Discover how contemporary film—and the action genre in particular—evolved from behind-the-scenes antics and production quirks in classic action movies. Heck, an entire college course could be taught on Arnold Schwarzenegger alone. But we’ll focus on a variety of performances and stories in certain action films from the late 1970s to the 1990s.

If you’re a film nerd, we think you’ll love these 10 background stories. If you haven’t seen these masterpieces yet, what are you waiting for?

Spoiler Alert: Obviously, we’ll reveal information about the movies on this list. If you haven’t seen a particular film and don’t want to know what happens, then skip that entry and go to the next one. You’ve been warned.

Top 10 Action Movies To Laugh Out Loud To

10 Mad Max (1979)

Mad Max was way ahead of its time and so audacious that the film was banned in its native Australia upon release. Before delving into the fascinating history of the actual production, we need to talk about Mel Gibson. Although most actors can go from 1 to 10, Gibson has always had a knack for going to 1,000.

Born in Peekskill, New York, he moved with his family at a young age to Australia. At age 23, Gibson was a relatively unknown soap opera actor. Apparently, he got into a violent bar fight and his face was badly bruised.

Before his face healed, Gibson drove his friend Steve Bisley to a Mad Max audition. (Costar Bisley wound up playing Jim Goose in the movie.) Meanwhile, Gibson was quickly cast as a “freak” side character.

Time went by, and Gibson’s wounds healed. When production began, his buddy got booted to a supporting role and Gibson snagged the lead. Additionally, the director, George Miller, was an emergency room doctor who based the movie’s violent car crashes on what he had seen in real life.^[1]

The nitty-gritty relatability of the original film’s dystopia is accidental. It feels so close in time—yet so far away—because Miller and his producing partner, Byron Kennedy, opted to set the plot in the future. A modern version would have needed many more extras, buildings, and permits. It was cheaper and easier to film in the Australian outback.

Although plenty of great car chases came from that film era (Bullitt, The French Connection), Mad Max is in a class of its own with its belligerent, human-driven madness that revs as loud as the drag-style stunt cars. For about 20 years, Mad Max was the most profitable film ever made (based on the ratio of its budget to box office receipts).

9 First Blood (1982)

This movie is often mistakenly called Rambo. However, the technically correct title is First Blood. Based on a book by David Morrell, the film script made the rounds in Hollywood for a decade with names like Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, and Robert De Niro almost signing on.

It took a $3.5 million paycheck and permission to do a rewrite for Sylvester Stallone, still riding high from the massive success of Rocky, to officially get on board. With stellar performances from Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, and a cantankerous Jack Starrett, the film dives much deeper than just explosions and violence.^[2]

In fact, John Rambo doesn’t actually kill anyone in the first film. It was a new form of storytelling that touched upon what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was called “shell shock” at the start of the 20th century.

First Blood wonderfully weaves together a story of power-abusing cops, the repercussions of coming home from an unpopular war, and the ravages of PTSD, anxiety, paranoia, and outright animalistic self-defense. All the sequels are enjoyable romps with lots of blood and guts, but the original has soul. The veteran just wanted to get some food, cops had to play their games, and the town of Hope, Washington, practically got wiped off the map.

8 Speed (1994)

Before he was Neo or John Wick, Keanu Reeves (the “nicest guy in the world”) started out in 1989 as the goofy Ted Logan from the classic Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Then director Kathryn Bigelow cast the young Reeves as the iconic Agent Utah in Point Break. That propelled his career toward the action star that he would eventually become.

Speed, directed by Jan de Bont, was based on a story written by Akira Kurosawa that became the film Runaway Train. As most studio-driven screenplays are constantly changing, the initial versions of Speed have quite an array of differences.

Although the script was originally written by Graham Yost, the dialogue was almost completely redone by a young and uncredited Joss Whedon. Jeff Daniels’s character, Harry, was intended to be the bad guy. But his performance was so endearing that the producers thought he would be unbelievable as a villain.^[3]

During test screenings, audience members were so entranced by the nonstop action that they walked backward if they had to use the bathroom. They didn’t want to miss a moment.

Speed solidified Reeves’s status as an action star, while Sandra Bullock charmed the world in her role as Annie Porter. (She learned how to drive a bus before shooting.) And no one can forget the wily, hypnotizing performance by Dennis Hopper as mad bomber Howard Payne.

