The Top Ten Movie Shootouts – Top Ten Lists

By The Vocabulariast on Saturday, 5th June 2010

Over the years there have been thousands of shootouts in the movie world. Nothing will make or break your movie like a shootout. Many times, they are the final scenes in movies, and how that shootout plays out will be the lasting impression that viewers have of your film. So I have combed through my DVD racks, watched countless shootout after countless shootout until my eyes bled, until I have come up with the following results. And before you complain, realize that these are the best shootouts ever, no doubt about it. If you’re going to try and tell me that the shootout in Heat is better than any of these, you should probably go back and re-watch the scene, because it’s generic as hell. If you’re going to talk about how awesome The Matrix is, don’t even bother. I looked at it, and the scene made me laugh at how stupid it was. Don’t even bring up Scarface, because the scene, as awesome as it is, simply doesn’t have the technical goods to compete. It’s rep is built upon the quality of the rest of the movie and not the scene itself.

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10 . The Butcher (2009) – Merle Kills The Shit Out of People – Forgotten among all the mainstream blockbusters and piles of shit that have hit the megaplexes over the last decade are the underground action flicks of today… a brutal breed of violence, that despite budgetary handicaps, frequently out-thrill mainstream action movies. One such flick is Jesse V. Johnson’s 2009 flick The Butcher, starring Eric Roberts. The Butcher is a slow burning flick that culminates in one of the coolest shootouts of the last ten years. It’s a spiritual brother to Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, and the shootout itself is covered in blood spouts, spurts and sprays. The fact that everyone’s favorite Roberts is kicking ass is also a bonus. This is one that you may not have seen, and I can’t find a YouTube vid of the shootout, but it’s definitely worth a Netflix queue spot. Check out this seldom seen shootout and judge for yourself.

9. Young Guns (1988) – Escape from a Burning House – Young Guns may be a joke of western, a Teen Beat version of western shenanigans, but it does contain within it one badass shootout. The film’s ultimate finale is a hail of bullets, excellent cinematography, and slow-motion executions. Say what you will about the film, it wouldn’t be nearly as popular as it is today if it weren’t for the film’s finale. The only problem with it? They kill off Dirty Steve, the most interesting part about the film. Whatever you think about the movie itself, this shootout made the careers of Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Dermot Mulroney, and Lou Diamond Phillips… all actors who have pretty much disappeared from the legitimate filmmaking landscape. Hell, if a shootout can make Lou Diamond Phillips a household name, then you know it’s doing something right. You can stuff yourself in a trunk and throw yourself out a second-story window if you don’t believe me. Reap it, you son of a bitch! I also like how the guy with the gatling gun doesn’t do shit until the old dude waving a handkerchief comes out of the house. Couldn’t find a vid for this one either… the peyote scene will do.

8. Shoot ‘Em Up (2007) – Gun Factory Shootout – Generally overlooked by most critics, and even most movie fans, Shoot ‘Em Up is jam-packed with kick-ass shootouts. This satirical self-referential take on the modern action movie makes fun of the action genre and simultaneously pulls off action scenes better than most legitimate action efforts. The ultimate shootout in Shoot ‘Em Up involves Clive “Action Man” Owen taking out a parade of bad guys in a gun factory, while not even putting his finger on a single trigger. This awesome shootout is creative, bloody, and simply good fun. There are a couple of other good shootouts in Shoot ‘Em Up, including one where Owen delivers a baby, but this is the one that truly stands out for me. Plus, I hate babies.

7. Equilibrium (2002) – A lot of people will be wondering why a film like The Matrix isn’t on here. Despite the fact that it was vastly influential on many action movies, it’s supremely dated… and add to that the fact that Equilibrium took what The Matrix did and improved upon it, and there’s no reason to have it on the list. Equilibrium, while really a pretty stupid movie, does feature a couple of pretty bad ass shootouts. While the whole “gun-fu” thing is dumb as fuck, visually, it is a nice piece of eye candy. There isn’t much substance to the film and Christian Bale sucks, but the fact that this film is even worth talking about is due to the film’s final shootout. If it had been as blood-splattered and brutal as some of the other shootouts on the list, it could have been even higher.

