Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has become one of Hollywood’s most blockbusting (and block-hurling) movie stars. With his latest film, Rampage, out Friday, we’ve fastly, furiously ranked 12 of his biggest action movies of the past decade, highlighting what makes them Rock the hardest.
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A late addition to the turbo-charged posse, Johnson’s chrome-domed Luke Hobbs evolves from bad guy to broham in the franchise’s best chapter.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: The insane showdown between Johnson and Vin Diesel, during which they throw each other through windows and walls like they’re auditioning for an HGTV show called Demo Crew.
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For pure dumb, giddy spectacle, this is the Fast and the Furious installment to see; it’s the one where a car jumps from one Abu Dhabi skyscraper to another.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: It’s a toss-up between breaking a cast off his arm simply by flexing his muscles and driving an ambulance off an overpass to crush a drone.
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Michael Bay’s daffy true-crime kidnap caper is about a trio of dim Florida gym rats who make a series of terrible decisions.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: Have to go with the scene where his toe is shot off by the cops and he brings it to Mark Wahlberg to stick back on.
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Hobbs is back, pardoning the gang (including the decidedly not dead Letty) in exchange for help busting Luke Evans’ Shaw.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: Hobbs hurls a suspect through the ceiling of an interrogation room, which seems like a Miranda-rights violation.
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Disposable (but not unenjoyable) disaster porn about a he-man out to save the world and his daughter, in no particular order.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: The dude races a motorboat up the vertical face of a tidal wave during a San Francisco-demolishing tsunami.
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Four teens get sucked into a videogame, and one of them (the wimp, ha!) becomes the Rock. Sorry, Kevin Hart steals this one.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: His character’s name is Dr. Smolder Bravestone — arguably the best moniker of Johnson’s career (see G.I. Joe).
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Dom (Diesel) has gone rogue. Techno-villain Cipher (Charlize Theron) sports some really bad Burning Man dreadlocks. Johnson’s Hobbs warns, “We’ve only got one chance to make this family whole again.” Apart from the preposterous submarine torpedo fever-dream climax, this is not the best outing of the series.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: From his neighboring prison cell, Hobbs barks at his love-hate nemesis Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), “I will beat your ass like a Cherokee drum!”
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Cobra kidnaps the president (Jonathan Pryce) and replaces him with an identical — and sinister — double (Jonathan Pryce)who wants to terminate the Joes. Not so fast, say Johnson’s pecs!
MOST ROCK MOMENT: His character’s name is — no joke — Roadblock. And he chases a goon down on a hovercraft. A hovercraft!
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Someday our children’s children will look back on this hit action comedy as the moment when the endless run of Mutt-and-Jeff/Johnson-and-Hart movies was born. Needless to say, they will not think of us as the Greatest Generation.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: There’s a slice-and-dice knife fight with a nameless henchman, and Johnson manages to win using only a banana.
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Even Johnson’s Teflon-coated charisma couldn’t save this meta jiggle-TV reboot. So inept and ham-fisted, they couldn’t even make a Hasselhoff cameo funny.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: Obviously, diving into a ring of fire to save a life. But also calling Zac Efron “Malibu Ken” and “Bieber.”
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As a special-forces soldier-turned-primatologist (sure, why not?), the Rock goes Dr. Dolittle, teaming up with a giant albino gorilla to stop a genetically mutated wolf and crocodile from destroying Chicago.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: After elbowing a military policeman in the face, Johnson puts a second MP in a choke hold and calmly tells him, “That’s a big arm. Don’t fight it.”
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Well, it was better than the Kellan Lutz Hercules movie that came out the same year.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: Clearly, it’s when he leaps onto the back of a giant warthog with nothing but a loincloth and a tree-trunk-size club.
Ranking The Rock
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has become one of Hollywood’s most blockbusting (and block-hurling) movie stars. With his latest film, Rampage, out Friday, we’ve fastly, furiously ranked 12 of his biggest action movies of the past decade, highlighting what makes them Rock the hardest.
Fast Five (2011)
A late addition to the turbo-charged posse, Johnson’s chrome-domed Luke Hobbs evolves from bad guy to broham in the franchise’s best chapter.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: The insane showdown between Johnson and Vin Diesel, during which they throw each other through windows and walls like they’re auditioning for an HGTV show called Demo Crew.
Furious 7 (2015)
For pure dumb, giddy spectacle, this is the Fast and the Furious installment to see; it’s the one where a car jumps from one Abu Dhabi skyscraper to another.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: It’s a toss-up between breaking a cast off his arm simply by flexing his muscles and driving an ambulance off an overpass to crush a drone.
Pain & Gain (2013)
Michael Bay’s daffy true-crime kidnap caper is about a trio of dim Florida gym rats who make a series of terrible decisions.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: Have to go with the scene where his toe is shot off by the cops and he brings it to Mark Wahlberg to stick back on.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Hobbs is back, pardoning the gang (including the decidedly not dead Letty) in exchange for help busting Luke Evans’ Shaw.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: Hobbs hurls a suspect through the ceiling of an interrogation room, which seems like a Miranda-rights violation.
San Andreas (2015)
Disposable (but not unenjoyable) disaster porn about a he-man out to save the world and his daughter, in no particular order.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: The dude races a motorboat up the vertical face of a tidal wave during a San Francisco-demolishing tsunami.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Four teens get sucked into a videogame, and one of them (the wimp, ha!) becomes the Rock. Sorry, Kevin Hart steals this one.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: His character’s name is Dr. Smolder Bravestone — arguably the best moniker of Johnson’s career (see G.I. Joe).
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
Dom (Diesel) has gone rogue. Techno-villain Cipher (Charlize Theron) sports some really bad Burning Man dreadlocks. Johnson’s Hobbs warns, “We’ve only got one chance to make this family whole again.” Apart from the preposterous submarine torpedo fever-dream climax, this is not the best outing of the series.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: From his neighboring prison cell, Hobbs barks at his love-hate nemesis Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), “I will beat your ass like a Cherokee drum!”
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
Cobra kidnaps the president (Jonathan Pryce) and replaces him with an identical — and sinister — double (Jonathan Pryce)who wants to terminate the Joes. Not so fast, say Johnson’s pecs!
MOST ROCK MOMENT: His character’s name is — no joke — Roadblock. And he chases a goon down on a hovercraft. A hovercraft!
Central Intelligence (2016)
Someday our children’s children will look back on this hit action comedy as the moment when the endless run of Mutt-and-Jeff/Johnson-and-Hart movies was born. Needless to say, they will not think of us as the Greatest Generation.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: There’s a slice-and-dice knife fight with a nameless henchman, and Johnson manages to win using only a banana.
Baywatch (2017)
Even Johnson’s Teflon-coated charisma couldn’t save this meta jiggle-TV reboot. So inept and ham-fisted, they couldn’t even make a Hasselhoff cameo funny.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: Obviously, diving into a ring of fire to save a life. But also calling Zac Efron “Malibu Ken” and “Bieber.”
Rampage (2018)
As a special-forces soldier-turned-primatologist (sure, why not?), the Rock goes Dr. Dolittle, teaming up with a giant albino gorilla to stop a genetically mutated wolf and crocodile from destroying Chicago.
MOST ROCK MOMENT: After elbowing a military policeman in the face, Johnson puts a second MP in a choke hold and calmly tells him, “That’s a big arm. Don’t fight it.”
