The Thing (1982)

Directed by John Carpenter, this is an intriguing mixture of horror, sci-fi and psychological drama.

Kurt Russell stars as one of a group of US researchers working in Antarctica, where the team encounter an alien life-form able to take on the form of other beings – including dogs and humans.

The plot cleverly explores how no one can trust each other because of the risk that any one of them could have been taken over by the alien. There's plenty of tension, and – although I don't love his acting style – Russell is pretty good in the lead role.

Escape from New York (1981)

It’s 1997 and Manhattan has been turned into a maximum-security prison because crime has risen by 400%. A convict named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is recruited by Lee Van Cleef to rescue the US President (Donald Pleasence), who is trapped there by a gangland boss (Isaac Hayes). 

It’s an exciting romp, blending action-thriller and sci- fi. The “futuristic” sets are generally impressive and the pace never lets up. Script-wise it’s fairly underwhelming, but then you probably wouldn’t watch it for the dialogue. 

Ernest Borgnine plays an irritating cabbie, while Harry Dean Stanton plays an engineer nicknamed "Brain".

Director John Carpenter provides the music himself, and it’s pretty good.

Silkwood (1983)

Superb drama about true-life events. 

Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) works at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Oklahoma with her lover Drew (Kurt Russell) and their friend Dolly (Cher). Making fuel rods for nuclear reactors, she is exposed to radiation owing to the company cutting corners on safety standards. She alerts the Atomic Energy Commission and helps them investigate, with significant consequences. 

Although it’s a biographical story with political elements, it works especially well as a domestic narrative. I really like the scenes between Karen, Drew and Dolly, who all live together. The human drama of their developing relationships seems very real and I’d have been happy to watch an entire film focusing on that. The fact that there’s a whole additional narrative is just a bonus. 

I could finally see what all the fuss was about regarding Streep. She’s riveting and hugely charismatic. Kurt Russell is also strong, once again taking on a somewhat sulky role. Cher is terrific too: in her role as a downbeat, almost monosyllabic lesbian she’s the opposite of what you’d expect based on her glitzy showbiz profule.

Directed by Mike Nichols and with a screenplay by Nora Ephron, this could hardly fail to be enthralling. Sure enough, it ends up being one of the best films I’ve ever seen.

Backdraft (1991)

Chicago in 1971. Two brothers lose their fireman father when he is killed on duty. Twenty years later they are both firemen too and find themselves working within the same division, as resentful older brother Stephen (Kurt Russell) starts to train younger brother Brian (William Baldwin). 

Robert De Niro plays the Inspector of Fire Investigation. Donald Sutherland is a serial arsonist who wants to burn down the entire world. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Brian’s former girlfriend (it seems inappropriate to write “old flame”). And Rebecca De Mornay is Stephen’s estranged wife. 

Ron Howard’s film has plenty of drama, and the fire scenes are scary. It’s a tale of two brothers that sometimes suffers from the fact that neither is especially likeable. In fact – with the possible exception of De Niro – that goes for everyone in it.

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Disaster film depicting the true-life events of the 2010 BP oil-rig explosion leading to 11 deaths and one of the world’s worst environmental disasters. As the closing text puts it: “The blowout lasted for 87 days, spilling an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.”

It’s to the film’s credit that it doesn’t sensationalise these events. Mark Wahlberg plays the Chief Electronics Technician, with admirable restraint. Likewise, Kurt Russell as “Mr. Jimmy”, the Offshore Installation Manager. John Malkovich plays Donald Vidrine, one of the BP managers keen to cut corners despite the risk of compromising the rig’s safety. Gina Rodriguez is the likeable Dynamic Position Operator, who has to dive with Wahlberg over the burning ocean oil to safety. And Kate Hudson plays Wahlberg’s worried wife back home.

It’s a tense drama that also makes some good points about technical expertise coming into conflict with corporate might, but without getting bogged down in engineering detail or industry politics. An efficient, intelligent script builds character, offers flashes of wit and keeps the emphasis on the human side of the tragedy.