Action maestro John Woo had risen to fame with films like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Once a Thief, which glorified thieves and criminals. But for his final Hong Kong film before jumping ship to Hollywood, Woo set out to make a film in which the cops were the heroes, and in the process, he delivered what might just be the greatest action movie of all time.

Influenced by the Dirty Harry and Bullitt films, Hard Boiled stars Chow Yun-fat as a renegade cop named Tequila who plays by his own rules in order to bring down the city’s worst gangs. His reckless actions bring him face to face with Tony Leung’s Alan, a smooth hitman who also happens to be an undercover cop. Unfortunately, Alan’s been undercover for so long, he no longer knows which side of the law he’s on.

Hard Boiled takes everything great about Woo (e.g., the themes of loyalty and brotherhood), distills them down to their purest essence, and then injects some of the greatest shootouts ever captured on film, each one of which is captured in balletic slow motion with squibs and explosions a-plenty.