7 The Terminator (1984)

James Cameron’s first film (he has disowned his actual directorial debut, Piranha II: The Spawning) was inspired by a vivid nightmare he had. With a budget of only $6 million, The Terminator is an impressive film from a production point of view because it was technically an indie at the time.

According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, O.J. Simpson was supposed to be the Cyberdyne Systems T-800 Model 101. But Cameron, notoriously outspoken and occasionally crass, denied it by stating that he had sacked the idea before it even got to the table. Either way, they both acknowledge that O.J. was mentioned at some point.

The special effects are fascinating. The tanker truck explosions scene was composed of dozens of shots with a miniature model. In the opening sequence, the skulls that were crushed to dust were actually as small as marbles.^[4]

Cameron cast mostly unknowns to keep the budget low. (Arnie really only had Conan under his belt at the time.) The relatively unknown Linda Hamilton, playing the unstoppable Sarah Connor, became Cameron’s fourth wife a decade later.

6 Con Air (1997)

When Nic Cage tells you to put the bunny back in the box, you do it. Directed by Simon West, this eccentric 1990s masterpiece has the most impressive cast of any film on this list. John Cusack’s and Steve Buscemi’s roles were explicitly written for them.

However, John Malkovich’s wonderfully psychotic Cyrus the Virus character was almost played by Gary Oldman. Cage also had some tough competition for his role. But doing most of his own stunts throughout the film solidified him as a blockbuster action star.

In the original script, the plane was supposed to hit the White House. However, the producers opted for Vegas for two reasons. First, it was more plausible geographically. Second, you could buy a “dead” casino and thrash it to pieces back then because the Las Vegas Strip was undergoing rapid reconstruction.^[5]

10 Real-Life Costs Of Action Movies

5 Die Hard (1988)

As the first film in one of the finest action franchises, Die Hard is also the best Christmas movie ever made. To top off the accolades, this masterpiece came from a notable director of the 1980s and ’90s, John McTiernan (Predator, The Hunt for Red October).

Based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, Die Hard just keeps getting better with age. Bruce Willis kills it as John McClane. How can you not love his wisecracking, misanthropic detective character?

However, the true legend of Die Hard is none other than the late Alan Rickman’s villain, Hans Gruber. Rickman meticulously made the character his own, insisting on business attire for Gruber instead of the mercenary clothing worn by his goons. Rickman approached the role thinking that Gruber wasn’t really all that bad. Gruber knew what he wanted and focused on getting it.^[6]

In the famous scene where Gruber falls from the top of Nakatomi Plaza (which was really 20th Century Fox’s corporate headquarters), the stunt coordinators purposely miscounted the drop per McTiernan’s instructions. That way, Rickman would be caught off guard by the fall. The classic expression on his face is genuine.

Then there are the glass scenes. Poor McClane’s bare feet are always cringeworthy, and they should be. Including all the destruction with explosions, gunfire, and painful footsteps, Die Hard’s producers shelled out around $130,000 just on glass.

4 The Rock (1996)

The Rock, one of Sir Sean Connery’s favorite films, is everything an action movie should be. Another 1990s film that used practically every actor available in Hollywood, The Rock is bonkers blockbuster. Nic Cage ad-libs most of his dialogue. Ed Harris shouts his way through a great performance as Connery and Cage complement each other amazingly.

Connery even insisted that a cabin be built on Alcatraz Island during the shoot because he simply could not be bothered with the commute. Famed film scribe Aaron Sorkin was also involved, although he was uncredited. According to sources, Sorkin “wrote great dialogue.”^[7] A fun fan theory suggests that Connery’s Mason character is really a geriatric James Bond.

3 Lethal Weapon (1987)

“I’m getting too old for this sh—t.”

Let’s start with some trivia. Roger Murtaugh (played perfectly by Danny Glover) never utters that line in the original Lethal Weapon, though he does say it in the sequels. In the first movie, Murtaugh sighs, “I’m too old for this sh—t.”^[8]

Glover costars as the reluctant action hero while Mel Gibson gives a wild dog, tour-de-force performance that justifies all the sequels (even though none were up to par). Although it’s hard to imagine, Gibson’s role of Martin Riggs almost went to Jeff Goldblum or Patrick Swayze.

While shooting the scene where Riggs puts a pistol to his head and contemplates suicide, Gibson in all his glorious madness had a blank in the chamber to make the performance more intense. (Blanks are dangerous; that’s how Brandon Lee died in The Crow.) Meanwhile, Gary Busey channeled the soulless eyes of a shark to perfectly execute his performance as the mercenary Mr. Joshua.

