40). John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017, Chad Stahelski) – AFI Ranking: N/A
BABA YAGAAAAA! I’ve written about the franchise, and particularly #2, before. I love it. John Wick 2 replaces Raging Bull (AFI #51) on the grounds that both Wick and Jake LaMotta are tough, iron-willed forces of nature that make everybody else’s life unpleasant. Of course, Wick 2 is more exciting and enjoyable, so it gets the nod.
I’ve written about it before, but the opening sequence of this movie is an awesome action movie opener. To be fair, this is the type of thing you can do in a sequel that you can’t do in the first movie of a series, ala The Dark Knight opening vs Batman Begins. Similar to Halloween II, John Wick 2 picks up within a day or two of where the original ended, with Wick chasing a down his beloved ’69 Mustang. He chases after a guy to get a key to a warehouse, and then destroys everyone at the warehouse while the man in charge talks to a henchman describing, and reminding the audience, of this character’s mythology.
Then, Wick is sent on a Dirty Dozen-esque full-tilt suicide mission that is usually reserved for the climax of a movie. He is basically forced to carry out a hit by the slimy Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), to whom he owes a debt. Wick has to assassinate the new head of a crime family, who is well-guarded. After pulling off the job, of course, Santino double-crosses Wick and sends people to kill him. Wick must fight off Santino’s people and a former colleague of his (Common) who was one of his victim’s bodyguards. He does all of that.
When his people can’t kill Wick, Santino puts a $7 million global contract on Wick’s head. Now Wick is back in New York City, with a network of assassins all looking for a huge payday. He is basically under constant attack until he gets to the Continental hotel, a Switzerland of sorts to the assassin community.
The thrills of this franchise come in the expertly choreographed fight scenes, as well as Wick’s creativity in killing when traditional weapons aren’t available. He has the improvisatory skills of an Indiana Jones, but at a smaller, more believable scale (and also he’s a hitman, so it’s never a stretch that he can kill with anything).
Toward the end, Wick kills Santino’s top hench-person in a mirrored art exhibit at the Met. The sequence is a brutal homage to Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai.
If you’re a fan of the franchise, you could argue Wick 2 has one of the most thrilling cliffhanger endings in recent movie history, as Wick goes on the run after being excommunicated from the assassin world. Often times the end represents a catharsis for the audience; Wick 2’s ending is a shot of adrenaline.
39). Training Day (2001, Antoine Fuqua) – AFI Ranking: N/A
Training Day replaces Touch of Evil (AFI #64) as a modern take on a movie about corrupt cops. I think it may have been my first exposure to correct cops, as an institution, and not a one-off situation.
Alonzo Harris (Denzel) oozes evil charisma and Ethan Hawke injects Jake Hoyt with some legitimate, in over his head, pathos. As it’s a cop movie, there are interactions with a bunch of unsavory characters that give the film an edge.
One of the more memorable scenes is when the cops take Roger’s (Scott Glenn) drug money. It starts out as a breach, but continues with an uneasy tension as we’re not exactly sure where things are going. And then they heat up.
Toward the end, we get the two most memorable sequences: the card game, and the confrontation in “The Jungle”. In the former, Jake is in a card game with three Hispanic gangsters. Alonzo, we believe, is in the bathroom. Little by little, the layers get peeled back and the subtext of conversation gets closer to the surface. At one point, one of the men asks to see Jake’s gun, which he de-loads, and hands over. It’s his only protection. Now it’s just a waiting game. It becomes clear that Alonzo sold him out, and he ends up with a shotgun in his face in the bathtub.
Training Day is raw.
38) The Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchcock) – AFI Ranking: 7th
The above video is an excellent breakdown of what makes The Birds such a memorable thriller. It’s the cruel, uncaring manner of nature. Many supporting characters end up dead. The birds attack, without rhyme or reason, it’s never explained.
It isn’t one my all-time favorite thrillers, which is why The Birds ends up lower on my list than for the AFI. As is often the case for older classics, there’ve been dozens of animal-based thriller/horror movies since the movie came out that may have numbed me somewhat to my first viewing of The Birds, which happened in 2020. However, many of these other movies miss the unceremonious nature of The Birds. There’s no curse, or lab experiment, and they’re not deep in the ocean or the jungle. It’s just birds, hundreds and hundreds of birds, preying on a town.
