Jackie Chan, the Hong Kong star visible in U.S. Despite its prominence, Hollywood's typology of the action hero does not reign worldwide. The character type requires a formidable villain against which to test the hero's mettle the plot must continually place the hero in danger to prove his courage and fortitude perhaps most importantly, other characters must appear to take the hero seriously lest his fabricated, ritualized maleness be revealed. The construction of the action-hero persona depends upon complementary narrative conventions. Genre boundaries thus play a fundamental role in defining and constraining male identity. Except in the complicit space of other "male" genres (e.g., the war film or the western), the rigid male identity swiftly assumes farcical proportions. The male action hero does not travel well. The constructedness of the Western action hero's identity becomes apparent when one looks for evidence of the type in other genres. The presumed "naturalness" of this combination of traits disguises the construction of male gender identity, an identity normalized in virtually all Western cultural pursuits, institutions, and media.
The cultural prescription for this hero includes physical size, strength, charisma, pronounced facial features, the ability to generate action, and facility with aggressive behavior.
Largely geared toward a young male audience, action film places at its center the now-conventional "action hero." The hero, almost always male, displays a range of character traits associated with traditional Western definitions of masculinity. For nearly two decades, action film has been one of Hollywood's principal money-making genres.