We may earn a commission from links on this page.Raise a glass, America. It’s the Fourth of July—and not just any Fourth, but the 250th anniversay of Independence Day. Why not celebrate with an over-the-top, ultra-violent action spectacular exhibiting the can-explode spirit of the country we all ostensibly love? Patriotism means a lot of things to a lot of people, and these movies, bless 'em, all at least try to exemplify shining American ideals, if with mixed results and some, uh, different ideas about what it means to love your country. They all do have at least one thing in common: explosions. Lots of ‘em. Wherever these films sit on the American political spectrum, they are all pretty much aligned on the idea that rugged individualism should be backed by heavy firepower. These are movies that don’t just say “America!” They say, “America? Fuck yeah!”Air Force One (1997) In the pantheon of cool movie presidents, Harrison Ford’s James Marshall stands tall. There’s a pretty solid setup here: No sooner has Marshall stated, publicly and unequivocally, that the U.S. government will not negotiate with terrorists than a group of terrorists takes control of Air Force One and threatens the resulting hostages, including the First Family. The baddies think the president has been ejected from the craft, but he’s actually hiding in the cargo hold, and there’s only one thing for him to do: get them off his plane! (It’s no way to pick a president, but I’d probably vote for him.) Rent Air Force One from Prime Video. Air Force One (1997) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Green Berets (1968) John Wayne, best known for his work as an actor and as a World War II draft dodger, sat in the director's chair for this one—a film he passionately set out to create to counter the anti-war sentiments of the lily-livered cowards becoming increasingly disenchanted with America's role in Vietnam. David Janssen plays a reporter with concerns about the conflict, at least until he's embedded with Wayne's fictional Colonel Beckworth. At that point, we journey with them into the heart of the Vietnam War and learn that the conflict isn't complicated at all. It is, rather, a Starship Troopers-style fight between goodies (Americans) and baddies (Vietnamese commies led by a young, distinctly not Vietnamese, George Takei). The baddies don't deserve our mercy, nor due process, so best just to shoot them a lot. The movie did decent business but was almost universally panned. Rent The Green Berets from Prime Video. The Green Berets (1968) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Independence Day (1996) Stupid aliens. Are you really going to blow up the White House just a couple of days shy of the Fourth of July and think America is going to let that slide? The aliens certainly didn’t count on a cross-section of American rebels, including Marine pilot Will Smith, Gulf War vet President Bill Pullman, tech guy Jeff Goldblum, alcoholic crank Randy Quaid, and Star Trek’s Mr. Data, standing up to defend our freedom to deliver cheesy one-liners. This thing was such a huge hit, it kicked off a major disaster movie resurgence in the mid 1990s, but none could top it for fun and sheer spectacle. (That includes the 20 years later sequel, minus Will Smith.) Stream Independence Day on Hulu. Independence Day (1996) at Hulu Learn More Learn More at Hulu Olympus Has Fallen (2013) The sometimes-great Antoine Fuqua directs this slightly cheap-looking spin on Die Hard in the White House, with Gerard Butler playing a disgraced former Secret Service agent who becomes the only one who can save the president (and the country) from the terrorists. A great cast (Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, and Angela Bassett) elevates this violent, middling, but perfectly entertaining action thriller. Stream Olympus Has Fallen on Prime Video. Olympus Has Fallen (2013) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video American Sniper (2014) Anyone old enough to remember the Iraq War of the aughts knows one thing: It was an entirely uncomplicated conflict involving a noble American administration putting an end to an imminent and entirely real threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). To tell this story, director Clint Eastwood naturally selected the memoir of Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle, a decorated soldier who wasn't quite as decorated as he always claimed, and whose unprovable or easily disprovable stories (including one about saving New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina by summarily executing dozens of looters) caused legal headaches for his publishers. The Iraq portion of the film opens with Kyle (Bradley Cooper) shooting a woman and her small child in order to stop them from lobbing grenades at fellow soldiers; he feels bad about it, which is approximately as nuanced as Sniper gets in its good vs. evil take on the war—even if the movie makes a strong case for the damaging physical and psychological toll of the war on the soldiers fighting it. Rent American Sniper from Prime Video. American Sniper (2014) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Under Siege (1992) The USS Missouri (the third U.S. Navy ship with the name) had a long and