Action Scripts

The first one I'm going to start with is Die Hard, written by the now defunct Stephen De Souza. Souza was one of the 80's most original screenwriters, having gotten much practice writing episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, Knight Rider and V. He went on to write 48 hrs., Commando, The Running Man and then came up for what would be his best film, Die Hard.

Souza would then take the plunge into sequel hell, along with 'franchise actor' hell, writing Another 48hrs.,Die Hard 2, Ricochet (a great film), Beverly Hills Cop III, Street Fighter, The Flinstones, Judge Dredd and Knock Off... none of them coming close to his earlier successes.

Originally from the book Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, De Souza was able to combind a great personality with fantastic action, a great villian and some wonderful humor... all of them trademarks of his earlier scripts. This film was a defining moment in Hollywood history, not only for Bruce Willis, but for movie goers as well. This film would elevate the standard of action films as the world would know them.

He would attempt to recreate the Willis bug in Hudson Hawk, 1991, which Willis helped write... a fun movie with Danny Aiello and Andy MacDowell... directed by Michael Lehmann (of Heathers fame)... but this film would ultimately fail, critically and at the box office. I think fans wanted a more serious action film from Willis, who had just finished a series of terrible films and was looking for that 'next big hit', which wouldn't come until Pulp Fiction in 1994.

Next off is Black Rain, 1989, the Ridley Scott/Michael Douglas feature that took Scott out of the future and put him into a culture he was more familiar and enamoured with. Rain is one of those semi-predictable action/cop films, but with heart. It brought us out of the streets of New York, or LA and took us down an unfamiliar path, in Japan.

Craig Bolotin and Warren Lewis wrote this one. Bolotin has no action writing credits, save this one, what-so-ever. Straight Talk, That Night and Light It Up are among his list of credits... all paling in comparision to Rain. Lewis, ten years later, would bring us his second feature, The 13th Warrior. Talk about being out of the loop, what happened to these guys? It's a shame, because for the time, Black Rain was one of the more original cop films to come out... definitely one of the more original Yakuza films to reach theaters in recent years.

Peter Iliff and Rick King wrote the story (Iliff wrote the script) that would turn one Keanu Reeves into an action star, Point Break. This particular script was re-written by James Cameron (who can't keep his hands off of anything), and Kathyrn Bigelow (the director). This came in at a time when masked robbers were kind of at a stand still, and hadn't really been played out with that particular generation of movie-goers... though the idea was still fresh for some. It took advantage of a different type of landscape that movie goers weren't too familiar with, and we were treated to a directors original vision (though I hated Blue Steel, loved Near Dark).

Lethal Weapon was the second film in the 80's to change the way movie-goers watched action. It was a defining film in the cop genre, and was masterfully made. Shane Black, in 1987, created two of the greatest cop characters ever created. Black would go on to create a number of other scripts, including LW 2, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight and A.W.O.L. (a film I've never heard of). He would also play opposite Arnold Schwarzenneger in Predator, as one of the special forces guys, Dead Heat, RoboCop 3 and As Good As It Gets. For my money, it's a shame Black hasn't gone on to have more of his scripts produced. His work is catchy, smart, action packed work, and his characters are usually very well put together, specifically for action.

After Pulp Fiction came out, Roger Avary (a bit too late, if you ask me) would come out with his own film, written and directed by him, Killing Zoe. He would also help write the scripts for Crying Freeman (based on the comic of the same name), Mr. Stitch and the conclusion to the Phantasm series, Phantasm's End. At least he's still writing, not like someone else this man used to work with.

Check out this website on Avary, for more info on this film and the script.

One of my all time favorite directors is Luc Besson, ever since Nikita. I was dying when I found out The Professional was coming out, from him... but was surprised at how tame the film was. And then I found out why. Leon, the original name for the film, was originally scripted much more violently than produced, and the problem was the parents of Natalie Portman, who did not appreciate the violence in the original script. Here is a copy of that script, partially, taken from when Matilda begins her real training with Leon. It's a neat read.

Visit this great fan site based on the movie, with a lot more info and gossip.

In regards to this next script, there's not much I can say about The Matrix that you don't already know yourself, except that if you want to write a futuristic action film, this is a script to read. Also, check out What Is The Matrix for info on the new movies, comic books on the movie, and all sorts of other neat stuff.

I'm a huge John Woo fan, specifically his HK work, but there is something to be said for Face/Off. It's a neat little script, with a neat idea (though completely chock full of problems and impossibilities). Woo turned it into one of his typical films, and it worked well. But, it should be said, that there are way too many of these action films, the two fisted gun shoot 'em ups... and I would hope that you would try and branch out, accordingly.

Face/Off was written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary. Werb has had a pretty good career as a writer, from The Mask, to the story for Tomb Raider to King's Ransom, what is supposedly to be Woo's next piece. Colleary helped Werb on Tomb Raider and Ransom... these two obviously work well together... lets hope Ransom comes through.

The last one I'm going to post is Blade. This film is a perfect example of fantasy and action, along with some great humor... and some terrible "My dick is bigger than yours" lines. But, I must say, I was very impressed with this film, and I was happy to see Snipes back in the action seat, especially after Demolition Man. David Goyer, who wrote Blade, has done some neat work in the past, including Death Warrant, The Puppet Masters, Dark City, Nick Fury, Zigzag, Ghost Rider and Blade 2: Bloodlust. He's got a handle on comic book films... lets hope he keeps it up.

All of the scripts are in PDF format - Enjoy them. They are not for sale, they are for educational purposes ONLY.

John Painz