92 articles
Speed (1994 film)
Speed (1994) is a 20th Century Fox action thriller, Jan de Bont's directorial debut, starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and Dennis Hopper; a bus bomb detonates below 50 mph, and the film grossed $350M and won two Oscars.
Steel Dawn
Steel Dawn is a 1987 post-apocalyptic action film directed by Lance Hool, starring Patrick Swayze as Nomad, defending a desert town's water from Damnil; formerly titled Desert Warrior and Peacekeeper, filmed in Namibia, distributed by Vestron Pictures.
Streets of Fire
Streets of Fire (1984) is Walter Hill's neo-noir "rock & roll fable" starring Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, and Willem Dafoe; a box-office failure that became a cult classic with a Jim Steinman and Ry Cooder soundtrack.
Sudden Death (1995 film)
Sudden Death is a 1995 American action thriller directed by Peter Hyams, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a firefighter battling terrorists at a hockey game.
Surviving the Game
Surviving the Game (1994) is an Ernest R. Dickerson action thriller starring Ice-T as a homeless man hunted by wealthy clients, adapting Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game; New Line release grossing $7.7M.
The Assignment (2016 film)
The Assignment (2016), also titled (re)Assignment and formerly Tomboy: A Revenger's Tale, is a Walter Hill action thriller starring Michelle Rodriguez as hitman Frank Kitchen, forcibly given gender reassignment surgery by Sigourney Weaver's Dr. Rachel Kay; released by Saban Films in 2017.
The Big Heat (城市特警) (1988 film)
The Big Heat (城市特警, Seng fat dak ging) is a 1988 Hong Kong action crime film co-directed by Johnnie To and Andrew Kam, produced by Tsui Hark, starring Waise Lee and Joey Wong; a box-office flop later reappraised as a violent cult classic.
The Boondock Saints
The Boondock Saints is a 1999 Troy Duffy crime film starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, and Willem Dafoe as Irish Catholic vigilante twins and the FBI agent hunting them in Boston. A box-office failure ($52,350) that became a cult hit on DVD, with 26% critics versus 91% audience scores.
The Devil's Own
The Devil's Own is a 1997 Alan J. Pakula thriller starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, about an IRA gunman hiding with a New York cop; it cost $95 million and earned $42.9 million in the US.
The General's Son (장군의 아들)
The General's Son (장군의 아들) is Im Kwon-taek's 1990 Korean action drama about gangster Kim Du-han, son of General Kim Jwa-jin, in colonial-era Jongno; a trilogy whose first part set a then-record 678,946 Seoul admissions.
The Getaway (1994 film)
The Getaway (1994) is a Roger Donaldson action thriller starring married couple Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger as Doc and Carol McCoy, remaking Sam Peckinpah's 1972 film from Jim Thompson's novel; it earned $15.5 million and 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Glimmer Man
The Glimmer Man is a 1996 American action thriller directed by John Gray, starring Steven Seagal and Keenen Ivory Wayans as Los Angeles detectives hunting a serial killer.
The Killer (1989 film)
The Killer (喋血雙雄) is a 1989 Hong Kong action film written and directed by John Woo, starring Chow Yun-fat, Danny Lee, and Sally Yeh, which made Woo an international name.
The Long Kiss Goodnight
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) is a Renny Harlin action comedy thriller, written by Shane Black for a record $4 million, starring Geena Davis as an amnesiac assassin and Samuel L. Jackson, released by New Line Cinema.
The Patriot (1998 film)
The Patriot (1998), Dean Semler's action thriller starring Steven Seagal as immunologist Wesley McClaren, based on William C. Heine's novel The Last Canadian; a militia releases a virus in Montana, and the film became Seagal's first direct-to-video release.
The Peacemaker (1997 film)
The Peacemaker (1997) is DreamWorks' first film release, an action thriller directed by Mimi Leder starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman tracking stolen Russian nuclear warheads to New York; $50 million budget, $110.4 million worldwide gross.
The Postman (film)
The Postman is a 1997 American post-apocalyptic drama directed by Kevin Costner, based on David Brin's 1985 novel, about a drifter whose mail-delivery lie sparks national rebirth.
The Professional
The Professional (Le Professionnel, 1981) is a Georges Lautner French action thriller starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as betrayed agent Joss Beaumont, adapted from Patrick Alexander, with Ennio Morricone's "Chi Mai" theme and over five million French admissions.
The Replacement Killers
The Replacement Killers is a 1998 American action thriller, the directorial debut of Antoine Fuqua and the Hollywood debut of Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat, alongside Mira Sorvino.
The Rock (film)
The Rock (film) is a 1996 American action thriller directed by Michael Bay. It stars Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, and features a plot set on Alcatraz Island.
The Rookie (1990 film)
The Rookie is a 1990 American buddy cop action film directed by Clint Eastwood, who stars as auto-theft detective Nick Pulovski opposite Charlie Sheen as his rookie partner.
The Running Man (1987 film)
The Running Man (1987) is a Paul Michael Glaser sci-fi action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards, forced onto a deadly game show in a totalitarian 2019 America; loosely based on Stephen King's Richard Bachman novel, remade by Edgar Wright in 2025.
The Saint (1997 film)
The Saint is a 1997 American spy thriller directed by Phillip Noyce, starring Val Kilmer as gentleman thief Simon Templar, based on Leslie Charteris's novels.
The Specialist
The Specialist is a 1994 American action thriller directed by Luis Llosa, starring Sylvester Stallone as a former CIA explosives expert alongside Sharon Stone and James Woods.
The Substitute
The Substitute is a 1996 American action thriller directed by Robert Mandel. It stars Tom Berenger as a mercenary who goes undercover at a Miami high school.
The Wraith
The Wraith (1986) is a Mike Marvin action-horror film starring Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, and Sherilyn Fenn, in which a murdered man returns as a supernatural driver of a Turbo Interceptor to destroy the Arizona road-racing gang that killed him; a cult film compared to High Plains Drifter.
Top Gun
Top Gun (1986) is Tony Scott's Paramount action drama starring Tom Cruise as Navy pilot Maverick at the elite Fighter Weapons School; highest-grossing film of 1986, over $357 million worldwide, mixed reviews, Navy-supported production.
Toy Soldiers (1991 film)
Toy Soldiers (1991) is an American action thriller, Daniel Petrie Jr.'s directorial debut, based on William P. Kennedy's novel, starring Sean Astin and Wil Wheaton as prep-school students fighting Colombian terrorists; it grossed $15,073,942 domestically.
Uncommon Valor
Uncommon Valor (1983) is a Ted Kotcheff action war film starring Gene Hackman as a Marine colonel leading a privately funded rescue of POWs in Laos; first of the 1980s POW/MIA rescue films.
War (2007 film)
War (2007), also released as Rogue Assassin, is an American action thriller directed by Philip G. Atwell, starring Jet Li as assassin Rogue and Jason Statham as FBI agent Crawford; it earned about $40.5 million worldwide on a $25 million budget.