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• Top 10 Action Scenes of The Last 20 Years

With the rise in film budgets and a larger emphasis on summer blockbusters, the movie industry has changed an awful lot over the last twenty years. Action movies have gotten more extravagant and it seems like the big budget blockbusters get crazier every summer. Here is our list of the top twenty action scenes since 1988.

10. Lord of The Rings; Battle of Helms Deep: After much deliberation I decided that this battle is better than Return of The King’s Battle of Pellanor Fields. The fight is much simpler and sometimes simpler is much better so there isn’t as much chaos.

Favorite Moment: Legolas sliding down the stairs on a shield whilst shooting arrows

9. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; The courtyard battle: What starts off as a three versus one fight quickly turns into a four versus two as Chow Yun Fat & Zhang Ziyi suddenly enter with swords. Director Ang Lee keeps the chaos well organized and amazingly enough did this whole movie without storyboards

Favorite Moment: The Jade Fox paralyzing one of her attackers

8. Bourne Ultimatum; Tangiers Sequence: What starts off with a car explosion soon turns into a motorcycle chase then onto a rooftop then a close quarters battle in an apartment. This action scene was easily my favorite of 2007 and of The Bourne trilogy

Favorite Moment: Bourne beating the crap out of the assassin with a book

7. Terminator 2; Cyberdyne Shoot Out: James Cameron has always had a penchant for action scenes, but this one is his best. As the Terminator, John and Sarah Connor head to the Cyberdyne building to change the future, SWAT teams obviously crash the party and lead to this scene. Schwarzenegger holds all kinds of weapons here from a turret to a grenade launcher.

Favorite Moment: The Terminator standing at the window launching grenades at cop cars

6. Saving Private Ryan; Normandy: Definitely the most emotionally effective action scene on this list, the Normandy invasion was a classic opening to the carnage we’d see in Saving Private Ryan.

Favorite Moment: Jackson sniping out the turret men

5. Spiderman 2; Train Fight: One way to make a memorable action scene is to place it somewhere unique, such as the Eastern Promises fight in the bathhouse. This brawl between Spiderman and Doctor Octopus takes place on top of an El-train and is the best of the Spiderman series.

Favorite Moment: Spiderman getting thrown at an overpass but diving straight through it

4. The Matrix; Lobby Scene: Even without bullet time, this scene still stands out for how stylized it is. From the constant walls and columns being blown off to the mix of Kung fu and gun play, watching this scene today reminds you why this scene was copied so many times.

Favorite Moment: Neo doing a one handed cartwheel while shooting an assault rifle

3. Die Hard; John McClane Vs. Karl: No action movie related list is complete without Die Hard, and the scene with Bruce Willis fighting a tall blonde German man was the films most exciting sequence.

Favorite Moment: McClane strangling Karl with a chain

2. Hard Boiled; Hospital Scene: This epically long action scene literally takes up the last forty-five minutes of the film. Filled with that distinct John Woo style of slo-mo, duel pistols, and doves, this is definitely John Woo’s best scene

Favorite Moment: The tracking shot involving Chow Yun Fat and the cop

1. Heat; Downtown Shoot Out: Shot in an up close documentary style, this scene is the ultimate badass action scene but also has subtleties to it. For example, the police in this scene (led by Al Pacino) use tactics and fire carefully, whereas the criminals (led by Robert De Niro) spray bullets all over the place just looking for an exit. This scene is also number one due to it being so realistic, it’s scary.

Favorite Moment: Val Kilmer casually walking to the getaway car until he sees cops across the street and immediately opens fire