Explodobook

'Weapons. Wounds. Warlords. Watford! Explodobook is a hilarious, gripping and muscular flex through every bulge and bruise of 80s action cinema, and a truly heartfelt paean to the lost joys of VHS culture. I LOVE this book' - Séamas O'Reilly

'Funny, hilarious, comic and very well-informed, Explodobook is the ultimate guide to every apocalypse movie ever made' - David Quantick

'John Rain's hilarious new book is a laugh-out-loud, impeccably detailed nostalgia trip through the golden era of Action Movies. It's like watching these films again with an old friend. I loved it' - Jim Howick

'In shades and a bloodied vest, bogies everywhere, John Rain kicks down the doors and gloriously celebrates the Great Action Movies of the 1980s. Pulse pumping, hilarious and deeply affectionate, I fell in love with those films all over again. Yippee Ki Yay Motherf*' - Alistair Petrie

The eighties.

A time of fear - fear of the unknown, fear of your neighbours, fear of drugs, fear of sex, fear of strangers, fear of videos, and the very real fear that the world might end at any moment in an awful, and very sudden, nuclear attack.

However, in those times of turmoil and worry, there was a comfort that soothed the mind: action movies. Video shops were bursting at the seams with rampant gunfire, sex, drugs, rock, roll, cars on fire, people on fire, guns, bombs, and people dressed in army fatigues (and that was just the staff).

Driven by violent revenge, heroes were born amidst fire, dystopian cities and, in some cases, outer space. Not only armed to the teeth with massive guns, they tossed off red-hot quips that served as a muscly arm around the shoulder and a wink that everything was going to be OK.

And together we were OK, and together we got through it, with the help of a select band of freedom fighters and reprobates, without whom the whole era would have been rubbish.

So, thank you, Arnold, Sylvester, Sigourney, Bruce, Eddie, Charles, Patrick, Mel, Chuck and everyone else who made it happen. You saved the world in your own inimitable way.

And now join me, John Rain, as we go back and examine a choice selection from the decade where the explosion was king.

Auteur

John Rain is a movie fanatic, and the host of the cult podcast Smersh Pod. He lives in Sussex in an abandoned volcano. You can follow him on Twitter @MrKenShabby