Action films originated in the 1920s-1930s as swashbuckling adventures. In the 1940s-1950s, the genre consisted mainly of westerns and war films. The 1960s saw the introduction of spy films like James Bond, featuring car chases, fights, and gadgets. Martial arts films grew popular in the 1970s and blended with cop films. The 1980s marked the action era with blockbusters starring actors like Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Common action subgenres include comedy, horror, disaster, martial arts, sci-fi, spy, thriller, and superhero films.

1. Action Genre Research

2. Action Film Genre History:
• During the 1920's and 1930's action films were mainly simple narratives about
adventurous sword wielding characters, this type of films would sit in the
swashbuckling sub genre of action films. A few examples of these films are Robin
Hood (1922) The Three Musketeers (1921) The Mark of Zorro (1920)
• In the 1940's and 1950's most of the action films were westerns and war films.
The war films all generally stuck to the same plot line which was the main
character has been captured or is already a prisoner during or after a war. A
couple examples of these films are The Wooden Horse (1950) The Colditz Story
(1955) Albert R.N. (1953)
• The spy adventure sub genre of action films was introduced in the 1960's, the
James Bond films were introduced in this period and they also showed how to
make a modern action film. These films always consisted high speed car chases,
fist fights, gun fights and using special and unique gadgets. Some notable actors
during this period would be Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore.

3. • In the 1970's a new type of action film was introduced it was the martial-arts
films for example Enter The Dragon (1973) and Way of the Dragon (1972). With
the martial-arts films becoming very popular producers started combining the
martial-arts sub genre with the cops and robbers sub genre some examples are
A Force of One (1979) Good Guys Wear Black (1977).
• Action films became the dominant film genre in the 1980's it became known as
the action era. During this time the audience were first introduced with actors
like Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988) Sylvester Stallone in Rambo First Blood
(1982) and also in Rambo First Blood Part II (1985) and Arnold Schwarzenegger
in Conan The Barbarian (1982). Also George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created
and introduced Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) which was a James Bond inspired
film. In 1982 the first ever Buddy Cop film it was called 48hrs and it smashed
box office records. In 1989 Tim Burton created and had a huge success with his
Batman film which led to many successful sequels and also created the whole
Comic book movie genre.

4. Action Film Sub Genres
• Action Comedy- A sub genre involving action and humor e.g Beverly Hills Cop,
Midnight Run and Bad Boys.
• Action Horror- A sub genre combining horrific scenes while also having scenes like car
chases and gun fights e.g Blade, From Dusk Till Dawn, Dawn of the Dead.
• Disaster Film- Films which the main conflict is some sort of natural or artificial disasters
e.g The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, Armageddon.
• Martial-arts- A film which has lot's of fight scenes between characters e.g Mortal
Kombat, Shanghai Noon, Big Trouble in Little China.
• Sci-fi action- A film with big action scenes and conventions from a science fiction film
e.g I Robot, Akira, Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• Spy Film- A film about a government agent who must take violent actions against a
rival government or terrorists e.g Casino Royale, The Bourne series, The Mission
Impossible franchise.
• Action Thriller- A film which features gun fights, car chases big explosions e.g Point
Break, The Warriors, Rambo First Blood Part II.
• Superhero Film- These films usually have some elements of science fiction and fantasy
and focuses on people with super human abilities e.g The Dark Knight, Guardians of
the Galaxy, Captain America The Winter Soldier.