Action Movies Trivia

Action movies run on a simple promise: things will blow up, someone will jump off something they shouldn't, and the hero will walk away looking better than they had any right to. This quiz covers twelve facts spanning four decades of the genre, from a single office building under siege to a bus that can't slow down.

See how many of these stunt-driven classics you can place.

One Building, One Bus, One Very Bad Day

Some of the genre's best entries lean on a brutally simple premise. "Die Hard" traps one cop in a high-rise during a hostage situation, and "Speed" straps its entire plot to a bus that will explode if it drops below a set speed. Neither needed an elaborate mythology, just a ticking clock and a hero who refused to give up.

Franchises Built for Sequels

• "The Fast and the Furious" grew from a street-racing drama into a globe-trotting heist franchise.
• "John Wick" turned a grieving widower with a very specific set of skills into a multi-film mythology of assassins and secret hotels.
• "Mission: Impossible" has kept Ethan Hunt dangling off buildings and airplanes across more than two decades of films.

Stars Who Defined the Genre

A handful of actors built entire careers on the genre: Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Willis all became action-movie shorthand in the 1980s, while stars like Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron have kept doing their own stunts well past the point where anyone would blame them for stopping.