I’m not familiar with the Marvel character Deadpool. Apparently, DP [sic] is known for breaking the so-called “fourth wall,” addressing snarky comments directly to the viewer. In this clip, the self-aware superhero tells the audience that a gory bad guy massacre has left him feeling onanistic. Talk about TMI. Actually, let’s talk about cinematic gun fights. I haven’t seen a good one in a long time. But then I’m stuck behind this keyboard for most of what’s laughably called my life. The last best gunfight scene I saw was the infamous bit where Indy shoots a sword-wielding baddie without a second glance. Steer me in the right direction. What movies should I chase down? [NB: Post updated to remove – and now parade – my ignorance]

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

123 COMMENTS

  1. If you haven’t seen John Wick, you need to. The gun fights are the most realistic I’ve seen in a film in awhile. I mean they stop to reload after real world round counts and use back up guns when their main runs out.

    • John Wick had great gunplay and the most realistic storyline of any movie I’ve seen in a long time. Man has puppy. Puppy is murdered. Man kills everyone remotely associated with the murder of his puppy. Sounds reasonable to me.

      • Not only killed the puppy given to him by his beloved dead wife, but beat the crap out of him after which they stole his vintage ’69 Mach 1 mustang.

        Yep. I agree with John. Kill’ em all, and let G-d sort’em out.

        (I’m kidding, sort of.)

        • That was no mere Mustang – it was the God of all NASCAR engines – the mighty Boss 429 Mustang with the Cobra Jet Hemi motor with intake ports the size of beer cans. Estimated 500-600 HP.

          Wikipedia:
          “… is arguably one of the rarest and most valued muscle cars to date”

          When I saw it, “mr woody” entered the room. Oh, and the gunplay was righteous!

          My first car at 16 was a 1969 Mach I. My current project is a 1967 Mustang convertible with a 351W “sleeper” engine from 1969 that’s bored out to 383ci, ported, polished & balanced and looks just a little bigger than its little brothers, the 302/289. It will be still badged as a 289. I will race it … and smile again.

    • except for the fight at the club/swimming pool where he fired a G26 with a standard mag (10 +1). . . . he fired 13 rounds and no slidelock. I replayed it several times and had my wife help me count. Otherwise, his HK P30L was very nice and the round count was accurate

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-HSoOFdJ3s

    • Very good gun battles, true. Realistic in the stop to reload dept, true. Realistic in any other way, false, unless you are in the matrix.

  2. I’m not going to see deadpool because of the gunfights. I’m going to see it because it’s supposed to be über unrealistic and just a fun movie.

    If gunfights are the issue then you’ll surely have issue with how he is a literal bullet sponge and walks them off like they’re nothing 😉

    • The Merc with a mouth. A guy who can’t die no matter what you do to him do to him due to the growth factor and with a personality disorder bordering on schizophrenia (hence the talking to the ‘fourth wall’ may be talking to that person in his head.. Not the kind of movie you got to for realism.

    • He’s in love with Death too in the comics.

      It’s a geek fandom. I realize Marvel anything makes great clickbait but this was reaching.

      Why not make a post asking how Black Widow’s bullets were destroying steel robots in the last Avenger’s movie?

      • The fact that they said “Don’t make the suit Green or Animated” to poke fun of the horrid CG on the green latern movie is clue enough that the movie will be a good one…we hope.

        • Besides which, it’s on the X-Men side of the Marvel-verse. Those have been generally better than the superhero side Disbey controls even with the way they butchered the Dark Phoenix saga and ithe movie-movie continuity issues.

  5. Some of the grittier, non-blockbuster movies have some good ones. “Slow West” has a couple, but they seem to be of the more realistic variety, as in no chop-socky gun acrobatics. Just a damn good movie in the vein of “The Proposition.” I highly recommend it.

    • Please don’t reference that movie. Everything was horrible, including that completely unrealistic sniper shootout.

  7. Blue motherf#! $ing Ruin! (Actual non-obscenity title: Blue Ruin)

    So realistic there are no gunfights. Just shootings. The main character uses a Circuit Judge, which earns the film HUGE cred for originality and realism.