Surprisingly, Leonard Nimoy was offered the director’s chair that wound up going to Richard Donner. Throughout the franchise, Donner made political references in the films to racism and apartheid, which caused him to receive many death threats.

On a lighter note, let’s not forget Gibson’s homage to The Three Stooges. It made his unhinged character somewhat grounded and lovable.

2 The Matrix (1999)

We didn’t want to genre-blend in this list, but The Matrix has to be mentioned. Action movies, and films in general, have never been the same since this masterpiece. The Wachowskis crafted arguably the greatest action movie of all time.

Starting production on a gamble, they wanted an $80 million budget but only got $10 million. Rolling the dice, they spent the entire $10 million on the opening sequence with Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity character obliterating several SWAT officers. It took six months of training and four days to shoot. The studio saw it, loved it, and greenlit the rest of the initial budget.^[9]

The revolutionary “bullet-time” effect was created especially for the film and needed 120 cameras to complete. It also took 10 squib-ridden days to shoot the infamous “lobby scene.” And for anyone wondering, no, The Matrix wasn’t shot in the States but in Sydney, Australia.

1 Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)

“Yippee-ki-yay!”

Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson make for an outstanding pair in the only sequel ever made by the legendary John McTiernan. Willis personally requested Jackson for the part. It’s pure brilliance. Shamefully, you almost forget Hans Gruber in favor of his equally sociopathic brother, Simon Gruber, perfectly played by Jeremy Irons after Sean Connery turned down the role.^[10]

We love most that the New York City featured throughout the film is a remnant of a bygone era when Rudy Giuliani was still mayor there. During this wild shoot, the stunt team really blasted a sideways subway car traveling over 72 kilometers per hour (45 mph) at stunt extras.

Honestly, Die Hard With A Vengeance goes toe to toe with the original . . . just on steroids.

10 Great Cheesy Action Movies of the ’90s

When it comes to action movies, bigger is always better. For this reason, directors must seek out new and exciting ways to create massive explosions, car, plane and helicopter crashes as well as memorable over-the-top villains and swoon-worthy heroes. For instance, if you consider where the Fast & Furious franchise started and the direction it took after the fourth movie, it becomes fairly obvious that action movie fans love well… action. And a LOT of it.

With all that action on screen, there is bound to be some hidden and not-so-hidden behind-the-scenes details that sometimes find their way into the actual film. On this list are just a few, perhaps lesser known facts, that make action movies even more interesting.
Potential spoilers ahead.

10 Movies Based On Common Misconceptions

10 The Expendables—2010

Although the first movie in the Expendables franchise received lukewarm reviews in 2010, it became an instant hit with action movie fans and a massive commercial success. Starring big names such as Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li and Mickey Rourke, the plot entails a group of elite mercenaries who work together to overthrow a Latin American dictator.

Filming didn’t come without behind-the-scenes drama, however. Stallone reportedly suffered at least 14 injuries, including a neck fracture that left him with a metal plate in his neck. The injury reportedly happened during a fight scene with Steve Austin. And at one point, Austin was standing too close to a stunt explosion and his leg would have been blown clean off if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was standing next to a heavy-duty airbag which took most of the hit.^[1]

9 John Wick—2014

When John Wick exploded onto screens in 2014, fans couldn’t get enough of Keanu Reeves’ portrayal of Wick. The violent action flick scored a cool 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and people queued in long lines at movie theaters to see the character dubbed Baba Yaga or the ‘boogeyman’ in action. However, Baba Yaga isn’t actually a version of the boogeyman. Instead it is a mythical Russian witch who lures people into her home before eating them. She walks around on chicken legs, travels by means of a flying mortar and the hut she lives in is protected by a fence constructed of human bones.

Somehow, I don’t think John Wick would have had quite the same impact on fans if he had been running around on chicken legs.^[2]

8 Rise of the Planet of the Apes – 2011

Ceasar is arguably the most popular character in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The extremely intelligent and loyal chimpanzee suffers abuse inside an animal shelter alongside many other great apes. Eventually, during an uprising, the apes escape the shelter and its abusive staff and establish a new home in the forest.

The scene in which Ceasar says his first word, “no”, pays tribute to past films released in the 70s. Rise of the Planet of the Apes also brings the franchise together in the scene where a spaceship is launched. This ship is meant to recall Heston’s crew which had gone off on a mission in Planet of the Apes.

