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Top 20 Movies About Hitmen and Assassins

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Ignacio Weil

Entertainment - April 7th 2025, 19:02 GMT+2

Cropped Looper — 20. Looper (2012)

Time travel plus contract killing? Sign us up. *Looper* tosses us into a gritty future where the mob has figured out that the best way to dispose of a body is to zap it back in time for a trained hitman to take out – talk about recycling! Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears a CGI-enhanced face to resemble his older self (played by none other than Bruce Willis), and things get wonderfully messy when younger Joe is hired to kill... older Joe. Director Rian Johnson crafts a clever, noir-flavored sci-fi thriller that’s surprisingly heartfelt and just the right amount of weird. Emily Blunt joins the chaos with a shotgun and a solid Southern accent, grounding the story in some old-fashioned farmstead tension. It's basically a philosophical debate wrapped in gunfire and temporal paradoxes. | © TriStar Pictures

Cropped The Equalizer — 19. The Equalizer (2014)

If you’ve ever wanted to see Denzel Washington go full dad-mode with a sledgehammer in a Home Depot-esque showdown, then *The Equalizer* is your violent bedtime story. Based on the ‘80s TV show (which no one under 40 remembers), this flick transforms Denzel into Robert McCall, a quiet man with a particular set of DIY skills who becomes a one-man army for the oppressed. When "Teri," played by Chloë Grace Moretz, gets tangled up with the Russian mob, McCall turns into a human Swiss Army knife of vengeance. Director Antoine Fuqua films it all like a revenge opera, with blood, slow-mo, and a killer stopwatch. It’s brutal, stylish, and deeply satisfying in a morally grey sort of way. | © Columbia Pictures

Cropped Collateral — 18. Collateral (2004)

Jamie Foxx plays the world's unluckiest cab driver who picks up Tom Cruise in full salt-and-pepper assassin mode. What starts as just another L.A. night drive quickly turns into a high-stakes game of death deliveries across the city. Michael Mann’s sleek, neon-drenched direction gives *Collateral* a cool, noir-infused tension, and Cruise is chillingly effective as Vincent, the philosophical killer who believes in fate and body counts. It’s like *Taxi Driver* got a makeover, found a GPS, and decided to outsource its conscience. Plus, Mark Ruffalo rocks a goatee in this one, so you know things are serious. Buckle up – it’s going to be a bloody ride. | © DreamWorks Pictures

Cropped the boondock saints — 17. The Boondock Saints (1999)

What happens when two Irish-American brothers from Boston decide God gave them permission to shoot bad guys in the face? You get *The Boondock Saints*, a cult-favorite fever dream of vigilante justice, church vibes, and slow-mo shootouts. Norman Reedus (long before *The Walking Dead*) and Sean Patrick Flanery play the tattooed, rosary-swinging duo who think they’re on a divine mission. Willem Dafoe steals the show as the FBI agent who’s one aria away from becoming an opera singer mid-crime scene analysis. This movie is chaotic, quotable, and a masterclass in late-‘90s over-the-top machismo. It may not win awards, but it definitely wins drinking games. | © Franchise Pictures

Cropped Ghost Dog The Way of the Samurai — 16. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

Only Jim Jarmusch could dream up a movie where Forest Whitaker plays a pigeon-loving, sword-wielding hitman who follows the ancient code of the samurai… while living on a rooftop in Jersey. *Ghost Dog* is a low-fi, meditative hitman film that blends mob movies, hip-hop culture, and Eastern philosophy into something uniquely poetic and oddly zen. RZA of Wu-Tang Clan not only scores the film with his signature style, but also pops in for a moment of pure fanservice. Whitaker’s performance is all quiet intensity, as he glides through the story like a ghost in a trench coat, reading ancient texts and chopping down mobsters with grace. It’s not your average assassin movie – but that’s exactly the point. | © Artisan Entertainment

Cropped Road to Perdition — 15. Road to Perdition (2002)

