The 25 most memorable films about killers-for-hire

In Bruges is a hitman movie that aims at different targets and hits them all. It follows two hitmen who are stuck in Bruges, where they talk the days away over pints of beer. You may be wondering when the action is coming--don't worry, it's coming. But the real action comes from Martin McDonagh's dialogue, which crackles like fireworks and snaps like bullets.

Michael Mann's entry to the genre has something no other action movie has: Tom Cruise as a bad guy. Unless, of course, you count Cruise's loud-mouthed, hip-swiveling exec in Tropic Thunder, which might be our favorite Cruise performance ever. I mean, who doesn't laugh hysterically when Cruise dances in a bald cap? 

It's like I always say: never leave a bride on her wedding day. She'll come for you with a grudge and a sword. In Quentin Tarantino's action spectacle, a bride gets revenge on the man who left her at the altar.

Are you a hitman if you forgot you were a hitman? I guess so. According to the first Bourne flick, you never leave the hitman life behind. You just run from it in visceral, rapidly edited chase sequences.

Hitmen emerge from the shadows, woods, and mosaic colors of this conspiracy thriller from Bernardo Bertolucci. It's a mood piece with a message, as our protagonist learns that he's been living on the wrong side of fascism. 

A movie that makes you miss John Woo, The Killer reminds us what hitman movies can be. They can be operatic, atmospheric, and emotional, with birds fluttering amidst gunfire and assassins flipping around bombs. With heroes who have motives and villains who have reasons. With style! 

Assassins and vigilantes are often one and the same. Sure, Charles Bronson's hero isn't getting paid to clean up the streets of New York, but there's not much difference between what he does and what, say, James Bond does besides the pulpy murders, of course.

The John Wick series is running out of ways to top itself. A car chase with Keanu Reeves swerving into bad guys isn't enough? Let's put him in a glass tower that lights up. Some of it is over-the-top, but the original is still operatically simple. 

The polar opposite of action franchises like John Wick and Taken. This French thriller is icily restrained. Alain Delon hides under a fedora as he hides from cops around Paris. It's a thriller that prioritizes tone over action, which is refreshing in this age of digital explosions. 

Hollywood meets art house in this thriller about a hitman taking a girl under his wing. Let's just say that anyone who bullies Natalie Portman's heroine is going to regret it, especially the bad guys after her father.

Don't be fooled. These guys might look like they're on their last legs but they are a lot more competent than they seem. This Coen Brothers classic sees an aging cop take on a withering villain, who takes out victims with the flip of a coin. No matter how you flip it, this one has aged like wine.

An action movie from Wong-Kar Wai? Sign us up! The director of moody classics like In the Mood for Love, Wai delivered a hitman movie unlike any other with this tale of an assassin, a lover and a shop owner crossing paths in some of the most hypnotic scenes ever filmed.

Movie spies are basically hitmen with a bigger budget. They hunt down their targets, but instead of staying in cheap motel rooms, they travel the world, drink martinis and meet beautiful women. I guess that makes Bond a hitman — a really cool hitman, at that.

Let me make you an offer you can't refuse. Watch The Godfather Part II (after the first, of course) and find yourself lost in a world of mobsters, hitmen, hardworking immigrants, and family bonds. The Corleone family might be famous for their original recipe, but this is far from a plate of leftovers. It's both the appetizer and desert of the meal.

A man takes out his entire family to inherit their fortune. Only the British can turn that into a comedy, a satire black as tar yet light as the countryside on a sunny day.

It might just be Scorsese's finest achievement. This relentless hailstorm of violence and energy is as welcome as mom's pasta after a late night. For the hitmen in this thriller, that means a night of burying mobsters in the dirt.

Poor Hanna. She's just another girl turned into a merciless assassin by the government. It happens all the time — in her world at least — and she's going to be the one to put an end to it in this indie thriller.

There aren't hitmen like Mr. and Mrs. Smith anymore, not that we can think of. They act like movie stars, riff like comedians and shoot like professional snipers. They make for a fun pairing in a super fun romp.

Mobsters, hitmen, goodfellas, bad guys, and really bad fates — this is the millieu that Scorsese established with classics like Mean Streets and Goodfellas and established again with this story of Irish mobsters on Netflix. 

We promise this is the last Scorsese title on our list. It's hard not to pack our list with Scorsese films since so many of them deal with mobsters being sent to kill other mobsters. The director's only Best Picture Oscar win came with this gritty, star-heavy version of that formula. And while it's not his best work, it's a rousing thriller nonetheless.

Is it a hitman movie if the hitmen are hired by the government? I'm not sure. But given the pulse-pounding tension of Denis Villeneuve's across-the-border thriller, we're going to include it anyway. Rarely has the act of tracking down the cartel been so mesmerizing.

Before there was The Godfather and Goodfellas, there was Mafioso. The story of an Italian man who returns to his hometown of Sicily, this slow-burn thriller laid the groundwork for countless genre flicks, few of which have been able to equal its atmosphere. It starts out as a vacation film yet turns into something else entirely.

More Jason Bourne! This time he's after the organization that wiped his memory, making for a finale you'll never forget. 

Liam Neeson has a very particular set of skills. He can speak in a gruff voice, deliver one-liners, and wipe out an entire mob like Windex to a small stain. He can also sell it, which is what makes his revenge thriller such a phenomenon.

What more can we say about The Godfather that hasn't already been said? It's one of the best movies ever made, it changed the way we make movies and even changed the way we look at movies. Its story of the Corleone family is alive with wonderful details, inventive techniques, mobster violence and timeless murders.