The Most Epic Action Scene Each Year Since 1990
There's nothing like a good action sequence to make you appreciate the excitement of cinema. They call them "motion pictures," after all, and the right combination of cinematography, editing, stuntwork, and visual effects can make you forget that you're sitting still in a movie theater bucket seat instead of taking part in a high-octane adventure.
Action movies are constantly evolving, changing around trends, new techniques, and new technologies, but the core of what makes a great action set piece has never changed. Start with a strong premise to separate your film from the pack. Add a hero worth rooting for and a worthy challenge. Set up stakes, build tension, and then let the fists, swords, bullets, sports cars and spaceships fly.
Enjoy this colorful collection of shootouts, scraps, and hot pursuits spanning three decades and four continents. Don't worry if you haven't seen the movie already — we'll get you caught up with everything you need to know to dive right into the action.
1990 - Kitchen shootout, La Femme Nikita
Troubled young criminal Nikita (Anne Parillaud) receives a commuted life sentence in exchange for becoming a secret assassin for the French government. After spending four years in seclusion, training in combat and espionage, Nikita is taken out to dinner for her 24th birthday by her handler, Bob (Tchéky Karyo). At the dinner table, Bob hands Nikita a gift-wrapped box. Inside is something she doesn't expect — a loaded pistol and an extra clip, just in case.
Bob instructs Nikita to execute the three diners at the table behind her, and then to escape via a small window in the men's bathroom. This will be her first field assignment and the final test of her training. Not one to get his own hands dirty, Bob leaves Nikita alone at the table to complete her mission...
1991 - Freeway chase, Terminator 2: Judgement Day
John Connor (Edward Furlong) has been raised by his mother Sarah to believe that he would grow up to be the savior of humanity. Not that he's ever really bought that story. After all, who would believe someone who claims to have been hunted by a nigh-indestructible robot from the future?
But when a bulletproof stranger posing as a cop (Robert Patrick) tries to blow him away at the Galleria, John finds himself face to face with a six-foot shotgun-toting Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) matching the description of his mother's would-be assassin. Rather than killing John, this new Terminator seems to want to protect him, taking several bullets for the kid as John sprints to the parking garage to escape on his dirt bike. Neither of his pursuers plan to let him out of their sight...
1992 - Hospital raid, Hard Boiled
Gun runners led by Johnny Wong have been using a secret vault beneath a hospital as their weapons cache. When the vault is discovered, Johnny and his men take over the hospital, taking patients and staff hostage. It's up to Police Inspector "Tequila" Yuen (Chow Yun-fat) and undercover agent Alan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai, ironically now wearing a police uniform) to fight their way through an army of gangsters and dirty cops to where Johnny is hiding out, several floors up. Their greatest obstacle is Johnny's lieutenant, the one-eyed Mad Dog (Philip Kwok).
Meanwhile, Officer Teresa Mo (Teresa Chang) tries to evacuate the dozens of newborn babies who have been trapped in the maternity ward on one of the hospitals' upper floors. She is assisted by a police SWAT team who attempts to relay the infants out a window into the crowded, panicked parking lot below...
1993 - T-Rex chase, Jurassic Park
Industrialist John Hammond has brought long-extinct dinosaurs back to life, and plans to open an island amusement park from which to show off his creations and bring a sense of wonder to the masses. However, there are some serious practical concerns about letting people onto an island full of giant reptiles, so Hammond assembles a team of experts to assess the safety and accuracy of his dinosaur park before it opens to the public. Among them, archeologists Drs. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Satler (Laura Dern), chaos mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), and Hammond's young grandchildren, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello).
Naturally, this maiden tour through Jurassic Park goes terribly wrong (just as Dr. Malcolm predicted), and a power outage disables the security fencing around the habitat of the park's prized Tyrannosaurus Rex, putting all the guests in mortal danger...
1994 - Steel mill fight, The Legend of Drunken Master
Wong Fei-hung (Jackie Chan) is a practitioner of the art of drunken boxing. Drunken boxing can be performed sober, but works best when the practitioner is just the right amount of drunk, which is a delicate balance to strike. In the words of his father and teacher, "A boat can float in water, but also sink in it." When his drinking makes him vulnerable to a painful and embarrassing defeat, Fei-hung swears never to drink again.
