Copyright Screen Rant
Sci-fi Westerns are a particularly unique little subgenre, and one that's spawned any number of great action scenes. Westerns were once the biggest genre in Hollywood, and inspired countless filmmakers when they were growing up, like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Moving into the late 1960s, audiences grew jaded with the genre and began to crave more modern stories. The filmmakers who grew up with Westerns kept their spirit alive, with John Carpenter stealth remaking Rio Bravo as Assault on Precinct 13, or Lucas using The Searchers as inspiration for Star Wars. The latter movie can be credited with the creation of the Sci-Fi Western genre, which blends classic "Oaters" with science fiction themes. This blend isn't always successful, but it's led to some real creative mashups over the years. After all, there's something irresistible about seeing a traditional duel done with laser blasters, or hoverbikes replacing horses in an action scene. The Dark Tower (2017) - Roland Rescues Jake Stephen King's sprawling Dark Tower novel series is a giant potpourri of influences, from fantasy to old school Westerns. It deserved much better than this exceedingly lame PG-13 adaptation, which at least featured Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey as the leads. It also had exactly one great action scene. Elba's Roland gets to live up to his legendary gunslinger status during The Dark Tower's ending, where he blasts through a horde of henchmen to save Jake (Tom Taylor). This sequence is certainly overblown, but Roland's rapid-fire shooting (and reloading) gives it a propulsive momentum largely absent from the rest of the story. Ghosts Of Mars (2001) - Rio Bravo on Mars Carpenter remade Rio Bravo twice, with this 2001 actioner remixing the concept into a Sci-Fi Western. It's most notable nowadays for being Jason Statham's first action flick, and while it was a critical and commercial letdown, it features a couple of solid setpieces. This includes the possessed miners storming the protagonist's police station stronghold. Jason Statham was originally cast as Ghosts of Mars' main character Desolation Williams, but was replaced by Ice Cube due to Statham's lack of star power at the time. The survivors bottleneck the possessed down one long corridor, blasting away at a seemingly endless wave. Carpenter's pulsing score (playfully dubbed "Love Siege") adds to the intensity of this frantic setpiece, which escalates to a desperate brawl and rover chase as the group flees the overrun mining town. Riddick (2013) - Riddick Vs the Mud Demons Riddick took the Vin Diesel saga back to its roots, offering three stories for the price of one. The first is a sci-fi Castaway where Riddick fends for himself on a hostile planet. The second is Alien (but with Riddick as the monster) and the third is essentially Pitch Black 2 as he and some mercs fight the "Mud Demons." This is the 2013 sequel's standout scene, as Riddick and mortal enemy Boss Johns battle waves of the creatures. It's a well-paced, exciting sequence that also gives insight into Riddick and Johns (Matthew Nable) as characters. It's also unique for putting Riddick on the back of his heels, and it genuinely feels like he won't survive as it wears on. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001) - Spike Vs Vincent The movie spinoff of the beloved anime takes place before the show's finale, so as not to undo its ambiguous ending. The story sees the Bebop bounty hunter crew chasing a terrorist called Vincent, who is in possession of a horrifying virus. The first big confrontation between Vincent and series hero Spike takes place on a train. Director Shinichirō Watanabe stages this scene with his typical fare, with Spike diving for cover as Vincent fires indiscriminately inside the crowded train. This leads to a brief but intense martial arts bout, and while it ends badly for Spike, it does set up Vincent as one of the franchise's most powerful villains. Escape From New York (1981) - Climbing The Wall John Carpenter's Escape from New York has one of the best sci-fi premises ever. This sees the world's toughest outlaw, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), breaking into the prison that used to be New York City to save the kidnapped President. It's one of Carpenter's best movies, though its low budget limited its scale. Escape from New York suffers somewhat as a result, though the finale chase across a mined bridge to reach the prison's wall is a real nailbiter. Carpenter's ever-escalating score, combined with Snake only having two minutes to escape before the bombs in his neck explode, makes it unbearably tense and thrilling. Serenity (2005) - The Firefly Crew Vs The Reavers The movie spinoff of Firefly saw the crew uncover the origins of the Reavers, the terrifying space marauders who torture, mutilate and kill anyone they come across. Serenity's ending features a desperate last stand where a vengeful Zoe (Gina Torres) leads the charge against the Reavers as they breach their safe room. In a way, this battle feels reminiscent of the Ghosts of Mars police station scene, with the Reavers feeling like an evolution of Carpenter's concept. The action is well-staged, but what really makes it work is that audiences are so invested in the characters that they genuinely fear for their survival as things become increasingly desperate. The Book of Eli (2010) - Bar Fight at Carnegie's The Book of Eli feels like a post-apocalyptic riff on Zatoichi, the blind Japanese swordsman, with Denzel Washington playing a rugged survivor in possession of a special book. The movie never reaches Mad Max levels of greatness, but Washington fully commits to both the drama and action involved. This is best seen in a bar fight early on, where Eli gets harassed by the goons of main villain, Carnegie (Gary Oldman). When they are unwilling to leave him in peace, Eli unsheathes his machete and hacks through them in a sequence that is both thrilling and kind of terrifying for showing how ruthless the character can be. Outland (1981) - High Noon on Io Outland is a key example of the Sci-Fi Western genre, with the film really being a redo of 1952's High Noon. The story sees Sean Connery's lawman uncovering a criminal conspiracy on Jupiter's third moon, Io, and finding himself the target of two (or possibly three) assassins in the final act. Director Peter Hyams cranks the tension dial to its highest setting with this extended battle, where both the gunmen and the environment itself pose a major threat to Connery's hero. It's an expertly crafted showdown, and is a near-perfect fusion of classic Western tropes and sci-fi. Back to the Future Part III (1990) - The Train Finale Back to the Future Part III is, for all its sci-fi trappings, basically a Western for most of its runtime. The final outing in the trilogy finds Doc (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty (Michael J. Fox) trapped in 1885, and having to use a steam train to push their time-traveling DeLorean to 88 miles per hour to get back home. Needless to say, this isn't an easy task. Helmer Robert Zemeckis has a great time piling the problems on for his heroes in this train setpiece, including the last-minute arrival of Doc's love, Clara (Mary Steenburgen). It's a creative and fun finale, and is another inventive blending of the Western and sci-fi genres. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) The original Star Wars changed cinema (for better and worse) and saw George Lucas throw a lot of influences into the stew. It's got ingredients from samurai movies, Flash Gordon serials, John Ford Westerns and so on. He also stages many thrilling battles, and it's to his credit that the final Death Star trench run is still so incredible.
