51 Awesome Action Movie Scenes From The Expendables 3 Cast

This week marks the end of the Expendables trilogy. After three movies, producer and star Sylvester Stallone has mostly accomplished his goal of spotlighting some of the greatest action stars of all-time. Many are back for this third installment, like Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the third film also makes room for Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, and Wesley Snipes.

Together, that makes this series an unbeatable collection of some of the greatest action characters in movie history. So, we decided to compile the fifty greatest action moments of the entire Expendables roster, collecting the scenes with the most awesomeness, the most violence, the most overflowing machismo. Consider this a crash course in the world's most kick-ass action cinema, scene-by-scene, moment by moment. We tried to spotlight the highlights from the perspective of each actor, limiting the moments to one incredible bit per film. This is The 51 Greatest Action Moments From The Expendables.

51. Steve Austin, “I Hunt To Kill” - Hunt To Kill

Austin, who played a henchman in the first Expendables, has been enjoying a fruitful career in the direct-to-DVD market, even if a lot of the films aren't very good. One of the better ones is survivalist thriller Hunt To Kill where Austin has to face off against a thug who has kidnapped his daughter. In the film's closing moment, Austin gets onto an ATV and speaks the immortal one-liner, “When I hunt, I hunt to kill,” before running over bad guy Gil Bellows. In a career with more highlights in the wrestling ring than on the big screen, it's worth noting.

50. Mickey Rourke, Convenience Store Hold-Up – Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man

Rourke has gone on record about not remembering much of this film, showing an improper amount of disdain from what's actually a pretty fun apocalyptic actioner. Still, you know Rourke's good because you can tell during the film that he doesn't give a shit, and yet he's still magnetic.

In this scene, a thug pulls a gun on him during a stick-up, flummoxed that Rourke won't back down. As he drawls a couple of insults, Rourke snaps into action and puts both this thug and his henchman down, taking their gun like he was picking a lollipop out of a store display.

49. Dolph Lundgren, “And You'll Go In Pieces, Asshole” – I Come In Peace

As a street cop given an impossible mission, Lundgren is on the hunt for an evil alien chopping people to bits in this thriller originally called “Dark Angel.” The alien humorously announces his intentions by speaking the title repeatedly before continuing to cut a swath through the city. But Lundgren isn't having it, and he's ready to dole out some Dolph Justice.

After Lundgren dropkicks the killer into a lead pipe, the alien taunts him by scowling, “I come in peeeeace!” Lundgren's response is succinct, savage, and perfect.

48. Antonio Banderas, Zorro Flirts – The Mask Of Zorro

Joining the Expendables crew for part three, it's difficult to forget that Banderas doesn't have many action credentials. But the former Don Diego de la Vega made his few sojourns into action filmmaking count, particularly when he wore the iconic black mask. In the first film, he comes across a stunning newcomer named Catherine Zeta-Jones and proceeds to participate in a steamy, funny sword fight, all the while slicing off each and every one of her items of clothes. It's being a badass in order to get girls, and it completely works.

47. Bruce Willis, Old Joe Wants Revenge – Looper

In Looper, Willis' Joe time travels to a point where he can punch his murderous younger self in the face. It's just one of many improbable items on his to-do list that finds him face-to-face with an employer that will slowly ruin his life. When he finally confronts Abe (Jeff Daniels), the man wants to talk, but Joe isn't having it. He grabs a shotgun and just tears through Abe and his thugs, leaving a mess of bodies on the floor before most of them can even react. Director Rian Johnson shoots this sequence in an underground bunker in a way that emphasizes the claustrophobia: Bruce Willis is Death, just hiding right around the corner.

46. Mel Gibson & Jet Li (& Danny Glover), Bare-Knuckle Brawl – Lethal Weapon 4

The fourth film in the Lethal Weapon series is just awful, but it's partially redeemed by the participation of Jet Li. While the film is heavy on effects and stunts, the ending is a down-to-basics brawl, between overqualified Jet Li and the duo of Riggs and Murtaugh. The movie doesn't gussy it up one bit, refreshingly – this is a trained martial artist fighting two completely unskilled barroom fighters, and they are just relentlessly brutalizing each other. While Li's character seems to have the upper hand, the much-older Gibson and Glover just keep on coming over and over again. A wince-inducing fight.

45. Dolph Lundgren, Yoshida Showdown – Showdown In Little Tokyo

Brandon Lee was one of the great onscreen martial artists of all-time. And you've got to be a righteous badass in order for him to step aside and give you the spotlight. In this buddy action comedy, Lundgren is oddly enough the martial artist mostly educated in Japanese history and tradition, while Lee is somehow the American outsider. And when it comes time to throw down with big boss Yoshida (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), Lundgren grabs a sword off a wandering horse, and duels old-school style while his partner looks on. It's not a fair fight – it never is when Lundgren's involved – but the sheer joy comes from Lee celebrating as Lundgren turns Yoshida into a firework.

44. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Electric Split-Kick – Timecop

Enemies have broken into time traveling cop Max Walker's home. If it were anyone else's home, they'd have the upper hand. Because Walker is Jean-Claude Van Damme, they do not. Van Damme's highest grossing film draws its popularity from the unique sci-fi premise, but it's also an excellent showcase for Van Damme's peerless skill and, in his mind, rippling sexuality. It's why this entire brawl happens in his undies, a spooky proposition when the baddie tries to electrocute him.

Fortunately, after a lengthy hand-to-hand battle, Van Damme spills liquid onto the kitchen floor and lets his electrified opponent shock himself to death as he completes a flawless flying split, dangling his legs from one end of the kitchen counter to the other.

43. Chuck Norris, “Loud And Clear” – Delta Force

Late into Delta Force, a terrorist thriller that soon becomes a heroic slasher film, the villains lose the advantage. In an attempt to regain the Americans' attention, they buzz onto the radio and remind them that they are indeed willing to negotiate. Chuck Norris, of course, does not give a single fuck, and when they ask if he can hear them, he says, “Loud and clear,” before pumping bullets into the radio.

After a few more sequences, he then tracks down lead baddie Abdul (Robert Forster) and drives through the window in his motorcycle, kicking the overmatched villain in the head. He proceeds to beat the bad guy without mercy, before riding away and leaving him a complete mess. But not with one last kiss goodbye: as a broken Abdul attempts to take up arms, Norris fires rockets from his motorcycle, blowing the terrorist to pieces. FATALITY.

42. Antonio Banderas, Man In The Shadows – Desperado

Robert Rodriguez's Desperado opens amusingly with Steve Buscemi walking into a bar and cracking jokes, as he begins to tell the story of how a shadowy gunman wandered into a similar bar and disposed of the trash. In flashback, we see his possibly-B.S. story re-enacted with Banderas shrouded in darkness as he removes an entire artillery full of guns from his guitar case, stylishly letting the bodies hit the floor.

Banderas at the time had dabbled in American film following an extraordinarily prolific Spanish-language career. In his native tongue, he was a heartthrob. In these opening moments (with Quentin Tarantino as a future onscreen victim, practically helping introduce Banderas to the world), he was suddenly action royalty.

41. Mel Gibson, “Freedom” – Braveheart

There's a lot of debate regarding the actual story behind Mel Gibson's Braveheart, which he won the Oscar for Best Picture while directing himself as Sir William Wallace. But take the history away, and Gibson made a violent, badass, and historical-ish drama about how the Scots may or may not have procured independence from the English.

Deliciously, this and The Patriot revealed that among the other groups Gibson does not like, the English are one of them. As a result, Wallace is a defiant jerk until the very end, a trait that endears himself to fellow soldiers and to the movement overall, but makes him a real obnoxious pissant to the British. When he is captured, he’s tortured in the middle of the Tower of London Square. But when they suggest he need only ask for mercy, he instead bellows, “Freedom!” before his head is stripped from his body.

40. Terry Crews, “No Strings On Me” - Gamer

Somehow, even though his physique is borderline comical, Crews is the one Expendable who has almost zero action credits to his name. This is a terrible shame, as anyone who has seen Gamer can attest. The hilarious shit-kicker takes on a rare serious role in this film as a toughie dedicated to making Gerard Butler's Kable his bitch, turning his life into a living hell on the battlefields where they compete to stay alive.

And in one surreal moment, Crews reveals his now-legendary dance moves in a more sinister manner, uncorking one of the most nefarious threats in movie history. In reference to the movie's hook (each “player” in their game is basically remote controlled by a gamer at home), Crews does a herky-jerky marionette dance, singing “I've Got No Strings” like a robot as he suggests to Kable that he's willing to break from the rules to end his life.

39. Jason Statham, Garbage Man – Safe

The underrated Safe doesn't play like the usual Statham film. He's abused, tortured, and broken at the very beginning, losing his comfortable lifestyle thanks to a bad deal with the mafia. Having previously worked in the sanitation department, he now has no wife, no money, and no reason to live. But when he finds a young girl being pursued by the same gangsters, he takes action.

It's only about 20 minutes or so before Statham lets loose, but it feels like you've been waiting for ages when he turns a subway train into his classroom, the lesson of the day being ass-whuppings. When someone derisively calls him a garbage man, he says, “I never collected garbage, I disposed of it,” before firing a bullet into one henchman's face.

38. Jet Li, Facing Jackie Chan – Forbidden Kingdom

This legendary match-up of Hong Kong heroes is not exactly a highlight of either’s career. Yet, both fighters bring their all to this disposable kids film ultimately about not the two greatest martial artists in movie history, but about a young dork played by Michael Angarano. It's a testament to how great these two are that the first encounter between Li's principled fighter and Chan's boozy fool is as exhilarating as you'd expect, even though director Rob Minkoff ('s second unit) has no idea how to properly showcase two master performers. Sadly, their age shows as well, but for a very brief moment, a lousy kids film becomes absolutely transcendent.

37. Sylvester Stallone, “I Don't Shop Here” – Cobra

Marion Cobretti is maybe Sylvester Stallone's most ridiculous character, a walking, talking tough-guy cliché. And his intro is so over-the-top hilarious that it goes from being embarrassingly tone-deaf back into awesome. There's a hold-up at a supermarket, which gives super-cop Cobra a chance to walk in, preen, and crack wise before murdering the perp in cold blood. When the merchandise and customers are threatened, Cobra shrugs, “Go ahead, I don't shop here.” And then after some back-and-forth (the enemy is very obviously unhinged), he groans, “You're the disease, and I'm the cure.”

Does Cobra stop during this tense showdown to drink a beer off the shelf? Well, you should know it's Cobra's world, and we're all just living in it. The guy cuts his pizza with scissors, and we're all just playing for second place.

36. Bruce Willis, “I'll Kill Ya” – The Lost Boy Scout

One of the most underrated actioners of the nineties, this Shane Black-penned, Tony Scott-directed masculine masterpiece finds Willis doing down-and-out as downest and outest as he possibly can. As P.I. Joe Hallenback, he's pushed, punched, tortured, and taunted the entire way through a noir-ish mystery. And he's at his lowest point when one of villain Milo's schmucky henchmen (Kim Coates) takes the opportunity to wail on Hallenback when he's at his most defenseless.

After a series of completely unwarranted punches, Willis drawls, “If you touch me again, I'll kill ya.” When the obnoxious underling just can't help himself, Hallenback rises and, with one blow, sends the man's cartilage right into his brain, knocking him dead instantly. Good help is hard to find in a Bruce Willis movie.

35. Gary Daniels, Street Fighter – City Hunter

No doubt one of the strangest battles on this list, it's the only way to represent Daniels, an ace martial artist who took on Jason Statham and Jet Li at the same time in the first Expendables. Here, he's brawling with Jackie Chan twice. But during the second match, he knocks Chan into a Street Fighter II arcade machine, turning the martial arts legend into Chun Li.

In case you didn't know that the source material was a fairly silly manga, this sequence should confirm that, as Chan's cross-dressing hero takes on Daniels''roided-out version of Ken. Daniels went on to have a healthy career in direct-to-DVD films, but he never did anything this insane again.

34. Mel Gibson, Punch-Out With Mr. Joshua – Lethal Weapon

It's borderline archetypal at this point: the hero and the villain are armed and dangerous. And the guns fall to the ground, because everyone is just going to accept that this needs to be a mano-y-mano throwdown, fists and kicks only. Taking on Gary Busey's feral Mr. Joshua, Gibson's Riggs de-shirts himself and allows himself to glisten as the two of them brutally wrestle.

It's intensely homoerotic, but it also has that bonding moment at the end, another classic: Joshua is defeated, but rises up with a firearm, only for Riggs and Murtaugh to fire their guns in defense, arms entwined. Seeing it now with fresh eyes, you can understand how, for a while there, Hollywood decided all their action movies would end like that.

33. Mickey Rourke, Eat Shit, Frank Stallone – Barfly

Not at all an action movie, this bleak drama uses Charles Bukowski's writings as a stepping stone for a series of adventures for Rourke's embattled alcoholic writer Henry. But this was also a Cannon film, so you needed just a little bit of action-y meat. Enter everyone's favorite Stallone sibling, Frank – throughout the film, Frank plays a bartender who absolutely cannot stand Henry, and every time Henry mouths off, he's taken out back and Stalloned. But things are turning a corner for Henry, and early on in the film, Henry meets him out back and returns the favor.

The fistfight is a brutal slap-match between two fairly drunk bums, and you can see it in every lurching blow, every sloppy fall, and the Stallone blood that hits the pavement. Later, to confirm the film's Cannon roots, Faye Dunaway and Alice Krige have a climactic throwdown that threatens to tear every barstool from the floor.