37). The Usual Suspects (1995, Bryan Singer) – AFI Ranking: N/A
In 2008, the AFI released a list titled “10 Top 10” where they gave their top 10 movies in 10 different genres. The Usual Suspects was the #10-rated Mystery. Interestingly, there wasn’t a thriller genre on that list.
So, it seems they came around on this movie. Crazy that it was left off their original list. Certainly the twist was memorable. But the movie is strong overall. It used to be my favorite movie. I’m sure if I watched it tomorrow, it’d be back in my top 10.
It starts as a witty crime thriller with Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) talking to a U.S. Customs agent as the only survivor of a firefight that ensued during a drug deal on a boat. Verbal takes them back to how they all got there, which started with a few criminals getting questioned about a robbery. After the police are done with them they team up for a few jobs, but then they get the attention of one, Keyser Soze. Without ever having met him, they’ve all wronged Soze previously, negatively impacting his business interests. He is not a man to be wronged, so they must make good. One of them (Benecio Del Toro) flees and is killed. So the remaining four men have to perform a job for Soze on this boat. It’s unclear what’s going to happen on the boat, but it looks like a suicide mission. Verbal never makes it onto the boat, and is the only one to come out alive after Keyser Soze shows up and kills everyone else.
The movie replaces Laura (AFI #73), as a windy mystery built around the investigation of a crime, which I suppose is the plot for many a mystery story. There are more similarities with the plot, largely related to figuring out who is responsible. You probably don’t get to The Usual Suspects without Laura, but Suspects is a few people ahead on the evolutionary chart.
36). Casino Royale (2006, Martin Campbell) – AFI Ranking: N/A
Casino Royale is my favorite Bond movie, and therefore I’m using it to replace the historical favorite, Goldfinger (AFI #71). It has much better action, better fight scenes, better practical effects and crazier stunts. That’s just the way it is.
Though I didn’t mind Pierce Brosnan, the James Bond franchise was in dire need of a refresh in the mid-2000’s. I don’t think this was on Brosnan, I think the plot’s just got silly and the excitement dried up. It’s entirely possible that however the new Bond movie turned out, it would be my favorite just for going in a different direction. Be that as it may, I’m darn glad the new Bond was Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
The opening scene above is underrated if only because of the exciting Madagascar chase sequence that comes right after the title credits. We see Bond earn his Double 0 status by sniffing out a traitor. It’s intercut with flashback scenes of a brutal fight between Bond the man who bought the traitor’s intel. The opening sequence of Skyfall is more thrilling, but again, you can do that in a sequel. The opening of Casino Royale had to set the stage, particularly for a reboot of the franchise. And that’s exactly what it did, establishing that Bond is new to his Double 0 status, both with the dialogue as well as the messiness and brutality of the fight, which suggests he’s a less experienced agent.
Obviously the Madagascar sequence is pure gold. I’m not saying they’ve never had a good chase scene before, but I don’t recall a foot chase sequence with so many escalating obstacles, and again, action that reveals Bond’s inexperience, and his brawn over brains approach.
The scene at the airport is thrilling. The fight in the stairwell. Even the poker was highly enjoyable. This was just a fun thrill ride to the end, and showed us a new take on Bond.
Before we move on, I want to acknowledge Skyfall quickly. Awesome movie, particularly as a standalone action movie. But Casino Royale was my first love for this franchise. Also, as laid out wonderfully on Eyebrow Cinema, Skyfall treads on a lot of the same ground as Casino Royale, in terms darkness, and its fit within the franchise is somewhat odd because it’s almost like they moved Bond’s timeline toward the end. But anyway…
35). Avengers: Infinity War (2018, Anthony and Joe Russo) – AFI Ranking: N/A
Hear me out! This is the only Marvel movie on my list for a very specific reason. I generally like Marvel movies, but they aren’t really thrilling. This is both because the CGI takes out some of the drama of a fight, and because often there just aren’t any real stakes. The sequel schedule is often known ahead of when these movies come out, and the studios have too much money invested in these characters to realistically believe anyone important will die. But, Infinity War was different.
It’s easy to forget this now, but there was a lot of hype about who would die in Infinity War. I don’t remember knowing about End Game ahead of time, which meant that it looked like this was the third in a trilogy of Avengers movies, and that a lot of the original crew, particularly Captain America (Chris Evans) and Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.) were on their last movie. It wasn’t clear who it would be, but there was mystique that someone would die.
