While the action genre first began to gain traction in the 1970s, it found a full articulation and national popularity in the 1980s. Action films of one kind or another have existed in the Hollywood pantheon since the invention of film—Errol Flynn was the first action star, and James Bond carried the mantle of action hero for many years—but it blossomed as a lucrative Hollywood genre in the 1980s. In the 1970s, films like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno were known as "disaster films" and Stephen Spielberg's Jaws fit into the horror/adventure genre.
Beginning in the 1980s, producers like Jerry Bruckheimer (who produced Top Gun) began strategizing about how to make action films mainstream blockbuster fare. With lead actors like Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the action genre began to take off, re-articulating itself as a particularly bankable genre. Among the most beloved action films of the 1980s are Die Hard, The Terminator, Indiana Jones, Lethal Weapon, First Blood, Star Wars, Top Gun, and Platoon.
Many film historians cite the release of Die Hard starring Bruce Willis in 1988 as the turning point for action films. In it, an ordinary cop is pushed into working in counterterrorism, more of a hesitant hero than a cocksure one. As Tom Shone writes in The Guardian about the evolution of the action film, "As the 80s wore on, the sons and daughters of baby boomers soon tired of their parents' geopolitical hang-ups. Hans Gruber looks like a terrorist, but he and his blondilocks gang are really after money—a narrative sleight of hand and a nice joke at the expense of long-winded political thrillers like Day of the Jackal."