    • This. I love his redneck friend’s gun collection. It is the exact collection that a guy like that would have.

  10. After reading this article I have to ask, “Why would you write about something you don’t know anything about?” It’s based on a comic book! They’re not written to be realistic.
    If you miss Dirty Harry so much, go rent it.

    • I thought the same thing. RF doesn’t strike me as a comic fan, or having one clue about the universe the stories are based in. He’s focused on guns, nothing else.

    • Really? Horrible gunfight, Hollywood at its finest. I think there were about 200 bullet holes that came out of each glock in one bad guys hand shooting at the bus. Can we get SOME realism?

    • The fourth episode of Season 2 gunfight of True Detective was Michael Mann worthy… Very well produced for television.

    • Would have helped if the female cop wasn’t from the Rick Grimes School of Shooting The Ground and Not Using Your Sights.

  14. Yep-catch John Wick RF…I don’t know what to think-but I want to see it next year…

  15. The one thing that the author said in this opinion piece that is absolute truth is only Clint Eastwood knows how to make a great gunfight scene in movies.

    • Yeah, screwed it up. Revised. Thanks for keeping me honest (i.e. revealing my stupidity).

      • @Robert:
        So, have you yet seen John Wick? If not, why not do so and let us know what you think. It’s pretty damn good, and there are no TMI moments that come to mind. ?

  16. Going South. A gunfight involving Jach Nicholson, Danny Devito, Christopher Loyd, John Belushi….

  17. What about the shoot’em up action fest of “Wanted”? Now that’s some stylistic gun fighting.

  18. Michael Mann knows how to make real gunfights but unfortunately he hasn’t made any notable movies since “Public Enemies”

  19. Depends upon what kind of gun fights you’re talking about. I thought Fury was solid, as was Saving Private Ryan.

  20. Had a USMC infantry officer recommend I watch the street gun fight in “Heat” for it’s realism. I wouldn’t know…

    • Michael Mann usually goes the extra mile to ensure gunplay in his movies is as realistic as possible.

  21. I think the best I’ve ever seen was in saving private Ryan or the band of brothers series. Not really “gun fight” movies but they’ve always had the most realistic gun play. Mags tend to empty frequently, people don’t reload in one second, people just suddenly catch a stray round out of nowhere, they don’t just drop and die instantly after getting hit, they lay there and scream and bleed out slowly while the battle continues. Shits just flying around and it’s hard to figure out what’s going on. That’s pretty damn realistic.

  22. The basement shootout in Inglourious Basterds. Really, any gunfight in any Tarantino-associated movie.

  24. Nobody’s seen The Departed??? Everyone dies, mostly by a single pistol shot to the brain stem from 2 inches away. That’s how real murders happen.

    • Yeah-my favorite “gangster-cop” movie! Except the 2 Aussies would be dead in real life-like all the crooked cops blasted with 00buck…

  28. You do know about the motel shootout in “Way of the Gun”, right? Extra bonus is you get to see Sarah Silverman get walloped in the opening scene of the movie

    • I second way of the Way of the Gun. I also enjoyed the van scene and how they used it for concealment.

    • Way of the Gun…pretty much all the way through.

      Sarah getting cracked in the nose is one of the best opening scenes ever.

      No coincidence that Cann was in Thief, and Way of the Gun.

  29. Whats wrong with over the top, fake gunfights? My absolute favorite gun movie is Shoot ’em up. It’s just so outrageous that you have to love it.

    • That scene where the SWCC rounds the bend in the river and opens up on the cartel thugs with a minigun is just great…

  31. Buy stock in Magnum Research, if this movie does well every guy and his brother is going to want a Desert Eagle.

  32. You have all failed ridiculously! The by far best gun blazing movie ever….. Shoot Em’ Up. Check out the guns blazing sex scene middle of movie.

  33. A special mention should go to “The Replacement Killers,” where Chow Yun-Fat and Ken Tsang have a reload race at the end. That may be the only time in the movies I’ve seen empty guns locked back instead of just going “click.”

