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Best Action Movies of the 1980s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB

178 action films from the 1980s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The Empire Strikes Back (1980), at 8.7 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 7.5. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Highlander, 7.0 on IMDb against 24 on Metacritic.

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#MovieGenreIMDbTomatoMetaTMDBDirector
1 The Empire Strikes Back '1980 Action / Sci-Fi 8.7 93% 82 8.4 Irvin Kershner
2 Raiders of the Lost Ark '1981 Action 8.4 94% 86 7.9 Steven Spielberg
3 Aliens '1986 Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi 8.4 93% 84 8.0 James Cameron
4 Return of the Jedi '1983 Action / Sci-Fi 8.3 83% 58 7.9 Richard Marquand
5 Scarface '1983 Action / Crime / Drama 8.3 77% 65 8.2 Brian De Palma
6 Die Hard '1988 Action / Thriller 8.2 94% 72 7.8 John McTiernan
7 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade '1989 Action 8.2 84% 65 7.9 Steven Spielberg
8 The Terminator '1984 Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi 8.1 90% 84 7.7 James Cameron
9 Platoon '1986 Drama / War / Action 8.0 89% 92 7.7 Oliver Stone
10 Ran '1985 Action / Drama 8.2 96% 97 8.0 Akira Kurosawa
11 Akira '1988 Animation / Sci-Fi / Action 8.0 88% 68 7.9 Katsuhiro Otomo
12 Castle in the Sky '1986 Fantasy / Animation / Action 8.0 97% 78 8.0 Hayao Miyazaki
13 The Blues Brothers '1980 Musical / Comedy / Action 7.9 72% 60 7.7 John Landis
14 Predator '1987 Sci-Fi / Action / Thriller 7.8 65% 47 7.6 John McTiernan
15 First Blood '1982 Action / Thriller / Drama 7.7 86% 61 7.5 Ted Kotcheff
16 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan '1982 Action / Sci-Fi 7.7 87% 68 7.5 Nicholas Meyer
17 Mad Max 2 '1981 Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi 7.6 93% 77 7.4 George Miller
18 RoboCop '1987 Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi 7.6 84% 70 7.4 Paul Verhoeven
19 Lethal Weapon '1987 Action / Thriller / Crime 7.6 82% 68 7.3 Richard Donner
20 Kagemusha '1980 Action / Drama / War 7.9 89% 84 7.8 Akira Kurosawa
21 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom '1984 Action 7.5 77% 57 7.3 Steven Spielberg
22 Batman '1989 Fantasy / Action / Crime 7.5 77% 69 7.2 Tim Burton
23 The Karate Kid '1984 Action / Drama 7.4 81% 61 7.2 John G. Avildsen
24 Beverly Hills Cop '1984 Comedy / Crime / Action 7.4 83% 66 7.2 Martin Brest
25 The Killer '1989 Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller 7.7 96% 82 7.6 John Woo
26 Lethal Weapon 2 '1989 Action / Thriller / Crime 7.3 82% 70 7.1 Richard Donner
27 The Gods Must Be Crazy '1980 Action / Comedy 7.3 86% 73 7.3 Jamie Uys
28 The Mission '1986 Drama / Action 7.4 63% 55 7.4 Roland Joffé
29 Police Story '1985 Action / Crime / Comedy 7.5 90% 78 7.6 Jackie Chan
30 Big Trouble in Little China '1986 Action / Comedy / Fantasy 7.2 65% 53 7.2 John Carpenter
31 They Live '1988 Sci-Fi / Action / Thriller 7.2 86% 55 7.3 John Carpenter
32 The Professional '1981 Action / Thriller 7.4 - - 7.2 Georges Lautner
33 Willow '1988 Fantasy / Action 7.2 53% 47 7.0 Ron Howard
34 Escape from New York '1981 Action / Thriller / Sci-Fi 7.1 70% 76 7.0 John Carpenter
35 A Better Tomorrow '1986 Action / Crime / Drama 7.4 95% 78 7.4 John Woo
36 To Live and Die in L.A. '1985 Crime / Thriller / Action 7.3 89% 81 7.1 William Friedkin
37 The Hitcher '1986 Horror / Action / Thriller 7.2 63% 32 7.0 Robert Harmon
38 Southern Comfort '1981 Thriller / Action 7.1 81% 63 6.8 Walter Hill
39 Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure '1981 Action / Comedy 7.1 - - 6.9 Sergio Corbucci
40 The Transformers: The Movie '1986 Animation / Sci-Fi / Action 7.2 64% 43 7.1 Nelson Shin
41 Top Gun '1986 Action / Drama / Romance 7.0 58% 51 7.1 Tony Scott
42 Silverado '1985 Western / Action / Drama 7.2 78% 64 6.9 Lawrence Kasdan
43 Project A '1983 Action / Comedy 7.2 81% - 7.3 Jackie Chan
44 Highlander '1986 Action / Fantasy 7.0 70% 24 6.9 Russell Mulcahy
45 The Bounty '1984 Action / Drama 7.1 74% 62 6.8 Roger Donaldson
46 Runaway Train '1985 Action / Thriller / Drama 7.2 84% 67 6.9 Andrei Konchalovsky
47 Clash of the Titans '1981 Fantasy / Action 6.9 65% 59 6.9 Desmond Davis
48 Ms .45 '1981 Crime / Thriller / Action 6.8 86% 62 6.7 Abel Ferrara
49 Rocky III '1982 Drama / Action 6.9 67% 57 6.9 Sylvester Stallone
50 Conan the Barbarian '1982 Fantasy / Action 6.9 68% 43 6.8 John Milius

Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.

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Directors on this list

Irvin Kershner Steven Spielberg James Cameron Brian De Palma John McTiernan Oliver Stone Akira Kurosawa Hayao Miyazaki John Landis Nicholas Meyer George Miller Paul Verhoeven

Actors on this list

Mark Hamill Harrison Ford Sigourney Weaver Al Pacino Bruce Willis Alan Rickman Sean Connery Arnold Schwarzenegger Charlie Sheen Willem Dafoe Tatsuya Nakadai Mayumi Tanaka