Two men exchanging blows in Gareth Edwards' 'The Raid: Redemption' (2011).Image via PT Merantau Films
By
Marcel Ardivan
Published 28 minutes ago
Marcel is a writer who is passionate about most movies and series. He will watch anything that's good. He is a content manager by day and a videographer when needed. Marcel used to work at a major streaming service based in Asia Pacific as a Content Specialist and was the Distribution Manager for a local movie distribution company.
Sign in to your Collider account
Add Us On
follow
Follow
followed
Followed
Like
Like
Thread
Log in
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
Try something different:
Show me the facts
Explain it like I’m 5
Give me a lighthearted recap
Since its release in 1988, Die Hard has not just become a classic, but it has also refreshed the action genre in various ways. Bruce Willis' John McClane brings a mix of vulnerability, wit, and resilience that makes action heroes more relatable than just simply being invincible. The film's simple premise with a confined space and strong villain created a blueprint for countless films that followed in the years that followed.
Here, we take a look at films that push the limits of the genre and create something influential, just like Die Hard did. Each takes the core principles that Die Hard perfected, such as tight plotting, inventive action, and character-driven tension. Together, they show how action cinema has grown since 1988 without losing what made it great in the first place. These are not just big, loud spectacles: they are genuine thrill rides with their own dedicated fanbase.
10 ‘Face/Off’ (1997)
Nicolas Cage as Castor Troy and John Travolta as Sean Archer point guns at each other in a fight in Face/Off.Image via Paramount Pictures
Face/Off follows FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) and terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), who have been in a long game of cat-and-mouse until Archer finally apprehends Troy. However, right before his capture, Troy planted bombs across the city. The only way for Archer to find out his true plan is to infiltrate Troy's troupe by surgically swapping his face with his, as he has learned all his personality and mannerisms.
As one of the most inventive and bonkers action films of all time, the absurd premise is gelled together by John Woo's hyper-stylized action and the commitment from both Travolta and Cage. Audiences can see operatic slow-motion leaps, dual-wielded pistols in constant Mexican standoffs, and the two leads competing to chew the scenery. Like Die Hard, Face/Off delivers character-driven action, but amps up the spectacle into something tangible yet chaotic. It is an essential, over-the-top 1990s action classic.
9 ‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 follows The Bride (Uma Thurman) as she awakens from a coma after she was attacked during her marriage rehearsal by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She starts his revenge mission by going down the list of names, starting from Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), who now lives a suburban life, to O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), who is now a yakuza leader in Tokyo.
Inspired by martial arts films and exploitation films, Quentin Tarantino delivers a top-tier, positively excessive action film. From the raw, bone-crunching brutality of the fight with Vernita Green to the operatic, massive showdown in Tokyo, the fights are beautifully staged and full of personality. Anchored by a powerful performance by Uma Thurman, Kill Bill became an instant classic, sharing a similarity with Die Hard in how The Bride is a fully-realized, relatable figure that the audience can root for. Her enemies are also as fun and ruthless as the stoic, chilling German villain in John McTiernan's film.
8 ‘Speed’ (1994)
Keanu Reeves running away with fire in the background in Speed (1994)Image via 20th Century Studios
Speed follows LAPD officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) as he attempts to stop a vengeful bomber, played by Dennis Hopper, who rigs a city bus with an explosive that will detonate if the speed drops below 50 mph. Jack, with the help of Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock), one of the passengers, scrambles to keep everyone alive while dealing with various obstacles thrown at them.
Speed is a worthy contemporary of Die Hard for its pure, unrelenting high-concept execution. It takes one brilliantly simple premise and stretches it into a masterclass of escalating tension. Similar to Die Hard, it confines its hero to a one space for most of the movie and watches him improvise against an intelligent adversary. The practical stunts are jaw-dropping, and the stakes are always high. Just like Die Hard put Bruce Willis among iconic action heroes, Speed cemented Keanu Reeves as one of Hollywood's action men.
7 ‘John Wick’ (2014)
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) checks into the Continental Hotel.Image via Summit Entertainment
John Wick follows the titular character played by Keanu Reeves, who’s pulled back into the criminal underworld after a group of gangsters steal his car and kill the dog left to him by his late wife. The young, arrogant gangster Iosef (Alfie Allen) is oblivious to the legend of John Wick. His father, Viggo (Michael Nyqvist), attempts to make peace, but John refuses and unleashes mayhem against New York's shadowy assassin network.
If Die Hard puts its main character in the wrong place and at the wrong time, this film puts Wick's adversaries there. Audiences can witness how Wick tears down every assassin one by one to exact his revenge like an inevitability. John Wick also reinvented action choreography and style for modern audiences; the gun-fu style is fast, clean, and brutally efficient, shot with long takes that let the audience see Wick’s skill without quick editing to hide the blows. Ultimately, John Wick evolved into a full-blown, four-film saga that gets better with each installment, making it one of the most essential action movies of the 2010s.
6 ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (2007)
Image via Universal Pictures
The Bourne Ultimatum follows Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) on his final hunt for the truth about his past and the Treadstone program that made him. As Bourne outruns assassins and intelligence teams across Europe and Morocco with the help of ex-agent Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) and CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), his journey brings him back to New York, where he confronts the black ops program and its creator to finally piece together the final puzzle in his memory.
As one of the best American spy films, The Bourne Ultimatum closes the trilogy with a satisfying finish. Paul Greengrass' ultra-kinetic shaky cam brings intensity and also a sense of rhythm to the action. The style is often imitated by lesser directors, but here it feels purposeful to put the viewers in Bourne's psyche. The chase through Tangier and the Waterloo Station sequence are all masterclasses in momentum. Similar to John McClane, who improvises a lot when he faces Hans Gruber, Jason Bourne is the ultimate improviser, turning every object into a weapon, including a telephone book.
