1. By Tom Medlock

2.  Anaction film is a film genre where one or
more heroes/heroins are thrust into a
series of challenges, which require
physical feats, extended fights and frenetic
chases.

3.  Explosions
 Gun fights
 Car Chases
 Fist fights
 Really buff actors
 A very attractive female roles
 A villain
 Victory to the good side at the end
 Blood

4.  Duringthe 1920s and 1930s action movies
used to be “swashbuckling” adventure
movies based around sword fights in silent
Western movies.

5.  Douglas Fairbanks was an American actor,
screenwriter, director and producer. He is
best known for his swashbuckling roles in
silent movies such as The Mark of Zorro.
 He was the iconic actor for this decade

6.  The1940s and 1950s saw action in the
form of war and cowboy movies.

7.  AlfredHitchcock single-handedly ushered
in the spy adventure genre and inspired
the producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry
Saltzman to make their own movies based
on the novels by Ian Fleming (Dr. No).

8.  The James Bond movies dominated most of
the 1960s and are still running today.
 The Bond movies essentially introduced all
the staples of the modern day action movies.
 They introduced most of the things we see in
modern day action films: the lone hero, the
evil villain and disposable henchmen, the
gadgets and guns and the cutting edge car
chases and fist fights.
 They also introduced humour with some of
the one liners that the leading role uses.

10.  Inthe 1970s the Bond movies saw
competition from a whole range of gritty
detective stories and urban crime dramas
as they began to fuse themselves to the
new „action‟ style.
 This lead to a series of movies involving
maverick police officers, for example Bullitt
(1968) and Dirty Harry (1971) all of which
featured car chases inspired by those in
the Bond movie series.

11.  Bullitt is an American police procedural
film starring Steve McQueen who is cast
as police officer Bullitt.
 The movie was directed by Peter Yates
and was adapted for them screen by Alan
Trustman and Harry Kleiner, based
around the novel Mute Witness by Robert
L. Fish.
 When Bullitt was released the film was a
critical box office smash and it later won
awards for Best Film Editing and Best
Sound.

12.  Also inspired by the success of James Bond,
specifically the Asian influenced: „You only live
twice‟, martial arts movies exploded onto cinema
screens.
 These included „Enter the Dragon‟ (1973) which
starred Bruce Lee. It also introduced people to the
likes of Chuck Norris as well.
 Though Jackie Chan‟s „Rush Hour‟ is often
credited for popularizing material arts in the US,
Chuck Norris had been blending martial arts with
cops and robbers since „Good guys wear black‟
(1977) and „A Force of one‟ (1979).

13.  In the 1980s action movies took over
Hollywood and became the dominant form
of summer blockbuster, the „action era‟
started with actors such as Bruce Willis,
Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Sylvester Stallone.
 Steven Spielberg and George Lucas
produced their movie to rival the Bond
movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark was born.

14.  Raiders of the Lost Ark is an
American action film directed by
Steven Spielberg and produced by
George Lucas. It was the first film
of the very popular Indiana Jones
franchise.
 Released on June 12, 1981 it was
the highest grossing film of that
year and remains one of the
highest grossing films of all time.

15.  Also in the 1980s, actor Nick Nolte and
rising star Eddie Murphy broke box office
records with action-comedy movie 48hrs,
which is credited as the first „buddy cop‟
movie.
 In the same year as 48hrs, Sylvester
Stallone starred in the first of the Rambo
movie franchise: First Blood. It proved very
popular and was followed by a sequel in
1985, Rambo: First Blood part 2.

16.  Rambo: First Blood part 2 is a 1985 action film
starring Sylvester Stallone who is the main character
of Vietnam veteran John Rambo.
 Despite negative reviews, Rambo: First Blood Part II
was a major box office success and became
somewhat of a cult classic. Rambo: First Blood Part II
is the most recognized and memorable instalment in
the series. Having inspired and influenced parodies,
video games, even rip offs such as Strike Commando
and Rampage.
 Rambo: First Blood Part II became the most
successful film in the series and made the character
Rambo a pop cultural icon

17.  Bythe end of the 1980s action movies had
been split into many different genres, for
example science fiction action movies
such as Terminator and RoboCop, as well
as horror action movies which contain
movies such as the Aliens and Predators
franchises.

18.  Batman is an American superhero film
based around the DC comic character.
It was directed by Tim Burton and
starred Michael Keaton as Batman
himself.
 In the film Batman tries to deal with the
rise of a costumed criminal known as
The Joker, it is the first instalment of
the Batman film franchise.
 The success of Batman lead to a string
of successful sequels, and within the
decade, had created the new sub
genre of the comic book movie.

19.  By the 1990s action movies were starting to
parody themselves, this was a decade of
hybrids and sequels.
 With the growing revolution in CGI (computer
generated imagery) the „real world‟ setting
began to turn into increasing fantastic
environments.
 The newer action movies often had budgets
like no other action movie in history, allowing
them to create bigger and better viewings for
the audience.