The Best Action Movie From Every Year in the 1990s

The 1990s were a great decade for action movies. The best movies of this era include grounded crime thrillers, spy movies, experimental sci-fi, and even action films from outside Hollywood. At this time, Arnold Schwarzenegger could still carry a movie, but so could Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, or Jackie Chan. 

The decade gave action fans a little bit of everything, with both big-budget blockbusters and some lower-budget movies, both of which are equally represented in this list. Picking just one great action movie from each year of this decade is obviously asking for trouble. Still, these 10 movies make a pretty good case for earning their spot on the list. 

1. Total Recall (1990)
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
3. Hard Boiled (1992)
4. The Fugitive (1993)
5. True Lies (1994)
6. Heat (1995)
7. Mission: Impossible (1996)
8. The Fifth Element (1997)
9. Ronin (1998)
10. The Mummy (1999)

Total Recall (1990)

Paul Verhoeven had already made RoboCop by this time, so audiences probably should have known better than to expect a normal Arnold Schwarzenegger movie from him. Total Recall starts with Schwarzenegger's character dreaming about Mars before deciding to visit a company that implants artificial memories. 

He soon discovers that he might actually be a secret agent, and suddenly everyone wants him dead. And there’s also the possibility that maybe the entire thing is another implanted memory.

This narrative device keeps the movie fun and engaging. The movie also keeps giving both the protagonist and the audience new information without outright explaining whether any of it is trustworthy.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Deciding to bring back the same murdering robot from Terminator in its sequel, but this time deciding to make him the good guy, was a killer idea (no pun intended). 

The movie gives him a new target (to protect), John Connor, while Sarah Connor has become a completely different person from the first film. The ice-cold T-1000 becomes a villain that’s almost as iconic as the Terminator himself. 

The special effects were a huge deal when the movie came out, especially the T-1000's liquid-metal transformations. But the movie doesn't depend entirely on them, and the practical action sequences are just as great.

Hard Boiled (1992)

John Woo's Hard Boiled (1992) doesn't truly believe in moderation. If there's a gunfight, it’s going to be big, and if the characters enter a hospital, the entire building will get destroyed.

The movie follows a cop investigating a weapons-smuggling operation. He eventually teams up with Tony Leung's undercover officer, who has infiltrated the gang they're trying to take down. This setup gives Woo plenty of room to do what he really wants to do—some absurdly fun action sequences.

The Fugitive (1993)

The Fugitive has Harrison Ford playing a doctor wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, while Tommy Lee Jones plays the U.S. Marshal who is very determined to catch him. 

Ford's character escapes custody after a train crash and disappears into Chicago. From there, the movie becomes a cat-and-mouse chase while he’s investigating his wife's murder at the same time.

There’s always another lead to follow or another person to find. The movie also knows when to slow down, and one of the best scenes comes when the two leads finally catch up with each other. The Fugitive earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, while Jones took home the award for Best Supporting Actor. 

True Lies (1994)

Arnold Schwarzenegger spent much of the '80s playing a certain character archetype, but True Lies had him doing something different in this action-comedy—playing a secret agent who's also trying to convince his wife that he's just a boring computer salesman.

His character spends his days pretending to sell computers, while at night, he works for a government agency. His wife, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, naturally becomes suspicious of him. 

James Cameron goes all in on True Lies' premise with some nice action, something he was more than used to at this point of his career after Aliens and The Terminator movies. The movie keeps escalating until it reaches the point where Schwarzenegger fights while piloting a Harrier jet. At that point, expecting realism would probably feel a little pointless.

Heat (1995)

The action in Michael Mann's Heat feels as compelling as it does because the movie spends so much time developing the people and the stakes involved.

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro’s characters are on opposite sides of the law, although they aren't completely different people. Both are pretty obsessive about their work and understand the risks. And both also know that the other one is also very good at what they do. 

Once the bank robbery goes wrong, there’s a huge downtown Los Angeles shootout, and watching it feels as real as it gets, almost like watching an actual firefight breaking out in the middle of the city. The movie's use of audio that was recorded live on location greatly helps this action sequence. 

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Before the Mission: Impossible franchise later became the Tom Cruise stunt showcase it is today (in the best possible way), the first movie was much more stripped back in comparison and a bit more of a grounded spy thriller, but with enough interesting and intense action sequences to keep things flowing.

Here, after a mission in Prague goes horribly wrong, Ethan Hunt becomes the only surviving member of his team. The government believes he betrayed them, which forces him to go rogue and figure out what actually happened. Cruise also gets to do plenty of running and jumping, although the franchise hadn't yet reached the point where he'd be casually jumping out of airplanes. 

The Fifth Element (1997)

The Fifth Element explores the idea of a futuristic action movie but does everything that is the exact opposite of normal or what’s expected of such a movie.

The plot is intentionally ridiculous, but the world around it is where the movie really stands out. The movie is filled with flying cars, aliens that look even more unique than the ones in Star Wars, huge futuristic buildings, bizarre costumes (designed by Jean Paul Gaultier), and some pretty strange-looking technology. But all of it is a feast for the eyes. 

The action can jump from taxi chases to shootouts to space battles without worrying too much about whether the transitions make sense or not. The movie has its own rules and doesn't seem particularly interested in apologizing for them.

Ronin (1998)

Ronin is a gritty, old-school espionage thriller about a group of disgraced ex-intelligence operatives who are hired to steal a heavily guarded briefcase. Starring Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Sean Bean, and Stellan Skarsgård, the film is carried by its sharp dialogue and well-written character interactions.

These characters don’t trust each other, and this distrust drives the movie as much as the action does. Even when someone appears to have the situation under control, there's usually another problem waiting around the corner.

The Mummy (1999)

The Mummy closed out the decade with a movie that knows exactly what kind of an old-school, fun adventure it wants to be. Brendan Fraser leads and plays an adventurer who gets pulled into an expedition to a fictional city in Egypt. 

The movie loosely takes its inspiration from Universal's classic monster movies, but it also turns the horror story into something much closer to an Indiana Jones-style adventure, with ancient curses and treasure hunters to accompany it. 

Sure, the visual effects aren't going to fool anyone today, but the movie's entertainment factor remains unaffected.