When you think of action movies, a few images immediately spring to mind – spectacular car chases, explosions, towering structures falling down, and people screaming and fleeing. The truth is action movies tend to blend elements from a variety of genres, like sci-fi, adventure, and fantasy, to deliver high-octane thrills packed with never-seen-before special effects and heroic feats. And while the good guys usually emerge triumphant, they often leave a trail of destruction in their wake – collateral damage in the billions.
Take a minute to think of all the implausible scenarios action movies often feature: aliens invading multiple cities at once, skyscrapers toppling like LEGO pieces, secret laboratories undergoing high-scale explosions, and epic car chases along the most crowded streets. To save the world, our protagonists crash fleets of fighter jets, hurl big objects through multiple walls, and even launch bullets into the air aiming to kill. Exciting? Undoubtedly. But that level of mayhem comes at a steep monetary cost, not to mention the potential loss of human life.
Ethical or not, destructive or not, there is something undeniably satisfying in watching our heroes unleash holy hell on the villains and their forces. They fight fire with fire and leave nothing but smoldering rubble in their wake. When done right, these action movies emerge as outrageous tales of triumph in the face of insurmountable odds. They tap into our desire for escapism and allow us to imagine – if only for a fleeting moment – that we, too, have the power to save the day, whatever the cost.
20 Outbreak (1995)
This remarkable disaster thriller is one of the reasons why 1995 was such a great year for cinema. Outbreak is a movie that chronicles the events following the sudden spread of a deadly virus that starts in Zaire and soon threatens a small California town and the people residing there. A trained military biohazard team is deployed to keep things in check, but they face resistance from locals.
As it turns out, the virus was carried by a monkey host from the African rainforest, and as time passed, the action only ramped up, with officials desperately trying to contain the rapidly flooding virus. But by faulty means. The movie shows the military considering firebombing an entire town of infected people, with planes flying overhead, leaving an indelible impression of the scope of destruction that is needed to contain such a threat. Even if it cost thousands of lives.
19 Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
When it comes to wildly entertaining buddy-cop movies, this hilarious action-comedy tops the list. Starring Eddie Murphy as Alex Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop, Beverly Hills Cop follows the protagonist as he investigates his murder in the city of California. The mayhem begins right as Foley crashes his car into the front of a post hotel and progresses from there.
The crazy truck chase scene, property damage, destruction, probably death, and harebrained schemes are the norm as Alex antagonizes the uptight Beverly Hills. Plus, all the damage done to fancy restaurants, luxury neighborhoods, and a city bus spinning out in the middle of downtown Detroit, however epic, seeps futile because the bad guy gets away, leaving Alex the sole cause of all the chaos.
18 The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
After the failed attempt to create a captivating park experience for visitors in the first movie, this thrilling sequel follows scientists and visitors to a “lost world” of dinosaurs. John Hammond is once again at the helm of the second site. The Lost World: Jurassic Park brims with action sequences featuring vicious velociraptors and tiny chicken-sized compsognathus (Compy) hopping around the facility. At first, they run wild and hunt humans in the ruins of an old lodge, but real carnage occurs when they escape the island reserve.
A rampaging T-rex wreaks havoc in San Diego, smashing buildings, flipping cars, and chomping on people as it makes its way to the harbor. The only solution? Lure the dinosaur onto a cargo ship using a baby dinosaur and sink it at sea, presumably drowning the creature. However, it seems a bit extreme to sacrifice an entire ship just to stop one dino when they could have just tranquilized him.
17 Fast Five (2011)
The fifth installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise finds Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Conner traveling across countries with the police on their tail. But once again, they gather their crew of elite drivers to pull off an elaborate heist in Rio de Janeiro. The bank robbery goes well and is extremely immersive. The action sequences are notoriously fun, featuring high-speed chases, cars flying through the air, and multiple crashes along the way.
However, the most astonishing scene is the climax, where the crew pulls a high-security vault using two cars. Needless to say, it causes untold damage to the surrounding area as the chase builds to a crescendo. The collateral damage is definitely high in Fast Five, but so is the thrill!
16 Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
After the very successful inaugural film of 2009, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zeo Saldana, and Karl Urban return to Star Trek Into Darkness to deliver yet another action-packed sci-fi adventure. In the film, the crew of the USS Enterprise has a face-off against rogue agent John Harrison when he acts as a one-man weapon of mass destruction.
The collateral damage starts almost immediately as Harrison bombards Starfleet Headquarters, leaving much of the building in ruins and countless dead. The action also shifts to London, where a vehicle chase wreaks havoc in the street market. The final showdown aboard Starfleet's top-secret installation is also quite spectacular. Thousands likely perish in the explosions – but it turns out that with great heroes come heavy losses.
15 Pacific Rim (2013)
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In Pacific Rim, humongous Kaiju monsters rise from an ocean breach to wreak havoc on coastal lines, forcing mankind to build equally massive robots called Jaegers to fight time. The government deems Jaegers incapable of defeating the giant killers, but Stacker Pentecost's team claims that his war cannot be won without them. The action centers around the Anteverse, a massive floating base that launches Jaegers to fight them. The action centers around the Anteverse, a massive floating base that launches Jaegers into combat.
