Die Hard (1988)

Directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis as New York detective John McClane trapped in a Los Angeles skyscraper during a Christmas Eve hostage crisis, Die Hard grossed $140 million worldwide against a $28 million budget and launched a franchise totalling $1.4 billion. Its formula of a relatable everyman against a sophisticated villain (Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber) became the defining template for 1990s action cinema. Empire magazine ranked it the greatest action film of all time in 2014.