Worst Action Movie Cliches
Dirty Tricks We've Seen Again and Again (and Again)

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5. The Ticking Time Bomb

Somewhere a bomb is ticking away the seconds to an explosive finale, as the steely and determined action hero races to find its location. Once it's discovered, the question is: Which wire do you cut? Is it the red or the green? Or is it the white? It doesn't matter: The hero inevitably cuts the correct wire with a miniscule amount of time (usually 00:00:01) left on the clock. It's convenient, but we understand: No one would care if the hero disarmed that mother with 59 minutes left on it.
Appears in: 'The Manhattan Project,' 'Broken Arrow,' 'Die Hard With a Vengeance,' 'Face/Off,' 'GoldenEye,' 'Goldfinger,' 'The Peacemaker,' 'Speed' 'War Games'

6. Third Person Shooter

The bad guy has the good guy in his sights, his trigger finger poised to squeeze off a life-ending round. A shot rings out, and we shudder -- but the hero does not fall. As he frantically checks his body for the mortal wound he must have sustained, a dazed look overcomes the villain's face, and he slumps to the floor. Then, and only then, the camera reveals a gun-toting savior who blew away the baddie before he could kill our protagonist. And people doubt the second shooter-on-the-grassy-knoll theory.
Appears in: 'Die Hard,' 'A History of Violence,' 'Independence Day,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' 'Reservoir Dogs'

7. The Expository Speech

Oh, egomaniacal villains, when will you learn to curb your hubris, resist the urge to talk and just blow away the good guy when you have him trapped? But no, instead of pulling the trigger, you decide to blather on and on about the unparalleled evil genius of your plan, giving the hero just enough time to figure out how to shoot you, blow you up or otherwise creatively make you dead. Oh well, at least they've got some handy last words for their tombstones.
Appears in: 'Die Hard,' any other 'Die Hard' movie, any Bond movie, 'Under Seige'

8. Check for a Pulse, Dummy

Here's an obvious rule: When you kill someone, make sure he's dead. Period. But most heroes, for all their street smarts, can't seem to get this one thing right. While it may not exactly be an action movie, the prototypical example of this would be 'Halloween,' in which that crazy Michael Myers just won't stay dead; every time someone thinks they've finally got him down for the count, they ... stand across the room with their back to him. And what happens? His shadowy body moves, and the chase is on again.
Also appears in: 'Live Free or Die Hard,' 'The Matrix,' 'The Terminator'

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