Let's Learn English! Topic: Action Movie Vocabulary! 🕵️🍿🚓 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello and welcome to this

English lesson about action movies.

There are a number of different kinds of movies.

There are different genres, and one

of them is action movies.

Action movies usually have a person who needs

to do something that normal people don't do.

Maybe they need to catch a bad person.

Maybe they need to go and spy

at a party, a fancy party.

Maybe they need to steal something, but in a good way.

Like usually in an action movie, the

lead character is a good person.

But today we're going to do a lesson on all of the

words and phrases you'll hear if you watch an action movie.

Sometimes it might be a little confusing.

Sometimes you might not understand

what they're talking about.

And as an English learner, I'll help you learn about

25 or so words that you just need to know

if you're going to watch an action movie.

So once again, welcome to this

English lesson about action movies.

So a car chase.

So a car chase.

Should I back up and actually

explain what an action movie is?

An action movie is a movie that's

not about romance, it's not about the

future, it's not about a historical event.

An action movie is usually about someone who, maybe

they're a police officer, a former police officer, a

spy, someone who works for a secret organization, someone

who does things that normal people don't do.

I don't regularly get phone calls saying, bob, could you

fly to Paris and could you go to this high

end fancy party and spy on the Duke of Austinboro?

It's not a real thing, by the way.

Normally people phone me and say, hey, Bob, can

you come and help me move a couch?

That's the extent of my life.

But an action movie usually has a lot of exciting

things happen in it and I'll explain some of them.

One is a car chase.

Often when you're watching an action movie, it might

start with a car chase, or there might be

a car chase in the middle of it.

At some point the person in the movie who you are

cheering for or rooting for the hero in the movie might

be chased by someone or might chase someone in a car.

During the car chase, the cars might

get smashed up a little bit.

There's a movie called Baby Driver where at the beginning they

rob a bank and then there's a huge car chase.

That is one of my favorite car chases ever in a movie.

If you ever have a chance to watch that

movie, watch the car chase at the beginning.

Great music and very, very exciting car chase.

So a car chase is when someone is in one

car, and they're trying to get away from someone in

a different car, and that second car is chasing them.

Very dangerous.

You would never do this in real life.

It would be a very bad thing to do.

But action movies often will have a car chase.

So a pursuit is a car

chase, but it involves law enforcement.

It involves the police.

So in this clip or in this picture,

you can see there are three cop cars.

That's the informal way we talk about police cars.

We say cop cars chasing this person.

So this is a pursuit.

You could call it a car chase as well.

But when you say that the police are in

pursuit or there was a pursuit on the highway,

it means usually that police are doing that.

This is common in almost every single action movie.

There's usually a pursuit where the police are chasing

someone at some point in time, a shootout.

So another very common thing in an action movie,

a shootout is when obviously there are guns involved

and obviously people are shooting at each other.

They might be in an old warehouse.

They might have just had a car chase,

and one of the cars broke down.

So someone jumped out and started running.

And the other person might chase them and

they might actually start shooting at each other.

So a shootout is another very common

thing to see in an action movie.

In fact, most action movies will have guns in some way.

There will be guns in action

movies almost all the time.

It's kind of part of the genre, car

chases, shootouts, and those kinds of things.

And then, of course, there will most likely be

a fight scene at some point in the movie.

The hero is going to probably fight somebody.

And that fight is usually pretty exciting.

It's different than fights you've

probably seen in real life.

Usually it's well choreographed, and there's

usually a lot of martial arts.

So things like jujitsu or karate, all of these martial

arts moves, they will block a punch, and they will

punch really effectively, or, I'm not a martial artist, by

the way, I did take karate for about six months,

though, when I was in university.

So I do know how to block a little bit.

Probably doing it wrong.

I like the defensive moves

better than the offensive moves.

But there will definitely be a fight scene

at some point in most action movies.

Now, science fiction movies can also be action movies.

So a movie like the Matrix has some pretty amazing

fight scenes in it when two people will fight each

other and use a lot of really fancy fight moves

that probably most of us don't know.