illustrious career before being towed to Pearl Harbor and made into a memorial. It’s also held a prominent (if eclectic) place in pop culture: among other appearances, it was featured prominently in the 2012 film Battleship (more on that one shortly) and was also the setting for Cher’s slightly risqué video for “If I Could Turn Back Time.” But it probably got the most screen time in this 1992 Steven Seagal vehicle. Mirroring the ship’s real history, President George H.W. Bush decommissions the ship (true) just in time for terrorists led by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey to seize it for nefarious purposes (less true). Only Seagal, playing the ship’s plucky cook, can stop them (very untrue). Stream Under Siege on Prime Video. Under Siege (1992) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Gabriel Over the White House (1933) Maybe a bit of fascism, for a treat. Walter Huston plays the charming, wildly ineffective President Judd Hammond—he's more than content to coast along in his job without doing much to help a country in the grip of a Great Depression. That all changes when he crashes his car and, maybe, chats with an actual angel on his deathbed. The angel's apparent message: Take the bull by the horns, buddy, and get this country in order! He dismisses his cabinet, adjourns Congress, has a gangster summarily executed, and threatens to send the United States military to attack every nation on the globe unless they...do peace, or something. The movie is clear that we ought to see Hammond as a genial, but wise and clear-eyed father figure; he's going to do whatever it takes to drain that swamp and he's going to do it with the full support of a grateful nation, Jesus, and assorted angels. Rent Gabriel Over the White House from Prime Video. Gabriel Over the White House (1933) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video White House Down (2013) Given that images of the modern White House involve large swaths of literal rubble, the title here takes on an added poignance—but let's travel back to a more innocent time, shall we? Director Roland Emmerich makes his second appearance on this list, and it won’t be his last. Following efforts by the president (Jamie Foxx) to make peace in the Middle East, a cabal of white supremacists lead by James Woods launches an attack on the Capitol building (if you can imagine) that sends D.C. into lockdown. Luckily, Marine vet, Capitol police officer, and tank-top all-star Channing Tatum is on hand when Woods and company attempt to kidnap the President and take over the White House in order to start a nuclear war with Iran for revenge or something. It’s a very solid action movie, but we didn’t come here for the plot: we came for explosions and Channing Tatum’s ever-shrinking wardrobe. Stream White House Down on Hulu or rent it from Prime Video. White House Down (2013) at Hulu Learn More Learn More at Hulu Street Fighter (1994) Yes, technically Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Guile works for the “Allied Nations” rather than the U.S. Air Force (as in the video games) and, yes, he goes through the movie with a borderline impenetrable Belgian accent. Still, by the time the camera goes in for a close-up on his American flag-tatted bicep during the climactic fight with Raul Julia, it’s clear that Guile is 100% the real American hero. Rent Street Fighter from Prime Video. Street Fighter (1994) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Gymkata (1985) American Olympian Kurt Thomas stars in this 1985 film from director Robert Clouse, best known for helming Enter the Dragon. Thomas plays Jonathan Cabot, tasked by American intelligence with infiltrating the secluded nation of Parmistan. The country holds what they call "the Game" every year, and the winner gets a wish. The Americans are hoping that Cabot can enter and win, at which point he will be granted his heart's desire: a U.S. satellite monitoring station in Parmistanian territory. To aid him, he'll be trained in the unstoppable martial arts skill of gymkata ("The thrill of gymnastics! The kill of karate!"), which he'll need to defeat anti-American terrorists, win the heart of the country's princess, and get us the satellite monitoring station we've always dreamed of. Rent Gymkata from Prime Video. Gymkata (1985) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Battleship (2012) You might not have imagined the relatively simple setup of the beloved Hasbro tabletop game would provide enough fodder for a movie. And you’d be absolutely right—they really had to start more or less from scratch in order to tease an alien-centric plot out of the alien-free strategy guessing game. While Taylor Kitsch is assigned to the USS John Paul Jones, and Alexander Skarsgård commands the Sampson, alien spacecraft from “Planet G” threaten the world, but specifically the water around Oahu. There’s a nod to the mechanics of the game when joint Japanese and American forces realize that they can track the invading warships using tsunami warning buoys, but mostly it’s all an excuse for some Transformers-esque naval action. Stream Battleship on Prime Video. Battleship (2012) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Rambo III (1988) Rocky and Rambo, two beloved