The 10 Best Movie Assassins Ever "What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?" By Nick Schager

The 10 Best Movie Assassins Ever

"What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?"

By Nick Schager

on October 24, 2014

Keanu Reeves comes out of retirement as a hired gun to sharpen his skills on the punks who slaughtered his pooch in John Wick, out today. It's a return to asskicking form for the actor that also stands as Hollywood's latest unabashed celebration of assassins. To be clear, by "assassin" we mean hard motherfkers who are trained and contracted as agents of death, often by shady government officials or underworld employers. Whether because of their methodical coolness, efficient lethality, or to-hell-with-the-law autonomy, assassins have always been a favorite of the movies, simultaneously exhilarating and horrifying us. Sometimes good and sometimes bad, these men are almost always fascinating. In honor Reeves's latest bout of intense stare-downs, we present the greatest assassins in movie history. 

Jules Winnfield, Pulp Fiction 

One of the enduring icons of '90s cinema, and the role that transformed Samuel L. Jackson from a likable character actor to a headlining star, Jules Winnfield is the most charismatic of the many characters populating Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. A killer with a philosophical soul and more than a hint of righteous fury, the profane, Jheri-curled Jules is the epitome of assassin cool—calm, reflective, and yet frighteningly fierce.

Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old Men

Walking tall and carrying a big captive bolt pistol, Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh is a hitman in search of missing money in Joel and Ethan Cohen's 2007 Oscar-winner No Country for Old Men. A dark specter haunting the Texas landscape, Chigurh's strange bowl cut, odd vocal inflections, and air of vacant amorality make him a figure of imposing, near-otherworldly viciousness. Not to mention one that, as the film's conclusion implies, can't be killed.

Léon, Léon: The Professional

Living alone in New York City (save for his pet plant), Jean Reno's Léon is a formidable and frequently funny mob-employed assassin in Luc Besson's 1994 The Professional. Compelled to protect a young girl (Natalie Portman) from the crooked cops (namely, an unhinged Gary Oldman) who murdered her family, Reno's protagonist is an endearingly sympathetic killer who ultimately uses his talents in the service of a noble, selfless cause.

Raymond Shaw, The Manchurian Candidate

Brainwashed by his mother (Angela Lansbury) to murder a presidential candidate as part of a vast ring-wing conspiracy in league with the communists, Laurence Harvey's Raymond Shaw is a patsy in John Frankenheimer's classic 1962 Cold War thriller The Manchurian Candidate. A gunman not by choice but by programming, Shaw is the assassin as unthinking robot—and unwitting victim. 

Jason Bourne, The Bourne Trilogy

Yes, he's only really an assassin in flashback, but there's no denying the skillset he obtained during his stint as the government's secret butcher. Like Shaw, Jason Bourne is a pawn looking to escape the control of his masters in the three original Bourne films (2002's The Bourne Identity, 2004's The Bourne Supremacy, 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum). Despite his franchise's awful shaky-cam aesthetics, Bourne remains a heroic assassin for the modern age, one who's driven to achieve self-actualization and right past wrongs by making those who used him pay for their crimes. 

Jef Costello, Le Samouraï

There was never a more dashing killer than Alain Delon's Jef Costello in Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 neo-noir gem Le Samouraï. Guided by a rigid set of professional rituals and an equally rigorous moral code, Jef carries out his work with painstaking precision, all while turning a trenchcoat and matching round-brimmed hat into the de facto uniform for classy crime-cinema assassins. 

Ghost Dog, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

A spiritual heir to Jef Costello's throne, Forest Whitaker's Ghost Dog is equal parts Eastern philosophical composure and Western pragmatic deadliness in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Jim Jarmusch's sterling 1999 genre mash-up. As a samurai-inspired assassin for the mob, Whitaker's Ghost Dog is a lone wolf in an urban forest full of villainous vipers, who kills his targets—and, ultimately, those who'd double-cross him—with silent ferocity. 

Angel Eyes, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Angel Eyes is "The Bad" in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and though he more than lives up to that nickname throughout Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western epic, he most fully confirms it early on when, after carrying out a hit on a Confederate soldier, he turns around and murders his employer too (albeit after getting paid). Embodied by the incomparably tough, steely-eyed Lee Van Cleef, he's the height of assassin mercilessness. 

Ah Jong, The Killer

John Woo's The Killer concerns a hitman with a heart of gold: Chow Yun-fat's Ah Jong, who accidentally blinds a young singer during the course of a brutal shootout and, to atone for his sin, accepts one last gig in order to pay for her eye surgery. A poetic ode to violence, Woo's film thrives on the stylish charm and intensity of its gun-double-fisting star Chow.

The Terminator, The Terminator

That said, no assassin in film history has ever been more terrifying or plain cooler than Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg in James Cameron's original The Terminator. Sent back in time to murder the mother (Linda Hamilton) of an unborn boy who'll eventually grow up to be humanity's rebel leader, Schwarzenegger's T-800 Model 101 villain is an unstoppable killing machine who stands as one of cinema's all-time greatest villains, in large part because you know he'll be back.

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