8. The River Wild - Gail (Meryl Streep)
Meryl Streep is another actress we don't often see in action mode, but who has never been known to do things by halves, This 1994 thriller from director Curtis Hanson sees the multi-Oscar winner at her most physical, as an expert whitewater rafter who takes her husband (David Straitharn) and son (Jurassic Park's Joseph Mazzello) for a weekend's trek down a notoriously tricky river. But things get even trickier when the family are taken hostage by two criminals on the run. As might be expected, Streep treats the emotional drama every bit as seriously as the action, and with a never-more sinister Kevin Bacon to play off, the result is a surprisingly suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse in an awe-inspiring natural landscape. It's made all the more impressive given that Streep performed some (though not all) of her stunts - one of which went wrong, reportedly seeing Streep come close to drowning.