Writer, filmmaker, idea-o-phile.
So, it’s time to announce this year’s Top 50 list. Last year we went through all the character actors we could get our hands on. This year, I’d like to celebrate something a little more intangible, but very close to my cinematic heart. I’d like to celebrate an art form that rarely gets called art, but when pulled off correctly is exactly that.
Let’s come up with the 50 Greatest Action Sequences of All Time.
Ladies and gents, the floor is yours…
[...] Fearless deserved to do better. It’ll make a little over half what I predicted. Which is too bad since (a) it’s gorgeous, (b) it proves Yuen Woo Ping is actually getting better (I can think of two or three fights from this film that would easily contend for the Top 50 if I hadn’t decided to exclude 2006) and (c) it may be the first good film Ronny Yu has made since Bride With the White Hair. [...]
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I’ll get things started…three come to mind immediately:
1) John McClain dodges FBI gunships, ties firehose to his waist, and jumps off roof of Nakatomi Plaza, Die Hard. Sure, it’s not the sequence that gave us the first great motherf**king catchphrase, but it’s an amazing sequence.
2) Vader/Skywalker “I am your father” lightsaber duel, The Empire Strikes Back. It might not have as many explosions as the scene from Die Hard, but…damn.
3) Final chase sequence/eleventy-billion car pileup, The Blues Brothers. “Hi, this is car…what number are we? This is car 55. We’re in a TRUCK.”
And, just for s**ts and giggles, I’ll throw in a fourth:
4) The Bride vs. The Crazy 88′s, Kill Bill, Volume 1. No explanation needed.
Oh – I forgot one!
5) “Give me a ‘ping’, Vasily”/Scuttling the ship/submarine dogfight, The Hunt for Red October. (Includes the running gunfight with the saboteur.) “Next time, Jack, write a goddamned MEMO.”
A few more:
The night club fight in Point Blank – you know, the one where Lee Marvin pulls the nut punch.
The shoot out in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, for one of the best death scenes ever.
Heat – downtown LA.
Raiders…there are so many, but the whole idol sequence in the beginning will always be my favorite. Part of the Just One Damn Thing After Another school of action sequences.
The falling car in Jurassic park…smart and so original compared to the normal gunfight/carchase.
The shootout at the end of L.A. Confidential…just a step above a typical gunfight, both in grittiness and interest. It manages to be both more original and more plausible than most showdowns.
Spiderman 2; the extended subway fight with Doc Oc.
The Incredibles, the chase of Dash and Violet through the forest.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I guess questionable, but I would consider it an action sequence) the chase through Joel Barish’s disappearing memories.
Ben Hur, I’m sure is a given. And for Matrix, I’ll let you choose, but my favorite will always be Neo’s first escape, being talked through every step by Morpheus just because the concept is so cool and you’re still trying to figure out what’s going on.
And the original Terminator (another Just One Damn Thing After Another action sequence), ending in the best line ever, “You’re terminated, fucker!”
Strange – I thought I had posted a lengthy comment here about the Spiderman 2 sequence mentioned above. Did it get stuck in SpamKarma?
M-D, it looks that way. Sorry, but I couldn’t find it. Please feel free to reiterate, if you don’t mind.