The Most Epic Action Scene Each Year Since 1990

There's nothing like a good action sequence to make you appreciate the excitement of cinema. They call them "motion pictures," after all, and the right combination of cinematography, editing, stuntwork, and visual effects can make you forget that you're sitting still in a movie theater bucket seat instead of taking part in a high-octane adventure.

Action movies are constantly evolving, changing around trends, new techniques, and new technologies, but the core of what makes a great action set piece has never changed. Start with a strong premise to separate your film from the pack. Add a hero worth rooting for and a worthy challenge. Set up stakes, build tension, and then let the fists, swords, bullets, sports cars and spaceships fly.

Enjoy this colorful collection of shootouts, scraps, and hot pursuits spanning three decades and four continents. Don't worry if you haven't seen the movie already — we'll get you caught up with everything you need to know to dive right into the action.

John Connor (Edward Furlong) has been raised by his mother Sarah to believe that he would grow up to be the savior of humanity. Not that he's ever really bought that story. After all, who would believe someone who claims to have been hunted by a nigh-indestructible robot from the future?

But when a bulletproof stranger posing as a cop (Robert Patrick) tries to blow him away at the Galleria, John finds himself face to face with a six-foot shotgun-toting Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) matching the description of his mother's would-be assassin. Rather than killing John, this new Terminator seems to want to protect him, taking several bullets for the kid as John sprints to the parking garage to escape on his dirt bike. Neither of his pursuers plan to let him out of their sight...

Industrialist John Hammond has brought long-extinct dinosaurs back to life, and plans to open an island amusement park from which to show off his creations and bring a sense of wonder to the masses. However, there are some serious practical concerns about letting people onto an island full of giant reptiles, so Hammond assembles a team of experts to assess the safety and accuracy of his dinosaur park before it opens to the public. Among them, archeologists Drs. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Satler (Laura Dern), chaos mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), and Hammond's young grandchildren, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello).

Naturally, this maiden tour through Jurassic Park goes terribly wrong (just as Dr. Malcolm predicted), and a power outage disables the security fencing around the habitat of the park's prized Tyrannosaurus Rex, putting all the guests in mortal danger...

Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is a career criminal specializing in bank robberies. He and his tight-knit team, consisting of Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore), and their new getaway driver Donald Breedan (Dennis Haysbert) have been planning a heist worth $12.2 million, and today's the day. In the weeks prior to the heist, McCauley has been engaged in an almost friendly battle of wits with LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), who is nevertheless determined to catch him in the act and send him to prison or the morgue.

The bank job is meticulously planned, but the team couldn't account for Lt. Hanna receiving a hot tip from a third party who has his own beef with McCauley's gang...

Six years ago, psychotic "terrorist for hire" Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) shot FBI Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) through the chest with a sniper rifle. Archer survived, but the bullet passed through his body and struck his young son, killing him instantly. Archer has been obsessed with capturing Castor ever since, and now he may finally have his chance.

Archer catches up to Castor and his brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) at the Los Angeles International Airport, where they charter a private plane and attempt to flee the country. Aboard the plane is FBI Agent Winters (Lauren Sinclair), working undercover as a flight attendant. Winters tries to incapacitate Castor before takeoff, but is outnumbered and trapped in the cabin with Castor's well-armed crew. Archer and his team pursue Castor's plane down a runway at LAX, attempting to keep them from taking off and escaping justice once again...

Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a hacker who learns that the world in which he lives is secretly a complex computer simulation created by artificial intelligence to enslave the human race. He is awakened into the real world by revolutionary leader Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and joins a fight for humanity's future that spans both the physical and virtual worlds.

When Morpheus is captured by the machines' digital enforcers, the Agents, Neo and his fellow acolyte Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) plug back into the Matrix to rescue him before the Agents can compel him to reveal humanity's security secrets.

Neo and Trinity have two advantages entering the building where Morpheus is being held. First, their minds are freed from the Matrix, meaning they can will their virtual bodies to surpass the physical limitations of the real world. Second, they're bringing guns. Lots of guns...

On an alternate Earth, the MultiVerse Authority (MVA) governs travel between universes and pursues fugitives who jump between them illegally. Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) is a former MVA agent who discovers that the fewer versions of himself exist in the multiverse, the stronger, faster, and smarter he becomes himself. He succeeds in killing all but one of his doubles, and believes that killing the last one will make him a god.

Yulaw comes to our world to hunt his final doppelgänger, Gabe Law (also Jet Li), who has also become more powerful via Yulaw's killing spree. Yulaw murders Gabe's wife, but MVA Agent Funsch (Jason Statham) offers the grief-stricken Gabe his chance at justice — a wormhole back to Yulaw's home dimension will open soon, and if Gabe can incapacitate Yulaw, then Funsch can take him into custody. If not, then both Gabe and Yulaw may have to die...

When the Bride (Uma Thurman), one of the world's deadliest assassins, discovers that she's pregnant, she decides to abruptly retire and disappear. Her comrades in the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS) presume her dead, but when Bill (David Carradine), leader of the DiVAS and father of the Bride's baby, discovers that the Bride is alive and planning to marry someone else, Bill orders the squad to execute her at her wedding rehearsal. Miraculously, the Bride survives, spending the next four years in a coma. When she awakens, she swears revenge on Bill and the DiVAS.

The Bride's death list takes her to Tokyo in pursuit of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), who is now a Yakuza crime lord. Ishii commands an army called the Crazy 88, and if the Bride wants a piece of Ishii, she's going to have to cut through every last one of them...

