I love writing this list each and every year, at least in part because a “scene” in a movie can be great for so many different reasons. Some years, however, a single genre or sub-genre of film dominates my watch list so heavily that some of the fun range gets lost. 2023 was one of those years, but because said source of dominance happened to be non-superhero action movies, I don’t mind one bit. This was a year teeming with examples of kinetic, pulse-pounding filmmaking craft – among other kinds of standout moments, of course – and I’m so excited to dive in. So let’s do that.
There are, naturally, a ton of spoilers on this page, so tread carefully.
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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW!
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10. No Sleep Till Brooklyn – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3
Hey, I didn’t say there’d be no superhero action scenes – and if you’ve seen Guardians 3 you had to know this one was going to show up. The hallway brawl at the climax of the movie is three crucial things all in one: a magnificently-choreographed speed-shifting one-shot filled with faux-gore and crowd-pleasing team-up moves; an amazing song from a series famous for its amazing soundtracks; and most importantly, an emotionally resonant fist-pumper of a final combat moment for the Guardians team, spearheaded by the film’s emotional centre Rocket Raccoon and finished by the effectively all-new, all-different Gamora. Marvel’s best three minutes of the year.
9. Village Raid – The Creator
A testament to the enduring power of great shot selection and sound design, the US Army raid on a fishing village at the climax of The Creator’s second act is an effective microcosm of the whole film: it looks way better than it has any right to, it doesn’t hide from utilising gorgeous wide shots that would showcase blemishes easier, and it packs an immense serving of dread into a lean package. Extended sections of the scene have no music at all, and the ominous accelerating clunks of the self-destruct tin can robots obscured by weapon smoke is bone-chilling partially because of this – and partially because of their pre-sprint dialogue.
8. Train Climb – Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I
The most surprising thing about Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I is that its most thrilling action scene is not the heavily-advertised climactic motorbike jump into free-fall, but the very Uncharted 2-esque climb up a disintegrating vertical train that follows it. Despite the fact that the jump was done for real by Tom Cruise and the perilous climb is clearly reliant on a decent amount of blended CG imagery, the tension is still palpable as his Ethan Hunt trades perilous positions with Hayley Atwell’s Grace. Video Essayist Thomas Flight has a pretty decent theory as to why the death-defying hangs hit so much harder than the bike jump: the latter is shot without nearly as much subjectivity. I think he has a point.
7. Peaches – The Super Mario Bros Movie
Some actors disappear into their roles, making you almost completely forget the talented people who bring them to life and immersing the viewer into the story on a powerful level. Some actors are Jack Black. Here’s the official music video if you want to experience this again.
6. Operation Wada Tsumi – Godzilla Minus One
If future professors at film schools have any sense, they will be using this scene as the ideal standard for climactic finales in action cinema for years to come: Set up seemingly insurmountable odds; give your characters space to prepare emotionally and further endear themselves to the audience; set up all the possible ways the low-odds master plan can go wrong and from where the potential backup will come; start the action and set off every Chekhov’s gun in your arsenal except one as the power of the enemy proves too strong; wait until the last second and pop that last gun.
5. Dragon’s Breath Breach – John Wick Chapter 4
Unfortunately we cannot simply let half this list be overrun by scenes from John Wick Chapter 4, so I will not be waxing lyrical about the brawl in moving traffic at the giant French roundabout, or the actual honest-to-goodness nunchuk fight, or the battle against the neverending staircase, or even the portable motion sensor shenanigans in the Japan-centric first act. In fact I won’t even be going on about this scene itself – a top-down camera shift that follows John as he breaches room after room wielding a Dragon’s Breath shotgun – because I have absolutely no idea how the filmmaking team pulled it off. It just straight-up looks and sounds like a level from Hotline Miami.