Sylvester Stallone-fronted franchises, had similar trajectories: Each begins on a relatively sensitive and thoughtful note, but, by the gung-ho Reagan mid-1980s, has thrown subtlety out the window. The entry point in what became the Rambo series, First Blood, nodded toward dealing Vietnam-era post-traumatic stress, while the second sent Rambo after forgotten POWs. Number three sends him off to Afghanistan to rescue an old friend, and in doing so takes a definite side in the long-running conflict between the Soviet Union and Afghan Mujahideen rebels, cutting a swath through Soviet forces with a machine gun and a rocket launcher and generating a record-breaking body count (literally! Guinness named it the most violent film ever made in 1990). This wasn’t just a fantasy—supporting Afghan militant groups was a centerpiece of U.S. anti-Soviet planning for over a decade; in a sense, this is Stallone bringing dry government policy to life for children who act out American imperialism via toys, comic books, and video games based on the movie. (And, yes, OK, many of those Afghan militants went on to form the core of what became the Taliban—so that element hasn’t aged very well. But the bit where Rambo blows up a helicopter with a bow and arrow is timeless, so it all evens out. Right?) Stream Rambo III on Peacock or rent it from Prime Video. Rambo III (1988) at Peacock Learn More Learn More at Peacock Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) James Stewart plays Jefferson Smith, a newly appointed senator whose naïveté begins as a weakness, and then becomes the bedrock for the ideals that keep him from becoming yet another grafting politician. It might seem churlish to include this sweet, inspirational comedy-drama alongside movies like Rambo, but Mr. Smith Goes to Washington's central conceit—that one good ol' fashioned American man could clean up the whole crooked system by standing up for his beliefs—seems less like a charming ideal and more like a depressing reminder that it's nearly impossible to get anything done around here. Rent Mr. Smith Goes to Washington from Prime Video. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Rocky IV (1985) The initial Rocky movies all work on different levels, but by the third, the formula was getting tired, and so the fourth took a gamble by going over the top (not to be confused with Over the Top) patriotic, and it paid off in a big way, earning the biggest box office of the series yet. After boxer Ivan Drago (future movie He-Man Dolph Lundgren) literally kills Apollo Creed with the entire Soviet Union behind him, rugged individualist Rocky goes rogue, getting Drago to agree to an unsanctioned match in the USSR. It’s all laid out via an all-time great, utterly memorable training montage: while Drago has a whole team, modern equipment, and the best steroids communism had on offer, Rocky does it the good old-fashioned way: by chopping down trees and pretending to be a doggie pulling Paulie around on a sled. Like a fuckin’ man. Without giving too much away, the ending sees Rocky winning over the Soviet audience and earning the applause of Premier Mikhail Gorbachev himself. And that’s the story of the fall of communism. Stream Rocky IV on Netflix or rent it from Prime Video. Rocky IV (1985) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix Miracle (2004) As a couple of Rocky movies taught us, the best way to defeat the Soviet Union and the perfidious threat of communism is through sports. (Given the choice between sports and global thermonuclear war...yeah, let’s do sports.) Miracle tells the roughly true story of the victory that came to be known as the “Miracle on Ice,” when Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) and the United States men’s ice hockey team defeated the heavily, heavily favored Soviet team at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, thus ending the Cold War forever and ushering in a lasting era of peace with the USSR. The movie breaks zero new ground when it comes to inspirational sports-movie tropes, but it’s effectively nostalgic and inspirational. Stream Miracle on Netflix or rent it from Prime Video. Miracle (2004) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix Missing in Action (1984) Developed at the same time Rambo: First Blood Part II, Missing in Action was probably the second most successful movie of the 1980s to explore concerns of POWs and MIAs potentially remaining in Southeast Asia (though these weren’t the only two). Here, Chuck Norris goes to Vietnam to investigate reports of U.S. soldiers remaining in captivity in Vietnam. He finds them, and then fights his way out. Resolving the fates of missing service members was a major issue in the 1980s (and rightly so), but it’s unclear whether these popular action spectaculars helped raise awareness or just satisfied a thirst for retribution. Stream Missing in Action on MGM+ or buy it from Prime Video. Missing in Action (1984) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Like any action franchise worth its mettle, the Die Hard movies get bigger, louder, and more preposterous as they go—and that’s certainly true for Live Free or Die Hard, in which ordinary ex-cop John McClane enters superhero territory. But it actually represents