Great Action Scenes On DVD Now
Top Sequences In Recent The Kingdom, Live Free or Die Hard
Jun 11, 2008
The Kingdom
Most of The Kingdom has been fairly labeled “CSI Riyadh”, it’s a standard police procedural only set in Saudi Arabia. But the last half hour switches gears into full-on action as one of the team of US investigators is kidnapped.
The Kingdom Chase Scene
The initial assault comes out of nowhere as the US team drives along a road, and one of their members (played by Jason Bateman) is scooped up in the ensuing mayhem. A thrilling chase ensues, as the US team follows the SUV containing Bateman’s character Adam Leavitt, with Jennifer Garner’s character Janet Mayes urging, “If we lose him, he dies.” Leavitt is taken into an urban Saudi neighborhood, where the Americans are definitely out of their element and in the minority. Enemies pop out from everywhere, firing rockets, machine guns, and even tossing a grenade or two. All of this is captured by director Peter Berg with shaky you-are-there handheld camera work. After an initial attack the team looks up and everything seems okay, until a rattle echoes as a grenade almost casually rolls onto the dashboard.
After Escaping The Grenade Blast
The team heads into an apartment building. There Janet gets into a knife fight with an enemy, resulting in her stabbing him in the brain. Leavitt is saved. The villains mastermind Abu Hamsa turns out to be a harmless looking grandfather, something Jamie Foxx’s Ronald Fleury realizes just in time. The grandfather is easily dispatched. And so ends half an hour of don’t-look-away action. The scene has tremendous replay value as one of the best action sequences in recent memory.
Live Free or Die Hard
This Bruce Willis actioner has many awesome fight scenes, and is a must-buy for action fans. The one in particular that steals the show is the tunnel sequence.
Live Free or Die Hard Tunnel Scene, Car Flip
Willis’ John McClane enters a tunnel to escape from a helicopter firing at his car. But the villain Thomas Gabriel (played by Timothy Olyphant) redirects traffic into the tunnel. First the traffic enters behind Willis’ car, which doesn’t seem too threatening. But then Gabriel has traffic rerouted in the other direction as well, meaning cars are going one way down the tunnel in opposing directions. Masses of cars are headed on collision courses with each other with McClane and Justin Long’s hacker Matt Farrell in the middle.
As If This Wasn’t Bad Enough
Gabriel then turns out the lights in the tunnel. So in pitch black the cars all hurtle towards one another. McClane tries to dodge the cars but ends up ditching his vehicle with Farrell in tow. They race around as cars fly by, and at one point McClane pushes Farrell in between two cars as another car flips in the air towards them. The flying car is barely stopped from crushing the duo by the other two cars, a spectacular near-death collision that was the high point of the film’s trailer as well. Amidst the chaos McClane commandeers his smashed car and drives it back towards the helicopter waiting for him at the exit to the tunnel. He jumps out as his car hits a tollbooth and shoots up into the air, destroying the helicopter and putting an exclamation point on this incredible sequence. Live Free or Die Hard is required to be owned by action fans.
