Action Debuts
Happy weekend, everybody! For today’s action listing, we take a look at the most impactful and impressive action movie debuts! So, this was pretty challenging to narrow down. The people we’re looking at could either be first-timers or pre-established actors, and after their debut as an action lead, their careers would be defined or redefined by those films for many projects going forward. Some of these on the list may have even impacted the action genre on the whole as well.
5. Liam Neeson in Taken
This choice may sound lame given all the mediocre action movies he gave us afterward (a lot of which have even gone straight-to-video), but before you roll your eyes, there’s a reason Neeson was given such a career revitalization so late into his resume. Neeson has been a proven dramatic actor for so long, with films like Rob Roy, Schindler’s List and Michael Collins, so it was SUCH a left turn that he not only made Taken, but he surprised us by his action prowess in that movie. From his “I will find you and I will kill you” speech to his methodical detective work to his fatherly rage, coupled with the precision and unflinching nature of his “special set of skills,” his debut as an action man sent Neeson on a career path no one thought would happen. Additionally, it opened the door for actors like Sean Penn and Bob Odenkirk to try their hand at killing henchmen.
4. Steven Seagal in Above the Law
Warner Bros. was so keen to put this Aikido instructor into a movie and (at the time) it’s easy to see why. Let’s go back to when Steven Seagal was an unknown. His style of martial art was not commonplace in action movies and when he came on the scene, audiences saw things they had never seen before and the genre was injected with a bit of freshness. Seagal’s limb locks and using enemies’ momenta against themselves did not seem like it could translate well to the big screen, but Andrew Davis, who has proven to be more than a normal action movie director, was able to put Seagal in a politcal crime drama with action woven into it and it worked out big time. Roger Ebert even had high hopes that Seagal would be a new kind of action star, whose material was elevated, but was disappointed that his follow-up, Hard to Kill, felt more typical of the genre.
3. Tony Jaa in Ong Bak
Tony Jaa’s debut was something to behold. As the internet was blossoming into what it’s eventually become in the early 2000s, it was easier than ever to discover foreign films. Ong Bak was this small movie from Thailand with a big ace up its sleeve in its star. Tony Jaa started drawing more attention as the next Jackie Chan when it was shown that not only did he have the martial arts skills, but the acrobatic skills to do amazing movements and make them look easy. Couple that with the hard-hitting action design of Panna Rittikrai, which used full-contact hits and incredible gymnastics. At one point, people hailing Jaa as the second coming of Asian action even made Donnie Yen a bit jealous. While it’s entirely possible that the popularity of both Muay Thai and Parkour was already boiling to critical mass, I feel like, after Ong Bak, I started hearing more and more about them.
2. Bruce Willis in Die Hard
The lore of Bruce Willis in Die Hard is already pretty well known. But its impact and impression is big enough to make it to the top of the list. There have been examples of comedians crossing over into action ever since, but Bruce Willis’ casting as John McClane was pretty damn inspired and paid off majorly. It’s easy to see Die Hard as the Commando sequel that it almost was, but it took some serious balls to have someone who was known for bickering with Cybill Shepherd and singing in Seagram’s commercials to be the defining hero in your suspense-filled, action film. And since then, Willis was known in pop culture as an action star first and foremost.
1. Bruce Lee in The Big Boss
If you’re a big fan of Bruce Lee, you may know that he was no stranger to acting in movies, as he was already a child star in Hong Kong before he made his trek to America. When Lee grew up and had already become a notable figure in the martial arts world, he would do his thing on TV with The Green Hornet, which led to his opportunity to star in an action film that made all sorts of history and established an icon. The Big Boss showcased Lee’s strength and precision with his martial arts. It was also a new kind of film that stood apart from normal period kung fu movies from Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest. The Big Boss was raw, unapologetic, violent (almost grindhouse-like). Lee’s charisma and anger are a giant wave that ripples through the waters of the genre to this day.
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