Modern Action Movies Are All Missing One Crucial Setup

Written by Robert Scucci | Published 23 seconds ago

Filmmakers need to bring back the blockbuster show, and I’m tired of letting them get away with over-the-top action sequences that cost tens of millions of dollars to produce. These days, every action sequence should be suggested. The Man in Gray (2022) goes from leveling entire city blocks, and the John Wick movies, which are some of my favorite movies of the modern era, go for deep learning and enough changes in scenery to send me into an overstimulation-induced coma. The list goes on. Watch any superhero movie where entire cities are destroyed, 2013 The Man of Steel perhaps the worst example.

All of the above topics have a disappointing lack of storage facilities, and I often wonder why. Well, the real reason is that all of these productions had a lot of money behind them, and warehouse shows are often found in very low-budget action movies.

It doesn’t have to be this way, however, because we’ve seen repeats of the warehouse showdown in Michael Bay movies like A rock (1996) and forgotten low-budget thrillers such as Army of One (1993) similarly.

Personally, I’m so numb to the action sequence that I think I need to inject myself with a good warehouse show at least once a month as part of my long-term therapy.

Why Warehouse Showdown Is Iconic

These days, every action should be uplifting, but it wasn’t always like that. In the 80s and 90s, warehouse shows didn’t discriminate, and you can see varying degrees of awesomeness in every low-budget film like A Raw Deal (1986), Cold Stones (1991), Hard Boiled (1992), and Exhibition in Little Tokyo (1991). Setup is always easy. The good guys take out what they think are all the tenants, and finally get to the boss level, where the main antagonist is surrounded by even more people and apparently lives in a warehouse with nothing but sparks and noise.

All you have to do while watching the antique store show is to sit still, relax, listen to the beautiful music of the shells scattering on the ground, and prepare yourself for many timely explosions that light up the whole place as our heroes run from the oncoming, all-consuming fireball and into the well-placed water next to the door.

You don’t need $50 million to have a solid warehouse show. All you need is grit, squibs, decent lighting, and a revolving door of villains that can be tossed into a pile of flaming barrels that can easily be repositioned throughout the playground.

It’s Not Just a Budget Matter

Although it sounds like I’m only in the low-budget bag (I am, but that’s beside the point), a warehouse show isn’t just for filmmakers with limited resources. Sometimes you get the best of both worlds, which is exactly what we saw in 1996 A rockdirected by none other than Michael Bay. I say the best of both worlds because there’s a high-speed chase through the streets of San Francisco involving a bright yellow Ferrari F355 Spider, which obviously wasn’t cheap to pull off. The roads had to be closed, and I think that a sequence like this requires a lot of experts in the payment.

But here’s why A rock is one of the greatest action movies of all time. What is Alcatraz? That’s a creative question. I know Alcatraz is an out-of-service prison where you can throw a few parts into a crank and get a nasty souvenir in the form of a flat pen with the Golden Gate Bridge stamped on it or whatever. Still, the point remains that Alcatraz is basically a giant warehouse, and you better believe there’s going to be a game.

The same can be said RoboCop (1987) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), both of whom used steel mills as warehouses for their competitions. A simple, self-contained setup that requires no land construction and no ongoing changes to the environment. It’s the setting for the ultimate showdown, where you can get close-ups and maybe even one-liners from our heroes while they focus on what’s most important: blasting sh*t and taking out tons of enemies in the shortest amount of time.

As modern filmmaking continues to push the envelope, with Space Pontiac in F9 comes to mind, sometimes we just need to go back to basics and hit the roof of a warehouse for the love of the game.