowan) a lift home in his stunt car. Mike explains his car is Death Proof, but only for the driver. Mike uses his car as a tool to violently destroy the girls, but a second group of ladies that he chooses to stalk become a lot harder to murder.
Another Quentin Tarantino picture, and another unpredictable creative wonderment. With arguably the most violent death scenes involving a car ever put to film, Death Proof is a horror that is sadistically funny, in true B-movie style. It favors real car chases with a real stuntwoman out-performing phony CGI. It may lack a strong plot, but that is kind of the deal, and Tarantino makes it so compelling that it never really needed one.
The Thing (1982)
American researchers in Antarctica discover a spacecraft that has been buried under the ice for thousands of years at an abandoned Norwegian base. Unbeknownst to the American team and their helicopter pilot, RJ MacReady (Kurt Russell), a dog from the Norwegian base that Clark (Richard Masur) took in from the cold is really a shape-shifting thing that was released from the alien craft. When the team is attacked by the alien, they are slowly reduced by paranoia into a deep mistrust for one another. The alien can hide in anyone, and its only goal is to take over all life. Can the remaining crew contain The Thing?
John Carpenter’s graphically visual, groundbreaking horror hasn’t lost any of its gore or realism, even for a movie made in the '80s. At the time of its release, The Thing was not seen in a good light by critics. As time has progressed, a change to positives about themes of paranoia, the breakdown of small communities, and the jaw-dropping effects have been more prevalent. Carpenter and Russell have yet again made another iconic movie that is celebrated in pop culture, and it’s still more disturbing than most modern horrors — kudos to Mr. Carpenter.