Top 20 Action Movies of 1997

by muybueno16 | created - 29 Jan 2014 | updated - 17 Aug 2019 | Public
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1. Air Force One (1997)

R | 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

62 Metascore

Communist radicals hijack Air Force One with the U.S. President and his family on board. The Vice President negotiates from Washington D.C., while the President, a veteran, fights to rescue the hostages on board.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson

Votes: 210,229 | Gross: $172.96M

2. Starship Troopers (1997)

R | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

52 Metascore

Humans, in a fascist militaristic future, wage war with giant alien bugs.

Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey

Votes: 321,420 | Gross: $54.81M

3. Drive (1997)

R | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A prototype enhanced human, on the run from Chinese-hired hit men, hooks up with a dread-locked bystander, and the two of them elude their pursuers narrowly each time.

Director: Steve Wang | Stars: Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, John Pyper-Ferguson, Brittany Murphy

Votes: 6,921

4. Men in Black (1997)

PG-13 | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

72 Metascore

James, an NYC cop, is hired by Agent K of a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial life on Earth. Together, they must recover an item that has been stolen by an intergalactic villain.

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio

Votes: 613,297 | Gross: $250.69M

5. Full Alert (1997)

Not Rated | 99 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

Police Inspector Pao is trying to catch Mak Kwan, a gang member who is first arrested, but then escapes from the prison. By chance, Pao realizes that the target of Kwan's gang is the H. K. Jockey Club.

Director: Ringo Lam | Stars: Ching Wan Lau, Francis Ng, Amanda Lee, Monica Chan

Votes: 1,324

6. Murder at 1600 (1997)

R | 107 min | Action, Crime, Drama

48 Metascore

A young woman is murdered in the White House. Homicide detective Regis investigates while Secret Service works against him. He's assigned agent Chance. She eventually cooperates after a man's framed.

Director: Dwight H. Little | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Daniel Benzali, Dennis Miller

Votes: 32,918 | Gross: $25.83M

7. The Peacemaker (1997)

R | 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

43 Metascore

A US Army colonel and a civilian woman supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they're used by terrorists.

Director: Mimi Leder | Stars: George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Marcel Iures, Aleksandr Baluev

Votes: 62,456 | Gross: $41.26M

8. Con Air (1997)

R | 115 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

52 Metascore

Newly-paroled ex-con and former U.S. Ranger Cameron Poe finds himself trapped in a prisoner-transport plane when the passengers seize control.

Director: Simon West | Stars: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Colm Meaney

Votes: 319,452 | Gross: $101.12M

9. G.I. Jane (1997)

R | 125 min | Action, Drama, War

62 Metascore

Lt. Jordan, a US Navy topographic analyst, joins the US Navy Special Warfare Group and struggles to prove her worth in a unit dominated by men. But a cynical woman Texan senator has sold her out.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen, Anne Bancroft, Jason Beghe

Votes: 87,062 | Gross: $48.17M

10. Gang Related (1997)

R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Drama

49 Metascore

After murdering an undercover DEA agent, two corrupt cops scramble to cover up what they've done.

Director: Jim Kouf | Stars: Jim Belushi, Tupac Shakur, Lela Rochon, Dennis Quaid

Votes: 10,017 | Gross: $5.79M

11. Executive Target (1997)

R | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Crime

A stunt driver heading for prison on a minor charge is freed against his will by a terrorist gang. Then by kidnapping his wife, he is forced to drive a getaway car in a plot to kidnap the President from a motorcade.

Director: Joseph Merhi | Stars: Michael Madsen, Roy Scheider, Keith David, Angie Everhart

Votes: 1,172

12. Plato's Run (1997 Video)

R | 96 min | Action

Hired to rescue escaped inmates, a Florida man is framed for a Cuban gangster's assassination.

Director: James Becket | Stars: Gary Busey, Roy Scheider, Steven Bauer, Jeff Speakman

Votes: 537

13. The Peacekeeper (1997)

R | 98 min | Action

When a terrorist group steals the US President's personal communications computer for launching the US arsenal in case of war, only a heroic Major has the key to prevent a Presidential assassination or a nuclear holocaust.

Director: Frédéric Forestier | Stars: Dolph Lundgren, Michael Sarrazin, Montel Williams, Roy Scheider

Votes: 2,896

14. Bloodmoon (1997)

R | 102 min | Action, Thriller

Martial arts action film finds a retired detective returning to action to stop a martial arts master with steel fingers who is killing champions from all sports.

Director: Siu-Hung Leung | Stars: Gary Daniels, Chuck Jeffreys, Frank Gorshin, Darren Shahlavi

Votes: 925

15. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

52 Metascore

James Bond sets out to stop a media mogul's plan to induce war between China and the UK in order to obtain exclusive global media coverage.

Director: Roger Spottiswoode | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Teri Hatcher

Votes: 204,746 | Gross: $125.33M

16. Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997)

R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A group of crooks, an ex con, his friend and a gun crazy gangster plan a drug heist, but not everything goes as planned.

Director: Kiefer Sutherland | Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Kim Dickens, Vincent Gallo, Mykelti Williamson

Votes: 5,231 | Gross: $0.05M

17. True Vengeance (1997 Video)

R | 90 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

An ex-naval intelligence officer is forced to assassinate a CEO when his daughter is kidnapped by the Yakuza.

Director: David Worth | Stars: Daniel Bernhardt, Beverly Johnson, Miles O'Keeffe, Jonathan Lutz

Votes: 340

18. Strategic Command (1997)

R | 90 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

Rick Harding is a former Marines officer, now working in the FBI as a chemical weapons designer. While packing up for the night, a group of armed soldiers led by wanted criminal Carlos Gruber, break into the FBI research lab.

Director: Rick Jacobson | Stars: Michael Dudikoff, Paul Winfield, Richard Norton, Amanda Wyss

Votes: 929

19. Operation Delta Force (1997 TV Movie)

R | 93 min | Action, Thriller

A team of military experts and scientists go after a terrorist group that has seized a deadly virus and is threatening to release it.

Director: Sam Firstenberg | Stars: Ernie Hudson, Jeff Fahey, Rob Stewart, Frank Zagarino

Votes: 1,035

20. Behind Enemy Lines (1997)

R | 89 min | Action, Thriller

An ex-marine returns to Vietnam when he learns his former mercenary partner whom he thought was killed is being held by a sadistic general.

Director: Mark Griffiths | Stars: Thomas Ian Griffith, Chris Mulkey, Mark Carlton, Mushond Lee

Votes: 1,054



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