My favorite car chase is from Matrix. The suspension of disbelief is vital in all action movies. You have to fully immerse yourself in the concept of nothing being real, and hence carnage on the roads in any action movie is okay. I love the car flying into the helicopter scene in Die Hard (can’t recall which one… lol) and I adore James Bond parking his car remotely into the rental shop.
There is something about flipping cars, and speeding, and the cool way the directors slow down the point of impact. Very clever special effects.
In
Accidental Hero there is a car chase, and I wrote it, realizing I wasn’t able to describe the terms, get to the gritty of it. So I called on my petrol-head husband and he detailed the car chase that I then took and added to… so when you read the car chase, remember that at the core of it is a Ferrari loving petrol-head. I also had a car chase in Ghost which had a fiery end - this one I managed to write all on my own!!!!
I love a fight in a film, and one of my favorite gun fights is from the first Matrix movie with that awesome special effect where Keanu’s character is able to twist away from the bullets. Add in any gun fight where there is actual people being hit by the heroes, as opposed to the seemingly awesome sharp shooting hero unable to hit the side of a barn whenever his partner is in danger of being kidnapped.
Ghost actually begins with a fist fight in an alleyway between the heroes of the book - never let it be said I give my guys an easy ride!
I also love Terminator with Arnie walking through the police station before saying he’d be back, there is something icily dramatic about that scene, a classic.
The sword fighting in early Robin Hood films, up and down Castle stairs, losing the sword, flipping the sword, all that power and grace behind wielding the sword… *swoons*
I recall the shootouts in old cowboy movies, the laser battles in Sci-fi films , and more importantly the lightsaber battle in Return of the Jedi between Luke and Vader. The tension is ramped up with swelling music and every time I see it I get shivers down my spine.
My favorite buddy relationship has to be Riggs and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon. I first saw this film way back when it came out and it ticked every single one of my boxes for action, drama, and most importantly two guys working together who at first really don’t enjoy it, only for a few weeks later to be prepared to die for each other. This dials into my kink of heroes who will do anything for each other because they are *that close*.
Inserts winky face.
The iconic scene for me is the scenes in the factory towards the end of the film – Riggs tied up, Murtaugh being beaten up and his daughter threatened. I love that point in a film where even though you know the heroes will escape you can sit back and enjoy the fact that they are seemingly going to die.
The movie/book villain is vital in any
spy/buddy story, because it the one thing the heroes have to defeat before
they can move on. The best villain of all time was, to me, being a Star Wars
freak, is Darth Vader. Oh my God, when I saw Star Wars for the first time (aged
10) I was so scared of him. The absolute unbeatable power he had, meant that
the destruction of the death star became so much more; the heroes had overcome
the near impossible.
And Hans Gruber in Die Hard – the perfect
evil nasty, randomly shooting people, apparently without morals, or redemption,
he had to die, and boy was his death a good one! His evil was the perfect foil
for John McClane’s white T-shirted, bare footed, hero. Oh, and T-1000 (the
silvery changing baddie from Terminator 2) he was again apparently unbeatable,
which made his ending all the more sweet.
A good bad guy will have you rooting more
for the hero.
Heroes in movies, the ones you root for, are a vital part of an action movie. My favorites include John McClane (Die Hard), Han Solo (Star Wars) and Riggs (Lethal Weapon). As I thought about this post I realized my three favorites had something in common. They were all wise cracking bad boys in a way. Each had complicated back stories, each were flawed (the cop with no time for his family, the smuggler, the man on the edge of a breakdown), and each were beautifully played against the straight guy. Even John McClane had the cop outside who was his *foil* to make his actions seem even more crazy.
Then there is the quiet hero, Sam from the Lord Of the Rings books and subsequent films, and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon who quietly loved his family and was pushed to extremes when they were threatened.
I love the hero who is willing to sacrifice themselves for the rest of the characters; the one who will fly to the asteroid on a space shuttle and know it was a one way mission, the one who throws himself at the bad guy, the one who stays behind when others leave. Of course I would hate for my heroes to die. I recall one film from my youth, where the hero flew his helicopter into a hanger to get the bad guys. The film ended with him dead and I was bereft and sobbing. So, no deaths for my heroes please. LOL.
Buy Links
Amazon US |
Amazon UK |
Amazon CAN |
Amazon AU |
Smashwords |
KOBO
A couple of my US friends laughed at me, one said that driving 5 hours wouldn’t even get her out of her state (Texas). So when this cool thing popped up on my timeline measuring the UK against other things I was fascinated. The UK is tiny compared to US as a whole, and Texas is god knows how much bigger. 
The small blue covering is Pennsylvania - I can handle that state, it’s small like us!
