The 10 most rewatchable action movies of all time

Beware! Spoilers abound.

What makes a great action film? There has to be a compelling premise, as well as a charismatic cast with a hero and villain that you are invested in the fate of, but more than any other film genre, perhaps the key element to what makes an action film truly great… is how rewatchable it is.

A truly great action film is one that you can revisit time after time and still somehow manages to deliver.

What makes a film rewatchable? Perhaps it is that feeling we have when our hero is revealed. Every time you rewatch the film, the anticipation grows to a moment of catharsis, of ultimate satisfaction.

I acknowledge this is in a somewhat arbitrary list defined by my own life experience (I’m fully aware this list doesn’t contain any films that were released after I turned 30).

Action!

1. Die Hard (1988)

Is Die Hard the greatest action film of all time? Yes. While it isn’t my favourite ever film from any genre, it is absolutely the one I’ve watched the most.

Bruce Willis gives a career-defining performance as New York cop John McClane and the great Alan Rickman plays the unforgettable Hans Gruber. Posing as terrorists, Gruber and his men are carrying out a robbery disguised as terrorists on Christmas Eve, but they hadn’t planned on McClane’s zero-tolerance for these party crashers.