Are you never too old to be an action hero ?

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To be honest it never really bothered me when I've seen iconic action heroes in film reprising their roles in later films like Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull when he was at the time he was in his 60s. At the time I saw it with a friend, I never focused on what he looked like and just enjoyed the film even though I knew the character looks older than in the previous films. Although I remember the scene in which Indy is fighting a Russian soldier before he gets eaten alive by army ants and he was being punched even though they were acting and not really punching each other but I seem to feel as though it might make some people flinch when its an older person being punched and not a younger person.

I think it depends on how it is made. In "Harry Brown" Michael Caine (76 years old at the time) is a retired soldier that takes on a local gang. Harry Brown has a rather bad physical health, moves slowly and is asthmatic but he has his military training and close combant and tactical skills to fall back on. I think it's nicely done.

A lot of it depends on the character. Cate Blanchett was cast as Lilith in Borderlands. Lilith was 22 in the original Borderlands game. Cate was 51 when she filmed the role. That's almost 30 years older than the character. People thought she was miscast. But if Cate had been an action hero in a totally original story, people would have been okay with it.

Shah Rukh Khan, already in his 50s too, was in incredible shape for his role in Pathaan. Although I still some people say older actors should let younger people do these roles.

Yes, also keep in mind that nearly all of the older actors that are in these movies already have a massive following and there's a ton of effects that deals with the issues that inevitably come of being older. You can have actors like Arnold that are in the movies and seemingly doing things that would have been impossible for an actor of that age 30 years ago. And, you can have bits that are 100% computers for safety reasons even with younger actors.

But, on the whole, there definitely is an age limit in terms of if you're not already a famous action star by the time you hit your 30s or 40s, you're probably not even going to get the chance. All the examples I know of, the lead actor was at least a famous actor by that point.

Action movie fans seem very loyal and will often keep watching their movies as long as they don't become totally terrible. Stallone though hardly did anything in Expendables 4, presumably because of his back injury from the first Expendables that never really healed. He's had seven surgeries for it.

I think it's become harder to make it big in movies, partly because of the reliance on nostalgia.