Tom Hanks trades in his affable everyman charm for a cold, calculated silence as Michael Sullivan, a mob enforcer with a knack for trench coats and sorrow. Set in the gloomy heart of Depression-era America, *Road to Perdition* is a moody tale of fathers, sons, and the emotional toll of shooting people in the face. Directed by Sam Mendes with the visual poetry of a prestige drama, this is a hitman movie that whispers more than it shouts – but when it does go loud, it’s thunderous. Paul Newman, in his final live-action role, is all icy gravitas, while Daniel Craig gets to brood and menace long before the Bond gig. Jude Law creeps around like a rat-faced reaper with a camera. This is prestige pulp at its classiest. | © DreamWorks Pictures

Cropped The Bourne Identity — 14. The Bourne Identity (2002)

Jason Bourne wakes up in the ocean with amnesia, a bullet wound, and the kind of reflexes that turn rolled-up magazines into lethal weapons. Matt Damon turns in a career-defining performance as the confused-but-deadly spy in *The Bourne Identity*, a thriller that told James Bond to take a hike and get a better cardio routine. Directed by Doug Liman, this lean, propulsive flick introduced shaky-cam chases, close-quarters combat, and Damon's permanently furrowed brow to a whole generation of action fans. Franka Potente plays the ride-or-die companion we all wish we had on our Eurotrip, even if the itinerary includes murder and memory loss. It’s espionage with anxiety and a body count. | © Universal Pictures

Cropped A Bittersweet Life — 13. A Bittersweet Life (2005)

If a hitman movie could sip espresso and listen to jazz while bleeding out emotionally, it would be *A Bittersweet Life*. Lee Byung-hun is all slicked-back hair and soul-crushing restraint as Sun-woo, a suave enforcer whose one act of disobedience – spared out of mercy – unleashes a slow-motion spiral of betrayal, violence, and existential collapse. Directed with noir cool by Kim Jee-woon, this South Korean stunner is as much a style clinic as it is a brutal meditation on loyalty and loneliness. Lee’s performance is magnetic, a silent scream behind designer suits and dead-eyed stares. The action? Bone-snappingly intimate, operatically framed, and soaked in bitter irony. Revenge never looked this good. | © CJ Entertainment

Cropped The Killer 1989 — 12. The Killer (1989)

John Woo’s *The Killer* is basically ballet with bullets, choreographed with twin pistols and heartfelt melodrama. Chow Yun-fat plays an assassin with a conscience (and an incredible coat), who accidentally blinds a singer during a hit and decides to make amends the only way he knows how: by killing *more* people, but, like, with honor. This is peak heroic bloodshed cinema – slow motion doves, operatic gunfights, and more emotional subtext in a stare than most rom-coms manage in two hours. Danny Lee plays the detective hot on his heels, but the real romance is between these two men locked in a fatal dance of duty and mutual respect. This isn’t just an action movie – it’s a love letter written in gunpowder. | © Golden Princess Film Production

Cropped The American Friend — 11. The American Friend (1977)

Leave it to director Wim Wenders to take the hitman genre and drape it in arthouse existentialism and cowboy hats. *The American Friend* stars Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley, a morally dubious art dealer who pulls a mild-mannered German picture framer – played by the brilliant Bruno Ganz – into a world of murder, manipulation, and moody lighting. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s *Ripley’s Game*, this is less “guns blazing” and more “staring into the abyss and lighting a cigarette about it.” Hopper does his best manic loner thing, while Ganz grounds the film with quiet devastation. It’s all paranoia, train stations, and a sense of doom hanging in the air like cigarette smoke in a Berlin jazz club. | © Filmverlag der Autoren

Cropped John Wick — 10. John Wick Saga (2014–2023)

Once upon a time, someone killed a retired hitman’s dog – and accidentally unleashed the four-movie ballet of headshots that is the *John Wick* saga. Keanu Reeves plays the boogeyman of the underworld with minimal words and maximum trigger discipline. Across these stylish chapters, he shoots, stabs, and spin-kicks his way through an assassin-filled alternate universe where every bartender is a hitman, and gold coins somehow cover all expenses. Directed with deadly precision by Chad Stahelski (Reeves’ former stunt double!), the franchise is pure choreography, revenge, and puppy-powered pathos. From The Continental Hotel to duels at sunrise, this is myth-making through muzzle flash. Also, shoutout to Laurence Fishburne for bringing Morpheus energy to the Pigeon King of New York. | © Summit Entertainment / Lionsgate