There will definitely be explosions.

Explosions.

There will be cars that blow up.

There might be a building that blows up.

So in English, an explosion is when somebody uses

dynamite or some other thing to blow something up.

There might be a bomb in a

building, and you will have an explosion.

So definitely, I would say almost every action

movie I can think of, there's an explosion.

At some point in time, either someone will blow

up a car or blow up a building.

So there's a high chance this video will get

demonetized, by the way, because of the topic.

So we'll have to see how that goes.

An ambush.

So an ambush is an interesting thing.

An ambush is when a person or several people

or an animal hides and waits for someone.

So an ambush is when, let's say, there's a road

and people are hiding in the trees along the side

of the road, waiting for someone to walk by or

drive by so they can attack them.

This jaguar, I think it's a jaguar, is waiting.

It's going to ambush someone.

I'm trying to think of the french word.

Is it ambuscad?

An ambuscade, something like that.

One of our french viewers can tell us.

But when you hide in order to jump out and attack

someone, we say that you are going to ambush them.

Certainly would be a scary thing to experience.

And then there's something called a standoff.

So a standoff is when all parties

involved, everyone involved, stops fighting because they're

all at an equal disadvantage.

That's probably not a great way to describe

it, but this picture shows it well.

Everyone is pointing their gun at

another person, so they can't fight

anymore, they can't continue the shootout.

They're at a standoff.

So standoffs often happen when two sides are trying

to fight, but neither side can make any progress.

We would call that a standoff.

So it's usually a point in an action movie

where there's some funny dialogue, or they insult each

other because they can no longer fight.

So they can only use words.

A heist.

So a heist movie is a movie where a group

of people, maybe one person, but usually a group of

people, plans to rob a bank or plans to rob

a museum, or they plan to steal a famous piece

of art from a wealthy person's apartment or house.

A heist movie generally starts with you

seeing the people planning the heist.

They're talking about how they're going to

rob the bank or the museum.

And then usually about halfway through,

you actually see them rob it.

So oceans eleven would be a good movie about that.

They plan to rob a casino and oceans twelve.

Oceans 13, there's a few movies in that series.

So they plan a heist.

So a heist then is a planned robbery, usually by a

group of people, of a bank or a casino or.

I think there's a heist movie where

they rob a racetrack as well.

I can't think of the name, but

that is what a heist movie is.

And then there's a movie that might involve a rescue.

So a rescue is when someone is somewhere.

Maybe they've been kidnapped.

Maybe they're stuck at the top of

a mountain because their plane crashed.

Maybe they're, let's see, maybe they've gone to a country

and they've been captured and need to be rescued.

So a rescue movie usually involves someone or a

couple of people or more going somewhere to help

people escape from some kind of situation.

So there is heist movies and there are rescue movies.

And then, of course, there's words like to infiltrate.

So this can mean two things.

So you can use a computer to infiltrate

someone's computer system, but you can also, as

a person, go and infiltrate a group.

So if there was a group of bad guys and

if I was a police officer, I might put on

my normal clothes and try to infiltrate the group.

I try to become one of the group if I'm undercover.

So when you infiltrate something, it

means you go into it undetected.

You try to be part of a group or get into

a computer system in a way that no one sees you

or recognizes that you might be someone else to double cross.

So it took me a long time to

find a picture to represent double cross.

When you double cross someone, they

think you're working for them, but

you're actually working for someone else.

So you can see in this picture, he's shaking the

hand of the person as if he's that person's friend,

but he has something ominous behind his back.

So oftentimes in action movies, someone will

double cross the people who trust them.

So maybe a group is planning to rob the

bank, and one person double crosses them and goes

and tells the police what they're going to do.

So in English, when you double cross

someone, it means they trust you, but

they probably shouldn't trust you undercover.

So I briefly mentioned this.

When a police officer goes undercover, instead of

wearing their uniform, they wear their normal clothes.

Instead of looking all clean shaven, they might

grow a beard, wear their normal clothes, and

then try to become part of a criminal

organization in order to investigate them.

