The movie that put Seagal on the map. He plays Mason Storm, a cop that comes a little too close to collaring a dirty politician, and nearly pays for it with his life. When Storm finally awoke from that coma, neither Kelly LeBrock nor Senator Trent stood a chance. Oh Vernon!

Seagal's most successful film. He stars as Casey Ryback, a former Navy SEAL working as a cook on a battleship captured by Tommy Lee Jones (an ex-CIA agent) and his band of villains. Of course, Ryback single-handedly thwarts their plan to steal the warship's weapons. Watch for July 1989 Playboy Playmate Erika Eleniak.

In a film featuring some of Seagal's best technical fight scenes, he battles the Jamaican Posse drug cartel, led by the mystical Screwface. Seagal thinks he's finished Screwface off when he decapitates him in Jamaica, only to return to Chicago to encounter him once again. A confused Seagal learns Screwface has a twin and finishes him off by gouging his eyes and breaking his back.

Seagal's film debut, he plays Nico Toscani, a Chicago cop who teams up with his partner (played by Pam Grier) to investigate a drug ring, only to be ordered to stand down by the feds. Toscani disregards the orders and brings down a plot to use drug money to cover up a covert invasion of Nicaragua. Political commentary Seagal style.

Seagal stars as NYPD detective Gino Felino (yup, Gino Felino) who hunts down a neighborhood tough guy who killed his best friend. The film, which opened number one at the box office, features an original song written by Seagal and performed by Greg Allman, and a pretty fantastic cast featuring Jerry Orbach, Gina Gershon, and Juliana Margulies making her film debut.

Seagal's most underrated film, Fire Down Below is another Seagal film with a political agenda. He plays Jack Taggart, an EPA agent who goes undercover to investigate the illegal dumping of toxic waste in a Kentucky mine. Co-starring Kris Kristofferson as the bad guy, it also features cameo performances by Levon Helm and Randy Travis.

Casey Ryback returns. This time, the former Navy SEAL is on a train taken over by an evil computer genius (deliciously played by Eric Bogosian), who wants to use a secret satellite laser weapon to destroy the East Coast for $1 billion from terrorists. Ryback saves the day amid an explosive head-on train crash. Look for a young Katherine Heigl in one of her first movie roles.

Seagal's last box office hit, Exit Wounds pits the aging action star as a cop against gritty rapper DMX as a druglord paying off Seagal's colleagues on the force. Although the film featured less Seagal hand-to-hand combat than most of his previous movies, it succeeds as a fast-paced and action-packed film. Also notable is the film's soundtrack, which features songs by DMX, Nas, and other hip hop luminaries.

Starring Kurt Russell and Halle Berry with Seagal in a supporting role, Executive Decision was Seagal's last real big budget film. Terrorists hijack a jet heading toward Washington D.C. with intentions to detonate a bomb filled with nerve gas over the United States. The fictitious airline that operated the flight? Oceanic Airlines, later made famous in Lost. Seagal's character isn't around to save the day, as he's killed relatively early in the movie.

Another movie in which Seagal co-stars with a rapper, this time with Ja Rule (former Dogg Pound member Kurupt also is featured), this is not a great movie, even by Seagal standards. As the Detroit Free Press opined, Half Past Dead is "just like every other Seagal movie, only louder and without that silly ponytail." Nevertheless, Seagal's turn as an undercover FBI agent up against terrorists who take over a prison is fast-paced and features classic Seagal bone breaking and aikido.

The Glimmer Man doesn't break any new ground. But by following the standard Seagal formula, the film, which co-stars Keenen Ivory Wayans, is a surprisingly intense movie about the hunt for a serial killer. Along the way, Seagal and Wayans tangle with compromised government agents and the Russian mob. According to Film.com, the movie is "ugly and unpleasant but you may find it intensely compelling, much like a visit to the oral surgeon."

The second film on The Top 13 with a plot revolving around Seagal's efforts to save the environment, On Deadly Ground, is the only Seagal film to feature multiple Academy Award winners (Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Caine). It's also Seagal's worst-reviewed theatrical release, as the film was criticized for its stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans and the film's overly preachy dialogue. Still, it's important in the Seagal catalog, as it marks his first and only foray into directing.

After at least six years without a recognizable release, Seagal returned to the mainstream last year with his cameo in The Onion Movie. Showing he was in on the joke all along, Seagal plays Cock Puncher, a master of an ancient technique that "strikes at the very core of a warrior's strength," and he plays it as straight as if he was reprising his breakthrough role as Mason Storm in Hard to Kill.