10 Most Influential Action Movies Ever Made

10. Enter The Dragon

Almost 45 years after his death, Bruce Lee still remains the most famous martial artist in the history of cinema and the man responsible for bringing the kung-fu movie into the public consciousness in the early 1970s. If you were asked to name one of his movies off the top of your head, then chances are that Enter the Dragon would instantly come to mind.

Breaking barriers as the first co-production between American and Hong Kong companies, it quickly became both the most iconic and successful kung-fu movie of all time, earning $90m at the box office on a budget of just $850,000. The influence of Enter the Dragon would be felt throughout the rest of the decade, not just in the martial arts genre but the movie industry as a whole.

As well as featuring future stars Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung in small roles, Jim Kelly would also use the success of the movie to launch his career as Blaxploitation's premiere martial artist. Enter the Dragon was directly responsible for huge numbers of people taking up martial arts, helped popularize Eastern cinema in the United States and spawned the 'kung-fu craze' of the '70s that led to countless inferior knock-offs, parodies and tributes.