Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Drive! Drive is a 2011 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. The screenplay by Hossein Amini is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by James Sallis. It stars Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac and Albert Brooks. Like the book, the film is about an unnamed Hollywood stunt performer(Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver. Prior to its September 2011 release, it had been shown at a number of film festivals. At the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Drive was praised and received a standing ovation. Winding Refn won the festival’s Best Director Award for the film. Reviews from critics have been positive, with many drawing comparisons to work from previous eras. The film was nominated for Best Film and Best Direction at the 65th British Academy Film Awards.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Top Gun! Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, and produced byDon Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr., and was inspired by an article titled “Top Guns” published in California magazine three years earlier. The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Tom Skerritt. Cruise plays Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a young Naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Edwards) are given the chance to train at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School at Miramarin San Diego. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in theNational Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down The Rock! The Rock is a 1996 American action film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. The film is dedicated to Simpson, who died five months before its release. The film, set primarily on Alcatraz Island and in the San Francisco Bay Area, received generally favorable reviews from critics and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing at the 69th Academy Awards.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Gone in 60 Seconds! Gone in 60 Seconds is a 2000 American action heist film, starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Christopher Eccleston, Robert Duvall, Vinnie Jones, and Will Patton. The film was directed by Dominic Sena, written by Scott Rosenberg, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of The Rock and Con Air (both of which starred Cage) and Armageddon (which starred Patton), and is a loose remake of the 1974 H.B. Halicki film of the same name. The film was shot throughout Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down The Edge! The Edge is a 1997 American survival drama film directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Bart the Bear, a trained Kodiak bear known for appearances in several Hollywood movies, also appears in the film as a vicious grizzly; this was one of his last film roles. An intellectual billionaire and two lesser men struggle to band together and survive after getting stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with a blood-thirsty Kodiak Bear hunting them down.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down London Has Fallen! Arms dealer Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul) is discovered to be the mastermind behind several terrorist attacks in Europe and around the world. Western intelligence services locate his compound and the United States launches a drone strike against it, supposedly killing Barkawi along with his family. Two years later, President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his top Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) are jogging together. Mike is expecting his first child with his wife Leah (Radha Mitchell) and hopes to take some time off to spend time with his family, contemplating resigning from the Secret Service. In Yemen, Barkawi is still alive, and he meets with his son Kamran (Waleed Zuaiter). They begin to set plans in motion for revenge.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Mortal Kombat! Mortal Kombat is a 1995 American fantasy martial arts film written by Kevin Droney, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, and starring Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Bridgette Wilson, and Christopher Lambert. It is a loose adaptation of the early entries in the fighting game series Mortal Kombat. The plot of the film follows the warrior Liu Kang, the actor Johnny Cage, and the soldier Sonya Blade, all three guided by the god Raiden, on their journey to combat the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung and his forces in a tournament to save Earth. The film’s primary source material was 1992’s original game of the same title, but it was also inspired by and incorporates elements of 1993’s follow-up game Mortal Kombat II.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Crimson Tide! Crimson Tide is a 1995 American submarine film directed by Tony Scott, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. It takes place during a period of political turmoil in the Russian Federation, in which ultranationalists threaten to launch nuclear missiles at the United States and Japan. It focuses on a clash of wills between the new executive officer (Denzel Washington) of a U.S. nuclear missile submarine and its seasoned commanding officer (Gene Hackman), arising from conflicting interpretations of an order to launch their missiles.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down The Face.Off! Face/Off is a 1997 American science-fiction action directed by John Woo and starringJohn Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Travolta plays an FBI agent and Cage plays a terrorist, sworn enemies who assume each other’s physical appearance.^[3] It was the first Hollywood film in which Woo was given major creative control. The film went on to gross $245 million worldwide. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award in the category Sound Effects Editing (Mark Stoeckinger) at the 70th Academy Awards.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Tombstone! Tombstone is a 1993 American western film directed by George P. Cosmatos, written by Kevin Jarre (who was also the original director, but was replaced early in production) and starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, with Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, and Dana Delany in supporting roles, as well as a narration by Robert Mitchum. The film is based on events in Tombstone, Arizona, including the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the Earp Vendetta Ride, during the 1880s. It depicts a number of western outlaws and lawmen, such as Wyatt Earp, William Brocius, Johnny Ringo, and Doc Holliday.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Kill Bill Vol. 1! Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two Kill Bill films produced at the same time, and was followed by Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004). It was originally set for a single theatrical release, but with a runtime of over 4 hours, it was divided into two films. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who seeks revenge on an assassination squad led by Bill (David Carradine) after they try to kill her and her unborn child. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down Rocky IV! Rocky IV is a 1985 American sports film written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, who also starred in the film. The film co-stars Dolph Lundgren, Burt Young, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers, Tony Burton, Brigitte Nielsen, andMichael Pataki. Rocky IV remained the highest grossing sports movie for 24 years before it was overtaken by The Blind Side.  It is the fourth and most financially successful entry in the Rocky film series In the film, the Soviet Union and their top boxer make an entrance into professional boxing with their best athlete Ivan Drago, who initially wants to take on World Champion Rocky Balboa. His best friend Apollo Creed decides to fight him instead, but is fatally beaten in the ring. Enraged by this, Rocky decides to fight Drago in Russia to avenge his friend and defend the honor of his country. Critical reception was mixed, but the film earned $300 million at the box office. This film marked Carl Weathers’ final appearance in the series. The film’s success led to a fifth entry released on November 16, 1990.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down The Patriot! The Patriot is a 2000 American historical fiction war film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Robert Rodat, and starring Mel Gibson, Chris Cooper, Heath Ledger, and Jason Isaacs. It was produced by the Mutual Film Company and Centropolis Entertainment and was distributed byColumbia Pictures. The film mainly takes place in rural York County, South Carolina, and depicts the story of an American swept into the American Revolutionary War when his family is threatened. Benjamin Martin is a composite figure the scriptwriter claims is based on four factual figures from the American Revolutionary War: Andrew Pickens, Francis Marion, Daniel Morganand Thomas Sumter. The film takes place during the real-life events of the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War but attracted controversy over its fictional portrayal of historical figures and atrocities. Professor Mark Glancy, teacher of film history at Queen Mary, University of London has said: “It’s horrendously inaccurate and attributes crimes committed by the Nazis in the 1940s to the British in the 1770s.” In contrast, Australian film critic David Edwards asserts that “this fictional story is set around actual events, but it is not a history of what America was, or even an image of what it has become—it’s a dream of what it should be….The Patriot is a grand epic full of action and emotion….But it’s also surprisingly insightful in its evaluation of the American ideal—if not the reality.” Critic Roger Ebert states, “None of it has much to do with the historical reality of the Revolutionary War”.

Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down The Bourne Legacy! The Bourne Legacy is a 2012 American action spy thriller film directed by Tony Gilroy, and is the fourth installment in the series of films adapted from the novels originated by Robert Ludlum, and continued by Eric Van Lustbader. Although this film has the same title as Van Lustbader’s first Bourne novel, The Bourne Legacy, the actual screenplay bears little resemblance to the novel. Unlike the novel, which features Jason Bourne as the principal character, the film centers on Black ops agent Aaron Cross (played by Jeremy Renner), an original character. In addition to Renner, the film stars Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton.