Top 10 Action Movie Scenes Where the Hero FAILS
#10: Jack Shoots For the Sky
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“Big Trouble in Little China” (1986) ‘Ol Jack Burton may be the protagonist of this cult action-comedy film, but he’s not exactly competent. Or even the driving force of the movie. When an ancient Chinese sorcerer, Lo Pan, kidnaps women, it’s Jack’s buddy Wang who’s more personally invested. Still, Jack helps his friend out the best he can – not very well. While Jack has plenty of hilarious fails to his name throughout the movie, it’s during the final confrontation that he truly outdoes himself. Things are gearing up for a big showdown and both sides of the imminent battle yell at each other. Jack fires his gun into the air, dislodging rocks from the ceiling. These fall on his head and knock him out. Our hero…
#9: Speech Interruption
“Deep Blue Sea” (1999) Samuel L. Jackson has appeared as plenty of action heroes caught in dangerous situations. In “Deep Blue Sea,” he plays Russell Franklin, a man sent into an underwater facility to investigate the sharks being researched there. Naturally, everything goes wrong – the facility is flooded, the sharks attack, general action movie stuff. The rest of the group also starts turning on each other. However, Russell, who has survived an avalanche, knows the dangers of bickering during a crisis. He proceeds to deliver an impassioned speech on sticking together. Unfortunately, just as he gets to sealing off the pool behind him, a shark leaps out, bites him, and pulls him under. As Jackson himself is fond of saying: “Mother-”
#8: John Is Captured
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“John Wick” (2014) John Wick can seem like an unstoppable badass in his world - a man you’d send to kill the bogeyman. But what makes him such a compelling hero is that he still gets hurt and sometimes, rarely, he loses. One such case is in his inaugural outing. Out for revenge against the foolish gangster that killed his dog, John goes after the kid’s father, Viggo, after luring him to a church parking lot. John acquits himself well in the ensuing shootout. However, one of Viggo’s henchmen uses an SUV as a battering ram and knocks John out. But even in defeat, John is still the “Baba Yaga.”
#7: Horse Failure
“True Lies” (1994) Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the biggest action stars, but even he comes up short sometimes. In this film, Schwarzenegger plays Harry Tasker, a secret agent in pursuit of terrorists. After confronting Salim Abu Aziz, a ringleader of the cell he’s pursuing, Tasker pursues Aziz in a lengthy chase on police horseback, while Aziz rides a motorcycle. They eventually get onto a rooftop, and with nowhere else to go, Aziz drives his bike off the roof and into a nearby building’s rooftop pool. As if that wasn’t silly enough, Harry tries to do the same with his horse. The police horse has other ideas though and nearly throws Harry off the building. Personally, we think the animal saved him from a more final failure.
#6: Bond Is Shaken, Not Stirred
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“Skyfall” (2012) James Bond is the world’s most famous fictional secret agent. But he still has his down moments. After being injured and presumed dead, Bond decides to retire. However, an attack on MI6 brings him back to aid his agency. To return to active duty, Bond must pass a series of fitness and psychological tests. Spoiler alert – he doesn’t. He’s exhausted by the physical tests, his aim is off with a weapon, and his psych evaluation shows he’s clearly still shaken by his near-death experience. M clears him anyway for duty, but it’s clearly out of loyalty. Also, so the rest of the movie can happen.
#5: Shortcut
“Hot Fuzz” (2007) This hilarious action comedy sees big-city sergeant Nicholas Angel and small-town constable Danny Butterman uncover a sinister conspiracy in Danny’s sleepy village after Angel moves there. There’s action, gunplay, fast-driving – all the action clichés. But Danny is considerably less skilled than Angel, at least at first. When the pair are pursuing a shoplifter, they’re cut off by some unexpected obstacles. So they decide to take a shortcut. Angel can leap the fences with ease, even doing a flip. However, Danny promptly crashes through the first fence and barely makes it over the second one. It’s fine – he has other skills.
#4: “You Were Saying?”
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“Die Hard” (1988) John McClane is a lone cop in over his head in his first onscreen outing. Still, for being one guy against a group of heavily armed, apparent terrorists, he makes some pretty clever moves. For one, when he meets Hans Gruber and the mastermind pretends to be a hostage, John soon deduces that Gruber is lying. How is a matter of some debate by fans, but John still gives Gruber a gun that isn’t loaded to buy trust and to draw out more info. When Hans tries to shoot him, after radioing his men and revealing himself, John is cocky. But that soon turns to panic as Hans’ men soon arrive. So John McClane is at least a little stupid.
#3: Mission Accomplished
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“Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” (2011) Ethan Hunt and crew are out to stop Kurt Hendricks from launching a Russian nuclear missile at the United States. Unfortunately, they’re unable to prevent the bad guy from initiating the launch. However, by all doing their part, they can block the signal to it and disable it midair. Ethan pulls a dangerous stunt to reach the launch device in time and hits the button, exclaiming: “Mission accomplished!” But, contrary to his cheesy one-liner, it does nothing – the rest of his team hasn’t done their jobs yet. They soon do and San Francisco is saved just in time, but Ethan’s cliched line still earns him some well-deserved mockery.
#2: Aim For the Bushes
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“The Other Guys” (2010) Detectives Danson and Highsmith are prototypical action-hero cops. They get the bad guys at any cost – even if they rack up a ton of property damage…and the suspects they’re chasing only committed minor offenses. Despite this, they are incredibly popular in New York City and with their own police force, even if the protagonists of the film, the titular “other guys,” may grumble. While Danson and Highsmith are chasing criminals, the suspects escape on a zipline from a rooftop, which they then cut to prevent pursuit. The duo decides to jump after them and “aim for the bushes.” In a hilariously dark subversion of expectations, they fall to their deaths. Not only that – there aren’t even any bushes in sight! What was the plan?
#1: Harry’s Second Bar Fight
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“Kingsman: The Golden Circle” (2017) One of the coolest scenes in the first “Kingsman” film sees agent Harry Hart teach some street tough manners in a pub through graceful violence. In the sequel, Harry has survived a bullet to the head and amnesia, but is ready to get back to spy work. After he’s mocked in a bar in Kentucky, Harry attempts to teach the local hicks a similar lesson. Except, this time, he’s far less coordinated. His reaction time and depth perception are worse, though he still manages to get a few hits in. Harry is still graceful in his failure, but it takes Kingsman’s new ally Whiskey to show the jerks what’s what. Manners may maketh man, but being a secret agent still takes practice.
