11 Best Movies About Assassins & Hitmen (Like The Killer)

While director David Fincher’s Netflix-streaming hit The Killer has proven a hit with both critics and viewers, there are many more classic hitman and assassin movies that viewers ought to seek out. Hitmen and assassins have been central figures in crime cinema for decades. There is something endlessly intriguing about a cold-blooded killer who can take lives for money, and these characters have been murky, morally ambiguous antiheroes as often as they have been outright villains. Michael Fassbender’s stoic unnamed lead character in David Fincher’s The Killer is the latest hitman to win over audiences despite his grisly career.

While the end of Fincher’s The Killer reaffirms itself as a successful hitman movie, there are many more entries into this genre that are worthy watches. Some are more comedic, wringing dark laughs out of the gruesome work of killing, while others are action-packed extravaganzas that feature bloody bullet ballets. Still others are dark excursions into the minds of people who kill for a living, while some are surprisingly funny, playful deconstructions of the crime movie genre. However, what all of these movies have in common is a focus on the world of contract killers, assassins, and hitmen, as well as the people who hire them.

11 John Wick (2014)

A Spectacular Hitman-Centric Action Movie

The franchise-spawning 2014 hit John Wick saw Keanu Reeves take on the role of the titular contract killer, a retired hitman who is forced back into the game when his beloved dog is killed by a thoughtless villain. The growing John Wick franchise features some of the most impressive action set-pieces of all the movies listed here, as Reeves revives the action hero persona he perfected in earlier hits like Point Break and The Matrix movies. However, the John Wick series also has an admirable streak of self-aware humor, with a revenge-filled plot not too dissimilar to The Killer.

10 Kill List (2011)

Ben Wheatley’s Deeply Unsettling Hitman Horror

Director Ben Wheatley’s Kill List could not be a bigger departure from the glamorous, neon-drenched world of John Wick. A strange blend of kitchen-sink realism and folk horror, this British indie chiller sees a soft-spoken hitman watch his life unravel after he takes on one last job. What begins as a tragic story of a troubled man trying to make ends meet gradually devolves into a full-blown nightmare as Kill List uses the business of killing to ground an increasingly dark, surreal horror story.

9 Killing Them Softly (2012)

A Brutally Bleak Assassin Thriller

Long before director Andrew Dominik’s controversial Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde proved divisive, the helmer’s earlier effort Killing Them Softly followed a hitman’s attempts to clean up after an underworld poker game went gruesomely awry. Brad Pitt is in typically solid form as the brooding enforcer Jackie Cogan, but it is a dark sense of humor and a stellar ensemble cast that make this one unmissable. From Scoot McNairy to the late, great James Gandolfini, Killing Them Softly’s lineup makes for an unforgettable rogue’s gallery.

8 Pulp Fiction (1994)

Quentin Tarantio’s Legendary Crime Anthology

No list of great hitman movies would be complete without Quentin Tarantino’s time-twisting hit Pulp Fiction. Ironically, the antiheroes of this wild crime thriller are notable precisely because they act nothing like the average movie assassins, chatting about pop culture and fast food instead of ruminating on morality and society. However, even after decades of lesser imitators, Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta’s roles as a pair of cold-blooded killers, Jules and Vincent, remain unforgettable.

7 Killer Joe (2012)

Matthew McConaughey’s Creepy Pitch Black Comedy

The 2012 movie Killer Joe somehow managed to outdo Killing Them Softly’s bleak story to tell an even grittier, more cynical story of hitmen and small-time crooks during the same year. The movie that unofficially launched the McConnaissance, Killer Joe sees the actor play a deeply creepy contract killer hired by a gutless criminal to murder his mother for insurance money. What follows is one of director William Friedkin’s most underrated movies and one of his nastiest outings as double-crosses and bodies pile up in a thoroughly unpredictable thriller.

6 Le Samouraï (1967)

The Killer’s Classic Inspiration

The 1967 French film Le Samouraï imagines Alain Delon’s assassin Jef Costello as a modern-day samurai, operating within the criminal underworld while maintaining his own strict code of ethics. Visually striking, Le Samouraï might be the biggest influence on Fincher’s The Killer among the other listed movies. However, for all its style, Le Samouraï has a beating heart beneath its icy exterior.

5 No Country For Old Men (2007)

A Dark Story Of An Unstoppable Assassin

The 2007 Cormac McCarthy adaptation No Country for Old Men stands high among the best Coen Brothers movies, but it is also one of their bleakest outings. Where Fincher’s bloody The Killer makes Michael Fassbender’s unblinking assassin a morally complex figure, No Country for Old Men’s murderous hitman is barely even human. Javier Bardem’s infamous Anton Chigurgh often feels more like an embodiment of death itself than a person; a glowering, terrifying villain that can’t be reasoned with, bribed, or escaped.

4 Collateral (2004)

Tom Cruise Chills As A Methodical Killer

Collateral saw perennial multiplex hero Tom Cruise play against type as a hitman who forces a luckless cab driver to escort him around Los Angeles for a series of jobs. Cruise’s performance in the 2004 thriller movie is a revelation, but it is a jittery, anxious Jamie Foxx who steals the show in director Michael Mann’s underworld thriller. Visually stylish and consistently unpredictable, Collateral remains an underrated classic of assassin cinema.

3 Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

The Sparky Subversive Contract Killer Rom Com

While 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith might be a lot sillier than many of the movies listed here, there is a reason that the movie is receiving a TV reboot less than twenty years after its original release. Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s TV revival is proof of just how irresistible this action-thriller’s killer premise is. The idea of two contract killers unknowingly marrying each other, only to then be tasked with assassinating each other, proved to be a perfect playful vehicle for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s chemistry.

2 Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

John Cusack Stars In An Offbeat Hitman Comedy

Grosse Pointe Blank is another lighter look at the world of assassins that debuted in 1997. John Cusack stars as a cynical, world-weary hitman whose life is turned upside down when he attends his high school reunion in his small hometown. Making the most of Cusack’s considerable charm at the peak of his career, Grosse Pointe Blank is silly, surprising, and consistently fun despite occasional moments of gruesome violence.

1 In Bruges (2008)

Martin McDonagh’s Underrated Assassin Comedy of Errors

Before 2022’s The Banshees of Inisherin reunited director Martin McDonagh with stars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, In Bruges saw the trio collaborate in a blackly comic tale of two hitmen sent to hide out in the titular Belgian tourist town. Moments of vicious violence punctuate both the character comedy and philosophical ruminations of In Bruges, but it is the stellar central performances that make this one an enduring cult classic. Farrell is at his best as the well-meaning but unstable Ray, while Gleeson imbues Ken with a hopeless humanity that even The Killer’s central turn couldn’t outdo.