MRQE Ranks: Cinema's Best Assassin Movies

1

Taxi Driver (1976)

Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writer: Paul Schrader

Synopsis: A sensationalized paranoia movie that is one long preparation for a massacre. It creates a tight, obsessive, suffocating world that excludes `norm... [MORE]

2

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Cast: Tim Roth, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary

Synopsis: Prizefighter Butch Coolidge has decided to stop payment on a deal he's made with the devil. Honey Bunny and Pumpkin are young lovers and small time... [MORE]

3

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Cast: Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, Laurence Harvey, Henry Silva

Director: John Frankenheimer

Writer: George Axelrod

Synopsis: A U.S. Army hero returns to New York from Korea, but has been mysteriously programmed by Communists to assassinate a presidential nominee, but when... [MORE]

4

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Stephen Root, Rodger Boyce

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Writer: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Cormac McCarthy

Synopsis: "No Country for Old Men" begins when Llewelyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a sentry of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollar... [MORE]

5

Blow Out (1981)

Cast: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Peter Boyden, Curt May, John Aquino, John McMartin, Deborah Everton, J. Patrick McNamara

Director: Brian De Palma

Writer: Brian De Palma

Synopsis: Brian De Palma's homage to Michelangelo Antonioni's classic art movie Blow-Up (1966) blends suspense and political paranoia when a Philadelphia sou... [MORE]

6

JFK (1991)

Cast: Kevin Costner, Joe Pesci, Donald Sutherland

Director: Oliver Stone

Writer: Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar

Synopsis: The November 22, 1963, assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy shocked the nation and the world. The brisk investigation of that murder con... [MORE]

7

The Terminator (1984)

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Bess Motta, Earl Boen, Rick Rossovich, Dick Miller, Shawn Schepps

Director: James Cameron

Writer: Harlan Ellison, James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher Jr.

Synopsis: Endlessly imitated, The Terminator made the reputation of cowriter/director James Cameron -- who would go on to make 1997's titanic Titanic -- and ... [MORE]

8

Le Samouraï (1967)

Cast: Alain Delon, Nathalie Delon, Caty Rosier

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

10

Blood Simple. (1984)

Cast: John Getz, M. Emmet Walsh, Frances McDormand, Samm-Art Williams, Dan Hedaya

Director: Joel Coen

Writer: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Synopsis: A Texas bar owner hires a private detective to kill his wife and her lover, but things don't go as planned when double-crossing and betrayal abound. [MORE]

12

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Cast: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez, Albert Finney, Tom Gallop, Corey Johnson

Director: Paul Greengrass

Writer: Tony Gilroy, Robert Ludlum, Tom Stoppard

Synopsis: All he wanted was to disappear; instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is--legendary assassin. Having lost his memo... [MORE]

13

Leon: The Professional (1994)

Cast: Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aiello, Peter Appel, Willi One Blood, Don Creech, Keith A. Glascoe, Randolph Scott, Michael Badalucco

Director: Luc Besson

Writer: Luc Besson

14

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

Cast: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Gordon Liu

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino

Synopsis: Continuing the story-line which unfolded in "Kill Bill Vol. I," this is a revenge tale of an expert assassin, called The Bride, who sets out on a q... [MORE]

15

Munich (2005)

Cast: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josee Croze, Geoffrey Rush, Mathieu Kassovitz, Sharon Alexander, Bijan Daneshmand, Ciaran Hinds, Omar Metwally, Dov Reiser

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writer: Tony Kushner, Charles Randolph, Eric Roth

Synopsis: 'Munich' recounts the dramatic story of the secret Israeli squad assigned to track down and assassinate 11 Palestinians believed to have planned th... [MORE]

16

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Cast: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino

Synopsis: An entire wedding party is slaughtered during a dress rehearsal in a rural chapel: the pregnant woman in the blood-splattered wedding dress is Blac... [MORE]

17

Collateral (2004)

Cast: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem, Dennis Farina, Bruce McGill, Bodhi Elfman, Richard T Jones, Irma P Hall

Director: Michael Mann

Writer: Stuart Beattie, Frank Darabont

Synopsis: Max has lived a mundane life as a cab driver for twelve years. The faces have come and gone from his rear-view mirror: people and places he's long ... [MORE]

18

Road to Perdition (2002)

Cast: Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Stanley Tucci

Director: Sam Mendes

Writer: David Self

Synopsis: A hit man for an Irish gang in the Depression-era Midwest, hit man Michael Sullivan is known to friends and enemies alike as the Angel of Death. Un... [MORE]