Furthermore, after the apes break free from their prison, four leaders appear in a single shot: Maurice, Ceasar, Buck and Rocket. Together they represent the four species of apes, namely: Bonobo, Chimpanzee, Gorilla and Orangutan.^[3]

7 Mad Max: Fury Road – 2015

This over-the-top post-apocalyptic movie scored big with fans worldwide, grossing almost 400 million. Producers have been champing at the bit to make the film since 1997, but every time they were about to get started, a stumbling block was thrown their way. In 2001, just as they were ready to begin filming, 9/11 happened. By the time they were ready again in 2003, the Iraq War thew a spanner in the works.

The movie was finally completed in 2013 and the premiere took place in May 2015. It was clear to see the effort that had gone into the making of the movie with more than 80% of the stunts and effects being real and not created with the help of CGI.

Fury Road also caused some controversy with people complaining about what they claimed to be a pro-feminist agenda pushed in the film. The complaint stemmed from the amount of screen time given to Charlize Theron’s character and the fact that Eve Ensler material was used. Ensler is the author of The Vagina Monologues. There was even a call for a boycott of the film by Men’s Rights Activists.^[4]

6 Interstellar—2014

Science fiction action film, Interstellar, was an absolute hit at the box office in 2014 and its ending left viewers gaping at the screen.

Any movie set in space requires a lot of research and the ideas that formed the core of Interstellar’s plot came from Dr. Kip Thorne, a theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. He agreed that his ideas may be used but insisted that no content in the movie contradict the laws of science and that any scientific speculation would be provided by a scientist and not a screenwriter. This didn’t stop filmmaker, Christopher Nolan, from deciding that the characters should travel faster than the speed of light. It took Thorne a full two weeks to dissuade Nolan from that notion.^[5]

10 Shocking Weight Transformations By Actors For Films

5 Furious 7—2015

Furious 7 is the seventh instalment of the Fast & Furious franchise but will forever be known as the last film to feature the late Paul Walker. Walker was in the process of filming scenes for Furious 7 when he died in a car crash on 30 November 2013. James Wan directed the movie and it ended up grossing over 1.5 billion dollars worldwide, the highest-grossing franchise film in only two weeks.

What some may find surprising is that Paul Walker wasn’t the filmmakers’ first choice to play Brian O’Conner. Instead they considered Eminem, Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale before finally settling on Walker. After the release of Furious 7, it was revealed that Denzel Washington had been offered a role in the movie which he turned down. The role then went to Kurt Russell.^[6]

4 Baby Driver – 2017

Baby Driver is not your average paint-by-numbers action flick. Instead, it combines a killer soundtrack and an unexpected, partially hearing-impaired hero for a violent yet original thrill-ride that movie-goers loved.

Director, Edgar Wright, came up with the idea for Baby Driver in 1994 when he heard the song “Bellbottoms” by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosions. This same song can be heard during the opening sequence of the movie. He was further inspired by a lot of movies that featured car chases including The Italian Job, Vanishing Point, Smokey and the Bandit, and The Blues Brothers.

It also took at least 18 months to get clearance for the music tracks featured in the movie, before shooting could even start, beginning with popular duo Simon & Garfunkel.^[7]

3 The First Purge – 2018

Serving as a prequel to the previous three films in the franchise, The First Purge further explores the movement to push the crime rate in America below 1% for a year by allowing 12 hours of lawlessness. While this dystopian action horror movie is definitely not for the faint of heart and is referred to by many as a B-movie in disguise, it has somewhat of a cult following. The series to date has earned more than 300 million dollars and cost only 23 million to make.

James DeMonaco was involved in creating and directing all the Purge movies with the exception of The First Purge. When DeMonaco was a child, he became obsessed with the Manson murders and has admitted that the insane Manson cult still has an influence over everything that he writes.

Even with the absence of DeMonaco in The First Purge, there is still a lot of small details and symbolism included that fans may have missed the first time they watched the film. For instance, a poster for the 2018 Halloween movie can be seen during a scene in The First Purge, but this muddles up the timeline for the movie itself as the Purge was meant to have been established in 2017.

There is also a recurring blue motif in The First Purge that becomes almost overpowering once you notice it. It colors the New Founding Fathers of America’s campaign signs, flags and pins. There are mercenaries wearing blue hoodies and even bright blue contact lenses for Isaiah who is bathed in blue light and framed against blue walls.^[8]

2 6 Underground—2019

6 Underground made its debut on Netflix and stars Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Corey Hawkins and Dave Franco. Directed by Michael Bay, this film follows an American billionaire (played by Reynolds) who fakes his own death and forms a vigilante squad to take out terrorists and other violent criminals.

