Action: 245

Tuff Turf (1985), an American drama film directed by Fritz Kiersch and starring James Spader and Kim Richards, follows the story of Morgan Hiller as he faces the challenges of relocating to Los Angeles with his family after their business fails. Being an intelligent but bullied teenager from Connecticut, Morgan struggles to make friends in his new environment. However, he does form a bond with Jimmy Parker. Things take a dangerous turn when Morgan becomes infatuated with bad girl Frankie Croyden, whose boyfriend Nick Hauser ...

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) is a United States adventure movie directed by George P. Cosmatos and co-written by Sylvester Stallone. Three years have passed since the events in Hope, Washington, where former U.S. Army Green Beret John Rambo finds himself imprisoned at a labor facility. Former commanding officer Colonel Sam Trautman visits Rambo to reveal some concerning news- that there are still American prisoners of war being held captive in Vietnam. In an effort to appease public demand for action, the government has approved a solo infiltration mission to confirm ...

A View to a Kill (1985) is the fourteenth installment in the iconic James Bond film series. It marks the final appearance of Roger Moore as MI6 agent 007. While the title is based on Ian Fleming’s short story From a View to a Kill, the movie features an original screenplay. Bond’s latest mission takes him to Siberia, where he must locate a fallen agent and retrieve a valuable Soviet microchip. After analyzing the chip, Q reveals that it was created by Zorin Industries to withstand electromagnetic pulse attacks. To gather more information, ...

The American buddy cop action comedy film, Beverly Hills Cop (1984), was directed by Martin Brest and written by Daniel Petrie Jr. It follows the journey of Axel Foley, a plainclothes detective from Detroit who gets tangled up in a failed sting operation when two uniformed officers intervene. This leads to a dangerous chase through the city causing widespread damage. Upon returning to his apartment, Axel finds out that his childhood friend and ex-prisoner, Michael ‘Mikey’ Tandino, has broken in seeking help. Mikey had landed a job as a security guard in ...

Deadline Auto Theft (1983), an independent film written and directed by H.B. Halicki, tells the story of LAPD Captain Gibbs and master car thief Maindrian Pace. With new scenes featuring Hoyt Axton, the film is a fusion of Gone in 60 Seconds and The Junkman, along with original material. After an unsuccessful attempt to steal his daughter’s husband’s car, Captain Gibbs wages war against Pace, who uses his insurance investigation company as a cover for his illegal activities. A South American drug lord hires Pace and his team to steal 48 cars, prompting a race against time for both the thieves and the police ...

Sudden Impact (1983), an American neo-noir action thriller film and the fourth installment of the Dirty Harry series, follows artist Jennifer Spencer and her sister Beth as they are brutally attacked by a gang in 1973. Sadly, the attack leaves Beth catatonic. Ten years pass before Spencer takes matters into her own hands and takes revenge on one of the criminals, George Wilburn, in San Francisco. She then returns to her hometown of San Paulo to seek out the remaining criminals. Meanwhile, Inspector Harry Callahan is once again frustrated when a judge dismisses his case due to his direct methods. At his go-to diner, he manages to thwart a robbery and take down ...

Directed by Irvin Kershner, the spy film Never Say Never Again (1983) is adapted from Ian Fleming’s 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball, with inspiration from Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. Following a failed training exercise, MI6 agent James Bond is ordered by his superior M to undergo physical rehabilitation at a health clinic outside London. While there, he witnesses nurse Fatima Blush inflicting ...

Octopussy (1983), the thirteenth film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, marks the sixth time Roger Moore portrayed MI6 agent James Bond. The title of the film is derived from a short story in Ian Fleming’s collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights. While the overall plot is original, it does include an encounter with twin assassins Mischka and Grishka in East Berlin and the death of British agent 009, who was dressed as a circus clown and carrying a fake Fabergé egg. This incident leads MI6 to suspect Soviet ...

Clint Eastwood produced, directed, and starred in Firefox (1982), an American action techno-thriller film. Based on Craig Thomas’ novel of the same name, it follows a joint British-American mission to steal a highly advanced Soviet aircraft known as ‘Firefox’. Capable of hypersonic flight and equipped with thought-controlled weapons, this MiG-31 (NATO code name) is also invisible to radar. Mitchell Gant, a former Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war who can speak Russian due to his mother’s heritage, leads the infiltration aided by dissidents within ...

The independent action comedy film, The Junkman (1982), took two years to produce and features over 200 cars from H. B. Halicki’s personal collection. The plot centers on Harlan B. Hollis, who faces a life-threatening situation when his brother-in-law, a jealous public relations manager, hires assassins to eliminate him before the premiere of his latest film at the Cinerama Dome. At the start of the movie, head hitman Frank Spyros receives instructions for the hit on Hollis while he is driving to a festival in Cholame, California. Meanwhile, an unknown person watches a video showcasing Hollis’s life and then ...