Fei-hung is pressed back into action when the English ambassador closes down the local steel mill and attempts to use its final shipment to smuggle priceless Chinese artifacts out of the country for his personal profit. As the townspeople storm the mill, Fei-hung faces the ambassador's two most skilled henchmen, John (Ken Lo, in the glasses) and Henry (Ho-Sung Pak, in the black suit). Can Fei-hung face such formidable opponents sober?
1995 - Bank robbery shootout, Heat
Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is a career criminal specializing in bank robberies. He and his tight-knit team, consisting of Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore), and their new getaway driver Donald Breedan (Dennis Haysbert) have been planning a heist worth $12.2 million, and today's the day. In the weeks prior to the heist, McCauley has been engaged in an almost friendly battle of wits with LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), who is nevertheless determined to catch him in the act and send him to prison or the morgue.
The bank job is meticulously planned, but the team couldn't account for Lt. Hanna receiving a hot tip from a third party who has his own beef with McCauley's gang...
1996 - Ferrari vs. Humvee chase, The Rock
A U.S. Army General has gone rogue and captured Alcatraz, the defunct island prison-turned-tourist attraction off the coast of San Francisco. There, he holds a group of tourists hostage and threatens the Bay Area with missiles loaded with a deadly nerve gas.
Short of giving in to a ransom demand, the only hope of putting an end to the crisis is one Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage), an FBI chemical weapons expert, and one John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery), a former SAS agent who's the only person ever proven to have escaped Alcatraz and thus the only person alive who may know how to break into the prison. Trouble is, Mason has spent the past 33 years in prison without trial, and isn't inclined to help the government that betrayed him. Mason escapes from FBI custody in a Humvee, leading Goodspeed to steal a Ferrari and pursue him through San Francisco...
1997 - Airport prologue, Face/Off
Six years ago, psychotic "terrorist for hire" Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) shot FBI Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) through the chest with a sniper rifle. Archer survived, but the bullet passed through his body and struck his young son, killing him instantly. Archer has been obsessed with capturing Castor ever since, and now he may finally have his chance.
Archer catches up to Castor and his brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) at the Los Angeles International Airport, where they charter a private plane and attempt to flee the country. Aboard the plane is FBI Agent Winters (Lauren Sinclair), working undercover as a flight attendant. Winters tries to incapacitate Castor before takeoff, but is outnumbered and trapped in the cabin with Castor's well-armed crew. Archer and his team pursue Castor's plane down a runway at LAX, attempting to keep them from taking off and escaping justice once again...
1998 - Blade fights through Frost's gang, Blade
In Los Angeles, a secret cabal of vampires quietly feeds on an unsuspecting human populace. Their sole guardian is Blade (Wesley Snipes), a one-of-a-kind "daywalker" born with all the strengths of a vampire but none of their weaknesses, save one — the thirst for human blood.
Blade has been at war with young vampire leader Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), who plans to use an ancient ritual to make himself totally indestructible. Unfortunately, Blade's interference turns out to be key to Frost's plans, as he needs the blood of a daywalker to complete the ritual. Frost drains Blade of his blood, leaving him too weak to fight, but Blade's new ally Dr. Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright) comes to the rescue by offering Blade her own blood to replenish him. Blade returns to the ritual chamber, stronger than ever and ready to take on Frost's entire army...
1999 - Lobby fight, The Matrix
Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a hacker who learns that the world in which he lives is secretly a complex computer simulation created by artificial intelligence to enslave the human race. He is awakened into the real world by revolutionary leader Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and joins a fight for humanity's future that spans both the physical and virtual worlds.
When Morpheus is captured by the machines' digital enforcers, the Agents, Neo and his fellow acolyte Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) plug back into the Matrix to rescue him before the Agents can compel him to reveal humanity's security secrets.
Neo and Trinity have two advantages entering the building where Morpheus is being held. First, their minds are freed from the Matrix, meaning they can will their virtual bodies to surpass the physical limitations of the real world. Second, they're bringing guns. Lots of guns...
