Throughout the course of the last half of a century or so, we have received some of the greatest action films ever made. We’ve seen the most heroic protagonists to ever walk away from giant explosions like they didn’t matter. Whether it’s a rogue New York cop saving a group of hostages from Nakatomi Tower or ex-assassin fighting and killing just about every gangster he can find after a group of them take the life of his beloved dog, these men and women have kept our adrenaline pumping for years. But how do they resolve the conflicts they find themselves in? What about their different personality types helps them to resolve the deadly crisis they find themselves in? Let’s find out with the help of the Myers-Briggs® personality test. Yippe-ki-yay, mother f—er. ®
10. Rama (The Raid 1 & 2): The Adventurer - ISFP
The first time we meet Rama, he is covered in sweat, working out, training before the sun even rises. He has a steady discipline when it comes to keeping his body in peak fighting condition, as we later witness throughout the course of the two films. Despite being forced to jump head-first into positions so bloody and violent that he narrowly escapes with his life, Rama is willing to do nearly anything for the sake of his family. Even if that means fighting his way through an entire building of killers, crooks, and calamity to come out the other end with his estranged brother.
9. Black Dynamite (Black Dynamite): The Entrepreneur - ESTP
Black Dynamite is the baddest former CIA agent that you’re likely to find on any side of Kung Fu Island. Dynamite is strong, proud, and willing to take a punch, or fight the president if it helps in the fight against “The Man.” He is a man about town with friends in both high and low places. He’s always willing to stop and help a friend out when he has the time and the skill to do so. And while he may not be the best at following the rules of agencies like the CIA, he’s more than capable of getting the job done. Black Dynamite just needs to do it on his own terms.
8. Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones Films): The Virtuoso - ISTP
Indy has been saving the world and ancient artifacts since Hitler was still in power. It seems like no matter what kind of trouble Indy finds himself in, whether it be a battle of life and death with the Nazis over the ark of the covenant, or something convoluted like bringing a legitimate alien back to life. Indy is thoughtful, intelligent, and sensible. He knows when it’s time to leave a situation in the dust unless there’s some ancient and powerful relic on the line, and he knows exactly how to piece together the broken bits of a hectic situation in order to walk out the other end much more experienced, and beyond that, alive.
7. Sarah Connor (Terminator Films): The Craftsman - ISTP
Much like her fellow ISTP Indiana Jones, Sarah Connor is incredibly on-the-ball when it comes time to save her son and the world from an upcoming robotic apocalypse. Sarah Connor has gone through plenty for the sake of humanity. She’s time-traveled, fought off killer robots from the future, and been locked up in a mental hospital. Despite all these massive speed bumps, Sarah manages to come out on top and defeat the upcoming apocalypse nearly every time she’s been forced to fight against. Probably the most important fact to remember is that before all this, Sarah was just a regular woman; not a cop, not some globetrotting archeologist — just a regular woman fighting for her family and the rest of humanity.
6. John Rambo (Rambo Films): The Logistician - ISTJ
John Rambo is definitely not a guy you want to cross in a heavily wooded area. He is a masterful tactician, trained to fight with his bare hands and anything else he can get his hands on. Rambo is hardly a man at all. He’s much more machine than man. A subtle and powerful killing machine raised by the United States to take out any enemy unlucky enough to get in his way. When they dropped Rambo off in Vietnam, they gave him only one job: kill. And kill he did. It’s not easy to fight your way out of a city where every cop and crook is after you. John’s sensible and structured nature seem to get him by just fine though.
5. Ellen Ripley (Alien Films): The Architect - INTJ
What is there to say about Ellen Ripley that hasn’t already been said about the greatest action heroes of our time? Ellen is a brilliant officer and tactician. She’s the only member of the crew of the Nostromo that managed to outsmart the alien and head back to Earth safely. Not only that, she regularly manages to outsmart groups of people and Xenomorphs when she needs to. Ripley isn’t just playing for her survival, she’s playing for the survival of her entire species. With stakes that high, the Earth needs an intelligent, capable, and driven hero. Someone like Ellen Ripley.
4. Ethan Hunt (Mission Impossible): The Entrepreneur - ESTP
One thing about Ethan Hunt that needs to be mentioned right away is that Ethan, despite his position working for Impossible Missions Force and his years of service in the armed forces, is not much for following the rules. Ethan understands the hypocrisy of the powers that be, and over the course of the Mission Impossible films, we see him become more and more jaded and disillusioned with the powers that send him up against impossible odds. When Ethan and his team really get into the thick of it though, Ethan is the one man who can find their way out. He may not be one to follow along at the agency’s beck and call, but he’s certainly sensible and thorough enough to get his team safe. Even when the government has given up on them or flat-out betrayed them.
3 Jason Bourne (The Bourne Trilogy): The Inspector - ISTJ
For much of the Bourne trilogy, Jason Bourne doesn’t really have any idea what’s going on. All Jason knows is that he’s got a certain set of skills and most of them involve kicking untethered butt. Jason spends much of the trilogy just gathering information and trying to piece back together the shattered fragments of his past and his involvement with the people who seem to track him down no matter where he is. Jason is incredibly skilled and despite not having most of his memories, he’s able to work his way through incredibly complex and dangerous situations without ever breaking a sweat. It’d be impressive if it weren’t so terrifying.
2. John Wick (John Wick Trilogy): The Artist - ISFP
Regardless of what you feel about him or how you feel about his methods, John Wick is an absolute artist. We see him utterly dominate the screen with his two favorite mediums: blood and bullets. John is a sensible, capable, and revolutionary assassin that has no qualms picking up a gun and turning an enemy stronghold into a Pollock painting using only blood and bullet casing. While his introverted and sensible nature may lead you to believe he is a man without any strong connection to his emotions, you’d be very wrong. Just ask the guy who killed his dog and last living connection to his deceased wife. Oh, right, you can’t. That dude caught a case of the dead after a long bout with a horrible case of messed-with-John-Wick-itis.
1. John McClane (Die Hard Films): The Dynamo - ESTP
John McClane is probably the most iconic action hero on this or any list. He may be a simple cop from New York, but when he travels to Los Angeles to visit his estranged wife and kids, he kicks off a series of events that will reverberate throughout his entire life. McClane has very little to no regard for the rules that established his power as a New York cop. While he may be a sensible and structured individual, he has no problem improvising if he needs to stop a terrorist attack from shutting down the entire American government. Or, you know, saving his wife from fake terrorists.
