The Velvet Rocket

The Best Movie Shootout Scenes, The Best Gun Scenes, The Best Movie Gun Scenes… Give it the title you want. I tried to collect the very best.

Hands down, I think the best movie shootout scene of all time is the sequence in Heat between the bank robbers and the police. Simply incredible and like most people reminds me of the North Hollywood shootout in 1997

Children of Men – best urban combat sequence I have ever seen (blood spatters on the camera, anyone?)

Embedding was disabled with this clip, but follow this link and watch it in HD. You won’t regret it.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Climactic final shootout scene. Some people think these Sergio Leone (the director) scenes are too long, but I think they are brilliant.

A Fistful of Dollars – “Get three coffins ready.”

For a Few Dollars More – The final duel

Predator – sweeping the jungle

The Wild Bunch – clearing a town (literally)

Equilibrium – almost like dancing (except with guns)

The Matrix – making a memorable entrance

Collateral – Vincent recovering his briefcase

Scarface – “Say hello to my little friend” (or how to clear a mansion Tony Montana style)

The Professional – eliminating the S.W.A.T. team in his apartment

The Limey – “You tell him I’m coming!”

Embedding is disabled, but here is the link:

Unleashed – OK, this is a bit of a stretch, but I needed an excuse to include this opening fight imagery. And Jet Li does get shot at and so it’s technically a gun scene.

Embedding disabled again:

The Terminator – clearing a police station

Death Wish 3 – Charles Bronson dealing with car thieves

Hard Boiled – a compilation of the ending hospital sequence

Open Range – not normally a Kevin Costner fan, but I have to acknowledge the quality of the ending shootout which had to be spread across three videos

Open Range – Part 2

Open Range – Part 3

Not all the best movie scenes involving guns necessarily involve them being fired…

Robert De Niro buying guns in Taxi Driver:

Now, some of you are probably thinking, “What about the sequence in Smokin’ Aces with the .50 caliber sniper rifle?” I agree with you, but I can’t find any clips of it on YouTube.

I’ve got to throw out honorable mentions to Fulltime Killer and Unforgiven and certainly movies like Full Metal Jacket or Platoon have great scenes involving guns, but since they are war movies, the whole movie is essentially about guns. I was looking more for individual gun sequences.

Please feel free to shred me in the comments section for any movies I may have neglected to highlight.