6. Rambo (2008) – Fifty Caliber Carnage – When I first saw the fourth Rambo flick, I couldn’t believe just how fucked up, violent and intense it was. I’ve seen few films that have actually elicited an emotional response from me, and the feeling of nausea combined with exhilaration that accompanies the wholesale slaughter found in Rambo still sticks with me to this day. As soon as Rambo jumps on the back of that jeep and starts mowing through bad guys, the film kicks into high gear as nameless generic solider after nameless generic soldier is maimed. Body parts fly everywhere, people explode in showers of blood, and the shootout never quite looked so good. How this thing didn’t get an NC-17 rating is beyond me, but if any movie ever deserved such a rating for a shootout, it would be this one. Rambo mows through an entire army, people are lit on fire, mortars blow some fuckers up, then Rambo destroys a truck full of soldiers and a gunboat… and, when he’s all done with that shit, he has the presence of mind to disembowel some dude. That’s just five minutes in the life of John Rambo.

5. Rolling Thunder (1977) – Whorehouse Revenge – I’m not sure how many people have ever seen John Flynn’s Rolling Thunder, but if you haven’t, then you’re missing out on one damn fine piece of revenge cinema. The film tells the tale of a dude who comes back from ‘Nam all fucked up because he was a P.O.W. One day, some petty thugs come around, stick his hand down a garbage disposal and kill his family. This pisses him off pretty badly, and with the help of his army buddy, played by Tommy Lee Jones, they unleash hell and fury in a brothel. Needless to say, there’s plenty of boobs, blood, and badassness to go around in this next clip. Find yourself a copy of this movie if you haven’t seen the entire thing.

Whore: “What the fuck are you doing?”

Tommy Lee Jones: “I’m gonna kill a bunch of people.”

4. Hard-Boiled (1992) – Teahouse Shootout – Quite honestly, I could make a pretty good top ten list just using John Woo shootouts. But I decided to scale back the Woo presence on this top ten list and only feature a couple of his best shootouts. The teahouse shootout is a rarity on the list because it is the opening scene in Woo’s 1992 masterpiece. Here we are introduced to perhaps the coolest police detective that ever lived… Tequila. Tequila assaults some dude with a tea kettle and then lays waste to an entire population of stooges. On top of all that, throughout the entire flipping, diving, rolling shootout scene, he never manages to lose the toothpick that’s in his mouth! This scene wins out over some of Woo’s other efforts mostly because the sound design is better, the production values are higher, and there’s a whole lot less wiggle dancing than in other Woo flicks… you know… when a stooge is filled full of lead and they do that stupid jiggle dance. As good as this shootout is, it’s only the second best Woo shootout ever.

3. The Wild Bunch (1969) – The Final Shootout – You know your film is badass when 40 years later people are still talking about it. The Wild Bunch is one of the best westerns out there and for good reason. Sam Peckinpah’s western features one of the most violent over the top shootouts of its time. Loaded with squibby goodness, this film’s fact sheet boasts that it used more blank bullets than live rounds were used during the entire Mexican Revolution. It’s a great shootout, and thanks to today’s cheap tactic of CGI’ing gun shots and bullet wounds, it will probably remain that way for quite some time.

2. Taxi Driver (1976) – Travis Goes Crazy – As over the top and crazy as the last few entries have been, this next entry proves that it’s not about how many loads you shoot, but the quality of those loads. Taxi Driver’s final scene is one of the most classically violent scenes in movie history. The combination of Martin Scorsese’s directing and Robert de Niro’s insane acting created one of the most gritty, painfully realistic shootouts in movie history. Indeed, De Niro seems almost as if he’s in another world as he traipses through the shady hotel blasting people to bits with his simplistic but effective weapons. The impact of this scene should give anyone with a heartbeat a rush and a queasy feeling in their stomach.

1. Hard-Boiled (1992) – Back when I first saw this film, I was just an empty-headed person who liked to be entertained. But even then, I could recognize the brilliance of John Woo’s hospital scene in Hard-Boiled. This scene which is somewhere in the realm of three minutes long is probably one of the greatest cinematic achievements in action movie history. All of the effects are practical and yes, everything was done in one take. The choreography and technical expertise on display are astounding. Plus, in the middle of it, Chow Yun-Fat and Andy Lau manage to throw in a little acting to boot. This is the gold-standard of shootouts… and if you don’t believe me, you’re a tool.