The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage

By Nick de Semlyen

'A blast' - Ian Rankin
'A lively celebration of 1980s action stars' - The Times
'Hugely entertaining' - Edgar Wright

Now with BONUS MATERIAL, from the editor of Empire magazine this is the behind-the-scenes story of the golden age of the action movie, the stars who ruled 80s and 90s Hollywood and the beloved films – from Die Hard to The Terminator – that made them famous.

Charting Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War. It also reveals the untold stories of the colourful characters, from Steven Seagal to Bruce Willis, who ascended in their wake. These invincible action heroes used muscle, martial arts or the perfect weapon to save the day, becoming pop-culture titans.

Drawing on candid interviews with the action stars themselves, plus their collaborators, friends and foes, Nick de Semlyen' s The Last Action Heroes chronicles how, as the 1990s rolled in, the glory days of these macho men began to fade, but how the mayhem they wrought on screen and off excites us still.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Aug 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781529058499

Nick de Semlyen

Nick de Semlyen is the editor of Empire, the world’s biggest movie magazine. As a film journalist, he has also written for Rolling Stone and Time Out. Over the years he has orchestrated cast reunions for Lethal Weapon, The Goonies and Gremlins, been driven around Shanghai at high speed by Jackie Chan, visited Jack Nicholson's house, and interviewed everybody from Robert De Niro to David Lynch. He can be seen on screen for two seconds in the movie Jurassic World, being splashed by a water-dinosaur. The Last Action Heroes is his second book.

Reviews for The Last Action Heroes

[phoenixcomet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great sendup of the major action icons of the 1980s, including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren.