Explodobook

'The ultimate guide to every apocalypse movie ever made' - David Quantick

The 1980s. A time of fear: fear of the unknown, fear of your neighbours, fear of drugs, fear of sex, fear of strangers, fear of videos, and the very real fear that the world would end at any moment in an awful, and very sudden, nuclear attack.

However, in those times of turmoil and worry, there was a comfort that soothed the mind, and acted as a quiet balm: action movies.

Video shops were bursting at the seams with rampant gunfire, sex, drugs, rock, roll, cars on fire, people on fire, guns, bombs, and people dressed in army fatigues (and that was just the staff). Heroes were born shrouded in fire and violent revenge, they were not only armed with guns, but also red-hot quips, that served as a muscly arm around the shoulder, and a wink that everything was going to be okay.

So thank you Arnold, Sylvester, Sigourney, Bruce, Eddie, Charles, Patrick, Mel, Chuck and everyone else that made it happen. You saved the world, in your own inimitable way.

Join John Rain, the author of the critically-acclaimed Thunderbook: The World of Bond According to Smersh Pod, as he examines a choice selection of the greatest action movies from the decade when the explosion was king.



John Rain is a Bond fanatic, and the host of the cult podcast Smersh Pod. He lives in Sussex in an abandoned volcano.



'John Rain’s hilarious new book is a laugh-out-loud, impeccably detailed nostalgia trip through the golden era of action movies. It’s like watching these films again with an old friend. I loved it'



'Weapons. Wounds. Warlords. Watford! Explodobook is a hilarious, gripping and muscular flex through every bulge and bruise of 80s action cinema, and a truly heartfelt paean to the lost joys of VHS culture. I LOVE this book'



'Funny, hilarious, comic and very well-informed, Explodobook is the ultimate guide to every apocalypse movie ever made'



'In shades and a bloodied vest, bogies everywhere, John Rain kicks down the doors and gloriously celebrates the great action movies of the 1980s. Pulse-pumping, hilarious and deeply affectionate, I fell in love with those films all over again. Yippee-ki-yay, motherf*****'