19

In Bruges (2008)

Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Thekla Reuten, Jérémie Renier, Mark Donovan, Jordan Prentice, Robbie Kay, Eric Godon

Director: Martin McDonagh

Writer: Martin McDonagh

Synopsis: Bruges (pronounced "broozh"), the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travelers from all over... [MORE]

20

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Cast: Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Victor Argo, Tricia Vessey, Cliff Gorman

Director: Jim Jarmusch

Writer: Jim Jarmusch

Synopsis: Ghost Dog lives above the world, alongside a flock of birds, in a homemade shack on the roof of an abandoned building. Guided by the words of an an... [MORE]

21

Panic (2000)

Cast: William H. Macy, John Ritter, Neve Campbell, Barbara Bain, Tracey Ullman

Director: Henry Bromell

Writer: Henry Bromell

Synopsis: Midlife crises are a normal event for many forty-plus American males, and Alex (Bill Macy) seems no different from the average. He is going through... [MORE]

22

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Cast: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen, Tomas Arana, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Tom Gallop, Karl Urban, Gabriel Mann

Director: Paul Greengrass

Writer: Tony Gilroy, Robert Ludlum

Synopsis: Two years ago, Jason Bourne thought he had walked away from his past. But now, his past is about to return. Bourne and Marie have maintained their ... [MORE]

23

Jing Ke ci Qin Wang (1998)

Cast: Gong Li, Li Xuejian, Zhang Fengyi, Sun Zhou, Wang Zhiwen

Director: Chen Kaige

Writer: Wang Peigong, Chen Kaige

Synopsis: A romantic tale set in feudal China in the 2nd century B.C. which centers around the story of Ying Zheng, a power-hungry heir to the throne of the ... [MORE]

24

The Matador (2005)

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis, Philip Baker Hall, Adam Scott, Dylan Baker, Maureen Muldoon, Antonio Zavala, Jonah Meyerson, Roberto Sosa

Director: Richard Shepard

Writer: Richard Shepard

Synopsis: Julian Noble is a hit man who's very good at what he does, but is losing his taste for the business. Danny is a salesman whose marriage and finance... [MORE]

25

Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Cast: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, Alan Arkin

Director: George Armitage

Synopsis: Most people have trouble deciding what to say when they're asked what they've been doing with their lives at a High School reunion, but Martin Blan... [MORE]

26

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Robert Duvall, Barbara Kozicki, Garret Dillahunt, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeremy Renner, Sam Rockwell

Director: Andrew Dominik

Writer: Ron Hansen

Synopsis: In 1881 a younger member of the notorious James gang becomes so inextricably drawn to and frightened of his mentor that his own delusions of grande... [MORE]

27

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, John Houseman, Addison Powell, Walter McGinn, Tina Chen, Michael Kane, Don McHenry

Director: Sydney Pollack

Writer: James Grady, Lorenzo Semple Jr.

Synopsis: His code name is Condor. In the next 24 hours, everyone he trusts will try to kill him. As the ads ominously announced, a low-level spook confronts... [MORE]

28

Ronin (1998)

Cast: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, Natasha McElhone

Director: John Frankenheimer

Writer: J.D. Zeik

Synopsis: When an international team of former intelligence agents and Cold War warriors meet in a warehouse, their adventure of love, friendship and betraya... [MORE]

29

The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Cast: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Kimberly Elise, Jon Voight, Miguel Ferrer, Ted Levine, Jeffrey Wright, Vera Farmiga, Paul Lazar

Director: Jonathan Demme

Synopsis: A psychological thriller in which a career soldier, Army Major Bennett Marco, grows suspicious about his experiences in Desert Storm after Squad Se... [MORE]

30

The Bourne Identity (2002)

Cast: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Julia Stiles, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox

Director: Doug Liman

Writer: Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron, David Self

Synopsis: The spy thriller opens as an amnesiac is rescued at sea by the crew of an Italian fishing boat. Nearly dead, he carries nothing but the bullets in ... [MORE]

31

In the Line of Fire (1993)

Cast: Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo, Dylan McDermott, Gary Cole

Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Writer: Jeff Maguire

Synopsis: Clint Eastwood delivers one of his finest performances, as a secret service agent haunted by his past in Wolfgang Petersen's taut thriller In the L... [MORE]

32

The American (2010)

Cast: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli

Director: Anton Corbijn

Writer: Rowan Joffe, Martin Booth

Synopsis: As an assassin, Jack is constantly on the move and always alone. After a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, Ja... [MORE]