2000 - Yu Shu Yien vs. Jen Yu, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi) is a young woman in Qing Dynasty China who has secretly trained in Wudang martial arts and recently stole the legendary Green Destiny sword. While she reluctantly goes through with her arranged marriage, she runs off shortly thereafter, unable to decide whether to reunite with her true love, the bandit Lo, or simply to disappear into a life of aimless adventure.
Recently, Jen Yu has developed a close friendship with Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), a martial artist and owner of the security company charged with protecting the Green Destiny. When the runaway Jen comes to see Shu Lien, Shu Lien tries to convince her to return home to her family, relinquish the Green Destiny, and then figure out what to do about her marriage. Jen is impulsive and tired of being told what to do, and challenges Shu Lien to meet her in battle...
2001 - Gabe vs. Yulaw, The One
On an alternate Earth, the MultiVerse Authority (MVA) governs travel between universes and pursues fugitives who jump between them illegally. Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) is a former MVA agent who discovers that the fewer versions of himself exist in the multiverse, the stronger, faster, and smarter he becomes himself. He succeeds in killing all but one of his doubles, and believes that killing the last one will make him a god.
Yulaw comes to our world to hunt his final doppelgänger, Gabe Law (also Jet Li), who has also become more powerful via Yulaw's killing spree. Yulaw murders Gabe's wife, but MVA Agent Funsch (Jason Statham) offers the grief-stricken Gabe his chance at justice — a wormhole back to Yulaw's home dimension will open soon, and if Gabe can incapacitate Yulaw, then Funsch can take him into custody. If not, then both Gabe and Yulaw may have to die...
2002 - The Battle of Helm's Deep, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Thought dead for an age, the dark lord Sauron now gathers his forces to conquer the realm of Middle-earth. The Fellowship of the Ring — currently Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) — arrives at Rohan, one of the two splintered kingdoms of men, to warn King Théoden (Bernard Hill) of the growing threat. They find that Rohan's defenses are in disrepair and that their fiercest warriors are in exile.
Théoden and the Fellowship prepare to defend the stronghold of Helm's Deep from an attack by Uruk-hai super-soldiers, but even bolstered by a detachment of Elvish archers, Rohan's forces are still hopelessly outnumbered. Their only hope is that their ally Gandalf (Ian McKellan) can locate Rohan's exiled horse lords and bring reinforcements to the battle in time...
2003 - The Bride vs. The Crazy 88, Kill Bill: Volume 1
When the Bride (Uma Thurman), one of the world's deadliest assassins, discovers that she's pregnant, she decides to abruptly retire and disappear. Her comrades in the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS) presume her dead, but when Bill (David Carradine), leader of the DiVAS and father of the Bride's baby, discovers that the Bride is alive and planning to marry someone else, Bill orders the squad to execute her at her wedding rehearsal. Miraculously, the Bride survives, spending the next four years in a coma. When she awakens, she swears revenge on Bill and the DiVAS.
The Bride's death list takes her to Tokyo in pursuit of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), who is now a Yakuza crime lord. Ishii commands an army called the Crazy 88, and if the Bride wants a piece of Ishii, she's going to have to cut through every last one of them...
2004 - Moscow car chase, The Bourne Supremacy
With most of his memories of being a programmed assassin for the CIA locked behind mental blocks, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has tried to put his past behind him. Unfortunately, one of his former masters from the defunct Treadstone program, Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), has other plans. Years ago, Abbott ordered Bourne to stage a murder-suicide of a Russian politician and his wife, an unauthorized hit for Abbott's personal profit, and now he needs Bourne dead to cover his tracks.
Bourne travels to Moscow in search of his victims' orphaned daughter, but Abbott's accomplice has dispatched the elite assassin Kirill (Karl Urban) to kill Bourne before he reveals the truth to her or anyone else. Kirill has been stalking Bourne across the world, and is responsible for the death of Bourne's girlfriend Marie. If Bourne wants this to end, simply losing his tail will not be enough...
