Hollywood Action Hero



"Hey, look at me Casually Walking away like Action Movie Hero Boy, In slow-mo, Everything glowing and blowing to bits Right behind me!"

- Lemon Demon, "Action Movie Hero Boy"

A subtrope of the Action Hero, a Hollywood Action Hero is The Hero of a Summer Blockbuster Action Adventure Movie. He (and it's almost always a he) is usually defined by a few specific traits that separate him from other types of heroes:


 * Personality: Usually a Hollywood Action Hero is stoic and glib or wisecracking and jolly. Usually he's either creative or determined. This last one usually combines with Made of Iron to form Implacable Man.
 * Intellect: Usually Book Dumb but deadly practical, sometimes unusually smart.
 * Morality: A few are Anti Heroes but most are plain old heroes who are morally upright. That doesn't stop them from killing mooks yet deliberating a bit with villains though.
 * Aesthetics: Usually rugged and unshaven, often muscular, and usually scarred.
 * Martial Ability: They'll of course be Made of Iron or just plain made of hit points, soaking up tons of damage without stopping. They'll rarely fight with anything more complex than Good Old Fisticuffs and a trusty BFG or Hand Cannon. A recent trend among Action Heroes is to take a page from the Book of Woo and use Guns Akimbo.

Now compare the above to Common Mary Sue Traits.

Unsurprisingly, these types can fall to Invincible Hero if done poorly, especially when you consider your typical Hollywood Action Hero wastes a mole of mooks by movies' end. When it's averted, expect it to result in the hero bloody, bruised, and hurt badly by the end. He may be a Badass Normal, but he still worked for that victory. Speaking of normal, Hollywood Action Heroes rarely have super Powers, perhaps because they tend to fit a male viewers "fantasy" of their ideal self, a strong warrior Ubermensch type who kills bad guys, does good, and gets the girl.

The phrase "action heroes" appeared early in the 1960s, used to describe the Charlton Comics protagonists (later the inspiration for the characters in Watchmen). This phrase, coined by Dick Giordiano, applied to their mostly non-metahuman adventurers such as The Question and Ted Kord. The era with the biggest affluence of Action Heroes are probably the 80's and 90's, with big name stars like Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and many, many others starring in a half dozen Summer Blockbusters every year. Many film critics lament that the current generation of actors has failed to produce a viable crop of Action Heroes, with only a few actors fitting the "classical" model like Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, and The Rock. There was also a big action movie scene in Hong Kong, with stars such as Bruce Lee, Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan and Jet Li kicking serious ass with kung fu (or gun fu, in the case of Chow Yun-Fat).

The movies of the 2000s have instead produced the Action Survivor who, rather than being a Marty Stu, is more akin to a Self-Insert Fic where Hilarity Ensues. Occasionally both are teamed up as an Action Duo. Contrast the Nerd Action Hero.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

 * The 6th Day
 * Collateral Damage
 * Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer
 * Commando
 * Eraser
 * Hercules In New York
 * Last Action Hero
 * Predator
 * Raw Deal
 * Red Heat
 * Red Sonja
 * The Running Man
 * Terminator and its sequels, particularly the second.
 * True Lies

Bruce Lee

 * The Big Boss
 * Enter the Dragon
 * Fist of Fury
 * Game of Death
 * Way of the Dragon

Bruce Willis

 * Die Hard and its sequels.
 * The Last Boy Scout
 * The Fifth Element
 * Hostage

Chow Yun-Fat

 * The A Better Tomorrow series
 * City on Fire
 * The Corruptor
 * Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
 * Full Contact
 * Hard Boiled
 * The Killer
 * The Replacement Killers

Clint Eastwood

 * Dollars Trilogy
 * Dirty Harry
 * Where Eagles Dare
 * The Rookie
 * Pale Rider

Chuck Norris

 * Code Of Silence
 * The Delta Force and Delta Force 2
 * Invasion U.S.A.
 * Missing in Action
 * Way of the Dragon

Dolph Lundgren

 * Army of One
 * Bridge of Dragons
 * The Expendables
 * I Come in Peace
 * Red Scorpion
 * Showdown in Little Tokyo

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

 * Doom
 * The Rundown
 * The Scorpion King

Errol Flynn

 * The Adventures of Robin Hood
 * Captain Blood
 * The Sea Hawk

Harrison Ford

 * Indiana Jones
 * Star Wars
 * Air Force One

Humphrey Bogart

 * The Big Sleep
 * The African Queen
 * Key Largo
 * Across The Pacific

Jackie Chan

 * The Accidental Spy
 * Armour Of God and Armour of God II
 * Drunken Master and Drunken Master II
 * The Forbidden Kingdom
 * Mr. Nice Guy
 * Police Story and its sequels
 * Project A
 * Rumble in The Bronx
 * Rush Hour and its sequels
 * Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights
 * The Tuxedo

Jason Statham

 * Crank
 * The Expendables
 * Ghosts of Mars
 * The Transporter
 * War

Jean-Claude Van Damme

 * Bloodsport
 * Cyborg
 * Hard Target
 * Lionheart
 * Street Fighter
 * Timecop
 * Universal Soldier

Jet Li

 * Cradle 2 the Grave
 * The Expendables
 * Fist of Legend
 * The Forbidden Kingdom
 * Kiss of the Dragon
 * The One
 * Romeo Must Die
 * War

Kurt Russell

 * Big Trouble in Little China
 * Escape From L.A.
 * Escape from New York
 * Executive Decision
 * Soldier
 * Tango and Cash

Mel Gibson

 * Lethal Weapon and its sequels
 * Mad Max and its sequels
 * Payback

Nicolas Cage

 * The Rock
 * Con Air
 * Kick-Ass
 * Ghost Rider

Sean Connery

 * BOND.James Bond
 * The Untouchables
 * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
 * The Rock

Steven Seagal

 * Above the Law
 * Attack Force
 * Executive Decision
 * Exit Wounds
 * Fire Down Below
 * The Glimmer Man
 * Half Past Dead
 * Hard to Kill
 * Marked for Death
 * On Deadly Ground
 * Out for Justice
 * Out of Reach
 * The Patriot
 * Ticker
 * Under Siege and Under Siege 2

Sylvester Stallone

 * Assassins
 * Cliffhanger
 * Cobra
 * Demolition Man
 * The Expendables
 * First Blood and its sequels
 * Judge Dredd

Tony Jaa

 * Ong Bak and its sequels
 * The Protector

Vin Diesel

 * A Man Apart
 * The Fast and the Furious and its sequels
 * Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick
 * XXX