If there’s one thing we came to rely on Arnold Schwarzenegger for in the past it was a good fight scene. Some of them might have gone a little over the top but others were so awesome that for months after they were burned into our memories like they’d just happened. Arnold has been known as one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood for decades, and even after becoming the governor of California his legend was in no danger of losing any of its potency. Plainly put he was made for action films from the start. His size, his physique, and the fact that unless he was given some corny dialogue he could make a film work by saying very little all helped to cement his place in the action genre without question.
If you saw him in the film you knew it was going to be something good.
5. Red Sonja
A lot of people might have thought this was a collusion between Red Sonja and Conan but instead we got Kalidor, who was a little cockier than Conan and talked a great deal more. He was almost like a male version of Valeria in that he knew he was that good at what he did and didn’t feel like making apologies for who he was. He was definitely Sonja’s match and more, which made sense why they would be attracted to each other.
4. Commando
Matrix was like the elite of the elite, the guy that could survive anything you threw at him and come back for another full helping no matter if he was wounded or not. A lot of the 80’s films were so over the top that now they seem kind of silly, but back then they were awesome. Anyone remember that the 80’s was kind of a weird time as well? It helped to have movies this ridiculous to take your mind off of the fact that it was the 80’s.
3. Conan the Barbarian
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Conan was just the man. In his beginnings, as this movie showed, he underestimated his opponents and it got him into trouble, but thanks to his friends he came back stronger and more determined to exact revenge for his people on their killer, Thulsa Doom. The fact that he took it so far as to wipe out the self-appointed ‘god’ of the religion was even better.
2. The Running Man
Of all the deaths in this movie this one has to be the best. Buzzsaw was just as over the top as the other characters but he was so psychotic that he couldn’t have gone any other way than he did. A chainsaw to the nay-nays has got to be one of the most agonizingly painful deaths that any man could ever experience, but to have it broadcast on live TV would be even worse.
1. Predator
There’s only been a few men in film that have been able to go toe to toe with a Predator since the first one, and Arnold is the original. His improvised weapons might have made a lot of people that knew better laugh, but they still leveled the playing field just a bit.
Get to the choppah!
