There's nothing quite like ending an action movie with a big shootout. Naturally, it's not going to make sense for every action movie to feature a gunfight in its climax, but if it's an action movie set in the modern day, lacks fantasy or sci-fi elements, and isn't afraid to have things get messy, a big climactic shootout can be just what the action-obsessed doctor ordered.
RELATED: Action Movies That Only Have One True Action Scene
Shootouts don't seem to be as popular an action movie trope as they used to be. It might be because many big-budget action movies in the last decade have been superhero movies, and few of those feature gunfights in general. Still, it's not a dead art, because even if the 10 movies below are getting on in years, they keep the spirit of the action movie shootout alive in our hearts, particularly when it comes to great endings.
This list will contain some spoilers for the films discussed.
'Hard Boiled' (1992)
John Woo does cinematic shootouts better than just about any other director working today. As such, Hard Boiled is far from his only movie to contain a great shootout in its climax, but it might well be the best climactic shootout the legendary Hong Kong director has filmed in his career so far.
Hard Boiled features a simple plot of two cops who will stop at nothing to take down a dangerous (and sizable) group of gun smuggling criminals. It's all an excuse to film increasingly spectacular action scenes, with the final one essentially taking up most of the film's final third. It's prolonged and never stops being exciting and a (literal) blast to watch, and is also notable for including an amazingly executed three-minute-long unbroken take during its hospital-set shootout.
'Inglourious Basterds' (2009)
Quentin Tarantino's World War 2 film Inglourious Basterds doesn't care for historical accuracy, and is all the better for it. It's revisionist history at its best, with its plot about various people during World War 2 trying to do as much damage to the Third Reich as possible ending with success: they even manage to take out Adolf Hitler himself, during the film's fiery climax.
It's obviously not what happened in real life, but seeing it play out on-screen makes for a thrilling and outrageously satisfying fantasy. The scene of the theater burning down while two of the main characters go out in a literal blaze of glory - with their machine guns blazing, too - makes for an appropriately crazy and awe-inspiring ending to one of Tarantino's best films.
'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1966)
The shootout that ends The Good, the Bad and the Ugly only involves three people with one gun each... and right after the dust settles, we find out one of those guns didn't even have any bullets. Yet it feels far from small-scale or anti-climactic: its Mexican Standoff finale makes for one of the most iconic end shootouts in cinema history.
RELATED: Popular Trilogies Where The Last Movie Was The Best
It's all to do with the execution, plus the fact the nearly three-hour epic western has spent its entire runtime building up to the final showdown between its three main characters. Ennio Morricone's music is remarkable, the editing dynamic and flawlessly-paced, and the setting itself unforgettable. Three men glaring suspiciously at each other in the desert for over five minutes before one of them gets shot doesn't sound like it would be exciting, but it's truly one of the most riveting scenes in movie history.
'High Noon' (1952)
High Noon's real-time storytelling is perhaps its defining feature, and the main reason why its climax works as well as it does. Its story focuses on a sheriff who tries to get the other people in his town to help him fight against a gang who are approaching the town, hellbent on revenge. When no one offers help, he realizes he needs to stand up to the vengeful gang alone.
The shootout itself is fairly standard western action, but it's everything that comes before that makes it feel more exciting and dramatic than the average western. The characters are richly developed, the setting of the action has been well-established, and the tension is palpable, because the gang in the climax has been a looming threat since the very start of the film. It's a perfect ending to a near-perfect, classic western.
'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1969)
For endings about characters going out in a blaze of glory, few do it better than Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The two title characters have been on the run from the law for most of the film, and when they find themselves outnumbered and cornered after a gunfight, they risk it all by charging out into the line of fire, guns blazing.
Even if their fates are sealed, we never see them die. There's a freeze-frame that concludes the film before that can be seen, which helps these legendary characters live on indefinitely, even if we know deep down, there's a close-to-zero possibility either could have survived what they charged out into.
'Heat' (1995)
.jpg)
Admittedly, Heat's climactic gunfight is not its most memorable action scene. The most iconic action scene in the film comes closer to the halfway point, when a large-scale bank robbery spirals out of control and into the streets, leading to a huge, loud, public, and very intense gunfight between robbers and police.
The consequences of Heat's largest action set-piece are explored throughout the epic film's final hour, and it all comes to a head with a one-on-one shootout at an airport at night, between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's characters. It's a smaller-scale shootout than what came before, but it's the mutual respect the two opponents share - and the fact they know only one's going to come out alive - that makes the gunfight so great.
'The Wild Bunch' (1969)
Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western The Wild Bunch is undoubtedly one of the greatest of all time. It follows a gang of outlaws who are getting on in years, and feel increasingly at odds with the world around them... so they decide to pull off one big score to go out on a high, so to speak, even if it'll cost them their lives.
RELATED: From 'Near Dark' to 'The Wild Bunch': The Best Westerns That Don't Involve Cowboys
Their bank robbery in the film's opening and elaborate train heist at its midpoint do end up proving fatal, as they make numerous enemies as a result. It gets to the point where they decide to depart the earth guns blazing, which leads to a spectacularly bloody and death-heavy climactic shootout. The level of carnage was unparalleled for its time, and the slow-motion utilized throughout makes it even more impactful. Over 50 years later, it remains one of the most iconic (and messiest) climactic shootouts of all time.
'Face/Off' (1997)
Face/Off stands as John Woo's best Hollywood movie, telling the bonkers story of an FBI agent and a dangerous terrorist who quite literally swap faces and slip into each other's identities, all the while pursuing each other while wearing the face of their sworn enemy.
Nicolas Cage and John Travolta both give gloriously over-the-top performances, and the action is top-notch throughout. Things come to a head with a big church shootout (complete with plenty of random doves; a John Woo trademark), and as a bonus, there's even a brutal fistfight on a high-speed boat right afterward. Face it: it's great stuff.
'The Killer' (1989)
There's one final John Woo movie that's worth mentioning, when it comes to the subject of epic ending shootouts. The Killer stands as perhaps his best movie, largely thanks to the fact that on top of having great action, it also contains an emotional story that comes to a head in a climax as emotionally powerful as it is action-packed and exciting.
The scale of action may have been increased by the time Hard Boiled came around in 1992, but The Killer's climax serves as a far more emotional one. Both are great for different reasons, but it speaks to Woo's range within the action genre that both are so brilliant for fairly different reasons.
'Scarface' (1983)
A classic rise-and-fall gangster movie, Scarface is a movie that shows the "fall" part of such a premise in an explosive, almost operatic fashion. Tony Montana's life crumbles around him even faster than he'd built it up, with things coming to a head in a huge shootout in his lavish mansion at the film's end.
It's pure insanity, but there's no better way for a gloriously excessive gangster movie like Scarface to end. Brian De Palma is a master of on-screen carnage and thrills, with Scarface's ending likely being the best action scene he's ever filmed.
