These 5 Steven Spielberg Action Movies Are Masterpieces

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Tom Cruise aiming a gun somewhere off-camera in Minority Report (2002).

Published Oct 2, 2026, 5:41 AM EDT

Steven Spielberg action scenes tend to survive in memory as things you actually did. Tell me that isn’t correct. It was you who ran from the boulder. You held your breath while the raptors searched the kitchen. You watched the tank inch toward the cliff. You hit Omaha Beach and immediately wanted to crawl back into the ocean. That is a ridiculous gift. Plenty of directors can stage something enormous. Spielberg can make ten minutes of controlled chaos live in your head like a memory you somehow participated in.

And he is almost unfairly good at the tiny decision inside the huge sequence. Spielberg understands that action becomes unforgettable once you desperately care whether one specific person gets through the next thirty seconds. These 5 Spielberg films achieve that in one or more ways.

5 'Minority Report' (2002)

Tom Cruise as John Anderton looking up towards a reflection in Minority Report (2002).

Minority Report becomes a chase built around one delicious problem: the man who knows exactly how Precrime hunts fugitives is now the fugitive. In 2054 Washington, D.C., John Anderton (Tom Cruise) leads Precrime, a police unit that arrests people before they commit murders predicted by three psychic Precogs. John believes completely in the system until it predicts that he himself will murder a man named Leo Crow within thirty-six hours, despite having never met him.

Spielberg keeps finding ways to make the technology personally invasive. John replaces his eyes because retinal scanners can track him, then walks through a mall where advertisements still address him by name because his new eyes belong to somebody else. The spider robots are even better. They flood an apartment building, crawl into private rooms, and force everyone to stop whatever they are doing for compulsory eye scans. John is submerged in an ice bath trying to keep his freshly operated eyes hidden while one spider crawls toward him. The future here is impressive, efficient, and absolutely exhausting. That tension is why the movie still feels alarmingly close.

4 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' (1989)

Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) discovers that his father, medieval scholar Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery), has vanished while searching for the Holy Grail, the cup believed to have been used at the Last Supper. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade sends Indy across Venice, Austria, Germany, and finally the desert trying to rescue Henry and finish the Grail hunt before the Nazis reach it first.

The action is fantastic, but the father-son bickering makes everything ten times better. Indy escapes a burning castle and proudly announces their situation is improving, only for Henry to reveal that he accidentally shot their own plane’s tail. Henry later takes down another aircraft by frightening a flock of birds into its path with his umbrella. And the tank chase is peak Indiana Jones because every new problem immediately creates another one. Indy jumps onto the tank, fights soldiers, gets trapped against a cliff wall, then apparently falls to his death while Henry finally realizes how terrified he is of losing him. The Grail itself ultimately tests that relationship. Indy can reach immortality or take his father’s hand. For once, he chooses correctly.

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

3 'Saving Private Ryan' (1998)

Tom Hanks as Captain John Miller in a ruined town wearing his army helmet in Saving Private Ryan.

After the Normandy invasion, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is ordered to take a small squad across occupied France and find Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), whose three brothers have already been killed in the war. Saving Private Ryan turns that rescue mission into an argument the soldiers keep having with themselves — how many lives should be risked to bring one man home?

Nothing prepares you for Omaha Beach. The landing craft opens and men are killed before they can get into the water. Miller reaches shore dazed, watching soldiers burn, drown, lose limbs, and desperately search for cover that barely exists. Spielberg never lets combat become clean after that. Even smaller choices come back viciously. Miller releases a captured German soldier after Wade (Giovanni Ribisi)’s death, only to encounter him again during the battle at Ramelle. And when Miller lies wounded on the bridge, firing his pistol uselessly at an approaching tank, the gesture is heartbreaking precisely because there is nothing heroic left to perform. He has done everything he can. He just keeps pulling the trigger.

2 'Jurassic Park' (1993)

Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) smiles joyously as he peers through the front window of a car in 'Jurassic Park' (1993)

Paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are invited to a private island where billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has created living dinosaurs using recovered DNA. Jurassic Park initially lets everyone experience the impossible dream. Then the park’s security systems fail during a storm, the electric fences shut down, and the animals stop being exhibits.

The first T. rex attack is still absurdly good because Spielberg makes you wait. A goat leg lands on the car. The water in the cup ripples. The fence is suddenly empty. Then the dinosaur steps through it, and every confident promise Hammond made about control becomes hilarious. Later, Grant and the children climb an electric fence just as Ellie unknowingly restores the power, while Tim is still hanging from it. The raptor kitchen scene goes in the opposite direction and makes tiny noises terrifying. A ladle falls. A claw taps the floor. Lex and Tim are trying to breathe quietly while predators learn how to open doors. The dinosaurs were the selling point. The suspense is why people have never stopped watching.

1 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981)

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) comes face-to-face with a deadly cobra in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

Archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is recruited by U.S. intelligence after learning that Nazi agents are searching for the Ark of the Covenant, a biblical artifact believed to possess devastating power. Raiders of the Lost Ark sends Indy after his former mentor’s medallion, reunites him with Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and turns the hunt for the Ark into one disaster after another across Nepal, Cairo, and the Mediterranean.

And almost every disaster is partly Indy’s fault, which is essential. He steals the golden idol and triggers the boulder. He thinks Marion has died and immediately drinks himself miserable. He gets dragged behind a truck because simply staying inside the vehicle would apparently be too easy. During the famous marketplace confrontation, an elaborate swordsman shows off in front of him and Indy, exhausted and irritated, just shoots him. That gag tells you the whole character. He is brave, capable, occasionally brilliant, and permanently one inconvenience away from being fed up with the entire adventure. Then the ending pulls the perfect trick. Indy spends the whole movie chasing the Ark and survives its opening by finally respecting something he cannot understand. Close your eyes. For once, Indiana Jones knows when curiosity should lose.