50 Greatest Movie Action Heroes

Jericho 'Action' Jackson

The Action Hero: Fresh from Predator , Carl Weathers got his own action lead as Action Jackson , the disgraced Detroit cop investigating corruption.

Most Iconic Moment: Setting a flamethrower on a bad guy, before asking him….

Coolest Catchphrase: "How do you like your ribs?"

James Dalton

The Action Hero: Think Patrick Swayze is just a chick-flick heartthrob? Guess again: Road House's enigmatic bouncer is a true bad ass.

Most Iconic Moment: Ripping out evil henchman Jimmy's throat with his bare hands.

Coolest Catchphrase: "Pain don't hurt."

Lara Croft

The Action Hero: Leaving aside the quality of the actual films the character has appeared in, there are few action heroines of recent years as iconic as Angelina Jolie's denim-shorted archaeologists.

Most Iconic Moment: Fighting for her life against a multi-armed Cambodian statue that has come to life.

Coolest Catchphrase: "Everything lost is meant to be found."

Chance Boudreaux

The Action Hero: Jean Claude Van Damme as a homeless Cajun who is so down on his luck he's being hunted by wealthy madmen for fun? Well, he's also an ex-merchant seaman with some nifty martial arts moves, so that's OK. That's why he's a Hard Target .

Most Iconic Moment: Dispatching big bad Fouchon with the indignity the villain deserves, by dropping a grenade down his trousers.

Coolest Catchphrase: "Hunting season is over!"

Nada

The Action Hero: Unemployed drifter played by 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper in They Live , who inadvertently stumbles upon an alien conspiracy, and grabs a shotgun and a pair of E.T.-spotting shades to save the day.

Most Iconic Moment: His epic five-minute scrap with construction worker Frank to persuade his friend to try on the special sunglasses.

Coolest Catchphrase: “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.”

Barney Ross

The Action Hero: As the leader of The Expendables , Sylvester Stallone's mercenary is providing the last chance saloon for old-school, guilty pleasure action.

Most Iconic Moment: The crowd-pleasing face-off with Jean-Claude Van Damme's villain in The Expendables 2 .

Coolest Catchphrase: "We are the shadows and the smoke, we rise. We are the ghosts that hide in the night."

Coffy

The Action Hero: Pam Grier's star-making turn as the nurse seeking vengeance on the dealers who turned her sister into an addict offset accusations of blaxploitation by creating a feminist warrior.

Most Iconic Moment: Faking being drugged so that she can lure her captors into a false sense of security… and then wiping them out with a piece of glass.

Coolest Catchphrase: "This is the end of your rotten life, you motherfuckin' dope pusher!"

Ting

The Action Hero: Tony Jaa found fame playing as the Muay Thai-proficient villager who travels to Bangkok to rescue the titular head of the Ong-Bak statue.

Most Iconic Moment: How to get noticed - win an underground fight by defeating the champion with a single kick.

Walker

The Action Hero: Left for dead in Point Blank , Lee Marvin's enigmatic criminal stalks Los Angeles to get back the money he's owed from the mysterious Organisation.

Most Iconic Moment: Coldly watching Reese, the partner who betrayed him, take a fatal plunge from the balcony of his penthouse.

Coolest Catchphrase: "Somebody's got to pay."

Mallory Kane

The Action Hero: Privately contracted assassin who is on the run from her company after being set up in Haywire . Most fearsome weapon: herself. Well, she is played by real-life MMA champ Gian Carano.

Most Iconic Moment: Handing Michael Fassbinder's ass to him on a plate during a brutal hotel room fight.

Coolest Catchphrase: "I don't wear the dress. Make Paul wear the dress."

Latest in Movies
Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn on set of Joker 2
Lady Gaga jokingly celebrates Joker 2 reception and Razzie nominations: "Joke's on them. I love winning things"
Jack Quaid in Novocaine
The Boys star Jack Quaid's commitment to the bit is unmatched as his latest marketing stunt for upcoming action movie Novocaine goes viral
The House of the Dead first look 'Test Subjects'
Resident Evil director offers update on his horror movie adaptation of Until Dawn-sounding video game from over 20 years ago: "It's going to be very, very scary"
Julian McMahon as Doctor Doom in 2005's Fantastic Four
The Doctor Doom actor from 2005's Fantastic Four thinks Robert Downey Jr.'s take on the role in the next Avengers movies will be "pretty extraordinary": "I love watching his work"
Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
James Gunn reveals Jason Momoa text him about Lobo the day he was announced as DC Studios co-head
Zoe Saldaña in Avatar
James Cameron's wife cried for four hours after he showed her Avatar 3: "She kept trying to get her s**t back together"
Latest in Features
Marvel Rivals Spider-Man
Spider-Man has become every Marvel Rivals player's worst nightmare
The Punisher holding two machine guns in the rain
Daredevil: Born Again - Learn the bullet-riddled comic book history of the Punisher before he officially joins the MCU
A woman in a underwater machine waving during the cinematic teaser for Subnautica 2.
Subnautica 2: Everything we know about the new underwater survival game
The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G being held above a motherboard by a reviewer
AMD's pro-consumer 9070 strategies are exactly why it's primed to dominate the CPU market in 2025
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows' transmog looks set to combine the best of Odyssey and Vahalla to make changing my drip easier than ever
Split Fiction screenshot of Zoe and Mio in a fantasy world
Split Fiction feels like a Mass Effect-meets-Fable platformer and I'm obsessed with it after just one hour