The Movies' Greatest Action Sequences (1 Viewer)

[Tarkin The Ewok]

You Only Live Twice: The Little Nellie sequence and the volcano base assault

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Batman Begins: The Dock Scene

 

[dpippel]

Some notables that haven't been mentioned yet:

Austin Powers in Goldmember: Opening sequence.

The Blues Brothers: The car chase to the Cook County Tax Assessors office.

Bullitt: THE car chase sequence.

Contact: The wormhole sequence.

Dark City: The final battle.

The Mark of Zorro: The ending mine sequence.

Saving Private Ryan: Omaha Beach sequence.

Starship Troopers: Outpost battle.

War of the Worlds (2005): New Jersey attack sequence.

 

[Tim Glover]

Doug, good call on War On the Worlds-New Jersey attacks. When I first saw it, that sequence was pretty shocking and terrorfying.

I'll add another one .
The roof top fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . Michelle Yoeh and ? I can't remember for the life of me but she's a knockout. That fighting scene was exhilarating and intense. Unreal. The score at that moment was also intense and just aided in the adrenaline rise. Ang Lee was able to bring some drama & credibility for martial art films with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 

[John J. Riley]

First post so don't discount me, but what about the pre-title sequence in James Bond's The Spy Who Loved Me? It was very cool seeing Bond parachute over the cliff and then have the British emblem on his parachute. I'm sure there are many other Bond scenes that could be on this list.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

We wouldn't do that , welcome to the forum!

Two more, the shoot-out in the club in Collateral and the shoot-out in the mansion at the very end of Scarface.

"I'm Tony Montana! You f**k with me, you f**k with the best!!"

 

[Zack Gibbs]

Did it really take nearly 50 posts to mention the T-rex assault from Jurassic Park? I mean come on, maybe I just missed it.

 

[Malcolm R]

I just watched "The Island" last night. The highway/tractor trailer chase scene was pretty good. It sort of reminded me of a combination of the highway/tractor trailer chase in "The Matrix Reloaded" and the highway crash scene that opens "Final Destination 2".

I also like the car chase through the tunnel in "The Bourne Supremacy."

And the Battle of Pelleanor Fields in "LOTR: Return of the King" is awesome!

 

[Rob P S]

The French Connection - car chase
Rocky - climax
Nighthawks - climax
Con Air - crash landing in Vegas

 

[Robert Anthony]

It was the 35th post, actually.

 

[Tim Glover]

Excellent John. That was a very gritty and stylistic scene. Mann nailed it there. I'm assuming we'll have some more like that after this weekend's premiere of Miami Vice.

 

[Tim Glover]

Another good one Malcolm. That car chase in Supremacy is fantastic. I remember when I saw it in theaters-thinking how good it would be in my HT rig.

Welcome to the forum John. That opening of Spy Who Loved Me is great. Another great opening is from Bond's The Living Daylights

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Most of my "fav" action scenes have already been mentioned (especially all those James Cameron directed scenes from Aliens and T2!) but I'm really *shocked* that nobody has yet mentioned the Empire vs. the Rebels battle on the Ice Planet of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back!

I still remember the first time I saw that scene in 70mm in a theater in Atlanta in 1980. Up to that point I didn't think anything could ever top the Chariot Scene in Ben-Hur or the assault on the Death Star in the original Star Wars; and yet here was TESB topping both in just the first 45 minutes of the movie! (And with those Imperial Walkers stomping around, the whole thing seemed very "Lord of the Ring-ish"!-I had just finished reading the novels a few months before viewing ESB and could recognize a "homage" when I saw it.) Even though the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy had plenty of CGI-enhanced action scenes (in particular the whole coliseum sequence from ATOC), I still didn't think anything topped this scene from TESB!

 

[dpippel]

Good call, but I actually find the asteroid field pursuit of the Millenium Falcon in TESB more exciting, and i can't believe that *I* didn't mention it!

 

[Tim Glover]

The Hoth stuff in ESB is genius stuff for sure as is the Asteroid chase.

Hate to keep adding scenes but there are some that just HAVE to get on this list:

Boat chase scene in Indiana Jones-Last Crusade..."this is your last chance!"..."no, Dr. Jones, it's yours!". This scene captures again intensity and heroic moments and some humor-"go between them are you crazy!" For what it's worth, The Last Crusade stuff was used ALOT in the now legendary THX WOW! Laserdisc from the early '90's.

