1. By Niall Donnelly

2. The genre ‘Action’ was born in the 1920’s where the genre was usually ‘swashbuckling
adventure movies’ which usually included Douglas Fairbanks in either a historical piece
or a Wild-West based film.
As the genre evolved through the decades, more and more variations started appearing.
In the 1960’s the legendary ‘James Bond Films’ were created and has served as
inspiration for all modern-day action films by introducing the ‘One-man hero’ who is both
resourceful and witty.
The 1980’s was arguably the best year for the Action Genre with movies like True
Blood, Robo Cop and Star wars being created, which are the Action Genre’s biggest icons.
Source: Wikipedia

3. ‐ Rocky (Film Series)
‐Indiana Jones (Film Series)
‐ James Bond (Film Series)
‐ Transformers (Film Series)
‐ Batman: The Dark Knight
‐ Terminator (Film Series)
‐ Alien vs. Predator (Film Series)
‐ Star Wars (Film Series)
‐ Avatar
‐ The Matrix
‐ The Lord Of The Rings (Film Series)
‐ Die Hard (Film Series)
‐ Bourne Ultimatum (Film Series)
‐ Kill Bill (Film Series)
‐ 300
‐ True Blood
Source: IMDB.com

4. Sylvester Stallone Arnold Schwarzenegger Jackie Chan Daniel Craig
-Rocky (Film series) -Terminator (Film -Enter The Dragon -James Bond (Film
- True Blood Series) - Fist Of Fury Series)
- The Expendables - The Expendables -Rush Hour -Cowboys and
- Kung Fu Panda Aliens

5. As previously mentioned, The Action genre really started in
the 1920’s, These usually featured Douglas Fairbanks
(Pictured right), in ‘swashbuckling’ silent films such as ‘The
thief of Baghdad’, ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘The Mark of Zorro’.
Other Action Films in the 1920’s included historical
representations and western based films.

6. The 1940’s was when the western and cowboy films
started to become popular, One of the most popular
was ‘Red River’ (1948). A story of a man named Dunson
who is driving his cattle to Red River when Matthew, His
adopted son, Turns against him.

7. The long-running success of the James Bond series (which
easily dominated the action films of the 1960s) essentially
introduced all the staples of the modern-day action film. The
"Bond movies" were characterized by larger-than-life
characters, such as the resourceful hero: a veritable "one-man
army" who was able to dispatch villainous masterminds (and
their disposable "henchmen") in ever-more creative ways, often
followed by a ready one-liner. The Bond films also utilized quick
cutting, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and
"gadgets", and ever more elaborate action sequences.

8. Also inspired by the success of James Bond;
specifically the Asian-influenced "You Only
Live Twice", martial-arts-themed action
movies exploded onto the western cinema
screens with Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon"
(1973), and his imported films like "Way of (or
Return of) the Dragon" (1972). The latter also
introduced action fans to then-rising star
Chuck Norris as well. Though Jackie Chan's
Rush Hour is often credited as popularizing the
martial arts action film in the United
States, Chuck Norris had been blending
martial arts with cops and robbers since "Good
Guys Wear Black" (1977) and "A Force of One"
(1979).

9. The 1980s would see the action film take over
Hollywood to become a dominant form of
summer blockbuster; literally "the action era"
popularized by actors such as Sylvester
Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis
and Chuck Norris. Steven Spielberg and
George Lucas even paid their homage to the
Bond-inspired style with the mega-hit Raiders
of the Lost Ark (1981). In 1982, veteran actor
Nick Nolte and rising comedian Eddie Murphy
smashed box office records with the action-
comedy 48 Hrs, which is credited as the first
"buddy-cop" movie. That same year, Sylvester
Stallone starred in First Blood, the first
instalment in the popular Rambo film series.
The film proved to be successful and was
followed with a sequel in 1985, Rambo: First
Blood Part II which became the most
successful film in the series and made the
character Rambo a pop cultural icon

10. The 1990s was an era of sequels and hybrid action.
Like the western genre, the spy-movies and urban-
action films were starting to parody themselves, and
with the growing revolution in CGI (computer
generated imagery), the "real-world" settings began
to give way to increasingly fantastic environments.
This new era of action films often had budgets unlike
any in the history of motion pictures. The success of
the many Dirty Harry and James Bond sequels had
proven that a single successful action film could lead
to a continuing action franchise. Thus the 1980s and
1990s saw a rise in both budgets and the number of
sequels a film could generally have. This basic drive
led to an increasing desire on the part of many
filmmakers to create new technologies that would
allow them to beat the competition by taking
audiences to new heights of roller-coaster-like
fantasy. The success of Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989)
led to a string of financially successful sequels, and
within a single decade, had proven the viability of a
new sub-genre of action film; the comic-book movie.

11. Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying
to make the big time, working as a debt
collector for a pittance. When
heavyweight champion Apollo Creed
visits Philadelphia, his managers want to
set up an exhibition match between
Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the
fight as a chance for a "nobody" to
become a "somebody". The match is
supposed to be easily won by Creed, but
someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees
this as his only shot at the big time

12. John J. Rambo is a former United States
Special Forces soldier who fought in Vietnam
and won the Congressional Medal of
Honour, but his time in Vietnam still haunts
him. As he came to Hope, Washington to visit
a friend, he was guided out of town by the
Sheriff William Teasel who insults Rambo, but
what Teasel does not know that his insult
angered Rambo to the point where Rambo
became violent and was arrested, as he was at
the county jail being cleaned, he escapes and
goes on a rampage through the forest to try to
escape from the sheriffs who want to kill him.
Then, as Rambo's commanding
officer, Colonel Samuel Trautman tries to save
both the Sheriff's department and Rambo
before the situation gets out of hand.

13. In the year 1971, San Francisco faces the terror
of a maniac known as Scorpio- who snipes at
innocent victims and demands ransom
through notes left at the scene of the crime.
Inspector Harry Callahan (known as Dirty
Harry by his peers through his reputation
handling of homicidal cases) is assigned to the
case along with his newest partner Inspector
Chico Gonzalez to track down Scorpio and
stop him. Using humiliation and cat and
mouse type of games against
Callahan, Scorpio is put to the test with the
cop with a dirty attitude.

14. The year is 1936. A professor who studies
archaeology named Indiana Jones is
venturing in the jungles in South America
searching for a golden statue.
Unfortunately, he sets off a deadly trap
doing so, miraculously, he escapes.
Then, Jones hears from a museum curator
named Marcus Brody about a biblical
artefact called The Ark of the
Covenant, which can hold the key to
humanly existence. Jones has to venture
to vast places such as Nepal and Egypt to
find this artefact. However, he will have
to fight his enemy Renee Belloq and a
band of Nazis in order to reach it.

15. When a private satellite encounters an
unidentified source of heat in Antarctica
and it is found to be a pyramid buried
deep underground , a search team
comprising of top-of-the-line
archaeologists and engineers is sent to
Antarctica to find out more . Once there
, the team comes across signs which
indicate that the place is inhabited by an
unknown alien species . It is not long
before the aliens begin to hunt the team
members . At the same time , a trio of
coming-of-age Predators have arrived to
collect the skulls of the aliens as trophies
, and the humans are caught between a
deadly battle between the two warring
species .

16. Thomas A. Anderson is a man living two lives.
By day he is an average computer
programmer and by night a hacker known as
Neo. Neo has always questioned his
reality, but the truth is far beyond his
imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by
the police when he is contacted by
Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker
branded a terrorist by the government.
Morpheus awakens Neo to the real world, a
ravaged wasteland where most of humanity
have been captured by a race of machines that
live off of the humans' body heat and
electrochemical energy and who imprison
their minds within an artificial reality known as
the Matrix. As a rebel against the
machines, Neo must return to the Matrix and
confront the agents: super-powerful computer
programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the
entire human rebellion.

17. John McClane is a cop from New York City who
is on his way to Los Angeles to see his kids and
his wife Holly, who moved to LA because of a
job at the Nakatomi Corporation. When he
arrives at Nakatomi Plaza, he meets Holly's
boss Joe Takagi and her co-worker Harry Ellis.
He and Holly go into a private bathroom and
get into an argument. When Holly leaves to
give a speech, thirteen armed terrorists lead
by Hans Gruber seize control of the building
and take the occupants of the 30th floor, who
are the only ones left in the building, hostage.
Luckily, they missed John and he has to figure
out how to save the hostages before the
terrorists get their way.

18. Based very loosely on Robert Ludlum's
novel, the Bourne Identity is the story of a
man whose wounded body is discovered by
fishermen who nurse him back to health. He
can remember nothing and begins to try to
rebuild his memory based on clues such as the
Swiss bank account, the number of which, is
implanted in his hip. He soon realizes that he is
being hunted and takes off with Marie on a
search to find out who he is and why he is
being hunted.

19. Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to
kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional
assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to '00' status.
Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Uganda where he is to spy on
a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides
to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the
rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he
encounters Dimitrios and his girlfriend, Solange. He learns that
Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre, banker to the world's terrorist
organizations. Secret Service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is
planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in
Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against
him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his
organization. 'M' places Bond under the watchful eye of the
beguiling Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can
provide, Bond's interest in her deepens as they brave danger
together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. In
Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis MI6's local field
agent, and Felix Leiter who is representing the interests of the CIA.
The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising
the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax

20. An action-thriller about a writer who takes an
experimental drug that allows him to use 100
percent of his mind. As one man evolves into
the perfect version of himself, forces more
corrupt than he can imagine mark him for
assassination. Out-of-work writer Eddie
Morra's (Cooper) rejection by girlfriend Lindy
(Abbie Cornish) confirms his belief that he has
zero future. That all vanishes the day an old
friend introduces Eddie to NZT, a designer
pharmaceutical that makes him laser focused
and more confident than any man alive. Now
on an NZT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie's
read, heard or seen is instantly organized and
available to him. As the former nobody rises to
the top of the financial world, he draws the
attention of business mogul Carl Van Loon (De
Niro), who sees this enhanced version of Eddie
as the tool to make billions. But brutal side
effects jeopardize his meteoric ascent...

21. Action films are at the forefront of movie entertainment because of their constant elements of
surprise and immersion. Many action franchises started when film itself was born and continue
strongly today, new franchises are appearing every year, which indicates the genre is slowing
down any time soon.