2005 - Dining hall fight, The Protector
Kham (Tony Jaa) is descended from a family that guarded the King of Thailand's war elephants for generations. Even in the modern day, he and his father care for elephants, with whom they form a deep familiar bond. When the family's beloved animal companions Por Yai and baby Kohrn are stolen, he follows their trail to Sydney, Australia, where he must contend with an organized crime ring that is collecting rare animals as trophies or even food for the wealthy elite.
Kham's pursuit takes him to a local Thai restaurant run by gangster Johnny (Johnny Tri Nguyen). Johnny is holding court on the top floor VIP room above the restaurant's massive atrium, and Kham will have to fight up three flights of stairs to reach him...
2006 - Madagascar footrace, Casino Royale
James Bond (Daniel Craig) is a newly-minted "double-O" agent in the British secret intelligence service. One of his first assignments is to locate and capture the bombmaker Mollaka (parkour and Freerunning innovator Sébastien Foucan) in Madagascar. When Bond's mission partner blows their cover, Mollaka makes a run for it, forcing Bond to try and find ways to keep up with him. Bond is no match for Mollaka's incredible athleticism, but he does have a few tools at his disposal — cleverness, persistence, durability, and a total lack of concern for property damage...
2007 - The Battle of Mission City, Transformers
An ancient war between robotic beings from the planet Cybertron has made its way to Earth. The Autobots, led by the benevolent Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen), are sworn to defend the life and liberty of all sentient beings. The Decepticons, under the command of Megatron (voice of Hugo Weaving), seek only conquest and destruction. While on Earth, the Autobots often disguise themselves as domestic cars and trucks, while the Decepticons take the form of intimidating military vehicles. Both sides of the war have come to Earth in search of the AllSpark, a metallic cube that has power over mechanical life. Along the way, Bumblebee, an advance agent of the Autobots, has befriended human teenagers Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) and Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox).
The battle is joined in Mission City, where the Autobots and their human allies try to keep the AllSpark out of the hands of the Decepticons. Wounded, Bumblebee entrusts Sam and Mikaela to carry the AllSpark while the battle distracts the Decepticons. Meanwhile, soldiers in the U.S. military (Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson) attempt to evacuate civilians and give the Autobots an edge.
2008 - Batpod chase, The Dark Knight
Desperate to be rid of the masked vigilante Batman (Christian Bale), Gotham City's crime bosses agree to hire the mysterious Joker (Heath Ledger) to smoke him out and kill him. Joker begins murdering public officials, claiming that the deaths will continue until Batman unmasks. Joker nearly assassinates the mayor, but Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) takes the bullet for him, apparently dying in the process.
This is enough to convince Batman to unmask, but before he can do so, his friend District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) lies and tells the press that he is Batman. The Police convoy carrying Dent to headquarters is ambushed by the Joker, who has commandeered an 18-wheeler loaded with armed henchmen. Batman follows in his Batmobile and gets between the Joker and the convoy, taking the brunt of a rocket attack that seemingly totals the Dark Knight's ride. But Batman appears to have at least one more trick up his sleeve...
2009 - The Na'vi defend the Tree of Souls, Avatar
On the vibrant moon Pandora, the native Na'vi people are caught in a deadly struggle with Earth's business interests. The Resource Development Administration (RDA) seeks to drive the Omaticaya Clan off their land in order to mine the valuable unobtainium beneath. To that end, they dispatch former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) to remotely pilot a genetically-engineered Na'vi avatar and mingle with the Omaticaya, earn their trust, and convince them to abandon their home.
Instead, Jake falls in love with his teacher Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and comes to understand that he's on the wrong side of history. Knowing that the human colonizers will not stop at demolishing one village, Jake rallies the Na'vi clans in the hopes of forcing the RDA to retreat from Pandora. An army led by Jake, Neytiri, clan leader Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso), and fellow human rebels Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez) and Norm (Joel David Moore) charges to meet RDA Colonel Quartich (Stephen Lang), who seeks to break the Na'vi's will by destroying their sacred Tree of Souls.
2010 - Spinning hallway fight, Inception
In the near future, the technology exists to allow someone to enter another person's subconscious mind while they sleep, interact with their dreams, and even secretly extract information. The master of this craft is Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has been hired by a corporate industrialist to enter the mind of one of his rivals and do the impossible — not to extract a thought from his mind, but to plant one so deeply that he believes it is his own idea in the first place.
