Repeatedly declared dead - yet even the most elaborate special effects cannot replace the action hero. The action film uniquely condenses its spectacular physical portrayals into an inexhaustible array of hero archetypes. The American tradition of the man of action seems unbroken and further shapes the body debates of contemporary gender theories. With prototypes like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hollywood has even institutionalized the Action Man as a kind of national body. This book takes a transdisciplinary look at the cinematic construction of these - often fractured - heroic bodies, placing processes of gender melancholy at the center of its examination and questioning established positions in gender studies and film theory. Where the heroes embodied by Stallone and Schwarzenegger illustrate a delicate yet complex mirror relationship of national identity formation processes, the question arises anew: What drives the action hero? And what cultural integration achievements does the action film accomplish? This study provides original and compelling answers.