Hero action narratives have supported audiences' interests across the "shifting space and time" of popular culture and become a "courageous genre" (Shimpach , 2010: 30). This study will explore the construction of hegemonic masculinity by comparing the representation of heroic masculinity between John McClane (Die Hard, 1988) and John Wayne (Rio Bravo, 1959). Will be examined: the structure of the physical body, the development of intelligence, the role of emotions and the representation of heroes in relation to those around them. Die Hard and Rio Bravo depict heroic law enforcement, an American image of masculinity. The diachronic examination of Rio Bravo and Die Hard will conceptualize the historical negotiation of hegemonic masculinity in response to gender issues such as first- and second-wave feminism. The overbearing assertion of masculinity in crime action films suggests that cultural anxieties about established gender roles persist. To sustain hegemony it is necessary to “highlight men” and “discredit women” (Connel and Messerschmidt, 2005:837), hegemonic masculinity is a social construction and is a performance of an individual (Galdas, 2009). Social expectations collapse with respect to gender. in individual sexual differences, contrasting identities, fixed social roles and physical appearance. This construction is aided by the representation of heroic masculinity in popular culture. The portrayal of John Wayne in Rio Bravo (1959) is decidedly masculine and presents a stereotypical image of a "manly" man. John Wayne's most noticeable attribute is his unusual height of 6 feet 4 inches. In the opening scene, John Wayne is framed in a medium long shot positioned on the floor, emphasizing his unusual height... in the center of the paper... Sheets-Johnstone, M (2000). Binary opposition as an ordering principle. In Fisher, L and Embree L, Eds (2000) Feminist Phenomenology. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Malin, B (2005). American masculinity under Clinton: Popular media and the "crisis of masculinity" of the 1990s. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.Mitchell, L (1996). Western, making man in fiction and cinema. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Shimpach, Shawn (2010). Television in transition. Sexox: Blackwell Publishing. Tasker, Y (1993). Dumb films for dumb people: Masculinity, body and voice in contemporary action cinema. In Cohan, S and Hark, I, Eds (1993). Screening the Male: Exploring masculinities in Hollywood cinema. London: Routledge.Wexman, V (1993). Creating the couple: love, marriage and Hollywood performance. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.