While the movie’s reviews weren’t all that great, most action fans love it. It was shot in Abu Dhabi and includes all the features that makes an action movie: loud explosions, car crashes and impossibly attractive people. In other words, a typical Michael Bay film.

It was Michael Bay’s first effort for Netflix and the streaming giant’s second most expensive film after Bright, starring Will Smith. The movie stars real-life UAE soldiers that stand in as extras and the military also provided aircraft for use in several scenes. The yacht seen in the film was rented from Shahid Khan, a Pakistani-American billionaire who owns Flex-N-Gate and the NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars.^[9]

1 Bad Boys for Life—2020

Fans of the Bad Boys movies waited patiently for 17 years for the third film to see the light of day. Bad Boys for Life was released early 2020 and grossed over 400 million dollars. It is also the highest-grossing movie released in January.

Michael Bay directed the first two Bad Boys movies, but the third was directed by Adil El Arbi and Billal Farrah, two young Belgian directors. Will Smith was co-producer alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and Doug Belgrad. Bay had a small cameo as a wedding MC in the film which he directed himself using his well-known 360-degree camera angle. This scene creates a plot hole however, since Bay also had a cameo in the second movie in which he plays the driver of a car hijacked by Mike and Marcus.

It was also because of Michael Bay’s constant fighting with the studio during the first Bad Boys movie, that a sequel and consequent third film ever saw the light. Bay complained that he had to battle the studio to get a lot of creative choices approved. He also had multiple fights with the crew who tried to resist Bay’s unique scene cut method. This method was eventually imitated by other directors after the release of the first film.^[10]

Top 10 Disturbing Movies You’ve Never Heard Of

At the end of the 1970s, merchandise from the Star Wars trilogy sent the toy market into a spin. Using characters from the movies, action figures took on a whole new money-making life of their own. Once large doll-like objects, primarily with military themes, these scaled-down characters were a fresh new take. This led to an action-figure frenzy.

From galactic warriors to hulking fantasy barbarians, it seemed like every month heralded the arrival of a new line. With movie and animation tie-ins, plastic maquettes flooded the shelves for the next decade. But, while some defined our childhood, not all were wanted and sat lingering in shops for some time.

Related: 10 Terrifying Toys From The Past

10 Teenage Mutant Turtles—Toon Burne

The array of Turtles figures released to capitalize on their initial success was huge. However, it followed a simple, rough formula. This included taking an anthropomorphic character, much like the Turtles themselves, and giving it some kind of gimmick. At one point, the consumer demand for new figures was so high new characters came that had not even been featured in the animated series. These included crazy concepts like a Shakespeare-loving lion and a firefighting dalmatian dog.

But none of these was as uninspired as Toon Burne. Part of a toon line that aimed itself at a younger audience, Burne was the boss of the Channel 6 news station that often-covered stories about the Turtles. A bedraggled, overweight, middle-aged man, it is quite unknown why someone assumed this would attract younger buyers. Just to make sure, they packaged him with an exciting array of items. Sandwich and typewriter, anyone?^[1]

9 WWF Space Domination—Marc Mero

There are several lines and individual figures that WWE, or its former company name WWF, could have on this list. From Bret the Hitman Hart dressed as a 1930s gangster to the hideous Maximum Sweat line (yes, action figures that sweat), some true abominations have existed in the name of sports entertainment. However, none has been as boring as Marc Mero in space.

As part of the Space Domination Stomp 3 line, some wrestlers may have sported space versions. The Legion of Doom, with their post-apocalypse armor, fit the model anyway. Even The Undertaker of the future is a cool idea. Yet quite why mid-carder Marc Mero got a figure is unfathomable.

Sporting an outfit comprised of old washing machine parts, it was one of the few action figures of the wrestler to ever exist. Oddly, his wife Sable also has a figure in the same line, with her in a bikini accompanied by very little else. Unsurprisingly, most children didn’t feel the need to send their favorite superstars into space, not least Marc Mero, and the line soon vanished.^[2]

8 G.I. Joe—The Fridge

One of the most interesting things about G.I. Joe figures was the many occupations they had. Included on the backing card, each would let you know who the character was, if they were good or bad, and their role or specialism. In the early days, this was exciting as you got jobs you would expect in the military. Yet as the line went on, these jobs became wackier and more out there. At some point, it was decided G.I. Joe needed a real-life celebrity to be their physical training instructor.

