“From Unstoppable to Relatable: The Evolution of Action Heroes”

What happened to action heroes?

There was a time when they were unstoppable.
 No fear. No weakness. No explanation needed.

They showed up… and handled it.

But somewhere along the way, that changed.

In this episode of Mostly Me, Occasionally Wise, we take a deep dive through the decades—from the larger-than-life icons of the 80’s, to the charismatic rebels of the 90’s, the grounded professionals of the 2000’s, and today’s more relatable, human heroes.

This isn’t just about movies.

It’s about how our idea of strength has evolved.

Why we used to admire perfection…
 and why we now connect with struggle.

Along the way, we break down some of the most iconic action stars of all time, share behind-the-scenes insights, and build a Mount Rushmore of action heroes that represents the evolution of the genre.

So the question is…

Which era are you choosing?

And who’s on your Mount Rushmore?

Thanks for listening to Mostly Me, Occasionally Wise.

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Until next time — stay mostly you, and occasionally wise.

Transcript

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Action heroes didn't just change over time. They they simply evolved from unstoppable machines to people who struggle, who bleed, and oftentimes barely make it out alive. So what happened? How did we go from heroes who felt untouchable to heroes who feel like us? Let's go decade by decade and figure it out. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Mostly Me Occasionally Wise, and this is the magical episode number five, the heroes episode. And this one's gonna be a little different from the villains one because, yeah, we are talking about action heroes, but underneath that, we're really talking about how our idea of strength has changed over time. I mean, let's think about it for a second. The heroes we grow up watching, the ones we look up to, I mean, the ones we connect with, they usually reflect what we value at that moment in time. In the 80s, we wanted power, people who couldn't be stopped. And in the 90s, we wanted personality, someone we could connect with, someone we could even laugh with. In the 2000s, we wanted realism, skills, training, something believable. And today, we want balance, strength, but also struggle, confidence, but also consequence. We don't just want to watch someone win anymore. We we want to feel what it cost them to get there, and that shift, that's what changed everything. So as we go through this, I want you thinking about something. Not just which hero you like, but honestly why you like them. Because that answer says more about you than you probably realize. So let's get into it. So let's talk about the 80s, the the era of the invincible icon. And when you think about 80s, there's a lot of action stars that were really on the rise in the 80s, but there's really one, honestly, at the moment, that comes to mind, and that's that's Arnold Schwarzenegger. And the thing with Arnold is he just didn't play action heroes, he was the blueprint for what one looked like. Arnold is huge, and you really see that and you feel that in the 80s. I mean, in the 80s, action wasn't subtle, it wasn't layered, it wasn't even comp complicated, it was it was pure presence, and Arnold had it. He had it all from head to toe. In the movie Commando, so Commando is your your typical 80s action movie where he is coming in, he's wrecking everything, and he's leaving. He's using everything you can think of as a weapon. Yes, everything. At one point, he is throwing saw blades at people, which is incredible for an 80s action movie. But the thing is, like I said, he's controlling it from the beginning, and not once during that entire movie do you feel like he is in danger of losing. And so, you know, you you really see that presence and commando, whereas you move on to the movie Predator. And in the Predator, what makes his his performance interesting in that movie is that he is getting challenged by something that is strong, if not stronger, than he is. You start to see a little more in-depth character, you start to see the struggles, you start to see the fear. And so, what does he do? He adapts, he slows down, he becomes more calculated, he gets to the chopper. End credits, movie over, action hero wins. So now, after you've seen a little more in-depth in his character, he comes out with this little gem called the Terminator. Now, in the Terminator, he he removes humanity completely. He shows no emotion, no hesitation, no fear. He has one mission, and he is going to do everything in his in his power to achieve it. I mean, his style in that movie was dominance and control. But more than that, it was certainty. You honestly believed that he was going to win every fight in that movie before it even starts. And so that's why a lot of times when you think about 80s action heroes, Arnold is the first one to come up. He's the first one that comes to mind. He like I said, he is the blueprint for a physical presence in the 80s. So if Arnold was pure physical dominance, Sylvester Stallone was the weight. His actions wasn't about looking unstoppable. Even though Sylvester Stallone was impressively built, he wasn't he didn't look and feel unstoppable. And it was about feeling everything with Sylvester Stallone and his characters. They were a little more in-depth, like Rocky is probably one of the bigger examples. If you've ever seen Rocky, you see the struggles he goes through in that movie, followed along with Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, and however more there are. And then in First Blood. We need to be more aware of it. But like I said, in Rambo First Blood, he is fighting trauma. He's fighting the PTSD. And you can clearly see it in the way he moves. The hesitation, the stillness, the moments where he pauses before acting. I mean, he's not trying to be a hero in that movie. He he's surviving. And of course, the cops get involved and things just get chaotic from there. But throughout the movie, he takes damage, he struggles, but he keeps on going, anyways. And that's, you know, when Sylvester Stallone came along, that's when you started to see, okay, you don't just have to be physically present like Arnold. You also need a character that can suffer, that can feel, that can show all the emotions that make them somewhat human. Because with Arnold, he was just a rock. He didn't show a lot of emotion, like I said in a lot of his movies. But with Stallone, you got Stallone wasn't afraid to show the emotion. And I appreciated that in his style of 80s action movies. So you had the physical presence of Arnold, the the emotional deepness with Stallone, but I really want to talk a little bit about the comedic side of an action hero. I mean, granted, you saw it a lot with Bruce Willis, you saw it with Harrison Ford on a lot of occasions with Indiana Jones and Han Solo, but I really want to talk about Kurt Russell. Kurt Russell was another big action hero in the 80s. He had Tango and Cash, he had Escape from New York, which I love Escape from New York, and then he had Big Trouble and Little China. And, you know, both of those movies were produced by Carpenter, Big Trouble and Little China and Escape from New York. But you really get to see a lot of his comedic side. I mean, granted, he had Overboard, and Overboard was great. It was a great Kurt Russell film. But when you're talking about action, Big Trouble and Little China had it all. I mean, you had the perfect comedic timing of Kurt Russell, you had the magic, the mystery, you had the cheesiness, you had everything you wanted in an action film because yes, there were scene, there were scenes in the movie that got emotionally deep. Now, granted, they weren't as deep as Rambo First Blood, but you got a little bit of everything in Big Trouble in Little China, and Kurt Russell, in my opinion, was gold in that movie. And if you haven't seen Big Trouble in Little China, I don't want to go too much more into the plot, but I recommend you check it out. It's it's just an overall good action film. So as you can see, the 80s gave us heroes that felt untouchable, lovable. We started to see a little more emotion from characters, but when the 90s came along, they they pushed it more. Let's just say in the 90s we get more of the charismatic rebel. And the first name that comes to mind when you think about the charismatic rebel in the 90s is Will Smith. I mean, overall the 90s was all about personality, and and Will Smith, in a lot of ways, owned that space. And no pun intended. Independence Day, which happened to be probably the one of the biggest action films in the 90s, he he was confident, he was funny, he was completely in tr in control, but in a way that feels approachable. His style was honestly charisma and swagger, whereas in the movie he doesn't just fight, he enjoys it. The thing with Will Smith's character in Independence Day is he reminds me of an approachable Maverick from Top Gun. If you ever seen Top Gun, Maverick was very, you know, charismatic, he was very funny, he felt that he was in control in a lot of ways. But let's just be honest, Maverick seems like a jerk. And he's not somebody that I'm gonna go up to on the street and you know, high five or handshake or whatever. Whereas Will Smith's character in Independence Day, you know, he seemed like someone that would shake your hand on the street, if not, you know, give you a high five. But when I was doing research on the action heroes, because I I did a lot of research, I found out something about Will Smith that I was honest in my jaw hit the floor because I didn't realize it, and I don't know how I feel about it. So Will Smith apparently turned down the role of Neo in the Matrix because he didn't fully understand the concept at time at the time, and I don't know how to feel about it. Because when you find that information out, you try to visualize Will Smith as Neo in the Matrix. And Neo in the Matrix isn't he isn't funny, he isn't, he's very serious, he's very oftentimes seems confused, obviously, but I just I don't know how I feel about Will Smith potentially almost having that role as a Neo. It kind of makes me feel funny on the inside, but not in a good way. So moving on, we have another movie that came out in the 90s, and in my opinion, this movie is very underappreciated, and even the star actor was underappreciated before his untimely passing during the making of this movie, and I am talking about the crow. And in the crow, this movie is where action becomes emotional, it's pain-driven, it's loss-driven. I mean, his his style in this movie was intensity and emotion. I mean, it's it's dirty, it's gritty, it's it's rough around the edges. There are some funny scenes, but this is this is one of your more serious and darker action movies. I I honestly recommend anybody who who loves movies in general to check this one out. Brandon Lee, and yes, Brandon Lee is the son of Bruce Lee, and he was killed during the movie The Crow with when a stunt went wrong, I believe it was during the scene where he was in a room with a bunch of bad guys, and he got under this big old coffee table, and of course the bad guys unloaded bullet after bullet through the table. Well, just so happened that some of these were live rounds and it it killed him. But Brandon Lee was on to something in this movie, and I really feel like if he had survived this role, he was on to great things because oh man, this movie breaks your heart in so many ways, but it's such, such a good movie. So definitely take the time. Like I said, it is dark, it is gritty, it is rough around the edges, but man, it is just it is just a fantastic movie in the action genre, if not one of the best movies of all time. So I struggle with this next one, but you have to mention him because he was huge in the 90s. My only issue with this actor is that he's not a very good actor. He he he doesn't bring a whole lot of personality, but man, when he got on screen and started doing his karate and stuff, and you got to see more of what the karate does to the human body, you have to you have to add him to this list. And I'm talking about Steven Segall. Steven Segal's acting abilities are equivalent to a bag of rocks. And I mean that in the best way. And I know I know that probably doesn't sound the nicest, but he he's not a good actor. Now, granted, there were a few good movies that he did. Hard to Kill was really good, Under Siege was a decent one, but Tommy Lee Jones carried more of that one. And then Fire Down Below with Dwight Yoakum and then the chick from one of the crime shows on television. There's so many crime shows, I don't know which one it was, but even Fire Down Below was decent. And the the thing that that Stephen Sagall brought, in my opinion, and and I said it, was the physicality of the fights that you see in his movies. Like you see the arms breaking, you see the bones popping out. The best example I can give you, and this this clip is is burned in my head, and I'll never forget it. I want to say it was in the movie Marked for Death. Uh I could be wrong, though. He goes into a pool hall, and of course, once he walks in, everybody turns the looks, and you're like, okay, it's about to go down. Well, you know, he's delivering his his anticlimatic dialogue, and he grabs these two pool balls that are on his table and wraps them in like a hand towel or whatever. And of course, one of the one of the you know bad guys realizes this and he goes after him with a pool stick. Well, Steven Segal grabs this towel with these two pool balls and hits this guy in the mouth. And then, of course, the camera shows the close-up of the guy's face that just got hit in the mouth, and you see teeth falling out. And I will never, ever forget that scene. I mean, it was just one of those, wow, this this really just happened. And it makes you think, okay, this is real, this is something that could happen. Now, granted, I'm not telling my listeners to grab some pool balls and put them in hand towels and start slinging them around and popping people in the face. But if you watch a Stephen Segala movie, you saw everything that he did and you felt it. So in the 90s, he he was an action star, even though his acting in general was uh garbage. So in the 90s, we got more personality, we got a little more in-depth with our characters, minus Steven Segal. Like I said, the guy doesn't have personality. But in the 2000s, things started to become more real. We started to see more of the trained professionals, we started to see more of the action stars with heart. They they the more relatable ones. And the best examples I can give you of those, one was Keanu Reeves. Now, you saw a little bit of Keanu in Point Break, and you saw a little bit of him in Speed, and you also saw in the movie Matrix, he has action, you know, action movie chops. Like he can he can be in an action movie, but after The Matrix, he kind of tapered off and he started doing some romantic movies, and I honestly think he just took a break. But when he came out with the movie John Wick, it shot him to the moon. Seriously. I love John Wick. And in John Wick, it was all about evolution for him. You you you for John for John Wick and for Keanu Roots, but in John Wick, you see that he is an unstoppable. He gets tired, he he gets hit, he he struggles, he he mourns the loss of his puppy. Now, granted, the puppy had meaning behind it, but he kept going. And what honestly made him feel different is that every fight feels earned, if that makes sense. Every movement has consequence, every I mean, his style, his precision, it all had, you know, consequence as well. And he's not just fighting, he's surviving through skill. I mean, one thing I learned about Keanu Reeves in the movie John Wick is that he trained extensively in real real-world combat techniques for that role. Like the jujitsu, the tactical shooting, the close-quarter combats. And when he he got involved extinct, you know, in depth with those things, it changed how the movie was filmed. The long takes, the fewer cuts, the clearer choreography, you actually in that movie see what is happening, and in a lot of ways, because of that, the action feels real. And you don't see that in a lot of movies. So Keanu Reeves, he really boomed in in the 2000s to now. Like, if you haven't seen John Wick, uh, it it's so good. It's so good. You're on the edge of your seat the whole time. So if you haven't seen John Wick, I don't know what you're doing. You just need to stop listening and go watch and then come back and enjoy this episode. So let's talk about Liam Neeson. I love Liam Neeson. And when you started seeing more of Liam Neeson in action films, he brought something unexpected, stillness. He wasn't loud, he wasn't flashy, he wasn't trying to impress anybody. He was focused and he was driven, and that's what made him dangerous. He was he had a calm intensity in his movies, and when you and when he spoke, you listened. And when he moved, it was deliberate. And the beautiful thing about Liam Neeson, you know, in the 2000s to