Far Out Magazine has put together a countdown of the ten best action scenes from 1986, arguing that the year produced standout set pieces across genres well before Die Hard redefined the action blockbuster. The list traces how action filmmaking evolved from earlier eras into the distinct 1980s style shaped by stars such as Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, while noting that great action moments that year often appeared outside pure action films, in war dramas, thrillers and even comedies.

Highlights include Top Gun's climactic dogfight, shot by Tony Scott with an emphasis on cockpit interiors to heighten emotion between Tom Cruise's Maverick and Val Kilmer's Iceman; James Cameron's Aliens, in which Sigourney Weaver's Ripley battles a Xenomorph in an airlock showdown that produced one of the decade's most quoted lines; and Oliver Stone's Platoon, whose Vietnam War realism, drawn from Stone's own military service, culminates in an intense NVA ambush and a personal duel between Charlie Sheen's and Tom Berenger's characters. Highlander is also flagged for its inventive premise-driven combat, though the full list extends further.