32. Dolph Lundgren, Ninja Massacre – The Punisher

A deeply underrated deep cut from the Marvel vault, this disreputable adaptation of the classic comic finds Lundgren as a bitter, pitch-black rendition of the character, taking on the fierce Yakuza and their stranglehold on the New York City crimeworld. In the picture's climax, he arrives at the Yakuza headquarters to pass out painful justice for the kidnapping of several children, taking on a wave of ninjas with brutal precision.

Lundgren's got one of the highest body counts of any Expendable, and scenes like this tell you why. When he finishes his massacre and stands over the body of the lead villain, he encounters the man's pubescent son. Coldly, Lundgren's Frank Castle gravely intones that if he wants, he should grow up and pursue him in search of revenge – but if he's smart, he won't, and that having a different life than his father's is preferable. Heck of a thing to say while standing over the still-warm corpse of the boy's dad.

31. Jean-Claude Van Damme & Dolph Lundgren, One Last Battle – Universal Soldier: Regeneration

It's history repeating itself: Luc Devereaux and Andrew Scott are destined to do this dance movie after movie, time after time, resurrected again and again as Universal Soldiers with universal lifetimes. Devereaux is brought back into the fold to stop a rogue killer (Andrei Arlovski). But Scott is brought back due to a science experiment, one that leads him to become Frankenstein’s monster, endlessly curious as to his origins, and his toughened, recycled flesh.

The film traffics in intriguing ideas of mortality and violence, though it does allow for Van Damme and Lundgren to have the sort of all-out nasty brawl that makes the original Universal Soldier look like an episode of Babar. When the two of them lock horns, you can feel the history: we've seen Devereaux and Scott lock horns before, but is there a chance it's actually happened dozens of times already, and they don't even know it?

30. Jason Statham, Exploding Timer – Transporter 3

While it is the weakest of the three Transporter films, Statham's third time as Frank Martin does boast a great hook – he's been injected with a chemical that will kill him if he's too far separated from his car. So when a bunch of toughies decide to battle him in an empty body shop, he's always got to be mindful of his vehicle just outside the building. But what to do when the car starts moving?

In this high-wire scene, Statham's got to beat up a couple of thugs with one eye on the vehicle, eventually engaging in a footrace through the side of one entire building, just so he can leap into the driver's seat at the very last instant, knocking unconscious the car thief that would almost end his life.

29. Jean-Claude Van Damme & Mickey Rourke, Tiger Landmine – Double Team

Tsui Hark's Van Damme-Dennis Rodman matchup is absolutely insane, reaching heights of delirium of which other Hark-Van Damme collaborations could only dream. This final battle features Rourke's completely insane and super-buff Stavros having turned a stadium into a death trap, loaded not only with landmines but with a loose tiger as well.

The result is absolute chaos: not only is Rourke weirdly Van Damme's equal in this scenario, but explosions are going off everywhere, a tiger is lunging at everyone, there's a kidnapped baby to worry about, and Dennis freaking Rodman is just hanging out, waiting to get tagged into the fight.

28. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dismantling Terrorists – True Lies

The action drama used to laugh at the idea of suspense—trapping actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger in situations where they'd dwarf the baddies while relying on the audience's sole interest in being how the ass-kicking would be administered is exactly how they used to do it! That's the appeal of one-time most-expensive-movie-ever True Lies, where Arnold bats back a bunch of Middle Eastern terrorists the way we'd battle a lazy fly.

There's absolutely zero suspense that comes from Schwarzenegger's Harry Tasker being kidnapped – the real shock is in how he's drugged and forced to admit his profession as CIA superman to his wife Helen as if being kidnapped by terrorists wasn't enough. But then, like a baby waking from his slumber, Harry quickly re-assumes control of the situation, completely neutering their terrorist camp by picking his handcuffs, twisting some necks, and grabbing a gun, firing in all directions. Several moments could have been selected from True Lies, but that's probably the scene where Schwarzenegger's own immensity conquers over all.

27. Mel Gibson, Decoy Chase – The Road Warrior

One could argue Gibson's movie star appeal is garnish to George Miller's vision in the Mad Max movies, not necessarily an attraction. But for the sake of this list, few stars ever made a movie as awesome as Miller's post-apocalyptic vision of the future. Following Mad Max, Gibson's hero is now a lone wolf in the desert, and he eventually becomes the hero to a group of settlers. In the spirit of Wages of Fear, it's he who opts to take over the truck holding fuel, battling a gauntlet of baddies led by the masked Lord Humongous.

What ensures is one of the all-time great chases, as Max's truck is besieged on all sides from villains eager not necessarily to grab the rare oil, but to spoil his plan once and for all. Learning the contents of the fuel tank itself ultimately reveals just how much of a bold badass Max truly is.