Best manly action movies from the 80s?

Arnold Schwarzenegger!!!!!!!!!!🙏 🙏 🙏
And I guess Jean-Claude Van Damme wasn't actually that bad either!!!!!!!👍

Morgan Martinez5 said:Commando

"I eat Green Berets for breakfast. And right now I'm very hungry" 😎

Honestly, that’s not even such a wild thing to say! I mean, Green Berets aren't necessarily "tough guys" in that specific way—that's just not their whole deal. They're more about knowing languages, understanding local cultures where they're operating, tactics, organization... basically, Green Berets are the intellectuals of the special ops world. Their main gig is training and organizing guerrilla fighters behind enemy lines, not just being some ultra-tough action hero. That whole myth is really thanks to the Rambo movies. If you ask me, Navy SEALs or Delta Force are way more "tough" in the traditional sense because they're pure combat specialists—though, yeah, they do plenty of intel work too, just without all that talk about training locals. If I remember correctly, they don't mention what kind of unit Matrix served in during Commando, so it could easily be Delta or maybe a Navy SEAL.

PS—please hit me with some counterarguments! I'm totally looking for a heated debate about the absolute best 80s trash cinema. 😎

It doesn't matter where The Matrix was stationed. He just crushes everything regardless of his unit or rank. 🙏

Commando stands alone at the top🙏 🙏

Rambo/Stallone

Sylvester Stallone is in a league of his own... everything else is just soft. 😬 😬 😬

These aren't exactly my favorites—but I'll throw my vote toward Conan the Barbarian. Honestly, it's a crime they didn't include Bruce Lee or Mad Max!!

Seriously, what was that? How on earth did you manage to leave Bruce Lee out of this?

Charles Taylor10 said:These aren't exactly my top picks—don't get mad at me!—but I’m throwing my vote toward Conan the Barbarian. It's a total bummer they didn't include Bruce Lee or Mad Max in there too!!

Man, those 70s vibes...

Oh my goodness, Bruce Willis! John Matrix would absolutely crush him in a battle of one-liners! 😬

Brian Moore67 said:That isn't actually such an outrageous take. The Green Berets aren't necessarily built for pure brute force; that's simply not their primary function. Instead, they excel at linguistics, understanding regional cultures, and mastering tactical organization. Think of them as the intellectual specialists of the military; their main mission involves training and organizing guerrilla forces behind enemy lines rather than just being ultra-tough action heroes. Much of that "tough guy" myth comes from the Rambo films. In reality, Navy SEALs or Delta Force might be considered more physically imposing because they focus on direct combat operations, even though they handle intelligence missions too—they just don't emphasize the guerrilla training aspect as much. If I recall correctly, they don't mention where John Matrix served in Commando, so he could easily belong to Delta or the SEALs.

P.S. Please provide counterarguments. I am looking for a calm, reasoned debate regarding the absolute trash cinema of the 1980s. 😎

Delta Force members aren't strictly combat specialists; they are primarily experts in intelligence and counterintelligence work, who happen to be fighters as well.
The most impressive figure in these films is the character played by Eric Bana in Black Hawk Down.

Jonathan Booth5 said:Delta guys aren't just frontline combat specialists—they're intelligence and counter-intelligence pros first, and fighters second.
Honestly, the coolest guy in those movies is that character played by Eric Bana in Black Hawk Down.

By the way, almost every elite commando unit is primarily focused on intel or reconnaissance—which is basically the same thing, let's be real. Some are trained for direct action, but the Green Berets aren't really built that way; they mostly defend themselves if they get spotted, then they just bail.

I don't know if you remember what a total disaster it was when they tried using Navy SEALs like Rangers in Panama. They sent them in to seize an airfield—guys who weren't even trained for that or used to working in massive units (at least not until they joined the SEALs). They deployed 100 SEALs, but these guys usually operate in tight teams of 4 or 8. It was a complete mess! If they'd sent Rangers, it might not have been such a fiasco, even though SEALs are technically better trained than Rangers. Seizing an airfield just isn't their bread and butter. That doesn't mean SEALs can't handle direct action, obviously. They know how to drop a team deep behind enemy lines, hit hard, fight like there's a hundred of them for a few minutes, and vanish. They're wired for that 10:1 ratio, but they can't carry enough ammo for a prolonged siege. You don't take an airfield that way; you hit one target, break contact, and disappear into the chaos. It just goes to show that "toughness" isn't some one-dimensional thing.

Ahhh, Bana... he was such a perfect blend of a few actual Delta operators. His character was basically a mashup of maybe three real participants from the battle (if my memory serves, I read somewhere on a forum that it was three).

And honestly, the Green Berets feel much closer to the CIA field agents we see in movies than Rambo does. Actually, I once met a former vet who spent the 70s hunting communists and drug dealers through South America. This guy had a mustache straight out of a Charles Bronson flick, talked with a thick Southern drawl, carried a .44 Magnum, wore cowboy boots... and in his downtime, he played the harp! 🤣

He was the head of the QA department at that old company where I used to work. Man, this guy was like a walking cartoon character, but incredibly sharp and witty. If I recall correctly, he converted to Judaism—he seemed like a pure Anglo-Saxon type—and emigrated to Israel. He was 100% an army brat, born on a US base in Panama. The best part? When he moved to Israel, he actually lied and said he hadn't served in the US military just so they wouldn't exempt him from Israeli service. Man, what a character! Always spinning these wild cowboy tales. If I've ever met anyone who felt like a character from a 70s action flick, it was him. We worked together for about two and a half years. I was constantly having to bug him for the QA team regarding my project. Man, if he’d ever starred in a movie, he would’ve definitely made the cut. Though, I saw him recently and he shaved the mustache, so he doesn't look nearly as cool anymore.

Seriously, he’s one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met, and I’ve met plenty. On one hand, he’s super intelligent and quick-witted (he writes some pretty great articles as a freelance journalist in his free time), and he was a genuinely solid QA manager. He knows his way around computers and the corporate world. Anyway, that's my primary source on Green Berets. Before I met him, I didn't think people like that actually existed outside of Hollywood producers' imaginations.

Conan the Barbarian is a masterpiece 🙏 👍
And if I've understood this correctly, we aren't talking about trash movies here, but rather the concept of the tough hero???

Bruce Willis 🙂

Brian Moore67, excellent post 👍
It is a bit unfortunate that we are discussing this in the wrong thread, but looking at history, only two out of the six Navy SEAL operations in Grenada were actually successful. It was precisely because of those setbacks that they had to completely overhaul the entire doctrine for Navy SEAL teams.

Predator 🙏
I guess there aren't any better Commando characters in any other movie 😎

Chloe Palmer2 said:Predator 🙏
doesn't have any better commandos in any other movie 😎

I think John Matrix is actually a better commando! 🙏 🙏

Roger Allen3 said:John Matrix is better than Commando🙏 🙏

John Matrix is basically just Dutch, so it ends up being the same thing. 🙏

haha, Predator is just 😂 😂 😂
...

nimblemarlin17 Asks:
John Matrix is actually just Dutch, so it all ends up being the same thing! 🙏

I'm not entirely sure if Ken meant Dutch.😉

Bobba Fett said:Die Hard doesn't really fit that category for me... I mean, where were the muscles on Bruce Willis? 😁

By that logic, then the 😁 Predator 😁 action movie is the most muscular one, huh?

When those predator beasts are tearing a guy apart—you see nothing but pure muscle there, no mistake—muscles everywhere (well, except for when they're just hanging from a tree looking lazy).🤣