Patrick Swayze's 10 Best Movies, Ranked

The late, great, Patrick Swayze was taken from us far too soon, but left behind a legacy of phenomenal films, performances, and characters to hold near and dear. Before pivoting into a full-time acting career, Swayze was trained in ballet, ice skating, martial arts, and football. Pairing this with his dazzling good looks and acting prowess allowed him to thrive in a variety of film genres, playing fast-dancing heartthrobs and action hunks in equal measure. He had his professional breakthrough as a dancer with the Disney Theatrical Group before taking on the replacement role of Danny Zuko in a Broadway production of "Grease." This put him on the radar of Hollywood, and he made his film debut as Ace in the 1979 film "Skatetown, U.S.A." 

But when the 1980s came calling, Swayze exploded in popularity and became a household name. While he certainly hit his peak when I was just a child, Swayze was my mom's favorite actor which meant I had seen all of his films at least a half-dozen times each before hitting my teen years. Of course, all lists are subjective, and my word or ranking should not be the definitive word on his career. He was one of those actors who you could ask 50 people to name his best role and they could all give a different answer and still be correct. With that in mind, let's get into Patrick Swayze's 10 best movies, ranked.

The first time I saw "Red Dawn" was in sixth grade social studies class the same year a few months after the September 11th terrorist attacks. That doesn't have anything to do with the placement of this film on the list of Swayze rankings but it's such an insane anecdote I would be doing a disservice by not sharing it. Bless the American public school system! If you've somehow missed "Red Dawn" (or its questionable 2012 remake), the film is set during a fictional World War III following a Soviet, Warsaw Pact, and Latin American states alliance invasion of the United States. Our heroes are a group of teenage guerilla fighters known as the Wolverines in Soviet-occupied Colorado. Swayze plays Jed Eckert, the oldest member of the group and defacto leader trying to avenge his father, keep his squad safe, and potentially single-handedly end the war.

"Red Dawn" is arguably one of the greatest examples of Republican fantasy in cinema history with a painfully conservative view of international relations and what it takes to "win" a war. This is a gun nut's wet dream and a story that can only exist if you believe the asinine belief that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, even if the "good guy" is a teenage boy. And yet, "Red Dawn" is still addictively rewatchable because of the dedication of the young cast, led by a stand-out performance from Swayze.

Did you know that in the early 2000s, Rachael Leigh Cook, Ben Foster, Clark Gregg, Colin Hanks, Shawn Hatosy, Barbara Hershey, Stark Sands, Hilary Swank, Henry Thomas, Jason Segel, and Patrick Swayze starred in a black comedy neo-noir? Don't worry, most people don't know this film exists either, and it's a shame because the direct-to-DVD (following a festival run and very limited theatrical engagement) thriller "11:14" is the definition of "underrated" cinema. The film tells multiple stories interconnected by two car accidents that took place at 11:14 p.m. At first, the stories don't seem connected, but slowly reveal how all of their interactions led to these two accidents. If this sounds like the Oscar-winning movie "Crash," you're on the right path, but the difference is that "11:14" is genuinely great and not shamelessly pulling at heartstrings.

"11:14" came during the wave of filmmakers clearly inspired by Quentin Tarantino wanting to make something utilizing old-school, exploitation-era methods of storytelling while still set in the current era, and lived-in characters that feel so grounded in reality that it borders on frustrating. Every character in this movie is a bit of an idiot, but that's because in the face of danger or in a situation that requires a split-second decision, we're all a bit of an idiot. While Swayze had his heyday in the '80s and '90s, "11:14" showed that he still had the goods in his 50s. This is a film best watched without knowing anything more, so I'll hold the spoilers. Just trust me when I say, you will not be able to predict where these stories go.

I'm sure my mom, aunt, grandmother, and any other woman above the age of 40 probably want to molly-whop me for putting "Ghost" all the way at number 5, but understand that Swayze's top 5 films are all interchangeably great. Any one of these titles could take the top spot and they'd be the correct choice, so this ranking is by no means a definitive list. Jerry Zucker's supernatural romance story, "Ghost," was the highest-grossing film of 1990, and at the time of release, was the third highest-grossing film of all time. It walked away with five Academy Award nominations, winning two (Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg and Best Original Screenplay for Bruce Joel Rubin), and turned pottery into an erotic art.

Swayze plays banker Sam Wheat who is murdered by his friend and corrupt business partner Carl Bruner (Tony Goldwyn), leaving his artist girlfriend Molly (Demi Moore) at risk of being killed by Carl and his henchmen. Sam seeks out the assistance of psychic Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg) to keep Molly safe and put an end to Carl's crimes, making "Ghost" as much of a crime thriller as it is a heartbreaking love story about grief and the afterlife. A true genre-bender of a movie, "Ghost" was met with pretty average critical reception at the time of release, but has since gone on to be deemed an all-time classic. Moore and Goldberg are obviously doing great work, but let's not kid ourselves here — audiences were coming out in droves to fall in love with Patrick Swayze and develop the Pavlovian response of crying their eyes out to the word "ditto."

Have two actors ever had chemistry so palpable you can practically feel it radiating off the screen more than Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey? The pair famously hated working together so much on "Red Dawn" that it seemed like "Dirty Dancing" was destined to be a disaster, but they were so electrifying to watch that it became a stone-cold classic. Given the way "Dirty Dancing" has been absorbed through cultural osmosis by a majority of the English-speaking world, people often forget just how good this movie is, or mistakenly assume they know how the movie will play out because they've seen the iconic lift at the end of the dance routine. "Dirty Dancing" feels formulaic on paper, but the way each character slinks into and ultimately subverts their role is what keeps the film from being anything but.

But Swayze's Johnny Castle? This is one of those great characters that defy preference in gender and sexuality. For a movie that isn't trying to be erotic, "Dirty Dancing" is an ungodly arousing movie to watch and it's because of the way Swayze looks at Grey. When he says "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," millions of people are ready to risk it all for him. Billy Zane, Val Kilmer, and Benicio del Toro were all considered for the role of Johnny, and we should all thank our lucky stars every day that they went with Swayze. I MEAN, COME ON! HE'S THE SWAYZIEST!!

Kathryn Bigelow's magnum opus also doubles as the best Patrick Swayze film ever made. A bunch of SoCal bank robberies carried out by surfer criminals wearing masks of presidents force federal agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) to infiltrate the gang and take down the leader, Bodhi (Swayze). The intense back and forth between the two play out more like the push-pull tension of "Killing Eve" than the typical bad guy/good guy routine. Johnny and Bodhi are weirdly obsessed with one another and their well-played personas. This is a movie filled with thrill-seeking action set pieces and electric banter, providing Reeves and Swayze with a sandbox to go absolutely buck wild. On paper, "Point Break" seems like absolute nonsense, but in their more than capable hands, it's ballsy, bonkers, brilliant, and painfully bisexual. "I know you want me so bad it's like acid in your mouth" is a very real line Swayze says to Reeves, and we're supposed to not think these two are down bad for each other? Please.

But outside of the must-be-heared-to-be-believed dialogue ("young, dumb, and full of c*m" is an all-timer), there's a layer of physical performance, with Swayze especially, that tells an additional story. All of his years of dance training definitely pay off in "Point Break," because Bodhi is saying so much with his body, bringing the script's subtext to the surface with a glance, a change in posture, or a smirk after jumping out of an airplane. I'm glad to have lived long enough to see the overwhelming reassessment of "Point Break" as a stone-cold action masterpiece instead of the goofy nonsense it was initially perceived as, and I'm doubly glad to live in a world where real ones know that "Point Break" is Swayze's best movie.