Considered one of the pioneer screenwriters of the action genre, Black made his mark with his Смертельное оружие (1987) screenplay. He also collaborated on the story of the sequel, Смертельное оружие 2 (1989). Each successive script he turned in had a higher price attached it, from Последний бойскаут (1991) to Долгий поцелуй на ночь (1996), and in between a re-write on the McTiernan/Schwarzenegger Последний киногерой (1993) script.