The Top 20 Movie Shootouts

[lance525]

You guys have got to be kidding....3 movies prior to 1980???? My twenty year old son can name 10 better without trying. You guys need to review your netflix catalogue.

 

[Ananan]

As i neared the end of the list and wasn't seeing Heat, i thought "it better be #1. Happy it was. I have great respect for this movie, i regard it among my list of best movies ever, it definitely more than deserves #1.

As I was reading through the list that was my EXACT feeling. It's funny someone else felt the same way.

 

[antikristuseke]

Would have loved to see the final scene from The Taxi Driver on the list aswell as Equilibrium, but not a bad list at all.

 

[Bruxbox]

Perhaps the author should have distinguished between "shootouts" and "show downs". The general shootout is a melee type of encounter with numerous weapons whereas a show down is when a few antagonists face off with weapons drawn or involving a quick draw situation.

In the show down situation the classic is the final scene in "Hombre" starring Paul Newman, Richard Boone, Frederick March, and Frank Silvera. GRIMES: "Well now, I wonder what hell is going to look like. HOMBRE: "We all got to die sometime. It's just a matter of when."

Also, I think everyone liked the show down in the meadow in "True Grit", for which John Wayne earned his only Oscar. NED PEPPER: "I say that's mighty tough talk for a one-eyed fat man. ROOSTER COGBURN: "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch."

Also, add Quinton Tarrantino's "Reservoir Dogs". EDDIE: "Larry, stop pointing that gun at my dad. LARRY: "Joe. You know that you shoot that man, you die."

 

[calaverasgrande]

I also concurr that I was starting to get a bad taste in my mouth when I hadnt seen "Heat" yet.
About "Killer", that is a decent movie, but it is also a pretty cheesy plot and heavy on the HK style sentimentality. I think (the TEAHOUSE scene ) Hard Boiled is more than representative of Woo. Or if you need a 2nd Woo "Better Tomorrow II". Bullets, blood, death.
Besides, Woo's later Hollywood movies almost erase his earlier ones! Ringo Lam should've had at least one movie in here like "Full Contact" another Chow Yun Fat, but in this one he has to re learn how to shoot with his left hand (One Eyed Jacks anybody?).
About Unforgiven; the best part is when, after learning of his pals death he picks up the bottle and just starts drinking the hell out of it after being sober so long. You know it gonna be hell to pay. (and they could've cut the end rant a littke bit)
I also cant beleive that the first Die Hard didtn make it. As much as I hate Bruce Willis in almost anything he is in, the first gunfight in the cubicles where the glass gets shot out and he is barefoot. The angles of fire were perfect!
And finally,
No True Romance?
c'mon!

 

[FenderBodine]

Nice to see Way of the gun on the list, I was sure it would be too obscure to make it. I did want to see Ghost in the Shell on the list. The fight with Kusanagi vs the tank was a great climax to the movie, you really thought the good guy might lose.

Some die-hard movie should have made it. I personally loved the snowmobile-empty clips scene. True Romance was a good movie, but the gunfight was people just standing up and getting shot at, nothing real creative except the pillow feathers. All you remember is almost everyone in the room dies. Honorable mention for Fifth Element(Luc Besson again) Lobby shootout with chris tucker providing comic relief was excellent.

 

[mysticarcane]

I agree, leaving out Equilibruim was a shame... but the one gunfight that always stands out in my mind is the shootout at the end of True Romance, Cops vs Bodyguards vs Mob. Great music, good general direction... " I have more taste in my ^#*&!"

 

[robwright]

Besides, Woo's later Hollywood movies almost erase his earlier ones!

What?!?!?!?! Are you serious? You think Hard Target, Paycheck and Windtalkers are superior to The Killer, Hard Boiled and A Better Tomorrow? I'll give you Face/Off -- good stuff. And Broken Arrow and Mission Impossible 2 weren't bad, either. But I don't think many people would agree that Woo's Hollywood films are better than his Hong Kong films.

True Romance didn't make the list because, well, we never really considered it. The end is kind of overblown. Plus, I hate most Tony Scott films ("Top Gun" and "Crimson Tide" being the sole exceptions). Why can't he direct like his brother Ridley?

Die Hard is another story -- I thought about the first film's shootout between McClane and Gruber. It's a great scene, full of tension between Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, that explodes in gunfire and broken glass. But when you think about Die Hard, the first scene that comes to mind is the helicopter/exploding rooftop jump stunt, which is arguably one of the five greatest stunt sequences of all time (another list is in order, perhaps?). Then you have great scenes like "Happy trails, Hans," the elevator bomb, and the fight between McClane and Karl. There's so much good stuff in that movie that I just wasn't sure where that shootout ranked in the best scenes of the film.

I confess I've never seen a Ringo Lam movie, but I hope to fix that soon.

As for Equilibrium, I take the blame for that omission. Travis wanted to include it, but I hated the movie and thought the stupid ballet gunfighting techniques were lame and therefore overruled him.

 

[tmeacham]

First tho is an article on fistfights in movies. There is the real deal. What's better than a mano a mano fight. I keep a list of the best fistfights in movies and best war fights. But FF are my favorite and would like to hear other opinions of fights I've missed.