Kham (Tony Jaa) is descended from a family that guarded the King of Thailand's war elephants for generations. Even in the modern day, he and his father care for elephants, with whom they form a deep familiar bond. When the family's beloved animal companions Por Yai and baby Kohrn are stolen, he follows their trail to Sydney, Australia, where he must contend with an organized crime ring that is collecting rare animals as trophies or even food for the wealthy elite.

Kham's pursuit takes him to a local Thai restaurant run by gangster Johnny (Johnny Tri Nguyen). Johnny is holding court on the top floor VIP room above the restaurant's massive atrium, and Kham will have to fight up three flights of stairs to reach him...

An ancient war between robotic beings from the planet Cybertron has made its way to Earth. The Autobots, led by the benevolent Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen), are sworn to defend the life and liberty of all sentient beings. The Decepticons, under the command of Megatron (voice of Hugo Weaving), seek only conquest and destruction. While on Earth, the Autobots often disguise themselves as domestic cars and trucks, while the Decepticons take the form of intimidating military vehicles. Both sides of the war have come to Earth in search of the AllSpark, a metallic cube that has power over mechanical life. Along the way, Bumblebee, an advance agent of the Autobots, has befriended human teenagers Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) and Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox).

The battle is joined in Mission City, where the Autobots and their human allies try to keep the AllSpark out of the hands of the Decepticons. Wounded, Bumblebee entrusts Sam and Mikaela to carry the AllSpark while the battle distracts the Decepticons. Meanwhile, soldiers in the U.S. military (Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson) attempt to evacuate civilians and give the Autobots an edge.

On the vibrant moon Pandora, the native Na'vi people are caught in a deadly struggle with Earth's business interests. The Resource Development Administration (RDA) seeks to drive the Omaticaya Clan off their land in order to mine the valuable unobtainium beneath. To that end, they dispatch former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) to remotely pilot a genetically-engineered Na'vi avatar and mingle with the Omaticaya, earn their trust, and convince them to abandon their home.

Instead, Jake falls in love with his teacher Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and comes to understand that he's on the wrong side of history. Knowing that the human colonizers will not stop at demolishing one village, Jake rallies the Na'vi clans in the hopes of forcing the RDA to retreat from Pandora. An army led by Jake, Neytiri, clan leader Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso), and fellow human rebels Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez) and Norm (Joel David Moore) charges to meet RDA Colonel Quartich (Stephen Lang), who seeks to break the Na'vi's will by destroying their sacred Tree of Souls.

After butting heads with Brazilian crime boss Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), outlaw hot-rodders Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) decide to get a fresh start at Reyes' expense by stealing his $100 million fortune. To make such a theft possible, they've tricked Reyes into consolidating his cash into one location — a vault beneath a police station under his control.

For the heist, the Torettos assemble a team made up of their usual gang of trusted allies, but also receive unexpected help from Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), the law enforcement agents assigned to capture them. Hobbs and Neves have their own grudges against Reyes and decide to play a part in the heist in order to exact their revenge...

For years, the world has been plagued by the ongoing threat of giant Kaiju who rise from the oceans and lay waste to coastal cities. In order to combat the growing threat, the governments of the world have united to create the Jaegers, giant walking mechs who can fight the monsters at their own scale and on their own terms. The Jaegers are very complex, requiring a pair of pilots who must be so in sync that their minds become one through a process called "drifting." Drift compatibility is very rare, and only those with a special bond of family, friendship, or romance can successfully pilot a Jaeger.

When Hong Kong comes under attack by a pair of Kaiju, Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) dispatches three of his most advanced Jaegers to confront them. But when all three Jaegers are incapacitated, Stacker is forced to send the untested team of Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) aboard the obsolete Gipsy Danger to defeat the brood. Together, they handily defeat one of the monsters, but the other, Otachi, is even more dangerous than she seems...

The Earth is now a barren wasteland ruled by mad warlords battling over what few precious resources remain. One such warlord is Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who reigns over his feral War Boys as a god-king. But one high-ranking member of Immortan Joe's army, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), is no longer willing to abide his merciless rule. Under the cover of a supply run, Furiosa has smuggled Joe's enslaved brides out of his citadel in the tanker of her 18-wheel War Rig and set a course out of his territory. Her War Boy escort rides alongside, unaware of her deception.

When Immortan Joe discovers this, he dispatches more War Boys to intercept Furiosa, including Nux (Nicholas Hoult), a sick soldier who is using the captured Max (Tom Hardy) as an unwilling blood donor strapped to the front of his car...

Set in East Berlin in 1989, Atomic Blonde sees unstoppable British spy Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) dispatched to locate and extract a Russian defector known as Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) who has memorized a valuable list of every undercover agent in Berlin. Lorraine must fight her way through wave after wave of KGB guards to try and get Spyglass safely out of his building and out of the country...

Tied with:

In present day Rome, legendary assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has been forced out of retirement by a debt owed to high-ranking crime boss Santino D'Antonio. Santino compels John to assassinate Santino's own sister, Gianna. Killing Gianna turns out to be the easy part — the hard part is escaping the scene of the crime, especially once Santino dispatches his own army to eliminate him. John has prepared for this, having left a small arsenal behind to use in his escape route through the Roman catacombs...

It has been five years since the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) assembled the six Infinity Stones into his gauntlet, snapped his fingers, and instantly killed half of all life in the universe. With no other options, the surviving Avengers have embarked on a "time heist" to collect the Stones from the past and try to snap the fallen trillions back into existence. They complete their mission, but before they can learn whether or not their snap is successful, Thanos follows them back from an alternate timeline and demolishes the Avengers compound. Half the team is trapped inside, leaving only Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to try and fight Thanos alone.

The three superheroes are outmatched, and as Thanos assembles more of his forces on Earth, they are also hopelessly outnumbered. It'll take a miracle to win the battle, but thankfully, the Avengers already performed one a few minutes ago...