Cropped The Villainess — 9. The Villainess (2017)

Take *Kill Bill*, shove it into a blender with *La Femme Nikita* and a GoPro, and you’ve got *The Villainess –* a full-throttle South Korean action opera with more style per frame than most films manage in their entire runtime. Kim Ok-bin plays Sook-hee, a woman raised to kill who becomes both a government asset and a ticking time bomb of vengeance. From the jaw-dropping first-person hallway massacre to motorcycle sword fights (yes, really), this film isn’t just action-packed – it’s action-obsessed. Director Jung Byung-gil isn’t content with just shooting an assassin movie; he’s practically doing parkour with the camera. And Kim? She’s a force of nature – deadly, vulnerable, and absolutely magnetic. | © Next Entertainment World

Cropped Fallen Angels — 8. Fallen Angels (1995)

Welcome to Wong Kar-wai’s version of a hitman story – where loneliness is louder than gunshots and everyone’s drenched in rain, neon, and unspoken longing. *Fallen Angels* is a dreamy, offbeat spiritual cousin to *Chungking Express*, and it’s got hitmen, weirdos, and heartache in equal measure. Leon Lai plays the emotionally checked-out assassin who wants to quit the business, while Michelle Reis – cool as an ice cube in a martini glass – plays his lovesick partner who may or may not be stalking him. There’s also Takeshi Kaneshiro as a mute delinquent who could carry his own movie, and arguably does. This film isn’t about plot – it’s about mood, texture, and the aching beauty of disconnection. It’s a noir-drenched poem for the emotionally repressed. | © Jet Tone Production

Cropped La Femme Nikita — 7. La Femme Nikita (1990)

Before *Alias*, *Colombiana*, or even *Kill Bill*, there was *La Femme Nikita –* Luc Besson’s sleek, stylish dive into the psyche of a punk criminal turned elite government assassin. Anne Parillaud brings fierce vulnerability to Nikita, a woman who goes from junkie to killer to someone desperately trying to find her way back to a life that isn’t soaked in blood and mascara. It’s spy school meets fashion noir, with a side of Parisian nihilism. Jean Reno makes an unforgettable appearance as Victor “The Cleaner,” basically inventing the cinematic idea of a one-man disposal service. This film’s DNA is in half the genre that came after it. *La Femme Nikita* didn’t just influence assassin movies – it assassinated the old rulebook. | © Gaumont

Cropped In Bruges — 6. In Bruges (2008)

Martin McDonagh’s *In Bruges* is what happens when hitmen get sent to purgatory... and it looks suspiciously like a medieval Belgian postcard. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play two Irish assassins hiding out after a botched job, waiting for orders from their hilariously unhinged boss, played by Ralph Fiennes with nuclear rage. Farrell gives a career-best performance as the guilt-ridden Ray, torn between self-loathing and marveling at Bruges’ fairy-tale towers. This is part buddy comedy, part existential drama, part “what if Beckett wrote a shootout?” It’s profane, deeply funny, and shockingly emotional – with moments that hit harder than any bullet. Who knew redemption could be found in a bell tower... or maybe not? | © Focus Features

Cropped Le Samourai — 5. Le Samouraï (1967)

Alain Delon doesn't just *play* a hitman in *Le Samouraï –* he *becomes* a walking mood board for minimalism and melancholy. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, this French neo-noir masterpiece turns the idea of an assassin into a meditative art form. Delon’s Jef Costello barely speaks, barely blinks, and barely seems alive – except when he’s executing with surgical precision. Dressed in a trench coat, living in a bird-filled apartment, and operating by an internal code more rigid than a katana blade, Jef is less man and more ghost. This film is the blueprint for all the stylish loners that followed – *Drive*, *Ghost Dog*, even *John Wick* owe it a silent nod. It's the coolest movie where barely anything happens… until everything does. | © Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie

Cropped Leon The Professional — 4. Léon: The Professional (1994)