Cobb enlists a crack team to enter the target's mind and create a dream within a dream within a dream where their meddling can be so subtle as to go undetected. While inside, they are faced on each level by the target's subconscious defenses, which take the form of security guards and assassins.
Time passes more slowly at each deeper level of the dream, but each layer is also affected by what happens on the level above. On the upper level of the dream, Yusef (Dileep Rao) is engaged in a frantic car chase defending the rest of the team, who sleeps in the back of his van. On the level below, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) must protect his sleeping team as they dream the third level into existence. Arthur's task grows more complicated as Yusef's evasive driving begins to affect his equilibrium...
2011 - The Rio heist, Fast Five
After butting heads with Brazilian crime boss Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), outlaw hot-rodders Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) decide to get a fresh start at Reyes' expense by stealing his $100 million fortune. To make such a theft possible, they've tricked Reyes into consolidating his cash into one location — a vault beneath a police station under his control.
For the heist, the Torettos assemble a team made up of their usual gang of trusted allies, but also receive unexpected help from Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), the law enforcement agents assigned to capture them. Hobbs and Neves have their own grudges against Reyes and decide to play a part in the heist in order to exact their revenge...
2012 - The Battle of New York, The Avengers
Chasing a dream of conquest, the disgraced Asgardian prince Loki (Tom Hiddleston) opens a cosmic portal above Manhattan and commands an army of alien invaders to storm the city. Only the Avengers — a group of superheroes brought together to face massive threats like this one — stand a chance of saving the city, and the world.
As Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) consider their next move, Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) leads a massive alien leviathan on a chase through the city, headed for the rally point. So far, no one's been able to leave a mark on the flying beast, but deep within Dr. Banner lives the Incredible Hulk, a creature of pure rage that may be the only thing strong enough to put a dent in it...
2013 - Gipsy Danger vs. Otachi, Pacific Rim
For years, the world has been plagued by the ongoing threat of giant Kaiju who rise from the oceans and lay waste to coastal cities. In order to combat the growing threat, the governments of the world have united to create the Jaegers, giant walking mechs who can fight the monsters at their own scale and on their own terms. The Jaegers are very complex, requiring a pair of pilots who must be so in sync that their minds become one through a process called "drifting." Drift compatibility is very rare, and only those with a special bond of family, friendship, or romance can successfully pilot a Jaeger.
When Hong Kong comes under attack by a pair of Kaiju, Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) dispatches three of his most advanced Jaegers to confront them. But when all three Jaegers are incapacitated, Stacker is forced to send the untested team of Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam) and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) aboard the obsolete Gipsy Danger to defeat the brood. Together, they handily defeat one of the monsters, but the other, Otachi, is even more dangerous than she seems...
2014 - Escaping Bejo's men, The Raid 2
Rama (Iko Uwais) is an undercover cop who has infiltrated the inner circle of one of Jakarta's most dangerous crime families. Over the span of years, Rama has become a close confidant of the boss's son, Uco — but not close enough to know that Uco is planning to kill his father and redraw the gang borders with up-and-coming gangster Bejo (Alex Abbad). Rama arrives moments after Uco has shot his father, and just when Bejo is about to kill the boss' lieutenant, Eka (Oka Antara). Rama and Eka have also become close, so Rama strikes Bejo to buy Eka a moment to escape, burning his hard-earned relationship with Uco.
Rama is quickly incapacitated and dragged off to a car by Bejo's men for disposal. Meanwhile, Eka's been shot in the leg, but while he may not be able to run, he can still drive...
Content Warning: The violence in The Raid 2 is uncommonly graphic.
2015 - The chase begins (but really, the entire movie), Mad Max: Fury Road
The Earth is now a barren wasteland ruled by mad warlords battling over what few precious resources remain. One such warlord is Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who reigns over his feral War Boys as a god-king. But one high-ranking member of Immortan Joe's army, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), is no longer willing to abide his merciless rule. Under the cover of a supply run, Furiosa has smuggled Joe's enslaved brides out of his citadel in the tanker of her 18-wheel War Rig and set a course out of his territory. Her War Boy escort rides alongside, unaware of her deception.