4. Just Ken – Barbie
You know the rules around here: if there’s a decent dance sequence in a major movie, it’s going to get a shout-out here. But Just Ken isn’t just a decent dance sequence, of course: it’s a glorious mash-up of dazzling synchronised choreography, the most bizarre (and colourful) cinematic all-in-brawl in years, a suite of lyrics dripping in cheese delivered with conviction by Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu, and a tune catchy enough to launch memes and merch the world over. It’s the climactic moment of a movie that by Act 3 is so thoroughly chaotic that a massive slice of showmanship just seems natural, and it pays off in a big way.
3. The Test – Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is about so much more than the headlining moment in its eponymous character’s long and dramatic life, and there are so many interesting scenes within its generous runtime worthy of breaking down in years to come – it’s a Christopher Nolan film, so they absolutely will be. But because Oppenheimer is a Nolan film, that headlining scene is still so meticulously directed, so utterly spectacular, that it outshines everything else in the movie despite its position in the dead-centre of the second act. Sure, there’s the alleged absence of CGI to achieve the (literally) bombastic set piece, and that element makes the scene worth watching by itself; but it also features an ocean of tension in every build-up shot and a whole cocktail of emotions to unpack in the aftermath.
2. 21 Minutes and 7 Seconds – Extraction 2
A friend of mine watched big-budget Netflix sequel Extraction 2 before me and recommended it with reasonable enthusiasm over breakfast one day, so I – in my cynical self-important wisdom – jokingly asked if it dared to attempt another one of those virtual “one-take” action sequences that the first movie did so well. He said yes, and I almost rolled my eyes: inviting a direct comparison to the best thing about Extraction would surely be an awful idea. But I was curious when I was barely interested before, so I watched the movie. I kid you not, less than halfway through the ridiculously ambitious, uninterrupted Georgian prison escape my jaw actually started to hang open. And then Chris Hemsworth started punching people with flaming fists…
Forget eye-rolling; when Extraction 3 rolls around, I will be locked in and waiting with baited breath for a third go-around.
1. The Chase – Across the Spider-Verse
Watch it once or watch it a dozen times – this single slice of animated action will deliver something for you on each occasion. It was the main highlight of multiple trailers and yet it still delivers much more in the movie itself, layering and melding animation styles – often within individual frames – to redefine what it means for an action scene to “develop character”. Much like the animated Spider-Verse saga as a whole, Miles Morales’ flight from a horde of multiverse Spideys works extremely well as a high-octane thrill ride and tremendous spectacle, but its also a celebration of animation talent – and a launchpad for the imagination of the next generation.
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Honorable Mentions
–Unboxing – BlackBerry
The final sequence of this corporate cautionary tale is basically perfect; a clever mirror of the opening moments of the film as pure desperation takes over a broken man who has lost the perspective to realise what’s become of him. If it was any longer it’d probably be on the main list, but this was a competitive year.
–The Impersonator – Missing
Missing uses a screen-capture gimmick that has already been implemented in a handful of other movies by now, so it lives and dies by its characters and twists. You can mark the first of many major reveals right around the midpoint of the film, when our protagonist June closes her computer for the first time. As soon as she opens it, the jaw drops begin.
–The Flerkins Eat Everyone – The Marvels
One of two extremely weird action sequences in The Marvels to feature music prominently (the other a flashy dance number that frankly ends too quickly), the mass evacuation of a collapsing space station by way of temporary tentacle-mouthed cat creature ingestion is just a wild thing to witness on screen, especially when the screams of the victims are drowned out by Memory from the Cats musical.
–You Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated – Tetris
You might expect a movie about covert international business dealings in the 1980s to feature a business meeting or two, but this scene packs in multiple, as a rights-holder dashes between competing interested parties who grow increasingly exasperated as the time between cuts grows steadily shorter. It’s way, way funnier than it sounds.
–The Hit – The Killer
The first several minutes of The Killer may be a messy juxtaposition of great framing and edgelord writing, but when the action kicks in for Michael Fassbender’s unnamed protagonist, all the clever directing choices David Fincher makes for the heart-pounding moment of truth add up to a truly thrilling sequence.
Vagrant Rant 