now is it launched his career just like it did Keanu Reeves. But with Liam Neeson, the guy was in his 50s when he did Taken. And that changed a lot of expectations in action movies because a lot of times when you watch an action movie, you see someone who's young, who's fast, who you know can do all these amazing things. But when Liam Neeson did Taken, and you saw that, okay, he's not the most flashiest person in the world, but he still gets the job done, he changed it. He changed the expectations of what an action star should be. And, you know, Neeson proved something different that you don't need, like I said, you don't need speed or flash, you just need presence. And with that presence, taken as a fantastic movie. And I think it spawned two or three, but since then he he has been in a lot more action films, and I've learned to appreciate him more as an actor. It's yeah, I I it's really impressive for someone his age. I mean, you saw it, I want to say the the closest thing I can compare Liam Neeson to is maybe Charles Bronson in the 70s with Deathwish. He was older and he wasn't as agile, but of course, the performances than the actors were completely different. But if I had to compare Neeson to someone in the action genre, probably more like uh Charles Bronson. And if you don't know who Charles Bronson is, look him up. He's got a he's got a few bangers out there in the action genre as well. So this next one, oh it's a sore point with me because it's not really his fault. It's the movies he's been in. And I'm talking about Vin Diesel. Now, Vin Diesel brought something, you know, to the action era, you know, in the 2000s and to now. He proved that he's not just strong, he's not just grounded. His character Don and Fast and Furious wasn't driven by chaos. He was driven by loyalty. He was driven by family. And I say it like that because I'm so tired of hearing. Family, family, and I it it has to be spoken, it has to have been spoken fifty million times in all the fast and furious movies. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first two or three of them. But now whether on ten or eleven, and at this point it's about making money and figuring out what we can do with cars next. And I lost interest when they protected Dom from a nuclear bomb by surrounding him with cars made of steel. I mean, come on. Come on, you you lost me there. But I will say this about Van Diesel. He does have some decent movies besides The Fashion and Furious. Sadly, that's what he's known for. Also, if you didn't know, he does the voice of Groot in Guardian of the Galaxies and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and I think it was he was in three and some of the Avengers movies. But yeah, that's that's a cool thing about Vin Diesel is he does the voice of a tree in a Marvel movie, but he also has a couple of other little gems that you really need to take a you know a look at, and that is the knock around guys, and the knock around the knock around guys has Vin Diesel, Seth Green, Barry Pepper. I want to say John Malkovich was in it too. Of course, I love John Malcolm, just about anything he's he's in, he's good. But essentially, what it is is you get a group of kids who are who are the sons of mafia bosses, and they get put on a job, and of course, this job goes wrong and they have to clean it up. But in this movie, you don't just see Vin Diesel as an action star, he actually shows some some emotional you know emotional deafness to his character, and he's actually really good in this movie. And of course, the other one is pitch black. Pitch black is a sci-fi action movie, but he he's almost like the Terminator in Pitch Black, but he's so good. Like it it's it's it's it's a it's a great action film. If you're into the sci-fi genre and just really want to enjoy a good sci-fi action, besides watching The Terminator, I would definitely you know check out Pitch Black. Last but not least is my wife Becca's favorite, and that is Mr. Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Yes, my wife has a huge man crush on The Rock. In our house, he is known as The Rock because I know him as the WWE superstar who started in the 90s and then just boomed to huge success in the wrestling business, and then he branched out when he did the movie Scorpion King, which was a great movie, and he moved on from there. And what what The Rock represents is modern action energy. He's powerful but approachable, he's charismatic, he he's relatable, but he doesn't feel distant. His style is about presence and personality. When he enters a scene, you feel it immediately. And what's great about The Rock is he just seems like an overall nice human being, and he got more than just action with him. Like he's he's funny. Like I really enjoyed him in uh what was that Travolta movie? Be Cool. He was great in Be Cool, and of course, he did some Disney movies, he did the Tooth Fairy, which was funny in the Tooth Fairy, and then of course he made his presence felt in the Fashion and Furious movies as uh Hobbes, I believe. But that's what makes The Rock great as an action hero, is it's kind of what you see is what you get. You know, in in the movies that's who he is, and outside that's who who he is in real life. So I can't not mention The Rock because he he right now he's one of the hottest action stars out there, and I don't think he has a bad movie that I've just like can think of that I could crap all over. I really, really don't think I can. So, and I also love my wife, and she's probably listening to this. So I I love The Rock. He he's one of my favorite action stars of all time, better than Sylvester Stallone. So we've gone through the eras, we've talked about action stars here and