William “The Fridge” Perry played defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears. A huge man, he was the heaviest person to ever score a touchdown in a Superbowl and has the largest Superbowl ring size in history. He is also the second real-life person, after Sgt Slaughter, to get their own G.I Joe figure.

The figure was available as a Hasbro mail-away promotion in 1986, though the figures arrived in 1987. Complete with an American football on a chain, it remains to be seen how well he would fare on the battlefield against Cobra with this unique weapon.^[3]

7 Beach Spiderman

After saving the universe from Thanos and clearing the city of Kingpin’s criminal empire, even superheroes need to relax. That includes everyone’s favorite web-slinger, and while fans of Spidey may think relaxing on a rooftop with a pizza is his favorite way to chill, it is actually going to the beach. But only if you believe everything this figure tells you.

We are not sure why Spiderman wouldn’t just change to Peter Parker. Instead, he decides to wear a vest, keep his mask on and slip on some Spiderman board shorts. The figure also comes with lifeguard gear, such as a float and a handy beachball if the time comes when he wants to play volleyball with other heroes.

Part of the Adventure Hero line, it may not even be the weirdest figure. A colonial-era safari suit worn over his lycra is included with one toy, and an inline skater Spiderman is another. ^[4]

6 Masters of the Universe—Astro Lion

The Transformers are a hugely successful toy line that arrived in the eighties and was a piece of marketing genius. These toys had been licensed from existing plans for various Japanese transforming robots. Once a backstory and animation were in place, mass sales soon followed. A craze for transforming figures arrived, and you would soon find them all over.

Masters of the Universe was another popular toy line of the decade. Yet when its popularity wavered, it decided to also try this tactic. One of its new factions was The Meteorbs. Based on a series of Japanese transforming eggs known as Tamagoras, they looked extremely out of place with the bulky mass of He-Man and his companions.

Astro Lion arrived later in the line’s popularity and was an attempt to try something that would keep consumers interested. However, a scrawny lion that changed into an egg was not something fans were ready for, particularly in a line that already had the iconic and fearsome Battle Cat.

This oddity was not the only transforming figure the line would try either. Stonedar and Rokkon were in the franchise and were heroes who transformed into exciting rocks. If you think this is a boring concept, then a whole other line of toys by Tonka would try this with their “Rocklords.” ^[5]

5 Star Wars—Power Droid

Star Wars is well known to have dredged every extra and background character in the race for new action figure material. Despite not being the most exciting, most could at least interact with other figures and serve a purpose. Few of them had an existence as pointless as the power droid.

A walking battery, the toy looked nothing like it did in the movie. It had very little articulation and was essentially a box on legs. Most people knew them as gonk droids because of the familiar noise they made in the movie. This meant that when the figure was on sale, no one knew what it was at all. The only positive thing that can be said about it is that it was one of the few figures that could stand on its own feet.^[6]

4 Transformers—Beast Machines Silverbolt

The Transformers have great skill when it comes to making quite seemingly boring items cool. For example, one of its most iconic characters turns into a tape recorder. Yet occasionally, some mishaps have occurred in its long pedigree of excellent figures. One of them was the nerfing of Silverbolt.

Silverbolt was one of the Fuzors, a blend of two beast forms. In plain language, he was in the Beast Wars cartoon and was half wolf, half eagle, which made for a mean-looking toy. Coupled with his penchant for paladin-like verse, he was one of the standouts in the whole line. That was until the follow-up line Beast Machines when he would become what can only be described as a cartoon parrot.

In robot mode, Silverbolt looked bad. He had a small shapeless head, large paws, and a sword made from his translucent wings. Yet it was easy to see that this is why he was packaged in robot form, as his animal transformation was even worse. A vomit-colored cockatoo, his arms look like the last spicy wings in the bottom of the bucket.^[7]

3 Dune Sandworm

You can come to your own sordid conclusions about what the Dune Sandworm looks like. Before its modern update, Dune had an outing directed by David Lynch. With a huge budget, it was slated to be the next Star Wars but ended up as a commercial flop.

The original toy line was created by LJN, a company now retrospectively scoffed at for how bad some of their figures were. They had atrocious console games and were responsible for a line of wrestling figures with no articulation.

