· 17 comments · Save ·
News & Current Events Mar 23, 2026 at 10:10 PM

Your favorite action movie from every decade you've seen!

Posted by 1daytogether

Here's a challenge, only one per decade. **Don't have to do every decade!** Explain **why** they're your favs! I'll start. *1960s* **Dark of The Sun** (1968) - The most action packed men on a mission movie from the 60s. There's a chainsaw duel. Basically an 80s action film 20 years early. *1970s* **Deathrace 2000** (1975): Insane premise, fast cars, really colorful characters. Ft. Young Sly. *1980s* **Police Story** (1985): This is the most jawdropping Jackie Chan stuntfest ever, bar none. Hard to pick, golden era had Die Hard, Aliens, Arnie and Sly's best, Indiana Jones, Mad Max, Paul Verhoeven... *1990s* **Hard Boiled** (1992): Might be my favorite action movie of all time. My god the shootouts. *2000s* **Bourne Ultimatum** (2007)**:** Ruined editing and camerwork in action movies for a decade but by itself it is so damn intense from start to finish! *2010s* **MI4: Ghost Protocol** (2011) : A collection of the most inventive spy action scenes ever. Amazing decade, hard competition with John Wick, Skyfall, Fury Road, Fast Five, Dredd, MI:Fallout, and The Raid 1/2. *2020s* **John Wick 4** (2023): My favorite John Wick, so dense with fresh action and stunt ideas.
🚩 Report this post