there in each in each era. There were so many of them. Sigornia Weaver was really huge in creating the female action stars that you see nowadays. You know, I mentioned Harrison Ford. Matt Damon had a hand in a lot of the way action goes now with, you know, he the born movies. Let's see, who else? Christian Bell, he did Batman, and Batman was a big part of the 2000s. You had Tom Cruise, who still does his own his own stunts at his age, which I think is insanely crazy. I I think Tom Cruise is crazy in general, but there were a lot of action heroes I left out. And if I went over every single one of them, this episode would probably take days because I could talk about action heroes probably just as much as I can about horror. So what I'm getting to is with the villain's character episode, I did a Mount Rushmore, and I thought it would be fun to do a Mount Rushmore of action heroes. So when I when I sat down and I made my list, I really struggled because, like I said before, there were just so many of them, so many that I really enjoy. I decided to go the route of what each one represented and what they brought to the table when it came to when it comes to a pure action movie. And so number one on my list is Arnold. Arnold, like I said before, was the blueprint. He had the body, he could act at times, but he just had that physical intimidation in the 80s that made action movies good. So moving on to number two. Number two is Sylvester Stallone. And he was more about endurance, he was more about being more emotional, showing character, you know, showing that action heroes can feel, they can they can go through all the emotions and not just be a rock like Arnold was. And so, you know, with Stallone, he's been a constant in the action genre. He, you know, he did all the Rockies, he did Tango and Cash with Kurt Russell, he did Over the Top, he did The Expendables here recently. He's also doing Tulsa King, which is a great show on Paramount Plus. He's still with it. You have to turn the subtitles now. You know, you turn them on now when he's when he speaks. I think that's always been the case with Stallone, but I mean, he he hasn't he has shown the endurance of an action hero over the years. So moving on, my number three, oh boy, and this might spark a debate because there were probably action heroes more deserving than this guy. But my number three is Steven Segal. In the 90s, he the guy was he he he was uh he was a total monster in in the action genre. He had a lot of movies that came out, now granted, not all of them were good, but like I said, he brought, to me, he was one of the first action stars that brought a lot of physicality to action movies, and then you got to see the damage it did to the human body. And I'm not gonna talk about the pool ball scene of the hand towel. That's uh it kind of makes me want to go watch the movie again, and I don't know if my wife would be on board with that, so that may be something I do tomorrow night while I'm working. So moving on to number four, it was about evolution. And my number four is Keanu Reeves, because as you can see, like I mentioned before, he did speed, he did point break with Patrick Swayze, he did The Matrix, which, you know, is a highly popular one, and then he did, you know, uh John Wick. And you know, you you kind of see you kind of see over the years how he has progressed, but then when he does John Wick, you truly see how far the action hero has come. I can't stress highly enough to go watch John Wick. Yes, it is it is rough. You you you see a lot of things get broken, yeah, you see a lot of faces get punched, you get car explosions. It it's it's it's a great action film, and it has it all. It's almost along the lines of ooh, what's a good movie? Almost like Die Hard, because in Die Hard you see a lot of emotion with with Bruce Willis. Now, granted, he's not as in-depth or emotional as John Wick is, but if I can compare it to something, Die Hard probably is pretty close. So that's my Mount Rushmore. As you can see, it was it was all about how each one represented a shift and what we value as far as what we connect with in an action movie. So I hope you appreciated my Mount Rushmore. I know Steven Segal probably isn't a popular one, but to me, you can't you can't not have him on there. So as you can see, action heroes didn't disappear, they evolved over the years. And if you really think about it, that evolution mirrors us. We went from wanting something perfect to understanding struggle, from from looking up to people who never lost to connecting with people who keep going anyways. And maybe that's why today's heroes hit a little different for us, because they feel real, they get hurt, they get tired, they make mistakes, but they keep moving forward. And honestly, that might be the most relatable kind of strength there is. So now I've got to ask you when you think about ask action heroes, which era are you choosing? Are you choosing the 80s where it was just pure dominance, no questions asked? Are you going for the 90s where it's personality, confidence, a little swagger, Steven Segal? The 2000s, or even today where you got grounded, trained, realistic, where strength comes from struggle, where every win actually costs something. I mean, which one are you choosing? And more importantly, who who's on your Mount Rushmore? I'd love to hear your take. You can find me on Facebook at mostlyme occasionally wise, or send me an email at mostlymecontact at gmail.com. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you listening. I can't wait to hear your opinions, and I'll catch you in the next one. Remember, stay mostly you and occasionally wise. Hey baby, I did it. I didn't mess up the outro. Woo!