    Come to think of it, any John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat movie is gunfight gold,

    • Windtalkers. The least realistic, sub-B-movie grade production I’ve ever had the pleasure of cancelling 15 minutes in.

      Thanks John Woo.

      • And the reason Woo no longer works in Hollywood.

        His HK stuff was better. “Hard Boiled” was insane.

    • The main issue I have with the movie is that it transitions back and forth between period correct muzzle loader revolvers to then non-existent cartridge pistols, sometimes in the same scene. Cartridge conversions were all post-war. There are a couple of places where you can see that Angel Eyes has no percussion caps on his pistol, yet it seems to shoot just fine.

  36. Maybe it’s just me, but the gun-use in LA Confidential was pretty ok. Nothing fancy, just a lot of Remington shotguns & police-issue .38s, with the ocassional 1911 for flavor.

  37. The problem with accurately depicted gunfights ; in real life they tend to end conflicts pretty decisively.That’s bad when you’re writing a screenplay to entertain someone for two hours straight.

    Wouldn’t be much of a movie if the bad guy got ventilated ten seconds past the opening montage. Fist and swordfights, however, can be drawn out without suspending disbelief too much.

    Try this sometime-watch a typical action movie, but give the victim/protagonist a gun at the first appearance of the bad guy.I’ll betcha the plot stops fast doesn’t it?

    • Watch The Rover. Guy armed with a rifle inside a house takes on three guys with pistols pulling up in a car. Was about what you would honestly expect to happen.

  38. Older, but nonetheless worth the time…

    “Way of the Gun”

    “Unforgiven”

    And, of course, “Heat”

      • Happily surprised to see someone mention “Way of the Gun,” as it’s a little obscure. It’s one of my favorite gun movies. I remember being impressed that it was obvious the actors had been given some real training in how to handle their weapons, move from cover to cover, reload on the move etc.

        Another one that comes to mind as pretty realistic, very un-Hollywood, is “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” The bedroom shootout scene strikes me as the way something just might have happened in the real world – two guys emptying their blackpowder revolvers at each other in a panic across the room with very little effect, a third guy jumping out a window and nearly breaking his leg, and finally a fourth ending the fight with a carefully aimed shot to the head of one of the antagonists who now has an empty gun. Not very romantic, which was kind of the point of the whole film.

  39. Check out “Collateral”
    Tom cruise as a hit man. The shoot in the alley when retrieving his briefcase is beautiful. It’s obvious he worked with a serious pistolero to learn those moves

    • Unfortunately, it’s also still obvious that its Hollywood. If you watch the second thug (who had already reached under his coat and presumably grabbed his pistol while they were walking up to Cruise) once Cruise makes his move against the first thug, you will see him needlessly wagging his arm back and forth to give Cruise time to finish off the first guy and then shoot him. Same with the German NCO in Saving Private Ryan when he and Tom Sizemore square off, realize their primaries are empty, and go for their handguns.

      • From what I understand, that scene originally wasn’t going to have the second thug struggle with his gun, it just occurred naturally during the shooting. And the Director decided to keep it in that way.

    • 6:00-7:20 in that clip is my vote for the best gunfight on TV. It’s also a real problem if you are playing the Damien Scott Drinking Game.

  41. Uhh…. just as kind of a friendly FYI to the writer of this article. The character Deadpool is SUPPOSED to act just like that. Complete with far over the top action and impossible shots as well as how he llikes to break the fourth wall.

    I full agree with the idea of how gun play is portrayed in media and how completely unrealistic it is. But this is a story and charter that’s SUPPOSED to me that off the wall and realistic. Deadpool just isn’t the charter you look to for realism.

  42. The third Cinemax-produced season of Strike Back just hit store shelves yesterday, in the U.S. You need to pick it up, as well as the two seasons previous. Tons of gun porn, and most of it very realistically depicted.

    Also, +1 for Way of the Gun, and for Jack Reacher – two McQuarrie films that show his gunplay prowess before he sold out to Mission: Impossible.