I don’t remember hearing much about Thanos ahead of time either, and then in the opening scene of the movie, he lays the smackdown on Hulk and Thor, the two toughest and least beatable Avengers! He kills Loki, previously thought to be an un-killable God from Asgard! Sure, he’s all CGI, but he’s big, imposing, and clearly good at fighting. How are Captain America or Ironman going to survive that?
The movie functions like a bunch of short films, with groups of characters dividing and conquering different problems. All leads to a climactic battle in Wakanda vs an evil army, and then against Thanos himself. And then there’s the ending, which could not have been what anyone was expecting!
Infinity War replaces The Magnificent Seven (AFI #79), as the movie where a group of heroes team up to save the world.
34). The Departed (2006, Scorsese) – AFI Ranking: N/A
The Departed is a fun cross between a cop drama and a spy thriller. It’s cat and mouse between two moles on opposite sides of the law: a dirty cop who basically works for the mob and an undercover cop who infiltrates that mob. Great premise for a thriller, a star-studded cast and helmed by one of the greatest directors of all-time. Need I say more?
33) Ex Machina (2015, Alex Garland) – AFI Ranking: N/A
One thing I’ve found is that is that the screenplay nominees at the Oscars are often more indicative than the Best Picture nominees of which movies are going to hold up over time. Look no further than the 2015 Oscars. Ex Machina garnered a well-deserved nomination in the Original Screenplay category alongside other Best Picture snubs, Inside Out and Straight Outta Compton. Separately, Alicia Vikander won an Oscar that year for her performance in The Danish Girl, Oscar catnip, but the performance of hers that we’ll remember is from Ex Machina.
Despite the world-changing subject matter, sentient artificial intelligence, the movie is actually a highly contained thriller. Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is a programmer working for a Google-esque company who wins a contest to work with the founder and CEO (Oscar Isaac) on a mysterious project. He flies to the CEO’s completely isolated Alaskan compound and is informed that he’s there to help administer a Turing Test, to basically determine if the AI could pass as human. Of course, in typical thriller fashion, nothing is what it seems, and what follows is a tense sci-fi thriller that was easily one of the ten best movies of 2015.
Ex Machina replaces Safety Last! (AFI #97), a silent movie from 1923. I don’t want to disrespect any movie that got us to where we are today, I have to imagine that creating a thriller without sound is even more difficult. However, Safety Last! is nearly 100 years old, and though I’d be happy to watch it, I’m replacing it with a modern classic.
32) Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) – AFI Ranking: N/A
Kubrick’s last movie, Eyes Wide Shut, is unlike anything I can recall seeing. I have it replacing Blue Velvet (AFI #96) as the weird, uneasy, ‘what the H is going on’ thriller. I watched Blue Velvet this week, and I’ll be honest, I have no idea what any of it meant. All I know is, I wasn’t especially thrilled as it seemed to revolve around a lead character making a lot of bad decisions.
Eyes Wide Shut, on the other hand, is one of the more uneasy viewing experiences I can recall. On paper, it should be a normal “suburban” drama set among New York City’s elite, but there’s stuff brimming just below the surface. The movie is technically about marriage and unfulfilled desires, starring a then-married Hollywood couple, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
The big takeaway, however, is the illuminati orgies that take place at palatial estates outside the city, and how the most powerful people in New York are all in this secret society where they wear masks and have sex with each other. And also, how these people control everything.
Stanley Kubrick always left viewers thinking, and in contrast to a director like Spielberg, there was never a gift-wrapped, easy answer. The fact that Kubrick died during post-production, and this was basically his final gift to the world is very fitting.
31). North by Northwest (1959, Alfred Hitchcock) – AFI Ranking: 4th
This might be Cinema in its purest form. Movie-star, Cary Grant, is the ultimate “wrong man”, mistaken for a guy named, George Kaplan, which leads to his capture by certain nefarious parties. He’s cut loose only to get in trouble again because of his mistaken identity. Now he’s basically stuck as George Kaplan until he can figure out what is going on. There are twists and turns at every step, and they never stay in one location longer than 20-ish minutes. There’s also an up-and-down relationship with a beautiful U.S. spy, Kendall (Eva Marie Saint). It’s pure popcorn in the best possible way, and Hitchcock’s most entertaining movie.
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