This article offers a longitudinal mapping that investigates the presence and development of enemy images in the genre of the American action film over a 36-year period. Being renowned for featuring spectacular violence against enemy others, the action film has repeatedly been a subject of scholarly inquiry in relation to themes of otherness, enemyhood and American imperialism. However, previous studies chiefly relied on the textual analysis of singular case studies in their account of how enemies identities are articulated over time, often lacking empirical validity and a backing for inference-claims in the process. This article hopes to critically investigate a series of presupposed properties of the enemy images and types of enemyhood featured in the action film by way of quantitatively methodologies.

本文提供了一个纵向映射，用于调查在过去36年的时间里，美国动作片类型中敌人图像的存在和发展。这部动作片以对敌方的壮观暴力为特色而闻名，一再成为关于异性，敌意和美帝国主义主题的学术研究主题。但是，以前的研究主要依靠对单个案例研究的文本分析来说明敌人身份是如何随着时间变化而表达的，通常缺乏经验上的有效性，并且在此过程中缺乏推理主张的支持。本文希望通过定量方法，批判性地研究动作片中敌人形象的一系列预设属性和敌军类型。