WARNING! This article contains spoilers for Hit Man (2024)!

Glen Powell’s critically acclaimed comedy movie Hit Man serves as a perfect reminder to watch Netflix’s actual assassin movie from 2023. Inspired by the true story of undercover “hitman” Gary Johnson, Hit Man stars Top Gun: Marverick’s Glen Powell as college professor-turned-fake assassin Gary and Andor’s Adria Arjona as Madison, a would-be “client” who falls in love with one of Gary’s fake hitman aliases. As Gary gradually transforms his personality to become “Ron,” chaos ensues when Madison’s husband actually winds up dead, further complicating Gary’s complex double life with Madison and the New Orleans Police Department.

Hit Man, directed and co-written by Richard Linklater, has received incredible reviews from critics and audiences alike. The 2024 Netflix film currently boasts an impressive “Certified Fresh” 97% Rotten Tomatoes score, which beats Top Gun: Maverick as Powell’s highest-rated movie on the review aggregator site. While Hit Man comically subverts typical assassin movie expectations under the creed that “hitmen aren’t real,” the film arrives at a great time after the success of another Netflix movie from 2023 that follows a real hitman. Not only do both hitman-related Netflix films come from two of the most celebrated modern directors, but they also received incredible reviews for their satires.

Hit Man’s Premise Is A Great Reminder To Watch Netflix’s The Killer Movie

Netflix’s 2023 movie The Killer follows an actual assassin

The success of Hit Man on Netflix should hopefully encourage more subscribers to watch the streaming platform’s 2023 assassin movie The Killer. From director David Fincher, The Killer follows a nameless real assassin played by Michael Fassbender, whose life is put in danger after an important international hit goes wrong. While Hit Man’s location remains in New Orleans, an exciting feature of The Killer is that it takes Fassbender’s assassin character on the run around the world. Additionally, one of the locations where Fassbender’s character stops is New Orleans, establishing another connection between Netflix’s Hit Man and The Killer movies.

Both Richard Linklater and David Fincher have proven mastery of various genres since their film breakthroughs in the 1990s, so it’s all the more exciting that the two directors released popular hitman-based movies within a year of each other on Netflix. However, while Richard Linklater’s Hit Man doesn’t feature any real assassins and takes on a far more comedic tone, David Fincher’s The Killer follows a real contract killer with a more somber, serious approach. Still, the two filmmakers undeniably succeeded in their efforts, with Hit Man holding a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes and The Killer boasting an 85% score, ranking high for both directors’ critically acclaimed filmographies.

Hit Man & The Killer Both Interestingly Dissect Assassin Movie Tropes & Archetypes

Netflix’s biggest recent assassin movies both flip genre tropes on their heads

Aside from simply having a fake or real hitman as their protagonist, Netflix’s Hit Man and The Killer movies share similarities in how they approach the action subgenre. Both films are unique in how they dissect the essence of a typical hitman movie, what’s expected of an assassin character in pop culture, and how those stories typically end for the assassins. Consequently, The Killer and Hit Man are constantly flipping these assassin movie tropes on their heads, with Richard Linklater’s movie tackling the themes from a more overt psychological approach and David Fincher’s film looking at them with more subtlety in the character dynamics.

In addition to Hit Man referencing several hitman and assassin movies as examples of the “career killer” archetype being a myth, the 2024 Netflix film subverts the expectations of those hiring a hitman and their reasons for doing so. Gary has plenty of would-be clients in Hit Man, who highlight the simultaneous ridiculousness and sincerity behind why different people would hire an assassin, which is where the film’s conflict takes off with Madison. Gary’s theories on personality psychology also prove accurate as he increasingly becomes more like his hitman alias Ron, with Hit Man’s ending turning him into somewhat of a “real” assassin he didn’t believe in.

The Killer’s ending similarly approaches these tropes through the interactions between the killer and Claybourne, with the latter only understanding assassins through movies and TV shows while the former shockingly spares his life. The movie also dissects the tropes of a hitman’s reason for turning to a life of killing-for-hire, as Fassbender’s character initially has no motivation until the typical John Wick-style revenge plot ensues with the attack on Magdala. From character names simply based on archetypal assassin roles (The Director, The Expert, etc.) to the killer missing his target and ending the story peacefully on the beach, Fincher’s film is a great satire on assassin movies.

Hit Man & The Killer Are Highly Entertaining Movies From Two Of Hollywood’s Biggest Directors

Linklater & Fincher both released great crowd-pleasing assassin movies

Regardless of the similarities that Hit Man and The Killer share with their premises and satires, the Netflix movies are also simply among the most entertaining movies in recent years to come from two huge Hollywood directors. The Killer is the most fun yet twisted film that David Fincher has released since Gone Girl in 2014, with Hit Man reviving a unique crowd-pleasing, casual format for Richard Linklater’s movies. Linklater’s 2016 film Everybody Wants Some!!! was another fun hangout movie, but, unlike Hit Man, it largely fell under the radar upon release compared to his hit comedies like School of Rock and Dazed and Confused.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes