The Best Movie Action Sequences of 2018

One of the year’s most underappreciated offerings.

6) Overlord: Baptism by Fire

Now I can’t speak from experience, but that leaping out of a plane – mid-nosedive – into a swirling vortex of gunfire, death and destruction is probably quite unpleasant. Once you’re airborne in this scenario, you don’t really have much control over your ultimate fate. You’re just a leaf helplessly drifting in the wind and your de facto course of action is to pray that you don’t get hit by a stray bullet. The only way that this horrifying sensation could be amplified, would be if you were also twirling around in a disoriented haze, unable to get your bearings. That sounds pretty terrifying to me anyway.

To reiterate though, I have absolutely no experience of this. My only frame of reference is the chilling opening of Julius Avery’s Overload, which makes a compelling case for why an impromptu parachute drop through an anti-air assault would be a horrendous ordeal. It certainty put me off trying it.

Perfectly capturing the sense of vulnerability that paratroopers must have felt in these situations, it’s a riveting and attention-grabbing start to an excellent film. Much like First Man, it’s another instance of a movie actively thrusting you into the midst of the peril, a goal that it accomplishes via tight direction, thunderous (near deafening) sound design and absorbing cinematography. Such a powerful introduction.