Die-hard fans enjoy speculating on the level of collateral damage caused by the city-smashing battles between the towering kaiju monsters and Jaegers. Because as the tsunami rises, so does their power until they reach land and destroy large neighborhoods of Hong Kong and San Francisco. Thus, the vicious clash between these warring titans results in massive loss of life and property.
14 Speed (1994)
Starring Keanu Reeves as Jack Tavern, Speed follows an ordinary, resentful man who plants a bomb into a local bus, leaving Reeves’ character to make sure the bus maintains a speed over 50 mph to avoid being detonated. First of all, considering LA’s morning rush, it is impossible to do so. But since the movie manages to do so, the ensuing mayhem features multiple massive collisions with civilian vehicles, crashing through police blockades, and careening off highway ramps.
Thankfully, only a few casualties are shown on-screen despite all the recklessness and disastrous activities. And yet, after the bus passengers found safety and refuge, Jack sends the bus right into an airplane, likely causing more damage – all to save a busload of panicked passengers.
13 Die Hard (1988)
A franchise that has won millions of fans across the globe, Die Hard started out with John McClane landing in Los Angeles with the hopes of spending Christmas with his wife. But a turn of events has him facing off with a gang of terrorists who have taken over an LA skyscraper on the eve of Christmas, with his wife being one of the hostages. The action is raw and visceral and always focuses on McClane’s grit and determination against overwhelming odds.
The shootouts are intense, but they come at a cost. Several floors of the Nakatomi Plaza are devastated by explosions and machine gun fire. Dozens of civilians perish as Hans Gruber ruthlessly chases McClane across the bullet-ridden office complex. While the victory of good over evil is ultimately sweet, the level of destruction caused reaches high.
12 San Andreas (2015)
If a movie stars Dwayne Johnson as the leading man, chaos and wreckage is sure to follow. San Andreas chronicles a massive earthquake that strikes California, Los Angeles, capturing the city as it lies in ruins, with shattered buildings littering the landscape and fires raging out of control almost everywhere the eye can see. The disaster epic follows Chief Ray Gaines and his family as they struggle to survive the devastating aftermath while also evacuating the city.
Despite being an air rescue pilot, it seems as if Ray’s priorities take a drastic shift as he ignores the visuals of total collapse in his pursuit of saving his wife and daughter. Moreover, the film draws criticism for glossing over the true magnitude of human tragedy after experiencing something of that scale.
11 World War Z (2013)
Zombie flicks have a reputation for being wild and fantastic, and while World War Z is considered a rather unimpressive adaptation of an outstanding book, the relentless onslaught from the undead still gives a lot to talk about. When a zombie pandemic threatens to consume all of mankind, former UN investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) must race around the world to find the virus and a way to stop it.
The film portrays military destruction as the zombie hordes take up more and more space, overrun cities, and decimate civilians. But what’s more shocking is the military itself aimlessly shooting across vast lands in Jerusalem and Philadelphia in hopes of striking the zombies, ultimately killing humans instead. So even though the film offers a glimmer of hope for survival, it does so at a tremendous cost in lives lost.
10 Deep Impact (1998)
Just like another movie below on the list, this one deals with a seven-mile-wide comet threatening to hit Earth, wipe out the entire population, and promise global catastrophe. The film follows a plan of creating a connection of caves to secure the civilization in case they’re unable to stop or break the asteroid. Unlike Armageddon, in Deep Impact, the team does fail, and enormous chunks of the spatial object touch the surface of Earth, leaving an unimaginable impact.
With Elijah Wood at the center of the film, we see the comet’s impact as well as the half-obliterated land as humanity teeters on the brink. Props to the special effects for depicting the utter destruction and the skies going dark from debris with such beauty. However, the countless lives lost in the cataclysmic event leave behind an acute image of a forever-altered world.
9 Man of Steel (2013)
Superman’s arrival on Earth is met with mixed reactions. While some embraced him with open arms, thrilled at the possibility of having an extraordinary savior, others frowned and gave confused glances. Man of Steel brings awful consequences as he battles the villainous General Zod. In the climax of the film, there are many fights that level a sizable portion of the Metropolis, reducing city blocks to rubble and laying waste to iconic buildings.
As for the casualties, countless were clearly implied but never addressed. The fact only diverts our attention from all the good versus evil angles and makes us question Superman’s ethics and his willingness to inflict such harm. While the movie delivers spectacular superhero combat, it falls short of acknowledging the human toll that results, with the collateral damage becoming simply an afterthought.
8 London Has Fallen (2016)
The Has Fallen series has always succeeded in delivering a grand scale of spectacle with its immersive storyline, high-speed action, and stunning visuals. As for London Has Fallen, the middle child of the trilogy, the story begins with a few terrorists laying siege to London. What follows is the city suffering mass destruction as the Vice President and Secret Service team fight to save the British Prime Minister's life.