What happens when a milk-chugging, plant-loving hitman accidentally becomes a surrogate father? You get *Léon: The Professional*, Luc Besson’s oddly tender tale of an emotionally stunted assassin and the precocious 12-year-old who forces him to grow a soul. Jean Reno plays Léon with childlike awkwardness and surprising depth, while Natalie Portman makes her jaw-dropping debut as Mathilda, a kid who’s seen way too much and decides revenge is a valid extracurricular. Gary Oldman, meanwhile, chews the scenery like it’s a buffet, giving us one of the most unhinged villains in cinema (“*EVERYONE!!!*”). It’s violent, stylish, controversial, and weirdly moving – a hitman fairy tale that somehow works. | © Gaumont Buena Vista International

Cropped Kill Bill — 3. Kill Bill Saga (2003–2004)

Leave it to Quentin Tarantino to turn revenge into a two-volume blood opera, starring Uma Thurman as The Bride, a wronged assassin who slices her way through the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad with a Hattori Hanzo sword and ice-cold resolve. *Kill Bill* is a glorious genre mash-up – kung fu, spaghetti westerns, anime, grindhouse, all shaken into a cinematic cocktail and served with arterial spray. From the iconic Crazy 88 showdown to the cryptic, whistling Elle Driver, every frame is soaked in style and soaked in… well, also blood. Thurman is magnetic, fierce, and somehow heartbreaking even as she’s plucking out eyes. David Carradine brings tragic gravitas as the soft-spoken, flute-playing final boss. If catharsis had a kill count, this would be it. | © Miramax Films

Cropped Pulp Fiction — 2. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Hitmen have never talked so much – or so stylishly – as they do in *Pulp Fiction*, the pop-culture grenade that made Quentin Tarantino a household name. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson play Vincent and Jules, two philosophical assassins who’ll debate foot massages one minute and quote the Bible the next (before blowing your brains out). It’s a non-linear, genre-splintering fever dream that somehow includes a heroin overdose, a dance contest, and a briefcase that glows like divine judgment. Jackson delivers monologues like they’re Shakespeare with a side of ammo, while Travolta moonwalked back into stardom. Add Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, and Ving Rhames to the mix, and you’ve got a hitman movie that’s somehow about everything except the hits. | © Miramax Films

Cropped No Country For Old Men — 1. No Country for Old Men (2007)

And now, the number one spot goes to... a hitman who makes most other hitmen look like toddlers with foam swords. Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh isn’t just a killer – he’s fate with a terrible haircut and a cattle gun. In the Coen Brothers’ *No Country for Old Men*, the violence is abrupt, the tension unbearable, and the morality as murky as West Texas dust. Bardem won an Oscar for the kind of performance that haunts your dreams and ruins coin tosses forever. Josh Brolin is great as the doomed everyman, and Tommy Lee Jones gives the film its soul, all weary wisdom and existential sighs. It's bleak, brilliant, and bone-dry – a masterclass in how chilling an assassin can be when he doesn’t need style to kill. | © Miramax Films / Paramount Vantage

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Looking for the best hitman and assassin movies that deliver suspense, style, and deadly precision? Whether you're a fan of sleek contract killers, emotionally complex antiheroes, or adrenaline-pumping action, this list of the top 20 hitmen and assassin movies has something for every thrill-seeker. From cult classics to modern masterpieces, these films explore the dark world of professional killers, blending action, drama, and intrigue. Perfect for crime movie buffs or anyone craving high-stakes storytelling, these titles are sure to leave a lasting mark. Dive into our killer lineup and discover which assassin flicks made the cut.

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Looking for the best hitman and assassin movies that deliver suspense, style, and deadly precision? Whether you're a fan of sleek contract killers, emotionally complex antiheroes, or adrenaline-pumping action, this list of the top 20 hitmen and assassin movies has something for every thrill-seeker. From cult classics to modern masterpieces, these films explore the dark world of professional killers, blending action, drama, and intrigue. Perfect for crime movie buffs or anyone craving high-stakes storytelling, these titles are sure to leave a lasting mark. Dive into our killer lineup and discover which assassin flicks made the cut.