19 Ultimate Final Shoot-Outs Of Cinema History

7. True Romance (1993)

Scarface Gun
Warner Bros.

Quentin Tarantino sure loves a Mexican stand-off and in this early effort. - written by Tarantino and expertly directed by the late Tony Scott - he took it to a whole other level of excess and high-stakes.

The finale follows couple Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, attempting to off-load a massive suitcase of cocaine to Saul Rubinek’s big-deal Hollywood producer. An army of cops kick in the door attempting to instigate an arrest but Rubinek’s high-powered security team refuse to surrender.

Suddenly, a mafia death squad burst in from the other end of the room; plenty of scared confusion occurs between all parties as they all point and shout but none pull the trigger. It doesn’t last though and the catalyst of betrayal suddenly sets this high-testosterone room into a gory storm of gunfire.

It’s exhilarating but done with an air of bitter-sweet (accented by Hans Zimmer’s melancholy score) as nearly every character we spent time for the last hour, gets a devastating and brutal pay-off. It was also a subversive take on the final shoot-out - at least for its time - as it’s over lighting quick and features its two main characters as passive victims in the whole chaos.

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