Having been filmed in London, it is natural that the movie would showcase some of the most iconic landmarks – in this case, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Tower Bridge – being the victim of explosions, the backdrop of thrilling gunfights, and van chases going awry. The staggering body count of civilians is definitely a big notice. And as with most action movies, the relentless carnage only brings more over-the-top entertainment in the form of fall and chaos.
7 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Directed by Jonathan Mostow, this science fiction action film sees Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as the titular protagonist. T-X (Kristanna Loken), one of the most powerful machines ever created, steps out from the future and wreaks havoc across LA in order to find a man and a woman and alter the future. In the process, also eliminate John Conner. The chases happen across the city and lead to countless collisions that leave a trail of ruin in their wake.
From buildings to vehicles and bridges, everything in sight seems to collapse. While Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines gives its spotlight to the heroic battle against the machine, it seems to overlook the significant obliteration and loss that becomes the by-product of such mayhem. But it sure sets non-stop thrills and excitement on the plate to make up for it.
6 X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
The movie itself has apocalypse in the title, so what really can you expect? Set in the 1980s, X-Men: Apocalypse sees the ancient invincible mutant, En Sabah Nur, also known as Apocalypse, waging an all-out assault on making, laying waste to several major cities in his quest for domination. In their classic fight fashion, the X-Men gather to ruin his vibe and demolish his plans.
The film’s depiction of Cairo, Moscow, and London falling into ruins provides glimpses of the scale of damage caused by Apocalypse and his horsemen. We see monuments being toppled over and fire storms raging across an infrastructure that was once deemed magnificent. Sure, the mutants save the day in the end, but the movie begs the question of just how many innocent lives many have been lost before the worldwide catastrophe was averted.
5 Justice League (2017)
There seem to be quite a few popular superhero narratives on the list, so certainly, Justice League makes the cut. In this big-scale DC outing, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other superheroes from the franchise like Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman, untie to battle the intergalactic tyrant Steppenwolf and his Parademon armies, now that they’ve returned to Earth after eons.
The battle scenes obviously feature skyscrapers toppling in impressive fashion, energy beams leveling city blocks, and Parademons swarming the streets of London and other cities. The heroes are struggling to defeat Steppenwolf, and the amount of collateral damage is only rising. The result is an adrenaline-fueled picture of destruction that rarely pauses to consider the real-world consequences for innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.
4 Armageddon (1998)
In Armageddon, the audience are acquainted with a group of deep-core drillers led by Harry Stamper when they are hired by NASA in order to destroy an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. The clock is ticking because the group only has eighteen days to stop the massive rock from destroying all life on the planet. Under Michael Bay’s fantastic direction, the movie paints a picture of potential devastation if the asteroid were to leave an impact.
The cities would vaporize, tsunamis would wipe out coastal regions, and a blanket of darkness would shroud the entire planet. There are scenes when large masses of asteroids hit New York City, making Armageddon one of Hollywood's most over-the-top spectacle films. Moreover, while the drillers succeed, their deployment of a nuclear option at the last moment shows moral ambiguities.
3 Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Sequel to the 1982 film, Blade Runner 2049, unlike its predecessor, was received with glorious appreciation, and it became a hit that is discussed even today. Set in a brutally beautiful dystopian future Los Angeles, the movie circles around K, a blade runner who searches for clues to the fate of a long-lost former associate. It creates a grim, noirish world where pollution, overpopulation, and climate disasters have left the city bleeding and ravaged.
The collateral damage in his futuristic vision may not be portrayed directly, but its implications are quite clear in the social alienation and environmental decay. It has been built over three decades and is a systematic devastation, which somehow is more scary and profound.
2 Geostorm (2017)
Another disaster epic that takes things too far, Geostorm, directed by Dean Devlin, follows Gerard Butler’s Jake Lawson at the front seat of a high-stakes mission. An extensive network of satellites designed to control the world's climate has just begun to fail, and it threatens to create a Geostorm that could destroy the entire planet. The movie depicts the potential scale of damage from such a terrifying event through scenes of massive floods, torrential hailstorms, hurricanes, and widespread destruction.
The special events are excellent, showing how entire regions could become inhabitable in a matter of seconds. However, like many disaster films, Geostorm lays all its focus on action and spectacle rather than the human costs that would come with it. The result is entertaining, but the question of prioritizing thrills over suffering still stands.
1 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Disney
The Avengers had their first assignment in 2012, where they sent Loki running back off to where he belonged, and in 2015, the group returned in Avengers: Age of Ultron to fight a new threat. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner had built a sentient artificial intelligence named Ultron with the right motive, but when he begins to harbor an obsession with causing human extinction, The Avengers reunite and battle Ultron.
The climactic battle scenes feature the Avengers defending a key city, Sokovia, from Ultron’s robot army, with buildings devastated, a massive part of the city floating overhead, civilians fleeing in terror, and immense collateral damage portrayed through the scope and scale of destruction. The focus remains squarely on the heroes’ battle against Ultron, with the backdrop of wanton destruction serving primarily to raise the stakes and intensify the action.
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