40 Great Action Screenplays to Download and Study for Free
I've curated a tour through six decades of action scripts to help in your screenwriting education whether you're new to the craft, an emerging voice, or firmly established in the biz
There is no one kind of screenwriting that’s easier than any other, but I do think the action script gets shit on more than any other as simplistic and/or formulaic. There’s a reason why they almost never get nominated for Best Writing Oscars, even though the great ones are just as accomplished as the typically heavy dramas that got nods instead of them. This attitude is the filmmaker’s equivalent of classism, I think, which is silly — aside from insulting — given how much of art history is focused on action, violence, bloody vengeance, and the like. Our culture has long been obsessed with heroes and anti-heroes doing generally heroic things, in myths and in the arts; go to any museum populated with fine art and you will find this an indisputable fact.
Below you will find links to forty screenplays that led to iconic, often wildly influential action films that cinematically build on this ancient tradition. Many are unconventional in narrative or form, which is one of the reasons why I selected them. All command the reader’s attention and convey onscreen action in distinct ways.
There is much to learn here even if your focus isn’t blowing things up because action scripts tend to be very conscious of their pacing, conflict, and escalating stakes. Those are all relevant to whatever kind of script you’re writing.
All these screenplays tend to vanish, as all things do on the Internet. Download ASAP for your educational purposes. While you’re at it, be sure to check out these other articles:
“Read the 10 Feature Screenplays the WGA Thinks Are the Best of 2023”
“10 Screenplays by the Great Walter Hill to Download and Study”
“15 Iconic '90s Pilot Scripts to Download and Study”
“20 Christmas Movie Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“30 Brilliant BBC Drama Scripts to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Essential 21st-Century One-Hour Pilot Scripts to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Great Screenplays by Women to Download and Study for Free”
“50 Great Screenplays by People of Color to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Great Comedy Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
“60 Screenplays About Love and Heartbreak to Download and Study for Free”
“100 Horror Screenplays to Download and Study for Free”
ALIEN (1979) by Dan O'Bannon; story by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett
Claustrophobia, a small ensemble, a singular creature.
ALIENS (1985) by James Cameron
Claustrophobia, a new mother and daughter theme, and a teeming horde of creatures.
AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019) by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
Nothing about this film should work, and yet pretty much every aspect of it does.
BLACK PANTHER (2018) by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
An icon is born…by focusing on character, theme, and a primal conflict.
BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984) by Daniel Petrie Jr.; story by Danilo Bach and Daniel Petrie, Jr.
Comedy, action, written by my friend Dan Petrie.
THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron
Tony Gilroy’s use of the active voice provides a whole other way to put characters (and readers) in the moment.
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (2007) by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi; story by Tony Gilroy
The conclusion of the Bourne trilogy before another sequel popped up in 2016. There’s much to learn here about how to conclude a complicated storyline.
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) by William Goldman
A classic in every way. The character work is delicious.
CASINO ROYALE (2006) by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis
An icon reborn for a new millennium.
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER (1994) by John Milius, Donald E. Stewart, and Steven Zaillian
This film is an under-recognized work of genius, as far as I’m concerned. I wrote “On Screenwriting: How to Create a Great Action Sequence” about it.
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan; story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer
An action film? A crime epic? A super-hero film? Who knows!
DIE HARD (1988) by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza
If you need me to explain why you should read this script, you clearly don’t like action films.
DRIVE (2011) by Hossein Amini
Cool. Mysterious. Violent.
THE DRIVER (1979) by Walter Hill
This is the second script on here by my friend Walter Hill, though his critical work on ALIEN (1979) is not credited. The way Walter writes is poetic and really challenges form. Please study it.
FAST FIVE (2011) by Chris Morgan
This is the script that breathed new life into the (at the time) modestly successful FAST AND FURIOUS franchise. As a consequence, the series has grown into a juggernaut that continuously racks up hundreds of millions, sometimes billions, at the box office.
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) by Ernest Tidyman
A glimpse at action before the blockbusters took over.
THE FUGITIVE (1993) by Jeb Stuart and David Twohy; story by David Twohy
A mystery, a thriller, one hell of an action script.
