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The Top 5 Action Movies from the ’80s

Best Action Movies, John Rambo

Back in the 1980s the theatrical landscape was literally filled with action movies. With emerging stars such as Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, the ’80s were truly the golden age of the action hero! There is undeniably a large plethora of great action cinema available from this era, and here is a guide composed of the top 5 action movies of the ’80s that every action fan should reacquaint themselves with.

Rambo: First BloodSylvester Stallone became an action movie icon with his portrayal as the troubled Special Forces army vet, John Rambo. In this first outing from the mega hit franchise, John Rambo is a drifter whom finds himself bullied and eventually arrested by a small town sheriff. While cooped up in the small town jail, Rambo is harassed and brutalized by the small town cops until he finally snaps and escapes to the nearby wooded mountains where he holes up and takes out the whole sheriff’s posse through his special forces training and combat experience. Eventually even the National Guard is brought in to try to capture or take out the fugitive Rambo, and they find themselves not that much more successful than the small town cops.

Commando – Arnold Schwarzenegger was the undisputed action hero of the 80’s. And there are quite a few worthy top action films from the 80’s in which he starred in to choose from. But Commando is something special. This film is packed with nearly nonstop “over the top” action violence and the brand of humorous dialogue that Arnold would become famous for. In Commando, Arnold plays John Matrix, a retired special ops agent for the government. But someone is killing off Matrix’s old team of elite soldiers, and it isn’t until they come for Matrix and his young daughter that we learn why.

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The Blues Brothers – It’s a musical, a comedy, and also one of the best action movies of the 80s. The Blues Brothers starred Saturday Night LiveL alumni Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi reprising their most famous skit characters, Jake and Elwood Blues venture forth on a “mission from god” to save the orphanage they grew up in. Their scheme is to raise enough money to save the orphanage by assembling the greatest blues band ever, and having a benefit concert. This leads to a lot of zany encounters and great musical guest performances from legitimate blues greats. While The Blues Brothers action sequences might not have sported a ton of high tech weapons and hard hitting martial arts, the movie has some of the best car chases ever put to film.

Raiders of the Lost Ark – George Lucas and Steven Spielberg brought some of the best action movie scenes ever to movie theaters with this first entry if the legendary Indiana Jones Franchise. It featured a ton of the most complicated stunt work ever attempted, and this translated into an edge of your seat experience from start to finish. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, action adventurer and university archaeologist, Indiana Jones, is swayed by the United States government to help them locate the mythical Lost Ark of the Covenant before Hitler does.

Die Hard – Bruce Willis assumes the role of NYPD detective John McClane in what would become known as the birth of the action hero. It is highly arguable as to whether or not that bold statement in factually correct or not, but nonetheless, Die Hard was, and still is regarded to be one of the best action movies of the 1980s. Die Hard’s engaging action plot involves John McClane’s arrival in Los Angeles in an attempt to reconcile with his wife during her company Christmas party being held at the company’s metropolitan commercial high rise. But there just happens to be a band of professional Gate Crashers that also have a vested personal interest in attending the party… And these are the kind of folks that like stir up a lot of trouble. But that’s where John comes in handy, and that makes for one hell of an action packed movie ride!