The movie industry is a cornucopia of variety, with diverse genres, styles, and niches to satisfy audiences. While the action genre is one of the most popular today, it hasn’t always been the case. In the early days of filmmaking, whimsical musicals, romantic stories, and hilarious comedies were all the rage.
Things began to change in the 70s and 80s as action gradually became an established genre. By the 1990s, audiences rushed to the cinemas to watch gun-blazing macho characters light up the screen, taking down entire cartels and armies. While the movie industry has evolved significantly in the 21st century, movies from the ’90s remain as iconic as ever despite their technical limitations.
In fact, many of the exhilarating action sequences and fun quips are still famously featured and referenced in modern films. So, what makes ’90s action movies so iconic? This post explores the reasons behind the iconic status of ’90s action movies and why they have so much impact even today.
Realistic Action & Stunt Work
Action movies today are heavily reliant on CGI. While this adds some cool visual effects that make them immersive, the ’90s was an era of action films with practical stunts and choreography. As a result, viewers naturally found them to be engaging and believable.
As a relatively new niche at the time, filmmakers of that era were gradually honing their skills and experimenting with new techniques to make their films more captivating to audiences. One of the ways they did this was by adding fight sequences, car chases, and elaborate stunts while staying true to the movie plot.
Many of the stars from that period of filmmaking history were bodybuilders and martial arts experts, and their skills allowed them to pull off difficult stunts authentically. While movie stars today are just as hardworking, the raw stunts in older movies added a layer of realism that is often missing in modern films.
Impact on Mainstream Culture
The rise of action movies predates the 1990s. Action heroes like the famous James Bond character have been around since the 1960s. So, what makes the ’90s action heroes different from the characters in these older movies?
Up until the late 1980s and 1990s, the action movie genre was fringe and not very popular. As more movies were made in the genre, the niche gradually began to seep into mainstream culture.
Politics
Many of the movies created in the ’90s were filled with impressive action sequences that people could enjoy purely for visceral elements like stunts, fights, and explosions, but they also had political narratives that mirrored real life and fed on public paranoia, angst, and propaganda.
Media Adaptations
With characters and stories that resonated perfectly with the public, these movies gained mainstream popularity and were soon adapted into other media forms. Franchises evolved into video games, animations, and collectible merchandise. Their influence even extended to the casino world, where themed games like mobile slots no deposit let fans engage with their favorite titles in a new and accessible way without the need to wager real money. These adaptations have allowed iconic action movies from the ’90s to reach wider audiences who get to experience them in diverse ways.
Movie Clichés and Stereotypes
Many of the styles, looks, and stereotypes associated with the action movie genre today originated in the 1990s. The lone figure that has to save the day, the sullen character clad in worn leather and blue jeans, the capable hero roaring down highways in crazy fast cars, and the boilerplate hero enacting righteous fury against terrorist plots. These are all iconic heroes that have become Hollywood staples beloved by audiences.
Iconic Characters & Actors
The 1990s and the decade before it were characterized by the rise of a number of memorable action heroes and villains. These iconic characters were played by fantastic actors who have become synonymous with that era of the action movie genre.
In 1982, Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo hit the big screens, paving the way for this new generation of burly action characters like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. These larger-than-life characters were featured in several action movies drawing millions of people to the cinemas with their enigmatic charisma both off and on the screens.
Beyond the persons of the actors that played these characters, the screenwriters of that period also perfected character tropes that people fell in love with and have become a standard feature even in movies today.
The Age of “Serious” Action Movies
Older action movies, especially from the 70s and 80s, featured muscled action heroes single-handedly taking down armies of bad guys and terrorist groups all on their own. The 1985 movie Code of Silence pitted Chuck Norris against a gang of Colombian drug runners while Sylvester Stallone plays a lone cop fighting against a subversive cult group in Cobra. Such was the tone of many action movies from that period. Other notable movies from that period with similar themes include:
- Raw Deal (1986)
- Invasion U.S.A. (1985)
- Commando (1985)
- Red Scorpion (1988)
The ’90s represented a shift of the action genre from the basic concept of good vs evil to more complex themes and character arcs. For instance, the 1991 movie Point Break had a band of thieves as the main characters, and in Universal Soldier (1992), deceased soldiers are reanimated as genetically enhanced super-soldiers. By exploring more complex themes like this, ’90s action movies brought more drama, suspense, and “soul” than the overly simplified good guy vs bad guys stories of the era before them.
The table below summarizes the contrast between older action movies and the iconic ’90s movies.
| Feature | ’70s/’80s Action Movies | ’90s Action Movies |
| Dominant trait | Over-the-top machismo, often “lone wolf” characters | More complex characters, sometimes morally ambiguous |
| Typical conflict | Good vs. Evil, often simplistic | More nuanced conflicts, exploring gray areas |
| Dialogue style | Often cheesy one-liners and tough talk | Still had iconic lines, but the dialogue was more naturalistic |
| Physicality | Often hyper-muscular characters with an emphasis on brute strength | May still be muscular, but with a greater emphasis on smartness, agility & skill |
Conclusion
Thanks to the incredible efforts of screenwriters, directors, and actors, the action movie genre has become cemented into the world of filmmaking for audiences to enjoy. The genre has also evolved into various forms, especially with the advent of sci-fi and superhero movies. Action movies, with their death-defying stunts, explosions, and fight sequences, will continue to thrill audiences for the foreseeable future, but the ’90s will always be remembered as the era when everything changed.