The Best Action Movie From Each Year In The ’90s, Ranked

As John McClane returned to fighting form in Die Hard with a Vengeance and Neo fulfilled his prophecy as “The One” in The Matrix, the ‘90s was a great decade for action movies. From the advent of CGI in movies like Terminator 2: Judgment Day to the last great practical effects before computer-generated effects took over the genre, the ‘90s had something for everybody.

In each year of the ‘90s, there was at least one great action movie. Sometimes, the best action movie stood head and shoulders above its competition. Other times, there were a handful of titles on the shortlist and it was a tough call.

10 Ronin (1998)

John Frankenheimer re-contextualized the basic premise of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï to cap off his career with one last great movie, the 1998 action thriller Ronin. Robert De Niro and Jean Reno lead an impeccable cast in this modern classic.

The movie’s car chases, which utilized professional racing drivers, managed to recapture the authentic grit of the vehicular pursuits found in movies like The French Connection and Bullitt.

9 Total Recall (1990)

In the dystopian near-future of Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a construction worker who’d love to go on a vacation he can’t afford. He checks out a company that implants memories of vacations in its customers and he elects to live out a fantasy as a secret agent on Mars.

However, something goes wrong in the simulation– or maybe he was in the simulation the whole time– and he becomes convinced that he is a secret agent with a mission on Mars. It plays like a Black Mirror episode starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

8 The Rock (1996)

In a year containing such stinkers as Escape from L.A., Chain Reaction, and Barb Wire, the unbridled fun of Michael Bay’s The Rock stood out as a breath of fresh air— back before Bay’s filmmaking turned toward self-parody.

The Alcatraz-set carnage of the plot is utterly ridiculous, but Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery are an action movie pairing for the ages and are clearly having a blast.

7 The Fugitive (1993)

Adapted from the TV series of the same name, The Fugitive expertly takes the premise of a man wrongfully accused of his wife’s murder and trying to clear his name while he’s on the run from U.S. Marshals and fits it neatly into a three-act structure that consistently raises the stakes to a satisfying finale.

Harrison Ford makes for a compelling lead as Dr. Richard Kimble, walking a fine line between relatable everyman and a Hollywood action hero, while Tommy Lee Jones is a delight as Samuel Gerard, the officer on Kimble’s tail.

6 Speed (1994)

While Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master II offered a perfect balance of action and comedy and Léon offered strong character development to backup stylish set pieces, 1994’s best action movie is actually the one that can be described as Die Hard on a bus.

With Keanu Reeves turning a dime-a-dozen action movie protagonist into a rounded character and Dennis Hopper bringing his raw, unhinged acting style to the role of a Hans Gruber-like terrorist villain, Speed is an absolute delight.

5 Face/Off (1997)

In a year that provided action cinema with some of its best (Air Force One, Con Air, Men in Black) and worst (Batman & Robin, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Spawn) entries, John Woo’s Face/Off was a rare gem that had a completely ludicrous storyline but still managed to hook moviegoers in.

The idea of an FBI agent literally switching faces with the terrorist who killed his son is insane, but trust action master Woo to make it work with spectacularly crafted set pieces.

4 Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)

1995 was a terrific year for action movies. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond era got off to a great start with GoldenEye, Ghost in the Shell set the template for The Matrix, and Heat featured shootouts so intense that they’re screened during police training. But above all, in 1995, Die Hard got its best sequel.

There are some huge plot holes in Die Hard with a Vengeance, but it holds up to this day because it’s one of the only Die Hard sequels that’s true to the John McClane character, plus Bruce Willis finding his perfect foil in Samuel L. Jackson.

3 The Matrix (1999)

Influenced by William Gibson’s cyberpunk literature, Hong Kong action thrillers, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Ghost in the Shell, the Wachowskis made a movie like no other with The Matrix.

The action sequences are perfectly executed, with lofty concepts like simulacra and free will layered under the surface of all the explosions and gunfire. The effects and setpieces in this movie were imitated for many years after its release.

2 Hard Boiled (1992)

After glorifying bloodshed at the hands of gangsters in a handful of action movie masterpieces, John Woo decided to even the playing field with Hard Boiled, a movie that instead glorifies bloodshed at the hands of the police.

The action scenes in Hard Boiled, particularly the visceral shootouts, rank among the greatest ever put on film and influenced action movie choreography for years to come.

1 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

In 1991, Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze’s on-screen chemistry and Kathryn Bigelow’s explosive action made Point Break an action movie classic, but the year’s best action flick– and one of the greatest ever made– was Terminator 2: Judgment Day, James Cameron’s bigger, bolder sequel to his tech noir masterpiece.

By switching Arnie’s T-800 to be the hero and introducing an even more powerful Terminator to battle him, Cameron twisted the formula to shake things up and, more importantly, raise the stakes. The primitive CGI hasn’t aged particularly gracefully, but the action sequences remain breathtaking.

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Ben Sherlock
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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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