When Immortan Joe discovers this, he dispatches more War Boys to intercept Furiosa, including Nux (Nicholas Hoult), a sick soldier who is using the captured Max (Tom Hardy) as an unwilling blood donor strapped to the front of his car...
2016 - The Battle of Scarif, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
In an effort to overwhelm its citizens with fear and crush all hope of rebellion, the evil Galactic Empire has developed a doomsday weapon called the Death Star, a battle station capable of destroying an entire planet with a single blast of energy. The Rebel Alliance has recently learned of the existence of the Death Star, and a rogue band of freedom fighters has stormed an Imperial facility on the planet Scarif in the hopes of stealing its construction plans so that the Rebels can discover its hidden weakness and destroy it.
The team down on the surface has successfully stolen the Death Star plans, but the energy shield surrounding the planet makes it impossible to transmit them to the rest of the Alliance. Thankfully, the Rebel fleet has just arrived, and is tasked with shutting down the shield and retrieving the plans...
2017 - TIE - Spyglass extraction, Atomic Blonde / Catacomb escape, John Wick: Chapter 2
Set in East Berlin in 1989, Atomic Blonde sees unstoppable British spy Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) dispatched to locate and extract a Russian defector known as Spyglass (Eddie Marsan) who has memorized a valuable list of every undercover agent in Berlin. Lorraine must fight her way through wave after wave of KGB guards to try and get Spyglass safely out of his building and out of the country...
Tied with:
In present day Rome, legendary assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has been forced out of retirement by a debt owed to high-ranking crime boss Santino D'Antonio. Santino compels John to assassinate Santino's own sister, Gianna. Killing Gianna turns out to be the easy part — the hard part is escaping the scene of the crime, especially once Santino dispatches his own army to eliminate him. John has prepared for this, having left a small arsenal behind to use in his escape route through the Roman catacombs...
2018 - Race for the Copper Key, Ready Player One
In the future, the real world is so crowded and grim that most people spend their waking hours in a virtual environment called the Oasis. There, hooked up to VR goggles and haptic controls, players can live out their pop culture fantasies, become their idealized selves, and participate in grand adventures.
Upon his death, the creator of the Oasis announces that a secret Easter Egg has been hidden somewhere in the game. Whoever finds it will be granted total ownership of the Oasis, which translates to trillions of dollars and the ability to set the rules by which the entire world plays. The first clue to the location of the Easter Egg is behind the finish line of a race course that, despite years of attempts, no one has managed to finish — but that won't stop friends Parzival (Tye Sheridan) and Aech (Lena Waithe) from trying...
2019 - The Avengers Assembled vs. Thanos, Avengers: Endgame
It has been five years since the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) assembled the six Infinity Stones into his gauntlet, snapped his fingers, and instantly killed half of all life in the universe. With no other options, the surviving Avengers have embarked on a "time heist" to collect the Stones from the past and try to snap the fallen trillions back into existence. They complete their mission, but before they can learn whether or not their snap is successful, Thanos follows them back from an alternate timeline and demolishes the Avengers compound. Half the team is trapped inside, leaving only Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to try and fight Thanos alone.
The three superheroes are outmatched, and as Thanos assembles more of his forces on Earth, they are also hopelessly outnumbered. It'll take a miracle to win the battle, but thankfully, the Avengers already performed one a few minutes ago...
2020 - Amusement Mile fight, Birds of Prey
Gotham City supervillain Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has made a lot of enemies over the years, chief among them gangster Roman Sionis. When Roman captures Harley and threatens to bring their grudge to a swift, deadly close, Harley strikes a deal — in exchange for her life, she'll hunt down the precious diamond that Roman needs to finance his criminal empire.
Harley discovers that the diamond is currently residing in the digestive system of Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), a pre-teen pickpocket. Harley initially plans to deliver Cassandra to Roman, who would just as soon cut the diamond out of her as wait for her to pass it. Instead, Harley teams up with badass nightclub singer Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), ex-cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and deadly vigilante Huntress (Mary-Elizabeth Winstead) to protect Cassandra from Roman's army of goons during a standoff at Gotham's outlandish Amusement Mile boardwalk...