I did this one earlier this year, although it wasn't specifically fist fights. Check it out: Top 10 Movie Fights

You guys have got to be kidding....3 movies prior to 1980???? My twenty year old son can name 10 better without trying. You guys need to review your netflix catalogue.

10 huh? Let's have them.

Lots of the movies that you guys are listing as omissions were in the first list. Keep in mind that Rob and I don't just throw these lists together over beers during lunch. All of the scenes considered get watched over and over and over picking them apart to see what is truly the best. We don't take these things too seriously (they're supposed to be fun after all), but we also don't throw these up lightly. Several more are in the works.

 

[BigMac]

As for Equilibrium, I take the blame for that omission. Travis wanted to include it, but I hated the movie and thought the stupid ballet gunfighting techniques were lame and therefore overruled him.

How can you love "The Matrix" and then hate Equilibrium, in terms of shootouts? If you put "The Matrix" on 4, then Equilibrium should make the Top20.

Personally, although I liked both The Matrix and Equilibrium, I would not have included either because it's indeed more like ballet, than anything resembling a shoot-out.

 

[Bruxbox]

About "Collateral", there is a scene where the hitman [Tom Cruise] is confronted by two street thugs with guns drawn. The Hitman pulls his pistol and takes down the two without them getting off a shot.

I've had an argument with a friend who claims that the scene was computer enhanced. My view is that it is completely live action and that Cruise did the stunt himself. I've run the movie frame by frame and could not detect a computer special effect.

Does anyone have any info on the question?

 

[robwright]

How can you love "The Matrix" and then hate Equilibrium, in terms of shootouts? If you put "The Matrix" on 4, then Equilibrium should make the Top20.

Personally, although I liked both The Matrix and Equilibrium, I would not have included either because it's indeed more like ballet, than anything resembling a shoot-out.

No...no, not you, BigMac! Please no, not you too! He's turned into an Equilibrium fanboy!!!!!!!

The Matrix is far superior to Eqilibrium. It shouldn't even be up for debate. Seriously, watch these two movies back-to-back, especially the shootouts, and then try to tell me the two are comparable.

It's not too late to flee the Dark Side, BigMac. Come back to use...please....

 

[robwright]

About "Collateral", there is a scene where the hitman [Tom Cruise] is confronted by two street thugs with guns drawn. The Hitman pulls his pistol and takes down the two without them getting off a shot.

I've had an argument with a friend who claims that the scene was computer enhanced. My view is that it is completely live action and that Cruise did the stunt himself. I've run the movie frame by frame and could not detect a computer special effect.

Does anyone have any info on the question?

GREAT Scene. And yes, it was authentic. No CGI or stunt doubles, if I remember the special edition DVD features correctly. I seem to recall one of the behind-the-scenes features talking about how Cruise went through extensive weapons training for the role. Normally I scoff at such training, especially when it only comes in handy in a few scenes like in Collateral. But wow, it really paid off; the alley scene was scary good and really made an impact. I mean, I really believed Cruise, as Vincent, was a stone-cold hit man with crazy reflexes. And the club scene was also fantastic. Cruise may be a little kooky, but he was a total badass in that movie.

 

[BigMac]

No...no, not you, BigMac! Please no, not you too! He's turned into an Equilibrium fanboy!!!!!!!

The Matrix is far superior to Eqilibrium. It shouldn't even be up for debate. Seriously, watch these two movies back-to-back, especially the shootouts, and then try to tell me the two are comparable.

It's not too late to flee the Dark Side, BigMac. Come back to use...please....

This thread actually pointed me to that flick so I watched it yesterday

The Matrix was (much) better as a movie experience, but I enjoyed Equilibrium as well. Even when seeing this movie 5 years after it was released it is obvious (to me) that The Matrix brought a lot of new things to the big screen at the time, whereas Equilibrium did not.

If you start comparing these movies in the context of just shoot-outs I really don't see a lot of difference between the two (and as I said, neither of them should have been on the shoot-out list in my opinion, they should be on te action movie choreography list, with the Matrix winning easily). Mind you, I did not take into account the use of bullet time, I just try to compare the quality of the shoot-outs (sec). It may be that I'm just not all that sensitive to shoot-out aesthetics and etiquette. I will immediately admit I'm not an expert on any of this, i'm just an average movie watcher.

Rest my case I will now [/yoda]

 

[deus]

I did this one earlier this year, although it wasn't specifically fist fights. Check it out: Top 10 Movie Fights

Ugh--what a lame list. Kung foo to it. The Bourne fight was excellent and The Hunted but the rest is lame--not realistic at all. You been watching too many video games.


So get to the war fights. Maybe something interesting will show up I have not seen.But be sure to consider We were Soldiers Once, Blackhawk Down, Siege of Firebase Gloria and Taegukgi. For the same reason the Movie fights is lame ignore 300.

We are waiting--good luck tho luck has nothing to do with it.

 

[tmeacham]

Ugh--what a lame list. Kung foo to it. The Bourne fight was excellent and The Hunted but the rest is lame--not realistic at all. You been watching too many video games.

