I decided to watch the original Robocop today (I had that itch), and while watching it I realized that there's a scene in the movie that I anticipate more than any other. In fact, after the scene is over the rest of the movie feels slightly anti-climactic for me. (Not that a single frame of the move is bad, only that I love the scene so much it overshadows the other amazing sequences in the movie.)

I want to start a thread and see how far it goes. I want folks to name their all-time favorite action scenes in three different movies. I want to lay down one rule, so that we don't get any repetition, and that's that your choices have to be from movies that have not already been mentioned. What I'm hoping for is a wide swathe of titles that would help encourage people to watch movies they haven't seen before.

ROBOCOP: The scene in which Robocop assaults a drug factory. From the entrance Robo makes by smashing down a warehouse door, to the brutal assault on Clarence Boddiker I can't find a single flaw in the entire sequence. (Well maybe the cartoonish blowback from gunshots, but whatever.) The first time I saw Robocop marking each of the bad guys with his automatic targeting system, then blowing many of them away with no-look, cross-body shots I was sold. An incredible sequence from beginning to end.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: The truck chase after Indiana Jones blows up the flying wing. Jesus god almighty, one of the absolute best practical stunt effects sequences of all time. This is the kind of filmmaking that simply doesn't get done in the real world very often, if at all, anymore. Specifically, the part I grit my teeth for is when the grizzled Nazi soldier belly crawls across the top of the truck, drops in and beats Indy before tossing him across the hood. When Indy comes back for his revenge, adding injury to insult by running the Nazi over with the truck he just re-commandeered, I want to jump up and cheer.

DIE HARD I actually started watching '80's action movies after reading a few TMDB threads on it this week. The scene in which McClane grabs a brick of C4, puts four primers into it, and then straps it to a chair with a monitor before dropping it down an elevator shaft is gonzo moviemaking. When I saw this in the theater, the audience just sat stunned at what they'd seen. Insane sequence.

And yes, I know that all of my choices are from the '80's. I think that we all tend to forge a stronger emotional connection to movies we've seen in our youth. I'm also jaded to the overabundant use of CG effects and especially CG stuntmen now, so I tend to be more dismissive of modern movies. (Mad Max: Fury Road notwithstanding.) That said, though it didn't make my list, The training/battle sequence from The Edge of Tomorrow, where Cruise dies over and over again as he learns how to survive on the battlefield just baaaaarely missed.

What are yours?