15 Action Movie Moments So Absurd, You Will Actually Respect Their Ridiculousness
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Action on the big screen is money. Take $1B box-office success Top Gun: Maverick for example. A good story with top tier action can be an easy recipe for financial success.
Paramount Pictures
Especially grounded action that is practical and gives the viewer heart-pumping visuals.
Warner Bros.
But, then there are some action scenes that are flat-out silly. So, I compiled a list of 15 of the most ridiculous action scenes from action flicks that are so outlandish, that you almost have to appreciate them:
*I tried to stick to grounded films, since superhero films don't really follow the basic laws of physics in the first place*
1.The entry that inspired this list comes from Transporter 2, and, man, this had me crying. So, after having a bomb planted on his car's undercarriage, Jason Statham's "ace driver" character decides there is only one way to remove the bomb. He drives his car to a construction site, accelerates off of a ramp to rotate his vehicle, and aims for a dangling hoist hook.
20th Century Fox
Thankfully, he rotates and times the spin perfectly to remove the bomb with the hoist hook. If you can't respect the ridiculousness of this moment, you don't know how to have a good time.
20th Century Fox
2.Unintentionally, this post is kicking off with back-to-back "bomb-on-vehicle" action scenes. In Speed, the majority of the film revolves around a bus with a bomb on it and it has to stay above 50 miles per hour. So you can imagine the chaos when there is a 50-foot gap in the road, there's no way they can make it, right? Right?
20th Century Fox
You would think. But Sandra Bullock's character floors it, which leads to this hilarious shot of the bus making the jump in such a silly way that I'm waiting for Fred Flintstone to yell, "YABA DABA DOO!"
20th Century Fox
3.In the fourth Die Hard installment titled Live Free or Die Hard, John McClane embarks on the most ridiculous chase scene in the series which ends with him falling onto a crashing jet.
20th Century Fox
The pilot ejects and McClane sees his chance to dive onto a collapsed road. I'm sure that slide down was as smooth as pavement while the jet crashes behind him.
20th Century Fox
4.In The Rock, Nicolas Cage gives top-tier Nic Cage when he tricks a soldier-turned-terrorist (Tony Todd) into stepping in front of one of his own rockets after he delivers the line, "It's you...you're the rocket man."
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Like taking candy from the Candy Man, Todd's character then easily flies off the rocket's path and falls perfectly onto a rusted pike, killing him. This man just ate a rocket like a beast...if it weren't for that pike he might've survived the fall, too.
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
5.Mission Impossible is one of those series that I think is surprisingly getting better while still delivering the most campy action money can buy. My favorite has to be Rogue Nation, where the opening scene sees Tom Cruise jumping on a moving plane.
Paramount Pictures
Oh, no, he fell. Well, still a cool stunt. It would have been cool if Tom Cruise managed...OH MY GOODNESS, IS HE DANGLING ON THE DOOR WHILE THE PLANE IS TAKING OFF? *Cue Mission Impossible theme*
Paramount Pictures
6.I don't know what to even call the film Face/Off. Action? Drama? Chaos? Well, one scene shows Nicholas Cage's character driving a boat during a chase, but he gets bumped into and proceeds to crash and explode into a police boat.
Paramount Pictures
You'd think that he'd die in the explosion or at least the boat would take damage. NOPE. He lands and the chase continues for a short while as if nothing ever happened.
Paramount Pictures
7.It doesn't get goofier than The A-Team, and the movie adaption placed the team in the sky...in a tank...with a parachute on the tank.
20th Century Fox
To guide the tank, Liam Neeson's character gives us the plan of all plans by using the main mounted gun to blast the tank side-to-side to fly it mid-air. He does love it when a plan comes together.
20th Century Fox
8.There are plenty of goofy stunts in the Indiana Jones franchise, but Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) swinging like Tarzan to catch up to the car chase in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull takes the whole bowl of dates.
Paramount Pictures
It just looked silly going from a cute real monkey to an army of CGI monkeys while this young man turned into George of the Jungle.
Paramount Pictures
9.The Matrix Reloaded shouldn't be on this list because it doesn't follow the very rules I made, but when Neo swings Agent Smith into a bunch of copies of Smith, a bowling pins sound effect is used and it really took me out of it.
Warner Bros.
It just really seemed out of place for an action scene, because although this film utilizes physical and verbal comedy, the goofy sound effect really broke the fourth wall. I know that sounds silly in a world that looks like this:
Warner Bros.
10.I have never watched a second of the Fast & Furious franchise, but, wow, it looks like a cheesy blast. 2 Fast 2 Furious features a scene where the driving heroes stop the villains getting away in a boat by jumping their car onto the boat itself.
Universal Pictures
There are seriously, like, 10 cuts in this one five-second GIF when they actually crash into the boat. I don't know why we needed two shots showing the driver's reaction to the crash within a three-cut span lol.
Universal Pictures
11.In Fast and Furious 6, Vin Diesel saves his girlfriend on a totally separate bridge by crashing his own car into the guard rail while the tank...yes, a tank in a car chase scene...flips his girlfriend into the air.
Universal Pictures
Which leads to him catching her and smashing into a car at full speed. It's an attempted artsy CGI shot that belongs in "Beautiful World" with Vin Diesel.
Universal Pictures
12.The movie Crank is supposed to be silly, but my word, please watch this ridiculous mid-air fist fight that ends with him boinking off of a car. Because, out of context, I was losing it.
Lionsgate
13.In the Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick, Eraser, Arnold shoots a crocodile exhibit (which floods out all of the crocs?) for an action scene where the inconsistently sized beasts eat up the enemies.
Warner Bros.
The tables turn, though, when a crocodile uses "Tail Whip" (Pokemon-style) to knock the gun out of Arnold's hand. The scene then follows a classic grunting Arnie crawling away from the sometimes puppet, sometimes CGI croc.
Warner Bros.
Arnold ends up shooting the CGI-reptile and closes the scene with what I presume to be the dubbed line: "You're luggage."
Warner Bros.
14.If you ever wanted to see a dude-like John Wick fight with a surfboard, then Keanu Reeves' Point Break performance is just what the surfer ordered.
20th Century Fox
I also loved Gary Busey's character being the worst kind of "undercover" person you can find in this scene. How about a little discreetness, man?
20th Century Fox
15.Lastly, I am not familiar with Steven Seagal films, but when researching this post, I came along Hard to Kill. I watched one scene without context and was dying. Seriously, look at this run:
Warner Bros.
From the dubbing to the strangely paced action, this entry made it on the list simply because the general feel was outrageous and almost watered down compared to the other films on this list. For context, he's trying to run after his son to save him from these bad guys, but decides to stop and give a little shove to an injured baddie while the villain gets away with his kid.
Warner Bros.