The ’90s Weird Trend Of Action Stars Murdering Old Men

We tend to view the ’90s with the brightest-eyed, bushiest tailed, nostalgic lens possible. After all, this is the era riiiiight before 9/11. But we’d like you to replace that image of safe spaces and dreams of being born to be the very best with another one, specifically an image of action stars gunning down old people like it was purge day at the retirement home. That’s because if there was one cinematic trend that defined the ’90s, it was, inexplicably, action stars murdering the shit out of old men.

Does that memory feel a little foggy? Well, don’t tell that to the ’90s because an in-his-prime Sly Stalone might mistake you for a geriatric and beat your ass for it as he did to John Lithgow at the end of Cliffhanger.

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It’s brutal to watch. Lithgow isn’t actually that old in this movie (only 46 at the time), but tell us he doesn’t have the build and look of the most generic Grandpa you’ve ever seen. That doesn’t stop Stallone, however, from whacking Lithgow’s head back and forth like it’s a tetherball tied to a post – a very feeble, decrepit post.

But that’s not even as bad as the end of Speed ends with a young Keanu Reeves takes on an always-old Dennis Hopper…