So they'll go undercover to try

and infiltrate the criminal organization.

So this is a common plot.

In an action movie, the hero might go undercover

in order to try and figure out what a

group of people is going to do.

So, of course, if it's a police

officer, they would not wear their uniform.

They would actually do everything they can to

make it so they don't look like a

police officer and they might wear a disguise.

So in the mission Impossible movies, there are

often scenes where someone who may already be

dead is suddenly alive again, but then you

realize it's actually Ethan Hunt wearing a disguise.

When you wear a disguise, you put on a mask

or you use makeup to make yourself look like a

different person, or at least not look like yourself.

So there's two kinds of disguises.

I might put on a disguise and try to

look like my boss, or I might wear a

disguise simply so people don't know it's Bob.

Okay, so two kinds of disguises.

But a disguise would be something you

put on to look like someone else.

Now, a little point here.

At Halloween, kids will wear costumes.

But in a movie, when someone like Ethan

Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies does this,

we say he's putting on a disguise.

We wouldn't say he's putting on a costume.

So a costume is more something you wear

at Halloween or to a costume party.

But in a movie, we would say, oh, he

was in disguise, or he wore a disguise.

Now, we also have secret identities.

Sometimes in a movie, an action movie,

the person might have a secret identity.

So, for instance, in a superhero movie, which

is kind of an action movie, someone like

Superman, his secret identity is Clark Kent.

So you can see here's Clark Kent,

but underneath he has his Superman outfit.

Batman's secret identity is Bruce Wayne.

A lot of times people will have

a secret identity in an action movie.

And then, of course, in an action

movie, there is often a hero.

Not necessarily a superhero.

A superhero has superpowers.

But a hero can just be a normal person who

you are cheering for, who you are rooting for.

The main character in an action movie is often

someone we like, and we want them to succeed.

Strangely enough, even in a heist movie where

people are robbing a casino, we sometimes cheer

for them even though they're doing something bad.

So in Oceans Eleven, you could think maybe George

Clooney's character is the hero or Brad Pitt's character

is the hero and you cheer for them.

But certainly, if you watch something like the Bourne

identity, you cheer for the main character, the hero.

When there is a fight scene, when there is

a car chase, you want the hero to survive.

And win.

So the hero is usually the main character.

Not always, but quite often the

main character in the movie.

And then, of course, we have a villain.

So a villain.

Sorry, I'm not sure if this is an actual villain.

It was the only picture I could

find that looked a little bit sinister,

someone who didn't look like this person.

So a villain is, of course, the

bad guy or the bad woman.

Equal rights in the villain world, definitely.

So it's the person in the movie

who's trying to do something bad.

Or if it's a good versus evil movie,

it's the person on the side of evil.

So not all movies are good versus evil.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out, but usually the

hero is on the side of good and the

villain is on the side of evil.

The hero tries to do good things and save people.

The villain does bad things and tries to harm people.

So kind of the opposite characters in a movie.

And then sometimes in a movie, there will be

the hero, but the hero will have a sidekick.

The best example of this is Batman and Robin.

But even in other movies, like Mission Impossible,

the main character has sometimes multiple sidekicks, people

that help the main character achieve their goal.

So often in a superhero movie,

there will be a sidekick.

Sometimes in an action movie, there

will be a sidekick as well.

Not the main character, but someone who works with

the main character, someone who works with the hero

to help them do what they need to do.

And there's also something called an underdog.

So an underdog is someone in a movie

who you want the underdog to be successful,

but it's unlikely they will be.

We love stories about underdogs.

Underdogs are people who, at the beginning of the movie,

you don't think they'll be able to do what they

have to do, and they end up doing it.

So in the rocky movies, we have Rocky Balboa.

In the very first movie, it's unlikely that

he will win the final boxing match.

So he trains to be a boxer.

He does a lot of running, he does a lot

of training to participate in a really big match.

Spoiler alert, he doesn't win in the first movie.

So in the second movie, he does, though.

These are old movies.

Hopefully you've seen them.

But anyways, in the first rocky movie,

he is very much an underdog.

