To celebrate the release of The Virtuoso on Digital
Download 30 April and DVD 10 May, we’ve taken a look back at some of the
deadliest contract killers to have graced our screens.
In slick noir thriller The Virtuoso a new target falls
under the crosshairs of a ruthlessly efficient contract killer (Anson Mount, Star Trek: Discovery) when he’s given a mysterious job by his equally deadly boss (Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs). Heading into a snow-covered town under the cover of night, the
assassin must discover his target and take them out, before the hunter
becomes the hunted...
The Virtuoso shares many of the traits of cinema’s great
assassins: a cool exterior, a calmness under pressure, a calculating
mind and a deadly arsenal of weapons. But in true film form, when
dabbling in the dangerous world of contract killing a routine job can
quickly go wrong.
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
Based on the novel of the same name by acclaimed British thriller
writer Frederick Forsyth,
The Day of the Jackal cast Edward Fox as the
‘Jackal’, a contract killer who attempts to assassinate French president
Charles de Gaulle in the summer of 1963.
Although a fictionalised story, the film and the book both open with an
accurate depiction of the real-life assassination attempt on the
president’s life by Jean Bastien-Thiry of the French right-wing
terrorist group the OAS before entering the realm of fiction as the OAS
hire a professional assassin, the Jackal, to finish the job.
The film follows the Jackal as he attempts to set-up the perfect hit on
the president, while the French and British authorities scramble to
ensnare the mysterious hitman. Although (spoiler alert!) his
assassination is ultimately thwarted, the Jackal’s merciless dedication
to evade capture in the days leading up to the hit leaves a trail of
bodies.
A tightly plotted classic of suspense that ratchets up tension
throughout, The Day of the Jackal deservedly picked up a
BAFTA for Best Editing and remains to this day a blueprint for the
contract killer movie.
Leon: The Professional (1994)
Leon: The Professional
stars Jean Reno as the titular Leon, a professional assassin who
forms an unlikely relationship with a young girl called Mathilda (played
by Natalie Portman), after her family is murdered by a band of
corrupt DEA agents, lead by the unhinged Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman).
Although initially frosty, the pair's relationship soon grows strong as
Mathilda is drawn into the underground world of contract killing,
becoming Leon's deadly apprentice and ultimately leading to a violent
showdown with the loathsome Stansfield.
Although packed with graphic bloodshed and OTT action set-pieces, the
film is most notable for the unforgettable performances from the three
leads. This was Portman's first ever feature film appearance, Oldman's
role as the unhinged Stansfield is regularly listed as one of cinema's
greatest villains and Reno is pitch-perfect as the understated,
enigmatic hitman.
A great example of the hitman anti-hero in cinema that cemented Reno’s
reputation as a bona fide action star,
Leon: The Professional is a slick, shocking and iconic
classic of the genre.
Assassins (1995)
Assassins arrived in cinemas in 1995 armed with the
all-star cast of Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas and
Julianne Moore, along with top-tier talent behind the camera
including director Richard Donner (Superman) and writer Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) working from an original screenplay by The Wachowskis (The Matrix).
Stallone plays Robert Rath, an assassin looking to retire and troubled
by memories of a past hit. While out on a job, his work is interrupted
by Banderas’ Miguel Bains, a vicious new player looking to take the
number one assassin spot. The pair must face off in a race to take out a
new target, Moore’s computer hacker Electra (this was the '90s…), with
the score big enough for Rath to finally retire.
While a box-office success, the film was a target for critics and
Stallone was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for worst
performance… his second of the year after Judge Dredd!
Still, for a nostalgic slice of '90s action,
Assassins offers plenty of throwback fun.
Kill Bill (2003)
Director Quentin Tarantino and actor Uma Thurman came up
with the character of the ‘The Bride’ during the production of his
earlier hit Pulp Fiction, creating one of cinema’s most memorable and deadly assassins.
Opening on a violent slaughter in a tiny Texas chapel, The Bride is
left for dead by her former friends and partners, the Deadly Viper
Assassination Squad. Waking from a coma four years later, The Bride sets
out to get her revenge, using all her skills to take each member out,
one at a time…
Originally intended to be released as one single film, it would be
split into two due to the lengthy running time with this first part
featuring a brutal, close-quarters combat fight scene with
Vivica A. Fox, a trip to Okinawa to visit master sword maker
Hattori Hanzo (played by martial arts legend Sonny Chiba), an
epic yakuza takedown in a Tokyo restaurant and a final snow covered
sword fight against Lucy Liu’s gang leader O-Ren Ishii.
With a grindhouse sensibility and numerous homages to movie history,
from the obvious (Bruce Lee’s yellow
Game of Death tracksuit as sported by The Bride) to the
obscure ('70s Japanese film Lady Snowblood is riffed on in
the film’s blood soaked finale), the film incorporates everything from
Hong Kong action, Japanese jidaigeki, spaghetti westerns and
blaxploitation in a ‘roaring rampage of revenge’.
John Wick (2014)
For wall to wall action and a satisfying tale of revenge, look no
further than
John Wick.
Channeling his '90s action movie hits such as
The Matrix and Speed, Keanu Reeves gave us a new icon of cinema in John Wick, the
assassin with a heart who goes on a rampage against those who wronged
him.
After the death of his wife, John receives a Beagle puppy his wife sent
him as a gift before her passing. But all hell breaks loose when he
bumps into a band of shady Russian gangsters led by Tarasov (Alfie Allen), who try to buy his 1969 Ford Mustang. After John declines to sell,
the gangsters target him at home and steal his car. But the final straw
comes when they kill his dog, kick-starting a lethal chain-reaction as
one-by-one John destroys the Russian gang with fists, kicks, bullets and
blades.
A big critical and commercial hit, John Wick has spawned
two sequels,
John Wick: Chapter 2
and
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, with each further instalment upping the ante in terms of action and
expanding the myth of the deadly underground network of assassins that
is introduced in the first film. And with Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 due
over the coming years, John Wick’s story is still heating up… we can’t
wait to see where the franchise goes next!
The Virtuoso is on Digital Download 30 April and
DVD
10 May from Lionsgate UK.