a fair balance between the earlier, (slightly) more grounded movies, and the way-over-the-top (and fairly terrible) fifth entry. In this one, America’s entire cyber-infrastructure is at risk from a vengeful Timothy Olyphant, and since the villain has control of the computers, McClane will have to stop him the old-fashioned way, with guns and such. This one gets a middling score on the “Rah Rah America!” scale, but a million extra points for the very excellent titular pun. Stream Live Free or Die Hard on Hulu. Live Free or Die Hard (2007) at Hulu Learn More Learn More at Hulu Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Despite being incredibly on-the-nose as a metaphor for American military might, Captain America is pretty cool. Not quite as cool in the movies as the comic book version, who kicked off his career by socking Hitler square in the jaw, but there’s still enough Nazi-fighting action to cheer for. Given the largely don't-rock-the-boat tone of the MCU, that's about as good as it gets. Stream Captain America: The First Avenger on Disney+ and Hulu or rent it from Prime Video. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) at Disney+ Learn More Learn More at Disney+ How the West Was Won (1962) This sprawling, slightly goofy epic goes big in every regard: five directors, a giant ensemble of big Hollywood names (Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, etc.) and a three-lens Cinerama filming process meant to be projected onto an enormous curved screen. It's also epic in timespan, starting in 1839 and continuing over the ensuing half-century. It's a fun but entirely unsophisticated take on American westward expansion, posing the process as a series of family-friendly challenges and setbacks for white settlers, rather than a murky, complicated, and violent series of conquests of indigenous peoples. Rent How the West Was Won from Prime Video. How the West Was Won (1962) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Red Dawn (1984) The apex of the “Communists are coming to get us!” action sub-genre, Red Dawn was such a cult classic that it even scored a post-Soviet remake involving an invasion by North Korea. The original operates from a relatively simple “Rambo, but with teenagers” setup—it’s the perfect suburban fantasy, both timeless and very 1980s. A foreign army has invaded, the government has collapsed, and only you and your friends can stop them! It’s all done with incredible self-seriousness, which only helps to sell the concept (and heighten the cheese factor). Stream Red Dawn on AMC+. Red Dawn (1984) Learn More Learn More Invasion U.S.A. (1985) This Chuck Norris vehicle begins with a fake-out: a boatload of Cuban refugees (or “refugees”) is met by a welcoming American Coast Guard… except that it’s not the Coast Guard, it’s Latin American communists, who kill them for the coke that they were smuggling. Once on the mainland, the guerrillas team up with Soviet operatives to plan attacks throughout America (because: reasons). Naturally, when they blow up Chuck Norris’ house, they learn they’ve picked on the wrong guy. Norris intended this as a message movie about a real and present threat, but I’m not convinced that the politics and social messages are ever the reasons to watch a Chuck Norris movie. Stream Invasion U.S.A. on Prime Video. Invasion U.S.A. (1985) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video National Treasure (2004) For generations, members of Benjamin Franklin Gates’ family have passed down a secret—apparently there’s a massive treasure that the spendthrift businessmen who ran the country circa 1776 decided to sock away, a fact revealed to an ancestor of (real life) founder Charles Carroll. (This accumulated wealth, we’re assured, was passed down from ancient empires and had absolutely nothing to do with the 1,000 or so enslaved people Carroll kept to do his work for him). Historian Ben, played by true national treasure Nicholas Cage, realizes that there’s a treasure map of sorts printed on the back of the Declaration of Independence! Which he’ll have to steal! It’s an action-packed tour through something that loosely resembles American history. Stream National Treasure on Hulu or rent it from Prime Video. National Treasure (2004) at Hulu Learn More Learn More at Hulu 300 (2007) We love Spartans. Love ‘em! There’s even a name for it: laconophilia. So, even though Zach Snyder’s 300 (based on the Frank Miller/Lynn Varley graphic novel) is set over 2,000 years before the founding of the United States, it works as a distinctly American, pro-Western fantasy of righteous battle to the last. Delivered smack dab in the middle of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s hard not to see the movie’s east vs. west themes as allegorical. In real life (perhaps surprisingly), it was the Spartan constitution and blended government that most influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution, not the baby oiled pecs: that ancient nation generally had two kings, one to balance the power of the other; the kings ruled mostly in military matters, while a national assembly and two elected legislative bodies made all of the day-to-day decisions and generally could overrule one or both kings. Today, though, we mostly love how they’re in really good shape and won’t let anyone take their weapons. Rent 300 from Prime Video. 