GOLDENEYE (1995) by Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein; story byMichael France
A decade before CASINO ROYALE (2006), GOLDENEYE revitalized Bond for a more sophisticated audience while not forgetting what made him great between the Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan films.
HEAT (1995) by Michael Mann
Like THE DARK KNIGHT, it’s very hard to pin HEAT down. A crime epic? A heist film? An action film? But all great.
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990) by Larry Ferguson and Donald E. Stewart
Claustrophobic, thrilling, all character driven.
JOHN WICK (2014) by Derek Kolstad
The birth of a cool new icon, one of the only original action franchises launched in the teens.
KILL BILL, VOL. 1 (2003) by Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino. Enough said.
KILL BILL, VOL. 2 (2004) by Quentin Tarantino
Okay, maybe there’s more to be said.
LETHAL WEAPON (1987) by Shane Black
This script is a joy to read if only for its unique ways to draw the reader into the story and action.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015) by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris
Arguably, no script could match what George Miller put on screen. Find out if that’s true.
THE MATRIX (1999) by Lana and Lilly Wachowski
One of the most well-crafted action scripts of the nineties and a MasterClass in world-building. Which is why you should read “On Screenwriting: How to World-Build Like a Wachowski” by me.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION by Christopher McQuarrie; story by Christopher McQuarrie and Drew Pearce
Stick around for the shocking conclusion, which is not an over-the-top action sequence like most of the film (not an insult; M:I does this better than almost any other series). But the finale is a small one, almost a tense parlor drama at a cafe table. Brilliant.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) by Ernest Lehman
A blockbuster before they existed.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL (2003) by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio; story by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie, and Jay Wolpert
The film evolves beyond the script in many ways, but many people today forget THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL is a RAIDERS-grade story filled with wonderful characters and even more wonderfully surprising reversals.
POINT BREAK (1991) by W. Peter Iliff; story by Rick King and W. Peter Iliff
An existential action film.
PREDATOR (1987) by Jim Thomas and John Thomas
The primal simplicity of this film meant many spent years overlooking how brilliant it is. Don’t make the same mistake.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) by Lawrence Kasdan; story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
The one to measure every other action script against.
ROBOCOP (1987) by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner
Not just a great action film. A great social satire.
THE ROCK (1996) by David Weisberg, Douglas S. Cook, and Mark Rosner; story by David Weisberg and Douglas S. Cook
THE ROCK exists at a strange transition point in action cinema history. Films grew exponentially bigger from the mid-nineties on, far more interested in producing cool trailers much of the time. THE ROCK does both.
THE ROCKETEER (1991) by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo; story by Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, and William Dear
Brace yourselves for a bold statement: I would teach THE ROCKETEER at a foundational level if handed a screenwriter course to oversee. Read it, watch the film, marvel at how almost every scene reverses and escalates action and stakes.
ROMANCING THE STONE (1984) by Diane Thomas
It takes the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) formula and somehow makes it more…fun (and funny).
SPEED (1994) by Graham Yost
A simple concept executed brilliantly.
THE TERMINATOR (1984) by James Cameron
The second James Cameron script on this list. Read it and marvel at how little it needs to give you to convey an epic sci-fi idea with world-ending consequences.
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1992) by James Cameron and William Wisher
Marvel at how James Cameron took two “monster” films on this list, ALIEN (1979) and THE TERMINATOR (1984) and completely reinvented them, including thematically, for their sequels. That’s how you justify a sequel. If you want to know more about how Cameron does this, read “How to Sequel Like James Cameron: TERMINATOR 2” by moi.
THE WILD BUNCH (1969) by Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah’s action masterpiece. Read it, then watch it, then weep at how you’ll probably never write anything as thrilling.
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Noice collection! Interesting to see that on one hand there are all these given rules about how a script should be written and formatted ("don't write what the character feels, just describe what's on camera", "don't use curse words others than in dialogues", "don't use double lines when using parentethicals" etc...). Yet on the other, the best scripts — such as in this collection — don't care about rules! It is interesting to read a few of the pages back to back of several of these script and compares within the same genre, how the action is displayed differently.
What a fantastic collection! Thank you so much for sharing it with us!