19 Ultimate Final Shoot-Outs Of Cinema History
9. The Way Of The Gun (2000)
The Usual Suspect screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie made a confident directorial debut with this vastly undervalued homage to 70s crime sagas. Its morally bleak protagonists and general rough nature made it a hard-sell for most audiences, with most skipping out on a phenomenal attempt at reigniting a less clean-cut form of action movie.
In the movie's final moments, partners-in-crime Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillipe have finally gotten their prized ransom money they’ve been fighting so hard to obtain. The only problem is, it comes with a cluster of old-school hitman armed to the teeth and waiting for them to step out into the open.
The two eventually risk it - and oh, what a firefight it is.
McQuarrie puts the scene together with such rip-roaring passion and admiration for the action gods of yesteryear (e.g. Don Siegel, Sam Peckinpah) yet is able to create a cracker of a scene that succeeds on its own terms of devastating gunplay.
It’s a great relief that regardless of this film's critical and commercial failure, McQuarrie has been enjoyed an earned reputation as a blockbuster filmmaker with the recent Mission: Impossible entries - as this scene can testify, he put together one of hell of an action set-piece.