Die Hard
1988 · John McTiernan · 132 min · Action / Thriller
Die Hard rewrote the rules of action cinema by replacing the invincible superhuman with a barefoot cop who bleeds, panics, and talks to himself through the worst night of his life. Bruce Willis made vulnerability look heroic, Alan Rickman made villainy look elegant, and John McTiernan kept the whole thing wound tight inside a single building on Christmas Eve. A handful of thin supporting characters and a few plot conveniences are the only real knocks against it. More than three decades later, this is still the film that comes up first when anyone tries to name the best action movie ever made.