What can I say, I'm an informational movie nerd

 

[John Doran]

there's gonna be some duplicates, but i'm late to the party...

Ghost in the Shell: when kusanagi fights the tank at the end.

Ghost in the Shell: Innocence: the sequence with batou in the convenience store, and the fight at the end, in the ship, when kusanagi shows up to help.

Iron Giant: brief, but the sequence from saving the boys at the clock tower until the giant is shot out of the sky by the planes.

Incredibles: the battle with the robot at the end.

Appleseed: the entire opening sequence. the entire final sequence.

Final Fantasy VII: too many to count, but the ones that stand out for me are: (i) the fight in the chapel, (ii) the fight on the bikes in the tunnel, and (iii) the fight with the dragon.

Toy Story: woody and buzz trying to catch up with the moving-truck.

Hunt for Red October: the battle involving the red october, the dallas, and tupolev's boat, at the end.

Unforgiven: the showdown in the bar at the end. "deserve's got nuthin' to do with it".

Blackhawk Down: from "Irene", pretty much until the end of the show.

Band of Brothers: of all of the many sequences, the ones i'll never forget are (i)the first assault on the gun emplacement, and (ii) the final assault on bastogne.

Jurassic Park 2: the t-rex loose downtown.

Jurassic Park 3: the battle between the spinosaur and the t-rex.

Spiderman: only kind of "action-y", i guess, but spiderman just swinging around downtown NYC in the outro. takes my breath away, every time.

Blade 2: the opening, up until he gets whistler back. Blade's fight with Nomak at the end of the show - one of the first times i got to see super-powered characters go toe-to-toe.

Hulk: again, brief, but i love watching the hulk take apart the tanks in the desert.

Spiderman 2: the whole first fight with Doc Oc.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: the last battle between the forces of the white witch and those of aslan.

The Matrix: the end, when neo is trying to escape the matrix, the squiddies are breaching the hull, and he is finally revealed as the one.

The Matrix: Reloaded: the fight with the merovingian's henchmen. and the highway chase scene. obviously.

The Matrix: Revolutions: (i) niobe piloting the mjolnir as they're being pursued by the squiddies; (ii) the defence of zion; (iii) neo vs. smith for the last time.

The Animatrix: Last Flight of the Osiris, and the chase in the Kid's Story.

Ronin: the car chase.

The Bourne Supremacy: the car chase at the end.

Last of the Mohicans: the chase along the cliffs at the end and chingachgook's fight with magua.

Return of the Jedi: the final space-battle and the run on the new death-star by the falcon.

Braveheart: the first battle, at Sterling, with the charge of heavy horse.

Gladiator: the battle between "rome" and "carthage" in the arena, with the chariots.

Pitch Black: the ship crashing at the beginning.

The Abyss: when the crane is knocked from the ship in the storm, and sinks, dragging the rig toward the edge of the abyss. intense.

U-571: their first depth-charging. play that loud, and i swear, i start to sweat.

...man. there's so many more, too - i just can't lollygag at work any more...

i love movies.

 

[Bob Spears]

Two things came to mind immediately.

1. The opening sequence in the movie "Cliffhanger" when Gabe tried to rescue Sarah.

2. I forget the name of the movie but it is the one about the South American soccer team that crashes in the Andes and have to eat the dead bodies to survive. The crash in the opening scene is amazing.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

That would be Alive.

Great movie.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I watched Bowfinger today at work, and that scene when Jiff (Eddie Murphy) is forced to run across 4 lanes of highway is both hilarious and pretty harrowing.

I have to second the depth-charge sequences in U-571! It's almost as if the filmmakers said to themselves "They want explosions? I'll give em' fuckin' explosions!"

One of the most intense DTS tracks on any dvd that I own, just foundation-threatening LFE.

 

[Tim Glover]

Good stuff John Doran!

Went for a jog and thought of a great one. It's action oriented but very adrenaline jolting too. Not a very good movie; Jurassic Park: Lost World but when they are being chased, "Momma's not very happy!"...and Julianne Moore falls on the trailer's glass...slowly starts to crack...sweet! Speilberg at it's best. Then their buddy tries to pull them out with that cool new Mercedes SUV. Dude got eaten, but had a cool car.