5 ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991)
Image via Tri-Star Pictures
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a reprogrammed T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back in time to protect John Connor (Edward Furlong) from a new, advanced killing machine, the liquid-metal T-1000 (Robert Patrick). Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who is imprisoned in a mental asylum, joins John and the T-800 in Los Angeles as they attempt to dismantle Skynet’s future.
Terminator 2 earns its reputation through a blend of groundbreaking effects, stunning set pieces, and story-driven action. Every major sequence pushes the characters forward while showcasing James Cameron’s mastery of clean, comprehensible staging. Like Die Hard before it, T2 continued its care for character-driven and story-driven action filmmaking. The movie stands as one of the best sequels ever made, and arguably the best entry in the Terminator franchise to date, one of the genre’s gold standards that never sacrifices heart for mere spectacle.
4 ‘Casino Royale’ (2006)
James Bond (Daniel Craig) stands before a villa wearing a sharp three-piece suit as he stands over a fallen adversary flaunting a cold glare and a sub-machine gun in 'Casino Royale' (2006).Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
Casino Royale reboots the double O agent, with James Bond (Daniel Craig) freshly minted as an MI6 agent. His first mission is to pursue Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a financier for global terrorism. Aided by Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) and his CIA ally Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), Bond joins a high-stakes poker game where he must outplay Le Chiffre, a man who survives on winning.
Since Die Hard, there have been nine James Bonds, but Casino Royale is the first one to make the suave agent vulnerable like a regular human, similar to John McClane. Here, Bond is not only concerned with looking good and seducing women; instead, he relies on raw physicality and his ability to survive in impossible scenarios. The action sequences are spectacular, as seen in the parkour sequence and the airport chase scene. The quieter poker sequences are also surprisingly intense and purposeful to the character and story. Casino Royale earns its place not only as one of the best James Bond films but also as one of the best action efforts in recent memory.
3 ‘The Matrix’ (1999)
Keanu Reeves firing a minigun in The Matrix (1999)Image via Warner Bros.
The Matrix follows Neo (Keanu Reeves), a hacker who discovers that the world he lives in is a simulated reality created to enslave humanity. As Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) free him from the illusion, Neo joins the war against machines and has to embrace his destiny as The One.
The Matrix introduces a whole new and fascinating world. Its main character is not simply at the wrong place and at the wrong time; he is in the wrong reality. The Wachowskis created a game-changing film where philosophy, action, and groundbreaking visuals combine as one. The famous bullet-time sequence employs a unique technique that has been widely imitated ever since. The complex storytelling is refreshing as it refuses to dumb down its ideas for the audience; instead, it invites the audience to ponder them. The Matrix is one of those movies that is simply perfect from start to finish.
2 ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)
One of the War Boys cheering, hanging off the hood of the "Razor Cola" in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).Image via Warner Bros.
Mad Max: Fury Road plunges Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) into a relentless desert chase alongside Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), who disobeyed orders and escaped with Immortan Joe's (Hugh Keays-Bryne) enslaved wives. Driving the massive War Rig, they are chased by three factions across the barren, cruel wasteland.
In Mad Max: Fury Road, the Wasteland becomes Max and Furiosa's Nakatomi Plaza in that they are trapped with nowhere to go while their enemies close in. This George Miller film is deceptively simple by setting the story as basically one long chase. However, its practical stunts, filmmaking techniques and harsh production made it a modern masterpiece. Mad Max: Fury Road reinvigorated blockbuster action by promoting clarity in action sequences and the usage of practical stunts and effects. It’s a rare action movie where the set pieces are the storytelling, earning it a spot in the same lineage of tightly engineered, high-stakes thrills.
1 ‘The Raid’ (2011)
Iko Uwais in 'The Raid: Redemption'Image via PT Merantau Films
The Raid follows a SWAT team as they launch an assault on a high-rise apartment building controlled by ruthless crime lord Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy). The carefully planned operation quickly descends into mayhem when their presence is exposed, leaving the team trapped inside the building with no backup and hundreds of armed criminals closing in. The focus shifts to the rookie officer, Rama (Iko Uwais), who must survive on instinct and endurance.
The premise closely follows Die Hard but amps it up with relentless fight scenes, stripping the genre down to its basic form with action that tells the story. The fight choreography, which uses pencak silat, is fast and vicious, captured elegantly in refreshingly legible shots despite its claustrophobic setting. Just like what Die Hard did to John McClane, The Raid forces Rama to adapt and endure rather than simply overpowering his enemies. The Raid has been cited as one of the best Indonesian cinema imports and one of the most influential action movies in modern cinema.
The Raid: Redemption
R
Action
Thriller
Crime
Release Date
March 23, 2012
Cast
Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Ray Sahetapy, Tegar Satrya, Iang Darmawan, Eka 'Piranha' Rahmadia, Verdi Solaiman, Godfred Orindeod, Rully Santoso, Melkias Ronald Torobi, Johanes Tuname, Sofyan Alop, R. Iman Aji, Ananda George, Yusuf Opilus, Mus Danang Danar Dono, Sunarto, Hanggi Maisya, Zaenal Arifin, Abraham Joshua B. Sitompul, Aji Setianto, Fachrudin Midun
Runtime
101 minutes
Director
Gareth Evans
Writers
Gareth Evans
Genres
Action, Thriller, Crime
Powered by
Expand
Collapse
-
Movie
-
The Raid: Redemption
What To Watch
July 20, 2025
The 72 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
Trending Now
As a James Bond Fan, Here’s How I’d Rank All 27 Movies
2:07
The Tension Between 'Castle's Co-Stars Was a Lot Darker Than You Remember
The 35 Best Movie Franchises to Binge Watch