The American action film First Blood (1982), directed by Ted Kotcheff and co-written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, follows Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. Based on David Morrell’s novel of the same name, which had been unsuccessfully attempted to be adapted in the 1970s by various directors and studios. After searching for his old comrade at a lake house, Rambo discovers that he passed away from cancer caused by Agent Orange exposure during the war over a year ago. He expresses his condolences to the ...

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) is an Australian post-apocalyptic dystopian action film directed by George Miller. Following a global war that resulted in oil shortages and ecocide, society crumbled and gave way to chaos. Now, Max Rockatansky, a former policeman haunted by the loss of his family, navigates the desert of Australia in his supercharged black V-8 Pursuit Special with his faithful Australian Cattle Dog. He cleverly outmaneuvers a group of marauders led by the deranged biker Wez using his driving skills and a sawed-off shotgun. In need of fuel, he takes some from the wrecked vehicles of one of his ...

Nighthawks (1981) is an American neo-noir action crime thriller film directed by Bruce Malmuth. An undercover NYPD Detective Sergeant Deke DaSilva of the Street Crimes Unit thwarts three armed attackers, with the help of his partner, Detective Sergeant Matthew Fox. DaSilva chases and subdues one of the assailants in a subway station before heading to London where a department store bombing takes place. Upon returning to New York City, DaSilva and Fox execute a high-risk warrant in the Bronx, uncovering corrupt police officers among drug dealers. After successfully making arrests, DaSilva expresses his love for his ...

Knightriders (1981), an American action drama film by George A. Romero, follows the story of Billy and his traveling motorcycle jousting troupe. As their leader, Billy takes on the persona of ‘King William’ and strives to uphold Arthurian ideals within the group. However, with the demands of modern life and financial struggles, tensions have started to rise among the troupe. Billy’s recurring dream of a black bird adds to his personal turmoil. To make matters worse, a promoter named Bontempi arrives and further complicates things. Despite being injured, Billy continues to push himself, causing even ...

For Your Eyes Only (1981), a spy film produced by Albert R. Broccoli and directed by John Glen (in his feature directorial debut), is the twelfth installment in the James Bond franchise from Eon Productions. The script, written by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson, is adapted from two Ian Fleming short stories – For Your Eyes Only and Risico. The British Ministry of Defence’s ...

The fourth and final installment of the Airport franchise, The Concorde… Airport ’79 (1979), is an American air disaster film. In this film, a corrupt arms dealer named Kevin Harrison attempts to destroy a newly launched American-owned Concorde. His motive? To cover up his weapons sales to communist countries during the height of the Cold War. The story follows reporter Maggie Whelan, who uncovers Harrison’s illegal activities while on board the flight. Despite facing obstacles such as environmental protestors flying a hot air balloon into its path and having to perform a go-around, the Concorde successfully takes off from Charles de Gaulle ...

The dystopian action film, Mad Max (1979), was directed by George Miller and produced by Byron Kennedy. Set in a near-future Australia facing a breakdown of civil order, caused by widespread oil shortages and ecocide, the film follows the story of Max Rockatansky. As a member of the poorly-funded Main Force Patrol (MFP), Max witnesses the death of a rookie officer at the hands of berserk motorbike gang member Crawford ‘Nightrider’ Montazano. Nightrider escapes with his girlfriend in the dead officer’s Pursuit Special, successfully eluding the MFP until ...

Moonraker (1979) is a spy-fi film, the eleventh in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It features Roger Moore as MI6 agent James Bond and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. Based on a screenplay manuscript originally devised by author Ian Fleming in 1954, the story follows Bond as he investigates the hijacking of a Drax Industries Moonraker Space Shuttle. M, head of MI6, assigns Bond to the case after the shuttle’s carrier aircraft is destroyed with no trace of the shuttle itself. During his ...

The Gauntlet (1977), an American action thriller directed by Clint Eastwood and starring both Eastwood and Sondra Locke, follows Ben Shockley, an alcoholic cop from Phoenix, as he is tasked with escorting witness Augustina ‘Gus’ Mally from Las Vegas. Shockley’s superior, Commissioner Edgar A. Blakelock, dismissively refers to Mally as a ‘nothing witness’ for a ‘nothing trial’. Despite Mally’s insistence that they are in danger of being killed in a planned hit, Shockley remains ...

Airport ’77 (1977), the third film in the Airport series, tells the story of wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens and his plan to reconnect with his estranged daughter and grandson by inviting them onto his private Boeing 747-100, Stevens’s Flight 23. The jetliner also carries priceless artwork from Stevens’s personal collection, which has caught the attention of a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers. In an attempt to hijack the aircraft, they lure Captain Don Gallagher away from the cockpit and release a sleeping gas into the cabin, knocking out everyone on board. Under Chambers’s control, the plane is flown to a deserted ...