50 Best Movie Shoot-Outs
Guns. Lots of guns
Unforgiven (1992)
The Shoot-Out: Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) enters a bar where Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman) is holed up with his gang, and slaughters the lot.
The Weapons: Munny's 10-gauge double-barrelled shotgun misfires, so he finishes the job with the late Ned Logan's (Morgan Freeman) Spencer 1860 Saddle Ring Carbine.
Coolest Kill: Little Bill criticises Munny for shooting an unarmed henchmen. “He should have armed himself,” Munny shrugs.
Miller's Crossing (1990)
The Shoot-Out: Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) sends men to assassinate mob rival Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney), but never try and kill an Irishman when ‘Danny Boy’ is playing.
The Weapons: Leo swaps his Colt New Service revolver for one of his would-be assassins’ Thompson M1928 submachine guns.
Coolest Kill: Leo strides into the street in his slippers and robe, firing a Tommy Gun until his assailants’ car blows up.
Taxi Driver (1976)
The Shoot-Out: Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) gets organized and heads off to rescue child prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimp Sport (Harvey Keitel).
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The Weapons: Travis is well stocked having bought a variety of handguns from gun dealer Andy (Steven Prince) earlier in the film.
Coolest Kill: Travis gets to make use of his hidden sleeve gun by blasting a pimp in the cheek.
The Untouchables (1987)
The Shoot-Out: Untouchables Elliott Ness (Kevin Costner) and George Stone (Andy Garcia) plan to arrest Al Capone’s (Robert De Niro) accountant at Chicago’s Union Station. But mind the baby.
The Weapons: Ness sports a Star Model B; Stone favours a Smith & Wesson Model 10.
Coolest Kill: Stone bags the final gangster while still holding a baby’s pram.
Hard Boiled (1992)
The Shoot-Out: Tequila (Chow Yun-fat) and Tony (Tony Leung) take on a gang army hiding out in a hospital, in an unbroken take lasting nearly three minutes.
The Weapons: Too many to list. Over 50 different models are seen during the film.
Coolest Kill: The lift door opens and the cops don’t even bother checking that there’ll be baddies outside before opening fire.
The Matrix (1999)
The Shoot-Out: Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) storm the lobby of the skyscraper where Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) is being held captive.
The Weapons: Guns. Lots of guns. In duffel bags.
Coolest Kill: Trinity disarms a soldier and shoots him in the back with his own gun.
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
The Shoot-Out: Triangulated duel between titular (anti-)heroes Blondie (Clint Eastwood), Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) and Tuco (Eli Wallach) as they face-off for a grave full of gold.
The Weapons: Colt 1851 Navy revolvers for Blondie and Tuco, a Remington 1858 New Army for Angel Eyes.
Coolest Kill: Eastwood doesn’t even flinch as he dispatches Van Cleef into an open grave.
Scarface (1983)
The Shoot-Out: Tony Montana (Al Pacino) takes on all comers as his mansion is overrun with rival Sosa's (Paul Shenar) men.
The Weapons: Tony's "little friend" - a customised Colt AR-15 with fake M203 grenade launcher.
Coolest Kill: Tony himself, still arguing as he’s cut to pieces. “I’ll take your fucking bullets!”
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Shoot-Out: Pike Bishop (William Holden) leads the Bunch on a suicide mission to avenge ex-comrade Angel’s death at the hands of Mexican warlord Mapache.
The Weapons: Whatever comes to hand, most noticeably Mapache's own Browning M1917 machine gun.
Coolest Kill: Any of the Bunch’s slo-mo dances of death.
Heat (1995)
The Shoot-Out: Neil McCauley's (Robert De Niro) is caught mid-robbery by Vincent Hanna’s (Al Pacino) cops and has to blast an escape route through downtown Los Angeles.
The Weapons: Pacino rocks a Fabrique Nationale FNC, while De Niro and Kilmer sport Colt M733 carbines. Better still, all weapons and tactics were supervised by Andy "Two Bravo Zero" McNab for accuracy.
Coolest Kill: Hanna takes out Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore) with a precise, patient head shot.