17 Comments

Sign in to comment — or just click the box below.
🔒 Your email is never shown publicly.
jupiterkansas Mar 23, 2026 +6
* 1900s: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea * 1910s: Cabiria * 1920s: The General * 1930s: Tarzan and His Mate * 1940s: The Sea Hawk * 1950s: Seven Samurai * 1960s: The Naked Prey * 1970s: Star Wars * 1980s: Raiders of the Lost Ark * 1990s: Starship Troopers * 2000s: Lord of the Rings * 2010s: Fury Road * 2020s: Hundreds of Beavers
6
1daytogether Mar 24, 2026 +1
Love The Sea Hawk! Really impressive swashbuckler. Haven't heard of some of these, like The Naked Prey. Good list!
1
jupiterkansas Mar 24, 2026 +2
The obvious 60s choice was Goldfinger or Butch and Sundance (or even Zulu) but Naked Prey is a simple but perfect action adventure and a favorite of mine.
2
Ok_Gift_5526 Mar 23, 2026 +4
Love this premise. 1960s - Thunderball (1965) - The best James Bond movie of all time with the best caper, girls, style, climax and ending. 1970s - Dirty Harry (1971) - While light on traditional action, this is the best cop movie ever so I think it totally counts. 1980s - Die Hard (1988) - The best action movie of all time. Not a hot take and not a lot to prove here but others may go a different way. 1990s - Speed (1994) - Die Hard knock-off better than every Die Hard sequel. 2000s - C***** Royale (2006) - Parkour chase. Airport chase. Magnificent. 2010s - Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) - Best stunts escalating stunt sequences of the franchise.
4
1daytogether Mar 23, 2026 +1
Can't go wrong with Dirty Harry! He's such an iconic character, even if I prefer the car chase in Bullitt and the action in French Connection. 2 Bond entries! Nothing wrong with that. I do prefer Goldfinger myself from the old ones. These are all really solid choices and love your reasoning for each one. Fallout does have the best escalation even if I preferred the concepts presented in Ghost Protocol (which is more cartoony admittedly and peaks mid film with the storm).
1
Ok_Gift_5526 Mar 24, 2026 +2
Ghost Protocol has fin set pieces (Burj being the banger) and has the best score of the franchise. H******* bond. I find a way to work it in to my podcast all the time even though it's about the Oscars NOT Bond.
2
truckturner5164 Mar 23, 2026 +2
This was hard, not because of a lack of options, but because I could've done at least a Top 5 in every decade from the 50s onwards. 1950s: The Vikings - Because Ernest Borgnine enthusiastically leaps into a pit of wolves, that's why. 1960s: The Magnificent Seven - My favourite western of all-time, and westerns were the action movies of the 40s-60s, basically. 1970s: Star Wars: A New Hope - Do I even need to explain this one? 1980s: Big Trouble in Little China - What other action film exists where the 'hero' is really just a sidekick who knocks himself out during the action climax so the true heroes have to do all the work? 1990s: Terminator 2: Judgement Day - The original Terminator on steroids. Massively influential in terms of action and FX. 2000s: Kill Bill - Yes, both of them since they're essentially one film. I love martial arts action just as much as Tarantino so this was a no-brainer. I like the Lord of the Rings films considerably better, but Kill Bill is far more firmly in the action genre so that's my choice. 2010s: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - My favourite film in the franchise. 2020s: John Wick Chapter 4 - I'm more of a fan of the third one, but that was the previous decade and this one has Scott Adkins in a fat suit. I gotta have Adkins on this list somewhere and since I couldn't go with Undisputed II: Last Man Standing in the 2000s, I'm going with this as my Scott Adkins entry. It's basically this franchise's "Once Upon a Time in the West" but with martial arts and gun-fu.
2
1daytogether Mar 23, 2026 +3
Yeah there's too many to choose from. Whoa never heard of The Vikings, sounds fun! Glad to see a fellow MI:GP and John Wick 4 fan.
3
McCabbe Mar 24, 2026 +2
* 1930s **Alexander Nevski**, for that last battle on the frozen lake * 1940s **The Sea Hawk**, for the sword duel * 1950s **Le Salaire de la Peur**, for the bridge scene * 1960s **Lawrence of Arabia**, for the train assault * 1970s **Sorcerer**, for the bridge scene * 1980s **Conan the Barbarian** for the assault on the cimmerian village * 1990s **Léon** for the final swat assault * 2000s **Time and Tide** for all the parkour scenes * 2010s **The Raid 2** for the final fight and **Fury Road** for the first pursuit into the storm. I cannot decide between those two. * 2020s **Underwater** for its final scene I guess if I was to remake this list tomorrow, half those titles would change :)
2
1daytogether Mar 24, 2026 +1
Some great less typical picks and bang on reasons why!
1
Dear_Type_8972 Mar 25, 2026 +2
70's - Warriors - a start to finish fight for their lives against the gangs of New York. 80's - The Running Man - On eof my all time favourite movies. Arnie at his finest with some amazing one-liners. 90's - Speed - I gained a new appreciation for this movie whilst making movie related drinking games. This is the only 10/10 for action movies. The pacing is perfect. 2000's - Kill Bill vol.1 - Incredibly stylish, incredibly Tarantino and incredibly over the top. Just dont watch the shitty version with the black and white scenes in the house of blue leaves. 2010's - The Night Comes For Us - It takes this spot si ply for Julie Estelle's 2v1 fight scene in the apartment. I could watch this woman fight all day. 2020's - Boy Kills World - Absolute insanity, narrated by the voice of Archer. The 80's was a really tough one to decide between The Running Man and Bloodsport. Likewise, its hard not put Terminator 2 up for the 90's but I think Speed beats it for me these days.