300 (2007) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Top Gun (1986) In real life and in the movies, the TOPGUN program for Navy pilots is for the best of the best, and, presumably, those who feel the need for speed. Though highly, highly fictionalized, the film does pay tribute to naval aviators in its story of “Maverick” (Tom Cruise) going through training and making time with flight instructor Kelly McGillis (and his sweaty fellow pilots). Not only a fun Fourth of July flick, but a reasonably good lead-in to the long gestating, disappointingly less gay, but Best Picture-nominated(!) sequel. Stream Top Gun on Paramount+ or rent it from Prime Video. Top Gun (1986) at Paramount+ Learn More Learn More at Paramount+ Inglourious Basterds (2009) With tongue in cheek, Quentin Tarantino constructs a violent alternate history fantasy about competing plots to kill Hitler. Tarantino films come with a level of prestige (and star power) that the pictures he’s paying homage to can’t compete with, but there are still hints of exploitation classics that imagined righteous victories when the real-life circumstances were a bit more complex. Here, a Jewish team of American soldiers stalks the Führer, leading to a surprising climax. Stream Inglorious Basterds on Peacock. Inglourious Basterds (2009) at Peacock Learn More Learn More at Peacock Commando (1985) One of the defining figures in 1980s American-style action was, weirdly, an Austrian bodybuilder. Yes, before he proved his American bona fides by becoming the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger frequently portrayed superheroic American soldiers. And also Conan. Here, he plays a retired Special Forces Colonel whose daughter is kidnapped by a Latin American dictator, improbably played by Dan Hedaya. It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Hedaya’s President Arius will come to regret it. Rent Commando from Prime Video. Commando (1985) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Uncle Sam (1996) Horror’s hardest-working hack (said affectionately), the great (occasionally) Larry Cohen scripted this Fourth of July slasher, making a play at filling a horror niche by creating a memorable villain around a holiday largely neglected by horror. For a good ten or twenty minutes, this story of an American soldier in Kuwait killed by friendly fire who returns to wreak vengeance seems like it’s going to lean heavily into anti-war and anti-militarism themes. But that’s all pretty quickly forgotten as our murderous Master Sergeant takes to killing anyone and everyone, regardless of their beliefs or political affiliations. Stream Uncle Sam on Prime Video, Tubi, and Shudder. Uncle Sam (1996) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Patriot (2000) Roland Emmerich’s career tends to veer between action spectaculars (Independence Day) and slightly more thoughtful movies (the Shakespeare drama Anonymous). The Patriot sort of splits the difference, taking an emotive action-movie approach to the Revolutionary War—Mel Gibson’s fictional Benjamin Martin is drawn into the fight against the British, forming a guerrilla unit to try to get back his captured son. The film rather gleefully dances around ugly historical realities, including in making egalitarians out of slaveholders, but no more than the typical American history textbook. The key moment here might be the sequence in which Benjamin uses a flag as an actual weapon, ultimately impaling a horse on a flagpole (it's a British horse, so therefore this is fine). Rent The Patriot from Prime Video. The Patriot (2000) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Invasion, U.S.A. (1952) No, we didn’t do this one already: This is a 1952 Red Scare movie par excellence, unrelated to the Chuck Norris movie, even though they share a communist invasion leitmotif. Here, a group of weenies at a bar are all debating the reasons why they wouldn’t sign up to fight the commies: a manufacturer figures that tractors are more lucrative than tanks; a cattle baron complains about his high taxes; a fashion model moans about war work having ruined her hands. Well let me tell you, comrade, they’re all in for a pretty big surprise when the TV informs them that Alaska’s just been nuked by the Russkies. Rent Invasion, U.S.A. from Prime Video. Invasion, U.S.A. (1952) at Prime Video Get Deal Get Deal at Prime Video G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) Not nearly as successful nor as well-remembered as the Transformers animated movie released around the same time, the G.I. Joe movie involves the team in a battle against the precursor to Cobra, the ancient race of serpent people known as Cobra-la, and their new leader, Golobulus. Rather than keeping track of any of that, you can probably just watch the opening sequence (possibly responsible for making me gay): a celebration of American fighting men (and one woman!) that blends bazookas, glitter, aerial acrobatics, and extended taint shots in a musical extravaganza unrivaled, in my opinion, in the history of patriotic cinema. Stream G.I. Joe: The Movie on Prime Video. G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video