The 10 greatest shooters in the history of cinema

In cinema, the fascination with people who excel at their craft will always endure. Whether it’s watching a lawyer rule a courtroom or a surgeon save a life on the operating table, there is an undeniable attraction to this realm.

It’s no surprise that there is similar intrigue surrounding weapons experts. Snipers, gunmen and snipers capture the imagination. Here are the ten greatest shooters in cinema history.

The 10 greatest shooters in the history of cinema:

10. The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012)

Starting the list with a shooter – one who doesn’t use guns, no less – is Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of Hunger Games film series. An experienced archer, her skill is brilliantly demonstrated in Catching firewhere she fires arrows in quick succession at a series of holograms during her training session.

Fascinatingly, Lawrence had exactly no archery training before she started playing Katniss. She took an intensive course with Olympic archer Khatuna Lorig, who told The Daily Beast“She was very determined. When she started practicing, we put her on a 15 or 20 pound bow, which is pretty heavy for a beginner. She did a good job at first, but she hurt herself a little when she hit the bowstring with the string. Sometimes if you stand incorrectly this happens… so she got slapped and got a big bruise which she was very proud of!

9. Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)

No list of great cinematic shooters would be complete without Clint Eastwood. His portrayal of the six-shot revenge man in the 1976 western Outlaw Josey Wales stands out as one of his best performances. The film features some incredible gunfights, especially the ranch battle, showcasing 70s action cinema at its most brutal and visceral.

Interestingly, Eastwood actually saw the film as an anti-war statement and a commentary on the sheer volume of weapons created to fuel the war machine. In 2022, he said The Wall Street Journal: “I saw the parallels to modern day back then. Everyone gets tired of it, but it never ends. A war is a horrible thing, but it also unifies countries. Man becomes more creative during war. Look at the amount of weaponry that was manufactured in four short years of World War II…That’s a kind of sad statement for humanity.”

8. John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)

Could any discussion of the greatest shooters in cinematic history be complete without mentioning Baba Yaga herself, John Wick? Modern cinema’s most popular perpetrator of mass murder on a mind-boggling scale, Keanu Reeves’ killer, blazed a path of destruction across four films from 2014 to 2023. Although the character was best known in-universe for his ability to kill with something As simple as a pencil, it was his aptitude with firearms that led to most of his body count.

Consider this: in the first film, Wick kills 73 people with guns. His weapons of choice range from revolvers to machine guns to sniper rifles, and the man rarely misses. In Chapter 2Wick adds another 110 gun victims, and Chapter 3 sees 124 fall due to one of his many, many bullets. Fortunately, Wick decided to tone things down a bit in Chapter 4 – seeing fit to end the lives of just 105 sentient beings with his weapons.

7. True courage (The Coen Brothers, 2010)

Technically Joel and Ethan Coen’s best shooter True courage it’s Matt Damon’s Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who makes the nearly impossible 400-yard shot in the film’s climax to defeat Barry Pepper’s villain Ned Pepper. However, his hypocritical attitude makes it difficult to grant him this honor. Instead, Jeff Bridges’ Rooster Cogburn deserves the recognition – a drunk, tough character who can shoot bandits from his horses while single-handedly attacking them at full speed. And he’s not the type to take kindly to anyone questioning his marksmanship.

You see, in one of the film’s best scenes, LaBoeuf has the temerity to suggest that Cogburn missed a shot and inadvertently hit him. Cogburn protests that he can “hit a mosquito in the eye from 300 feet” – before missing a glass bottle three times and blaming cheap shells. Have no fear, though, this is just a temporary calibration error, because he then throws a piece of cornbread into the air and hits it with unerring accuracy. Then LaBoeuf misses the two pieces of cornbread that Cogburn throws later.

6. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

Although Barry Pepper may have come to an end in True courage thanks to LaBoeuf’s sniper rifle, in Saving Private Ryan, he He was the expert marksman. In Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic, Pepper played Private Daniel Jackson, a left-handed sniper who could hit a target 1,500 feet away with his trusty M1903A4 Springfield rifle. In fact, at one point in the film, he can fire a shot through an enemy German’s rifle scope and straight into his eye. It’s incredible.

Jackson – a devout Christian who frequently quotes Bible verses throughout the film – claims that, given the opportunity, he could end the war with just one of his patented shots. When asked to explain himself, he states: “Well, what I mean by that, sir, is that if you were to put me and this sniper rifle here anywhere – up to and including a mile from Adolf Hitler with a line of clear vision, sir – pack your bags, everyone. The war is over. Amen.” It’s hard not to believe him.

5. Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993)

“I’m your Huckleberry.”

Val Kilmer’s portrayal of legendary gunslinger Doc Holliday in George P Cosmatos’ Tombstone is nothing short of a revelation. He’s quietly hilarious, but never lets the audience think he’s a joke. He suffers from tuberculosis throughout the film, but you still believe he could defend himself in any firefight. He is a dying man, but lives longer in the film than most of the other characters. He is extremely loyal, but he is no Boy Scout. In fact, if you cross Doc, you’ll probably end up with a hole in your head.

In I Am Your Huckleberry: A MemoirKilmer revealed how he saw the character. He wrote: “Your tongue is more lethal than your pistol. Over the course of the drama, he dies from drinking and tuberculosis. As I played him, I thought about what my dear friend, the great screenwriter Robert Towne, taught me: all insightful dialogue arises from situations, not from pre-developed thoughts. In this regard, I found Doc’s situation to be dire. I also saw his action as a defiance in the face of death. I loved him.

4. Lethal weapon (Richard Donner, 1987)

“I do it very well, you know.”

“Do what?”

“When I was 19, I killed a guy in Laos 1,000 meters away. It was a rifle shot in a strong wind. Maybe eight or even ten guys in the world could have hit that shot. It was the only thing I was good at. Well, see you tomorrow.

This exchange perfectly sums up the character of Martin Riggs, everyone’s favorite maverick cop with a death wish and a glorious feathered mullet. To begin with, speak to your tortured soul. This is a man who truly believes that the only thing he had a talent for in life was taking other people’s lives. He talks about the time he spent in Vietnam, which shaped him as a person. Most of all, though, it shows how different Riggs is from most people – he can casually tell his new partner that he’s an experienced killing machine and then quickly conclude with a cheerful, “Well, see you tomorrow.”

3. Dirty Harry (Dom Siegel, 1971)

It may seem like this entry will highlight Clint Eastwood’s iconic cop Harry Callahan, one of the quintessential lawmen of “shoot first, ask questions later” cinema. However, the focus here is on Scorpio, the serial killer sniper that Callahan hunts in Don Siegel’s classic 1971 film. The film begins with Scorpio attacking a woman swimming in a rooftop pool with his rifle, followed by him taking aim at a small child. It’s a genuinely harrowing start to the film, leaving a lasting impact on the audience.

Speaking of which, actor Andrew Robinson’s performance as Scorpio was so memorable that it made it difficult for him to be cast in other roles. He once said Morgue Street: “I was very proud of the performance. What I didn’t realize was that it scared a lot of people. And I scared people to the point where they weren’t interested in hiring me. I didn’t work for a year.”

He ended up taking a break from acting for five years before returning to the scene when people were finally able to see him as an actor again rather than as a character.

2. Desired (Timur Bekmambetov, 2008)

By Timur Bekmambetov DesiredWesley Gibson, James McAvoy’s regular idiot, discovers that he is actually the son of a member of The Fraternity, an ancient collective of assassins. Oh, and the panic attacks he’s been suffering from are actually the beginning of the manifestation of his superpowers, which will, among other things, allow him to bend bullets around targets. How do you do it.

Easily the coolest gunman in the film is Fox, played with Angelina Jolie’s signature grace and danger. She is the Brotherhood member who first explains everything to Wesley and then trains him to master his skills. However, when she discovers that her boss, Mr. Sloan, has been manipulating the organization’s code to kill targets solely for profit, it is she who does the noble thing. In this case, the nobleman is to fire a curved bullet with “goodbye” written on the heads of every assassin in the room, rescuing Wesley in the process.

1. Léon: The Professional (Luc Besson, 1994)

This entry slightly bends the rules, as both Jean Reno’s titular killer and Natalie Portman’s Mathilda deserve recognition. Léon stands out during the siege of his apartment, eliminating countless enemies while wielding weapons with both hands, even hanging upside down from the ceiling. However, it is the scenes in which he teaches Mathilda how to handle various weapons, including a sniper rifle, that give the film its unique and disturbing power.

Speaking of which, Portman’s parents weren’t too keen on how the film placed such a young girl in violent and potentially sexually charged environments. After reading the script, she revealed, “My parents thought, ‘There’s no chance You’re making this movie. This is absolutely inappropriate for a child your age. And I thought, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever read! You’re going to ruin my life!’”

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