Lethal Weapon (1987): Movie Dads Who Kick Ass to Save their Children (Father’s Day)

Alongside Mel Gibson, Danny Glover plays paternal as LAPD homicide sergeant Roger Murtaugh in Richard Donner’s franchise-launching buddy cop film.

Murtaugh’s daughter (Traci Wolfe) is dragged into the action when kidnapped by Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey) and the Shadow Company, but Murtaugh takes bullets and torture in attempts to see her to safety.

Of Harrison Ford’s many paternal roles, it’s Wolfgang Petersen’s political action thriller that has him saving his White House staff and family members from Russian terrorists who hijack the president’s plane. As James Marshall, Ford shoots down the enemy (and memorably deploys Gary Oldman’s parachute) and delivers his wife and daughter to safety before evacuating the defunct aircraft.

With hopes of securing a transplant for his dying son after a health insurance snafu, Denzel Washington as the title character puts an emergency room on deadly lockdown in Nick Cassavetes’ thriller. Heartwarming and heart-pounding, the film shows a father’s final plea to provide for his child.

The Spielberg sci-fi disaster film cast Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier, whose rare weekend with his estranged children (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) turns into a survival challenge during an alien attack. After letting his son join the Marines in direct combat, he succumbs to the aliens’ grasp to save his captive daughter.

Bruce Willis plays a heroic father particularly well in the Len Wiseman-helmed fourth installment of the Die Hard franchise, when cyber terrorists that John McClane is eyeing get personal and kidnap his estranged daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). A close second: Michael Bay’s Armageddon, in which his ultimate sacrifice saves the entire world, including daughter Liv Tyler.

Liam Neeson has become the poster paternal hero with “a particular set of skills,” thanks to the Luc Besson-produced trilogy of thrillers. His career-pivoting turn as Bryan Mills begins with Pierre Morel’s installment, in which Mills’ teenage daughter is kidnapped in France by human traffickers for sexual slavery, triggering a slew of vengeful deaths until she is brought to safety.

Hugh Jackman takes matters into his own hands as Keller Dover in Denis Villeneuve’s crime thriller, in which his young daughter and her friend are suddenly abducted. Thrown into a tailspin investigation alongside detective Jake Gyllenhaal, the desperate father pursues leads with torture interrogation strategies to potentially ensure his child’s safety.

Dwayne Johnson, as helicopter-rescue pilot Ray Gaines, will stop at nothing to save his daughter (Alexandra Daddario) from becoming another casualty in Brad Peyton’s disaster epic, as she gets trapped in a collapsed parking garage and nearly drowns in a tsunami that follows the West Coast earthquake.

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has always been focused on family. But the auto enthusiast turned it up a notch when he and Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) welcomed their son, Brian Marcos Toretto, whose name pays tribute to Dom’s longtime friend Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker). The new addition to the racing kin is part of the films The Fate of the Furious (2017) and F9 (2021).