We don't expect him to do as well as he does. He does.

I won't give you any more details, but an

underdog is someone who you don't expect to win.

If you've ever watched the karate kid movies also, those

are movies about underdogs, someone who doesn't appear strong or

able to fight well, who actually does well at the

end of the movie or relatively well.

So an underdog comic relief.

So let me just make this a bit bigger.

So here in this movie, this is one

of the Avengers movies, we have Captain America

saying, big man in a suit of armor. Take that away.

And what are you.

Because Tony Stark doesn't have any superpowers.

He just builds really cool equipment.

And he says, a

genius billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

That's a hard word to say.

By the way, philanthropist is spelt wrong.

It should be th.

Or maybe I just don't have my glasses on. Can't see it.

Let me check.

Yeah, it's spelt wrong.

Anyways, basically, in a movie, you will often have comic

relief because action movies have a lot of tension.

There's a lot of stressful situations.

There's a lot of action, there's a lot of violence.

Often they will throw in some comic relief

to make the movie a bit lighter.

So when there's a standoff, for instance, when the

fighting stops, there might be a moment where there

are funny lines said by the actors so that

you experience several emotions while watching the movie.

They want you to love the movie and be

thrilled by the movie and excited and maybe a

little afraid, but they also want you to laugh.

So they will put in some comic relief.

So sometimes they'll say, oh, that

actor is in the movie.

Just for comic relief, they'll put a funny

person in the movie so that there are

some funny parts in the movie.

Let's see here.

So I should have put this with villain.

We have the word arch enemy.

So an arch enemy is like the

most common enemy of a person.

Superman's arch enemy is Lex Luthor.

Lex Luthor.

I think I'm saying that right.

So often in the Superman movies, you will have

storylines where Superman is fighting against Lex Luthor.

Okay?

In the Batman movies, it could

be the Penguin or the Riddler.

He has a few arch enemies, but it's like

the main enemy in the movie, the person that

the hero is almost always fighting against.

Okay, so even in a spy movie,

there might be an arch enemy.

In the James Bond movies, there's generally

one arch enemy in every movie that

James Bond seven is fighting against.

So an arch enemy would be the main

enemy of the person in the movie.

A spy or secret agent.

This is kind of the same thing.

A spy is someone who works for one country and

goes to other countries to see what they're doing.

Okay, so James Bond is considered

a spy or a secret agent.

There are other spies or secret agents in the world.

I think if you watch any kind of movie like

the Mission Impossible movies or the James Bond movies, you

will see lots of spies or secret agents.

So, yeah, and then in superhero movie or, sorry, in

an action movie, there will be lots of stunts.

There will be times where they ride motorcycles dangerously,

or there will be times where they do things

that you would never do in real life.

You might jump off a building and land

like a garbage dumpster and get out safely.

You might do things like that, for instance.

And there will be a lot of special effects.

So, special effects are when they use

computers to create scenes for the movie.

So special effects happen regularly in action movies.

When there's a scene where it's too dangerous for

the actors to do, they might use special effects.

Or when they want to create something that

would be too expensive to do, they might

use special effects to do that.

So a good example would be, if they have to

blow up a building, they might do it on a

computer so that they don't do it in real life

when it's dangerous and there's something called a love interest.

So a love interest would be the person

the main character likes in a romantic way.

And there might be times when each person's love

interest is the same as the other person.

So in the Twilight movies, Edward's love interest

was Bella, and Bella's love interest was Edward.

I hope that's their names.

I didn't actually watch those movies.

I watched the first one.

But definitely in a movie, there might be a

love interest and there might be a training montage.

So in the rocky movies, they speed up time by showing

clips of him doing a whole bunch of different training.

In the karate kid movie, they show you a sequence where

he trains one way and then another way and another way,

and many days and weeks pass and they show you little

clips of the training that is happening on those days.

And then to narrowly escape, when you narrowly

escape, it means you're in a dangerous situation

and you just manage to get away.

You just manage to escape without being hurt or

being killed or having something bad happen to.