Yet this long, bendable sandworm has to take the crown. It is astounding how no one at the company vetoed it before its release. In the scheme of phallus-shaped toys, it comes in second only to the ET finger light…^[8]

2 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves—Friar Tuck

One scheme crafty toy companies use to save money is to reuse the molds of previously released action figures. For example, He Man’s Battle Cat was originally a cast used with the Big Jim series of toys. Yet when it came to figures for the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie, it seemed like manufacturers Kenner really couldn’t be bothered creating anything new at all.

Robin himself was recast from a Green Arrow figure used in the DC Superpowers line. Another entry was a treetop playset that was repurposed from an Ewok hideout. However, it was one of Star Wars’ most iconic figures, the Gamorrean Guard, who took the biggest insult.

All the company did was replace the head with that of a fat drunk and sell it as Friar Tuck. Not only was he one of the most uninteresting characters in the movie, but he also didn’t even get a new figure.^[9]

1 Indiana Jones—German Mechanic

Making figures for the Indiana Jones films seemed like an obvious choice. It was another George Lucas trilogy that was going to be a smash hit. Kenner, the makers of Star Wars, also had the license. What could go wrong?

The problem was that once children had Indy himself, the other characters were not that interesting after that. Where Star Wars had weird and wonderful aliens that fired the imagination, Indiana Jones just had people. Enter the German Mechanic.

This character appears in Raiders of the Lost Ark and engages in a fistfight with the main character. However, his clumsiness sees him get cut up by the propellor of a plane fairly quickly. And that is his narrative arc.

His figure is even more uninspiring. The ripped physique of the actor has turned into a flabby, balding middle-aged man who has taken his shirt off. How could it fail to prize pocket money from children?^[10]

We know that action movies – like all other fictional works of art – are supposed to be a dramatized version of reality. They’re not meant to be real, as what would be the point of watching a movie that just mimics reality as it is? Action movies get many things wrong, though most of us don’t really think about the inaccuracies because they’re movies. 

It’s a problem, however, when the myths perpetuated by these movies cause problems in real life; like, say, during times of disaster. People still respond to emergency medical situations based on what they saw in a movie once, which is almost certain to be wrong, as action movie writers are hardly qualified to accurately portray emergency medical procedures. 

10. Cars Are Fragile

If you’ve only seen cars in action movies, you’d think that they’re terribly fragile machines. Cars seem to blow up at the slightest provocation, like collisions with other cars, falling off a cliff, even gunshots to their fully-reinforced-metal exterior, which is how most people assume cars are in real life. 

As it happens, cars are one of the most battle-tested machines you can own. They’ve got to go through multiple strength tests before they can enter the market, and it’s quite difficult to make one blow up even if you tried. In fact, Mythbusters have proven multiple times that it’s damn near impossible to blow up a car, even with serious explosives. 

It’s a great example of movie myths causing problems in real life. When cars do catch fire, most people nearby assume that it’s going to blow up instead of saving the victims. 

9. Gunshots Are A Certain Death Sentence

Most people don’t know anything about how guns or gunshots work, as most people don’t live in active war zones. That doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be common knowledge, however, as you never know when that information could come in handy. 

Whatever you know about guns likely comes from the movies, and while some movies do make a genuine effort to portray guns realistically and responsibly, most of them don’t. Guns in movies are usually instant killing machines, knocking you off your feet and immediately rendering you dead. As you can guess, gunshots wounds in real life aren’t like that at all. They’re often perfectly treatable, and just require some care to even completely heal in a short time. Just ask a veteran.

8. Miranda Rights

When it comes to police procedures, it seems that action movie writers just don’t have access to proper material for research. Just take Miranda rights – one of the most persistent myths about the police in movies set in the USA. Many people think that cops are required by law to read you your rights before an arrest for it to be valid, which usually goes something like ‘you have a right to remain silent’ and so on. 

Obviously, anyone who has ever been arrested anywhere in the USA would tell you that it’s not true. While they do have to read you your Miranda rights – named after the infamous Miranda v. Arizona case from 1966 – before they start the proceedings, that part usually happens some time during the interrogation. Police officers can arrest you if they suspect you’re doing something wrong without saying anything at all, as they often do.

7. Burn The Wound

In the movies, fixing a serious open wound is usually only a matter of burning and sealing it up in some way, like with red hot iron rods. Movie characters do it as an instinctive reaction, as if it’s obvious that burning an already damaged part of the body isn’t just a good idea, but would also immediately fix you and get you back into the fight.

