Submit Your: Top Ten Action Sequences

By Adam Kuntavanish
January 23, 2013 Top Ten 7 Comments

A generous reading of the action film genre would favorably compare it to the musical in form and structure: narrative punctuated by bracketed-off, sometimes excessively-stylized sequences that provide emotional and cinematic high points. Today they’re destined for YouTube, but before the Internet these scenes and moments served as the best explanation for overworked, overwatched VHS tapes. Even the earliest examples of action/adventure and slapstick comedy cinema abounded with stunts and set-pieces meant to wow and etch themselves into the viewer’s memory, and this spirit lives on mightily in every choreographed fight, car chase, explosion, and James Bond pre-credits sequence. So post below your adrenalized favorites below.

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By Adam Kuntavanish
Sr. Staff Film Critic & Top Ten Guru: Cinema transcends boundaries of time and space and thought and emotion; at its best it communicates the experience of being truly alive. I've been transfixed by the material ghosts of the movies since an early age, and I can't seem to shake them. Since reading and writing and talking about films are the next best things to watching them, criticism became a natural fit. Whether new or old, foreign or domestic, mainstream or cult, all movies are grist for my mill. Be forewarned, I'm an inveterate list-maker, so look out for rankings, topics, and opinions of all kinds. The AFI's got nothing on me.
  • http://singtothesky.org/ Wendy

    The fight scene in the grass field in “House of Flying Daggers”.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-D-Misch/28134555 Chris D. Misch

    Love it. Just a fantastic choice!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-D-Misch/28134555 Chris D. Misch

    Helms Deep, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
    I’m Only Borrowing Your Humvee – The Rock
    The Showdown, Open Range
    The Burj Khalifa Climb, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol
    The Bride vs. The Crazy 88, Kill Bill Vol. 1
    The Foot Chase, The Bourne Ultimatum
    The Prisoner Transfer, The Dark Knight
    Nazi Convoy Raiders Of The Lost Ark
    When Doves Cry, The Killer (1989)
    The Hallway Fight, Oldboy
    Single-shot fight-scene finale, Children of Men
    Downtown LA shootout scene, Heat
    Storming the Cockpit, United 93

  • luke_a

    The train sequence-Back to the Future Part III
    The 2nd hotel shoot-out-No Country for Old Men
    The tank chase-Goldeneye
    “Sanctuary” followed by the siege on Notre Dame – Hunchback of Notre Dame

  • http://www.facebook.com/irvin.malcolm Irvin Malcolm Contreras

    The Falling Leaves Fight from “Hero”
    Zero-G Hallway Fight from “Inception”

  • http://twitter.com/vmaksupreme VAK

    In no particular order.
    The Lobby scene from the Matrix
    Boards dont hit back, Enter the Dragon
    Highway Scene, Matrix Reloaded
    Parcore Scene scene in, Casino Royale
    Viaduct escape with GT500, Gone in 60s
    T2 Chopper scene, T2
    Seige of Jerusalem, Kingdom of Heaven
    Battle of Pelennor Fields, Return of the King
    The Crazy 88 , Kill Bill
    Valkyrie Scene, Apocalypse Now

  • http://twitter.com/Fulmer Fulmer

    Omitting motorized chase scenes (Bullitt and such) as I think they deserve a separate category.
    In no particular order:

    1. Brazilian building sequence- That Man From Rio (1964)

    2. The battle for Gondor- LOTR: Return of the King

    3. Opening fight scene- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

    4. Buster Keaton on the Train/canon sequence- The General

    5. Drug lab fight- The Raid:Redemption

    6. The Dubai Tower- Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

    7. Yakima Canutt under the horses/stagecoach- Stagecoach (1939)

    8. Nazi convoy- Raiders of the Lost Ark

    9. Hospital Shootout- Hard Boiled

    10. The opening (rave)- Blade