Under Siege

Under Siege is Die Hard on a battleship, and it is the only Steven Seagal film that deserves to be mentioned alongside actual classics. Seagal plays Casey Ryback, a Navy cook who is actually a former SEAL, trapped on the USS Missouri when Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey’s terrorists seize the ship and its nuclear arsenal. The formula is familiar, but Andrew Davis’s direction is a cut above typical Seagal fare, and the villain performances elevate the entire film.

Tommy Lee Jones is having the time of his life as William Strannix, a psychotic ex-CIA operative who dances, jokes, and murders with equal enthusiasm. Gary Busey, playing a traitorous executive officer, matches Jones’s energy with his own brand of unhinged menace. Together they form the most entertaining villain duo in any Die Hard clone. Seagal, meanwhile, does what Seagal does: break arms, throw people through doors, and maintain a ponytail that defies physics.

Under Siege earned $156 million and a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes — both career highs for Seagal that he would never approach again. It is his one legitimate action classic.