2
1daytogether Mar 25, 2026 +1
I rewatched the Running Man recently and it's a lot of fun! Arnold hamming it up and the production design is wild. Never get tired of that 200mph tunnel slide! Way more fun than the new one... Bloodsport is great too, it's like 80s Enter the Dragon, but the pacing is way better. Speed is definitely underrated, among action movies and Keanu Reeves movies. It always gets overshadowed by other 90s action and by Reeve's own other action classics. Night Comes For Us is pretty awesome because it's so schlocky and it knows it. Thought the follow up, Shadow Strays, was kinda dull despite great action scenes. Too serious.
1
Dear_Type_8972 Mar 25, 2026 +2
I saw Joe Taslim has a new movie coming out soon too, though I've not seen Shadow Strays yet. The 80's and 90's just did action movies so well that I can respect practically any choice of favourites from those eras.
2
DifferentOpinionHere Mar 23, 2026 +1
* 1910s: *Hell's Hinges* (1916) - Excellent, action-oriented silent western. * 1920s: *Metropolis* (1927) - Magnificent sci-fi epic that may be silent, but is just so damn loud. * 1930s: *The Most Dangerous Game* (1932) - Exciting action-adventure-horror-thriller that packs a lot into one hour of runtime. * 1940s: *White Heat* (1949) - James Cagney gives one of the best performances ever in this action-oriented gangster action-thriller. * 1950s: *Vera Cruz* (1954) (I mean, *High Noon* \[1952\] is better, but I'm not sure if it's an action movie) - This action-packed action-adventure-war-western feels approximately ten years ahead of its time. * 1960s: *The Magnificent Seven* (1960) - Inspiring action-adventure-western with exceptional action and a brilliant musical score from Elmer Bernstein. * 1970s: *Star Wars* (1977) - Still the best of the vaunted series. * 1980s: *Raiders of the Lost Ark* (1981) - The gold standard for all movies... action or otherwise. * 1990s: *Rough Riders* (1997) - Most entertaining war film ever? * 2000s: *Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith* (2005) - The operatic tone in this Star Wars epic is much-appreciated in our age of bathos. * 2010s: *Rogue One: A Star Wars Story* (2016) - Action-packed Star Wars combat film that deepens the mythos of the franchise. * 2020s: *Nobody* (2021) - This actioner and its equally-brilliant sequel expertly walk the razor's edge between played-straight, badass action spectacle and tongue-in-cheek parody of the genre.
1
1daytogether Mar 23, 2026 +3
Awesome you went all the way back to 1910s! Only seen a handful of what I consider action films pre 1960s, samurai films not withstanding. Heard of some of these like Most Dangerous Game, never heard of Hell's Hinges, I'll have to check it out! Good list of solid classics.
3
DifferentOpinionHere Mar 24, 2026 +2
Thank you! It was so much fun participating in this thought-experiment that I've decided to do **honorable mentions**. The ones marked with a \* aren't really true action movies, but are action-adjacent classics that may have only two or three action scenes, but are Badass Cinema essentials anyway. * 1920s: *Wings* (1927), *The Penalty* (1920\*) * 1930s: *Scarface* (1932), *'G' Men* (1935), *King Kong* (1933) * 1940s: *Sergeant York* (1941\*), *This Gun for Hire* (1942), *Mighty Joe Young* (1949) * 1950s: *High Noon* (1952\*; would've been number one for the decade if I considered it a true action movie), *Shane* (1953\*), *Bad Day at Black Rock* (1955\*), *Blowing Wild* (1953) * 1960s: *The Great Escape* (1963\*), *The Guns of Navarone* (1961), *Khartoum* (1966\*), *The Good, the Bad and the Ugly* (1966), *A Fistful of Dollars* (1964), *Bonnie and Clyde* (1967), *Zulu* (1964), *Castle Keep* (1969), *Planet of the Apes* (1968) * 1970s: *The Wind and the Lion* (1975), *Dillinger* (1973), *Duck, You Sucker* (1971), *Kelly's Heroes* (1970), *Dirty Harry* (1971), *Death Wish* (1974\*), *Soylent Green* (1973\*), *The Omega Man* (1971) * 1980s: *Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom* (1984), *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade* (1989), *Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi* (1983), *Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back* (1980), *Commando* (1985), *Death Wish 3* (1985), *The Killer* (1989), *Lethal Weapon* (1987), *The Untouchables* (1987), *Glory* (1989), *Police Story* (1985), *Rambo III* (1988), *First Blood* (1982), *Rambo: First Blood Part II* (1985), *Death Wish 4: The Crackdown* (1987), *Revenge of the Ninja* (1983), *RoboCop* (1987), *The Terminator* (1984), *Full Metal Jacket* (1987), *Blade Runner* (1982\*), *Conan the Barbarian* (1982), *Farewell to the King* (1989), *They Live* (1988), *The Siege of Firebase Gloria* (1988) * 1990s: *Gettysburg* (1993), *Drunken Master II: The Legend of Drunken Master* (1994), *Saving Private Ryan* (1998), *Army of Darkness* (1992), *Marked for Death* (1990), *The Fugitive* (1993) * 2000s: *Rambo* (2008), *Road to Perdition* (2002\*), *Taken* (2008), *Saints and Soldiers* (2003\*), *District 9* (2009), *Batman Begins* (2005), *Snakes on a Plane* (2006) * 2010s: *Solo: A Star Wars Story* (2018), *Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens* (2015), *1917* (2019\*), *Safe* (2012), *The Dark Knight Rises* (2012), *The Expendables 2* (2012), *The Expendables* (2010), *The Expendables 3* (2014), *Gangster Squad* (2013), *The Adventures of Tintin* (2011) * 2020s: *Nobody 2* (2025), *Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One* (2023), *The Wild Robot* (2024), *The Batman* (2022)
2
1daytogether Mar 24, 2026 +2
Woah thanks for the follow up! You're pretty knowledgeable, got lots more in here I haven't heard of! Guess it pays off to watch more than pure action movies! Gotta get to some of these!
2
← Back to Board