While cauterization is actually a legitimate technique to apply on wounds to temporarily close them up and prevent blood loss, as surgeons still regularly use it during complex medical procedures, it’s not meant as a DIY first aid method to be used in the case of emergencies. Burning any wound just adds another wound on top of the previous one, causing even more agony for the patient that’s just not required. More importantly, burn wounds can get infected faster than any other type of wound, which can turn into an even bigger problem without prompt medical attention.

6. Pulling A Grenade Pin With Your Teeth

Grenades are perhaps the most misunderstood weapon in movies after guns, especially in movies dealing with war in some way. If they’re to be believed, grenades are either large, Earth-shattering explosives, or tiny disturbances that may as well be ignored. 

In reality, however, they work more like an area-of-effect weapon meant to temporarily incapacitate anyone in a small radius with pieces of shrapnel. Moreover, it’s also ridiculously difficult – almost impossible – to pull a grenade pin out with your teeth, as movie soldiers often do. While it depends on the model, the pins of most grenades used in modern warfare aren’t really meant to be that easy to pull out, or you’d just end up accidentally blowing yourself up. For an example, you need about 3-5 kilogram of force to remove the pin of an American M67 grenade, which could easily damage your teeth if you tried that.

5. Throwing Knives

Throwing knives make for some impressive scenes in action movies, making you wonder why noone uses it in real combat situations at all. While they look and sound cool as a concept, there’s a reason throwing knives are still not as popular on the battlefield as you’d think – it’s ridiculously difficult to throw knives, especially in high-pressure situations when you need it the most.

In the movies, characters often get out of sticky situations by throwing a knife and perfectly hitting their target, even if it’s next to impossible for even experienced throwers to reliably make that shot during a tense, high-speed fight. 

Moreover, a knife spinning in the air just doesn’t have the velocity or impact necessary to make a serious wound – let alone stab someone. There’s also the whole question of whether it’s a good idea to throw your weapon away at all, just on the off chance that it may hit a crucial artery and stop them in their tracks.

4. Fistfights Are Harmless

You’d often see movie characters get involved in brawls and fistfights like it happens everyday, and they usually end with everyone getting up and going about their day like nothing happened. It’s almost as if getting punched multiple times on your face and other vulnerable parts of your body is not a big deal at all.

If they were real, though, fistfights in movies would end up in many more concussions and cases of long-term brain damage than they do. Most people would probably pass out due to a severe concussion with even one of the many punches you see thrown around in action movies, or even develop long-term chronic disorders.

3. The Landmine Click

Often in war movies, you’d see a group of soldiers in a hostile area, all alert, when suddenly there’s a click. Everyone hears it and turns around to look at their mate, who seems to have stepped on a landmine. It’s assumed that as long as he keeps his foot on the mine, he’d be safe, because apparently mines are the kind of weapons that don’t kill you if you react fast enough, even giving you as much time as you want to defuse them. 

While it makes for tense wartime scenes, landmines in real life don’t work like that at all. They’re meant to be dangerous weapons deployed in asymmetric, guerrilla warfare to demoralize and incapacitate the enemy. It’s ridiculous to expect them to give you a convenient warning when you step on them, and if one did, it’d probably be considered a huge design flaw. While most landmines are improvised and unpredictable, even the most forgiving ones would give you mere seconds to escape, as they’re inherently designed to detonate as quickly as possible.

2. Amnesia

You’d often see characters in action movies completely lose their memory and turn into different people. Cold-blooded assassins go through one car accident and transform into redeemable characters you can sympathize with. In reality, though, is that depiction of amnesia in the movies accurate compared to real life cases?

If you ask the experts in the field, the answer seems to be a clear and huge ‘no’. Simply speaking, that’s just not how amnesia works. While it’s common for people who go through accidents to forget a few things, the effects are usually temporary. 

The kind of permanent, personality-transforming amnesia we see in the movies can only be caused by underlying neurological factors. Even then, it doesn’t make you forget who you are or rewire your entire being like they often show in the movies. 

1. Silencers

The dreaded silencer is one of the most effective killing machines in spy movies, though it’s hardly limited to one genre. It’s used in a variety of movies, as well as on a variety of guns; you’d even find huge silencers for high caliber, military-grade sniper rifles in war movies that completely suppress the sound of the shot. It’s a convenient weapon that completely nullifies a major problem with using guns in public areas – the sound. 

Obviously, silencers don’t work like that. In fact, silencers for guns don’t even exist, as it’s impossible to silence the sound of a gunshot. They’re called suppressors and are used to reduce the sound level of the shot, which is still high enough to damage your ears without proper protective gear.