  45. In TV land I highly recommend Strike Back. The lead actors were trained by the SAS.

    For Anime geeks, there is the short Cat Shit One where commando rabbits take out terrorist camels, and Ghost In the Shell movies and series.

  48. I keep trying to post a link to a great list of movie shootouts, but your sh!tty commenting system apparently won’t let me.

    Fine, I’ll give you some homework: Google “Cinefix top movie shootouts” Click first YouTube video result.

  49. Deadpool not only breaks the fourth wall, he knows he’s fictional and he’s aware of things from outside his fictional world, whatever medium he’s in. For example, in fighting games, he’s used part of the UI (health bars, etc.) as weapons. In comics, he’s referenced issue numbers, authors, comics written by other publishers. He’s a really meta character. As others have mentioned, realism is the last thing you should expect out of a Deadpool movie.

    As for good gunfights, I really enjoyed the gun handling in Heat. The big gun battle in the street had some nice examples of mag changes, and cover and movement. I don’t know how “realistic” all that was, since I have no reference, but it looked pretty plausible.

  51. “John Wick” is great, and deserves to be on the list, but the fact that so many more commenters mention it compared to “Heat” makes me think the average age around here must be much younger than I thought. Watch the main shootout in ‘Heat’, then watch the footage of the North Hollywood shootout which happened a few years later – it basically confirms that Mann nailed the realism of a shootout like that about as close as is possible within the confines of a narrative film.

  53. Way of the gun hands down the use of concealment, cover fire, & the FAL shooting through walls. Oh I double that the Sarah Silverman shellacking was a great way to start off any pic.

  54. My familiarity with Deadpool is limited, but as I understand it, they’ve got him right. He’s called the “Merc with a Mouth” for a reason.

  55. If you haven’t seen Saving Private Ryan, there’s no hope for you, another good one is Windtalkers, or you might try Sands of Iwo Jima.

  56. In no particular order and no I haven’t seen all of these movies.
    Good Gun Handling Movies:

    1. Way of the Gun
    2. Heat
    3. We Were Soldiers
    4. Blackhawk Down
    5. Michael Collins
    6. Cross of Iron
    7. Proof of Life
    8. Steve McQueen in it…Bullit, Tom Horn, The Getaway, and The Hunter
    9. Quigley Down Under
    10. U.S. Marshalls
    11. Collateral
    12. Ronin
    13. The Replacement Killers
    14. Saving Private Ryan
    15. The Patriot
    16. Last of the Mohicans
    17. The Shootist
    18. The Professional
    19. La Femme Nikita
    20. Tremors
    21. The Wild Bunch
    22. Terminator 2
    23. Tears of the Sun
    24. Act of Valor (duh!)
    25. Lone Survivor
    26. American Sniper
    27. Enemy at the Gates
    28. Unforgiven
    29. The Ghost and the Darkness
    30. The Kingdom
    31. Taken
    32. John Wick
    33. Jack Reacher
    34. Man on Fire
    35. Blood Diamond
    36. Spartan
    37. Sahara – Steve Zahn
    38. Miami Vice
    39. Doom
    40. Rambo
    41. Bravo Two Zero
    42. Jesse Stone TV series
    43. Winchester 73
    44. SWAT
    45. To Hell and Back
    46. The Outlaw Josie Wales
    47. Grosse Point Blank
    48. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
    49. Shooter
    50. Street Kings
    51. Rough Riders
    52. Thief
    53. LA Confidential
    54. Open Range
    55. The Great Raid
    56. The Unit

    • Scrolled alllllll the way down the list and finally, someone mentions Act of Valor.

      My buddies and I went nuts in the theater the whole movie.

      Especially bothersome to the Brits who didn’t seem to understand why the American troops were so hyped up.

  58. The old Chow Yun Fat films like Hardboiled and The Killer have awesome shootouts. Not realistic really but they feel real and gritty. Especially the shootout in the hospital where the scene doesn’t cut for a couple of minutes of action. Pretty impressive.

Comments are closed.