I'll take flash and entertainment over realism any day. I've seen quite a few real fights in my day and they all pretty much sucked. Sure it's nice to have some authenticity if a fight is set in a real-world setting, but a well-choreographed sword fight is better than two guys trying to punch each other in the groin every time. The Bourne fight and the fight in The Hunted are authentic but hardly realistic.

 

[Baal T'shuvah]

When I saw this thread over at IMDb, Heat was the first movie that came to mind. Glad to see it at number 1. This is a shootout that several critics said was too over the top to be believable, at the time of the films release. Yet, within a year, Los Angeles police had to cope with such an ordeal, with two machine gun toting bank robbers that held them at bay for quite a long time, and played out live on the news.

I, too, had thought of the discotheque scene from Mann's Collateral. He just has a very keen eye for this type of action... riveting up the tension as the scenes progress. Two other films of his that I haven't seen mentioned in discussion are Thief and Manhunter, both of which feature good, tense shootouts at the end, although not on the scale of the films mentioned in your list.

One shootout I would have considered occurs towards the middle of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, at the point where the hoods are making their initial assault on the station house, and the deputy in command has to make the decision to not only release prisoners from their cells, but also arm them to help in the defense of the station. Carpenter, in his early career, also had a way of ratcheting up the tension as a scene progressed, rather than peak an action sequence too soon and thus run the scene past the point of believabilty and tolerance.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

One of my first thoughts was Desperado. The scene with the bandmates shooting from their guitars is just plain fun.

I also thought the scene at the end of the Three Amigos, which obviously isn't a serious shoutout, and it's debatable whether or not it's the best scene in the movie (the one on one shootout with Martin Short isn't bad either).

Finally, I'm not sure how this fits in with the rules since the shootout essentially lasts nearly the entire movie, but I offer up Mean Guns for consideration. A 100 person, every man for himself shootout with limited environment and limited weapons guarantees some creative killing methods.

 

[haunteo]

My list is made up of action parts to movies that made me grit my teeth or gave me a scary/awesome dream the following night. Some of these movies suffer from other problems [low budget, bad acting and terrible plot] but had that one key scene that I can still remember.

B13 [the casino disarming scene]
The nest [French remake of assault on precinct 13, the entire movie is an action scene]
Versus [gun sword combo, low budget I know but original idea]
Full contact [ending duel or bullet time sequence]
Revolver [hitman versus everyone scene]
Bad boys II [180 degree car spin with mp5 out of the window]
Desperado [pick a scene]
Once upon a time in Mexico [again pick a scene]
A better tomorrow II [ending mansion scene]
Four brothers [g36 shooting at the house scene]
Running scared [opening scene and ice rink scene]
Red siren [hallway night vision counter attack scene]
The rundown [the rock with 2 shotguns versus everyone scene]
Ronin [car ambush, yes it’s not just a chase scene]
Time and tide [apartment repeling scene]
Sudden impact [dirty harry final shoot out]
2009: lost memories [beginning chain gun shootout]
Full time killer [the ending]
Double tap [any scene where the main character shoots through the walls at the police]
Eraser [those guns shooting through walls, any part of that movie]
Smoking aces [50 cal sniper rifle scene]
Double vision [police versus occult fanatics with swords]

Again:
Collateral [night club sequence]
Miami vice [arm off? Hell yes]



Please fill free to rip this list apart, the main blasphemous omission was Equilibrium but that was already discussed.

 

[Eprophet2]

first off, great list. I've gotten our teenage son so into "The Wild Bunch" he actually re-created "the walk" with Lego characters using stop motion techniques on his digital camera.

I've seen HEAT a million times, still love it, and will never forget the first time I saw it, being glued into my seat in the theater for almost 2 hours by the complex characters and the engaging plot, and suddenly 10 minutes of mayhem erupts right in my face.

thought I would throw "Commando" in the ring because it is the cheesiest, most unbelievable massacre in cinema history, but it is SO enjoyable to watch Ah-nuhld tear through an army of near incompetent South American mercenaries.

and eventhough it is one shot, the exchange between Steven Seagal and the fat CIA agent in "Above the Law" is classic:

"I don't think you can drop us all, badass!"

BOOM! (right in the chest)

"Nah but I get an A for effort"

 

[DemonBiscuit]

Terminator over Terminator 2? How could you miss the Cyberdyne scene where Schwarzeneggar is using the minigun? But in my opinion that's not even the best part. When they come out of the elevator and Arnold is shooting the teargas gun. He shoots one of the police officers in the back with it and if you listen close you can hear him say "Oh GOD that hurt!".

Now THAT is classic.

 

[genericac]

Few questions:

1) Was Predator considered to be a war movie? The action sequence when they attack the Guerrilla base was phenomenal.

2) The scene in Boondock Saints that gets mentioned was fairly similar to the shootout with Buckshot Roberts in Young Guns. Was that taken into consideration?

3) Desperado was mentioned by someone else for the scene with the three mariachis, but I thought the sequence in the bar where Tarantino just got hired was better. The part where "El" and the other guy are sifting through the guns to find one that was actually loaded was one of the more humorous moments.