The art of the sequel is not an easy science. While many franchises have come and gone, so have their awful attempts at creating a new life for a story. Some films (The Matrix, Mad Max) have natural bridges in storytelling when given the right artist with the proper material who has the vision to create a long arching story. The worst sequels (Speed 2, Red 2, G.I. Joe) are cash-grabs to take advantage of an audience desperate to see their favorite characters again, and create nothing but dull cycles in the same old story. Hollywood can be a place that kills creativity because of its shallow need to make money. However, the best sequels constantly reinvent their characters, visuals, and stories while delivering a new jolt of excitement in their audience. The best sequels know what made their originals work and how to build on that without repeating themselves. These are the best of that bunch with regard to the action genre.
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10 Police Story 3: Supercop

The third film in Jackie Chan’s action franchise that was recently immortalized by the Criterion Collection is also his most action-packed o the series. Enlisting the likes of superheroine Michelle Yeoh in colliding stories adds more fuel to the fire. With Chan’s silent-era-inspired action-comedy making its way through his body-bruising stunt, he also put on one of his most death-defying towards the end of the movie. Hanging from a moving helicopter, suspended over buildings across the city, Police Story 3 is also Chan at his most creative. Having to deal with a surplus of guns, the films always find creative ways for the leading man to dispose of bad guys, making this one of the best in the storied franchise.

9 Blade 2

The auteur of monster-driven horror and storyteller inspired by the horror tales of old, Guillermo Del Toro’s first film in the United States was the kick-ass, non-stop action thrill ride Blade II. Bolstered by the first modern superhero to truly show off the acrobatics necessary to be a charismatic action star while also being the face of a beloved franchise, Wesley Snipes goes absolutely ballistic, delivering sword-wielding ass-kickings to the dead and undead alike. Blade II is two hours of gruesome horror and salacious gore with classic Del Toro mainstays Ron Perlman and Norman Reedus assisting to the punch.

8 The Matrix Reloaded

When you talk about memorable set pieces of the 21st Century, it’d be impossible to ignore the incredible highway chase scene in the middle of the film or when Neo faces off against an army of Agent Smiths. The Matrix: Reloaded is the sequel to the pop culture phenomenon The Matrix and doubles down on high-octane action, but also the philosophical musings that inspired the ideas running through the Wachowski Siblings’ larger-than-life text. While expanding the world to set up the hero’s arc with a third film Revolutions, and the addition of Neo taking flight, the architect and twins that wield samurai swords and float through walls, The Matrix: Reloaded is a frame-to-frame banger.

7 The Raid 2

More of a spiritual sequel to the original The Raid, which took place almost exclusively in a building, The Raid 2 instead grounds itself in the classic story of a cop going undercover inside an elite gang of triads. The film also doubles down on its runtime and that gives way to a gorgeous symphony of a music video-like violence where killings are brutal, repeated, and limbs fly with glee. With Iko Uwais at the center of it all — whose agility and athleticism could only be rivaled by other martial arts star Tony Jaa — he wields the action to a fitting climactic showdown. But also a death-defying highway chase that will have you questioning the filmmakers’ sanity.

6 Die Hard With A Vengeance

The third sequel in the Die Hard series soars above the others because it returns the drunken and jaded John McClain to his home in New York, but also turns into an explosive playground. Tying the villain to the originator of John’s famed heroism with the Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) connection courtesy of Jeremy Irons playing a game of “Simon Says” raised the stakes and the fun. The final icing on the cake was teaming Bruce Willis with the fiery Samuel L. Jackson, the perfect NYC personality to brave the storm, and added a buddy-cop element to the action thrill ride. With Die Hard With a Vengenace, John McTernan also directs the hell out of many chase scenes and a terrifying subway explosion when Bruce and Sam arrive just late.

5 The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan changed the movie industry for better or worse with his epic masterpiece, The Dark Knight. Rendering the city of Gotham into a realistic hells cape run by two-bit criminals who corrupted everyone around them, except for a chosen few, Nolan grounded the world and then blew it up with an untouchable, iconic performance of The Joker by the late Heath Ledger. Crafting intense bank robberies, fights, and high-speed chases around Batman’s ultimate foil as his world entered flames, The Dark Knight is one of the greatest sequels ever made and one of the great standalone comic book movies.
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4 Aliens

James Cameron took the iconic horror of Ridley Scott’s original vision of Alien and decided more is what we need. Using the realm of outer space and the ass-kicking resilience of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Cameron delivered a bloody spectacle that doubled as a metaphor for Vietnam. With a team of elite soldiers going to the home of the Xenomorphs, Aliens turned into a massacre. But it was also a showcase for Cameron’s talents at world-building while crafting a tangible world around the spectacle. Giving way for the line that’ll live forever from action icon Sigourney Weaver.

3 Spider-Man 2

Sam Raimi took what he loved about New York, the working-class hardships of Peter Parker’s family, and the jealous envy that ran through Harry Osborne (James Franco), to build on what he started with the original Spider-Man. Then, in Spider-Man 2, Raimi introduced one of the most menacing villains in Spidey’s world with Doctor Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), as Tobey Maguire played the existential dread and anger that hung over the life of a superhero to create a realistic portrait of a life that only lived in comic books. Taking all the great character arcs and then finding ways to make the action terrifying, spectacular, and awe-inspiring, Raimi made one of the great action-packed superhero sequels ever made, a high point in a world where the MCU seems destined to deliver cookie-cutter movies that only satisfy their relationship to a phased endpoint.

2 T2: Judgement Day

James Cameron is no stranger to innovation. The blockbuster director is known for pushing technology forward or waiting for tech to catch up to achieve his grandiose and meticulous vision. Such is the case for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Cameron’s collaboration with the VFX team Industrial, Light, and Magic. Together, Cameron and the team created an instant iconic villain with Robert Patrick, a liquid-metal shape-shifting robot, who was the first main character in a feature film to be entirely computer graphics, perfecting what was needed to create an electric sequel. Beyond that, Cameron took his original villainous creation in Arnold Schwarzenegger and paved a new path for him to be a hero that had never been seen before. Along with a helicopter stunt that still melts people’s brains, T2 is an indelible piece of sci-fi action and one of the great sequels ever made.

1 Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller’s epic, sublime, oil-fused, hydro-chasing, car-smashing, and epic road trip had something for everyone. A follow-up to his original films starring Mel Gibson, now replaced with the grunting, harrowed Tom Hardy as a prisoner who cuts loose. With an all-time heroine performance from Charlize Theron as “Furiosa” looking to free the mothers from the evil “Immortan Joe”, Mad Max: Fury Road is the greatest action sequel ever made. As Miller reinvents the legacy of his storied franchise while also cementing itself as a modern classic of visual storytelling and action filmmaking. The film never lets you go as it soaks the sands with blood and never fails to continue building on its story.

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