Bruce Willis' name has become synonymous with high-octane films over the last four decades, but which of his action movies rank worst and best? The American-born Willis has been nothing short of prolific across a wildly successful 38-year career, boasting over 70 feature films to his name. Yet, despite being best known for his thrilling action turns, Willis has also dabbled in music and theatre, while also being the co-founder of the themed restaurant chain Planet Hollywood alongside fellow action stalwarts Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
Willis' first big break first arrived in 1985, when he reportedly beat over 3,000 other auditioning actors to land the role of David Addison Jr in critically acclaimed ABC comedy-drama Moonlighting. However, it was his then-unexpected turn (following a series of comedic roles) in Die Hard that catapulted him to star status, with the pulsating blockbuster grossing over $138 million upon release. Willis' turn as the gruff ever-ready Sergeant John McClane immediately ingratiated him to action audiences worldwide, with Willis still being the first choice for many action feature films to this day.
Since his breakout performance in The Expendables, Willis has cemented his position as one of the legendary action genre names of his generation. Here's every Bruce Willis action movie ranked from worst to best.
#50 - Cosmic Sin
Edward Drake's Cosmic Sin is, quite simply, a sinful piece of cinema that does not deserve the theatrical release window it unbelievably was granted in early 2021.
#49 - Breach
Breach's plan for success seems to be simply sticking Bruce Willis at the forefront of the film's runtime hoping that his enduring talent will mask any narrative frailties. This, unfortunately, does not work for Breach, with many of Willis' scenes feeling so shoehorned into existence that the sci-fi action horror blend quickly turns into a garbled mess. Breach was already aiming for a specific subgenre of interstellar horror before a scene was even shot here, and its anemic space-virus storyline will satisfy only the most forgiving of audiences to date.
#48 - Apex
At its core, Neil McDonough (Red Stone) in fine fettle throughout. However, the issue with Apex is that it tries to port the timeless concept of The Most Dangerous Game into a sci-fi action setting, with the results nothing short of disastrous. Apex is an unadulterated mess of a film that will be ed more for its ham-fisted, paint-by-numbers dialogue than anything else in years to come as its characters continue to shout, "I'm the apex predator!" until they are blue in the face.
#47 - Air Strike
Bruce Willis has proven his military drama chops time and again with striking performances in films such as Tears of the Sun, which makes the lack of punch in the straight-to-video Mel Gibson (Mad Max) serving as art director on the film that tells the story of the Japanese bombings on the Chinese city Chongqing during World War II. Yet, while the premise is undoubtedly tense, Air Strike falls flat amongst its own sense of grandeur. Air Strike trades excitement for endless historical exposition, with the film's joyless build towards a six-year-long air battle over Chongqing feeling more thrilling compared to the protracted battle itself.
#46 - Hard Kill
The bodies pile up predictably fast and high in Hard Kill, in which Bruce Willis' Donovan hires a mercenary team to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Whereas some B-movie offerings on this ranking suffer from trying to shoehorn Willis into their narratives, Hard Kill becomes frustrating due to Willis' lack of overall involvement. He is replaced in spirit mostly by Jesse Metcalfe's Derek Miller, whose lack of on-screen charisma does little to sell the size of the stakes supposedly facing Donovan's daughter.
#45 - Survive The Night
2020 was not a vintage year for Bruce Willis, with his other turns in Hard Kill and Breach being emblematic of the malaise that quickly envelops Survive the Night. Chad Michael Murray stars as a disgraced physician who takes up arms against a grieving father (Willis), but despite several gritty hunter-vs.-prey action scenes, Survive the Night has very little actual story to fall back on, which softens the impact of the violence at hand. This rushed feel to the film's final version is perhaps to be expected, however, when Survive the Night's principal photography reportedly took just ten days to complete.
#44 - Extraction
Extraction's premise is as uninventive as it is worn, complete with CIA defectors, Russian arms dealers, and a bright-eyed field agent in Harry (Kellan Lutz) all thrown together in a blur of espionage and aggression. The problem with Extraction is that all of these action tropes have been played out thousands of times before, with not one scene memorable enough to live long in the memory. While Bruce Willis performs irably with the limited script and Dan Bilzerian bizarrely pops up as a member of Harry's security detail, Extraction is best left in the "unseen" category for all but the most action-deprived audiences.
#43 - Reprisal
(Chopshop's Frank Grillo), a bank manager haunted by a violent heist that took the life of a coworker who subsequently teams up with his ex-cop neighbor, James (Willis), to bring down the assailant. However, Jacob and James quickly realize that their target is a highly trained, Jason-Bourne-style criminal, who proceeds to dismantle their lives. Reprisal, while containing sharply choreographed action, falls down at the first narrative hurdle, with Brian A. Miller's film unable to explain quite why a man with such an impressive skillset is charging around Ohio causing bloodshed and robbing banks indiscriminately.
#42 - Trauma Center
Trauma Center's insular plot works rather well, for a time, as a terrified nurse accidentally shot in the leg flees two unknown assailants. Trauma Center turns farcical, however, when Nurse Taylor's (Nicky Whelan) pursuers turn out to be corrupt policemen who can only be tied to their crimes within the hospital by the bullet in her leg. Fan-favorite Bruce Willis also features very little here, with his turn as Lt. Steve Wakes a mere formality when Taylor begins to fight back against the men hunting her.
#41 - Setup
If Reprisal represents Willis' worst attempt at a heist-style film, Setup does not follow far behind, as it attempts to deliver every bank-robbing cliché without any of the exposition its title carelessly promises. Setup is endemic of the straight-to-Blu-Ray early 2010s films that pedal mindless action; although Curtis Jackson's turn as the conniving Sonny is more engrossing than it has any right to be in the context of the film.
