My Top 5 80s Action Heroes

The 1980s was the golden decade for action movies and their manly heroes.  Nowadays, action heroes are less over the top and not quite as uber-manly.  Today, the newer action movies are more quality with the acting, writing, dialogue and storylines.  However, it is always fun to throwback to one of the classic action film of the 80'.  Here is my top 5 action heroes from the 80s.

5. Dutch (Predator) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger

When you have a jacked-up Austrian actor with big guns facing off against an alien who was made to hunt creatures, its a hard formula to beat.  Dutch is about as manly as they come, a military commando wearing a sleeveless vest in the jungle, he is one of the biggest badasses of the 80s.  Spouting out one-liners like they grow on trees, he cheats death throughout many brushes with the titular alien.  When you talk about action heroes, many people's minds drift straight to Dutch, his appearance and the way he talks.  Get To The Choppa!

4. Rambo (First Blood) -- Sylvester Stallone

Rambo is very similar to Dutch.  In the world of the 80s, he was a major star.  A loner who was forced into defending himself, he takes out the local sheriffs and military personnel with no issues. He is the strong, silent type with a penitent for getting in trouble.  However, he never has any trouble getting out of said trouble.  He takes on the whole sheriffs department and military without suffering a bruise or a bent finger nail.  In the second film, he even takes on an entire prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, and he does it with nary a problem.  Once again showing off the muscles, just without the normal amount of one-liners for John Rambo.

3. Ripley (Aliens) -- Sigourney Weaver

In a world of ripped male actors portraying badass action heroes.  Ripley manages to infiltrate and shine as one of the biggest badasses in the period.  She accompanies an army squad into a colony to see what has gone wrong.  After the inevitable time when everything goes wrong, she ends up killing Xenomorphs left and right.  Without the giant muscles, she still comes off as a premium and bona-fide badass.  Taking on one of the most terrifying creatures in sci-fi history, she takes out the whole colony and even the queen, during which she mutters one of the best one-liners in history.  After the first Alien, Ellen Ripley turns into one of the most badass characters in the history of action movies.

2. Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark) -- Harrison Ford

Indiana Jones is the person that many young men wanted to be when they grew up.  A wise-cracking archaeologist who fights baddies with his trusty whip.  Discovering ancient artifacts, fighting the always hated Nazis, and getting the girl at the end.  He is not the traditional badass of the 80s that everyone thinks of, but a badass none the less.  Indiana Jones is an action hero that a lot of people can relate too.  He works as a professor when he's not on the job, and I fell that people can relate to him more because of that.  It is harder to relate to others like Rambo and Dutch because of their background.  Indy is a great character and is the second best action hero from the 80s.

1. John McClane (Die Hard) -- Bruce Willis

John McClane is the most badass character from the 1980s.  He was just a New York City cop, until terrorists led by the legendary Hans Gruber took over the building that McClane was in.  With just the clothes on his back and the sheer badassery that he possesses, he takes them on.  He goes through hell to take that building back, and he even walks barefoot over glass.  He taunts that terrorists at any chance he gets and even possesses one of the most best catchphrases ever.  He even pushes the main baddie out of the top floor window.  While he takes on the terrorists and keeps going, despite the beating he takes, the audience realizes that John McClane is the most badass character from the 80s.  Whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not, it has the best action hero from the decade.