Bloody Holidays! 10 Great Film Assassins from Movie History3

By B.Z., Dec 15, 2009 in Pink, Pop Culture

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Bloody Holidays! KoldCast TV Picks 10 Great Film Assassins from Movie History

Assassins are some of the most intriguing characters in movies today. Why? Because they kill for a living, and that’s not exactly a run of the mill occupation. They are antiheroes, which is why, oddly, we are attracted to them. For example, take Samuel L. Jackson’s character of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. Audiences should hate this cold-hearted killer, but instead we can’t get enough of him. Ditto for Leon in The Professional and Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. And then there’s Natalie Cross from KoldCast’s own web series “Pink”. She destoys her targets quicker than a frog in a blender, and we cheer for her while she does it. While the holidays are perhaps a time meant to celebrate the people we love, we thought it’d be more fun to celebrate the people we loved to watch kill. Below are 10 great film assassins from the silver screen.

1. John Cusack as Martin Blank – Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

Martin Blank is a contract killer hunting his mark while on a trip home for a high school reunion. Chaos ensues as Martin trips over his old stomping grounds, encountering former classmates and falling back in love with his high school sweetheart. Once he finds out that the father of his long-lost love is also is his mark, Martin is forced to choose between his rekindled love and his career.

2. Tom Cruise as Vincent – Collateral (2004)

Vincent isn’t your average thug with a gun. He’s a cold, calculating, killing machine. To avoid detection, he hires a cab driver to take him from mark to mark. Like a seasoned professional, he is able to separate all human emotion from the job at hand, no matter the mark or the setting.

3. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield – Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pulp Fiction is arguably Tarantino’s best film, and Jules may very well be his best character. While he is a diabolically ruthless killer, he’s also been touched by fate. After a near death experience, Jules believes the hand of God is influencing his actions. A changed man, he decides only to use violence to save himself and those he’s protecting, making him one of the few hitmen on this list with a heart.

4. Jean Reno as Leon – The Professional (1994)

Leon is another assassin with a soft spot. After his neighbor Mathilda, played by a young Natalie Portman, is orphaned by crooked DEA agents, he decides to take her under his wing. While on the lam from the cops, Leon teaches Mathilda not only the inner-workings of the assasin life, but also how to become a proper young woman. Leon gets bonus points for battling a super creepy Gary Oldman.

5. Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh – No Country For Old Men (2007)

Guns are for amateurs, and Anton knows it. That’s why he likes using a canister of compressed air to kill his victims. He’s the kind of hitman that keeps other hitmen awake at night, and it’s not just because of the haircut. Bardem’s Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor was indeed well-deserved.

6. Uma Thurman as The Bride – Kill Bill 1 & 2 (2003, 2004)

Props to Uma for being a bad-ass, female assassin! After getting shot in the face, raped, buried alive, and beaten senseless, The Bride gets up and “survives” her way through two movies. By the end she emerges triumphant and finally kills Bill. But that doesn’t mean Kill Bill 3 is out of the question. Right, Tarantino?

7. Matt Damon as Jason Bourne – The Bourne Identity (2003)

Jason Bourne can’t remember who he is or where he’s going, but he can remember how to kill a man with his bare hands – and he does this many, many times. He’s highly skilled and capable of taking out anyone who crosses his path. The only problem is figuring out what he’s doing on his path in the first place. Did we mention he can kill a man with his bare hands?

8. Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47 – Hitman (2007)

Targeting both the conspiracy theory crowd and the world of gamers, Hitman nails its mark. Agent 47 is a rouge operator separated from an agency of independent contract killers that work around the world. After inadvertently saving the life of one of his marks, Agent 47 defies decades of training and turns the tables on his former handlers. In the process, Agent 47 becomes one of the more sucessful characters to make the leap from video games to the silver screen.

9. Bridget Fonda as Maggie Hayward – Point of No Return (1993)

Maggie Hayward from Point of No Return is definitely not your conventional assassin. After all, she starts out as a junkie without any intention of murder. It’s only after the government sucks the life (and the heroin) out of her that she becomes a cold-blooded murderer. This assassin was so successful that she spawned a TV series.

10. Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator – The Terminator (1984)

Before he was the gubernator, Arnold was known as a time-traveling mechanized android assassin. Sent from the future to wipe out John Connor while he’s still in egg form, the Terminator is arguably the most well-known assasin on this list. Due largely to the fact that he’s a machine and not a human, the Terminator will do whatever it takes to bring down his prey. But despite his lack of emotion and his amazing physical prowess, he can’t manage to kill his target. Go figure!

So those are our picks. We know we missed some kick-ass assassins and you shouldn’t let us get away with that! Tell us your favorites, and maybe we’ll publish them in a follow-up article. But don’t bother calling us out on Boba Fett. That pansy never killed anyone on film.