After a career spanning over 40 years, Bruce Willis has announced he is stepping away from acting. The actor made a name for himself as a wisecracking, often coarse action star. In late March 2022, Bruce’s family announced he is battling Aphasia and will be stepping down from the job he loved so much. Bruce has left behind a legacy of great movies, ranging from action to comedy. Regardless of what kind of movie fans are in the mood for, there is certainly a film with Bruce they can enjoy. Today, we celebrate the career of a legend as we look at ten of the best Bruce Willis movies.
10. Live Free Or Die Hard (2007)
The series Bruce Willis is synonymous with is the Die Hard franchise. After an over ten-year break, John McClane returned to the big screen in the fourth installment, Live Free or Die Hard. The film sees John as an NYPD detective roped into a cyber-terrorist plot. The film successfully brings the ’80s action star into the modern age. Timothy Olyphant is Thomas Gabriel, a different kind of threat than John is familiar with. The film contains some incredible action stunts and dials the intensity up to eleven. When watching the movie, be sure to seek out the unrated cut. Theatrically, the movie received a PG-13 rating, and not having John curse like a sailor is just wrong.
9. Unbreakable (2000)
M. Night Shyamalan directed Willis in one of the greatest thrillers of the ’90s, and the two returned for a dark take on the superhero movie. Unbreakable sees Bruce as a security guard who is the sole survivor of a massive train crash. He is then led to believe he has supernatural abilities and gains the attention of an extremely fragile comic book fan played by Samuel L. Jackson. What makes this film so unique is how grounded it is. It may be about superheroes, but little to no special effects are present. This Bruce Willis movie stood on its own for years until a last-minute zinger in Split revealed they are part of the same universe. A proper crossover later came out under the title Glass.
8. Looper (2012)
Looper takes place in the distant future, where time travel exists. The mob uses it to carry out hits on targets. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of the best of these time-traveling hitmen. Things get complicated when Joe’s next target is an older version of himself, which is where Willis comes in. Looper received praise as an original and engaging thriller. Rian Johnson directed the film, and his trademark style and flair are present throughout. This futuristic thriller is perfect for those looking for a mind-bending thrill ride.
7. Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)
The wisecracking John McClane returns in the third installment in the Die Hard series, Die Hard with a Vengeance. The second film was essentially a rehash of the first film, albeit self-aware. For the third entry, the filmmakers decided to go a different route. This time, John is on his home turf in New York City. He is sent on a gruesome game of Simon Says with a civilian, Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson). The two give the film a Lethal Weapon vibe. The film is arguably the best since the original and is one Bruce Willis movie that perfectly showcases his wit and skills as an action star.
6. The Fifth Element (1997)
In The Fifth Element, Bruce Willis is a cab driver who accidentally becomes entangled in a plot to save the world. While heavily cliched on the surface with its plot and names, such as Zorg, The Fifth Element is actually a fun, original, and visually appealing film with a lot of star power. Willis brings his trademark grump and wit to the film, and it evens the whole experience out perfectly. This movie should be seen by anyone looking for a good time watching a great film.
5. Sin City (2005)
In the early 2000s, comic book movies became box office juggernauts once again. One film that helped this resurgence was Sin City. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller and based on Miller’s comics, Sin City is one of the most stylized comic book movies of all time. The film is primarily black and white, with rare splashes of color such as blood. The movie contains four interconnected stories, and Bruce Willis is fittingly playing a grizzled cop. Sin City deserves to be seen by any fan of gritty comic book movies, as it is one of the best comic and Bruce Willis movies of all time.
4. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Yet another time-traveling epic, 12 Monkeys, is seen as one of the best science fiction movies to come out of the ’90s. Bruce Willis is a time traveler sent back to the ’90s to prevent a deadly plague. Willis is stellar as always and is accompanied by Brad Pitt in a fantastic performance. The film was loosely based on a French short film from the ’60s, itself a fascinating bit of filmmaking. 12 Monkeys is an entertaining thrill ride that has audiences on the edge of their seat the entire time. Only a few stand out above this one when it comes to Bruce films.
3. The Sixth Sense (1999)
One of the most legendary and thought-provoking thrillers of all time is The Sixth Sense. The first collaboration between M. Night Shyamalan and Bruce Willis, this psychological thriller is still discussed in detail to this day. Willis plays a child psychologist who takes on a young boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment). The young boy claims to be able to see ghosts, and Bruce soon learns that there may be more to his claims than it seems. From beginning to end, Sixth Sense grabs the viewer and refuses to let go until the very end. In addition to having one of the greatest endings of all time, this film is a scary, fun time that proves to be some of Bruce’s best work.
2. Die Hard (1988)
While not Bruce’s first big movie, Die Hard ensured that he would be a household name for decades to come. Based on a book by Robert Thorpe, Die Hard was originally supposed to be a sequel to a Frank Sinatra film. Bruce Willis plays John McClane, an NYPD officer who visits his estranged wife at her office’s Christmas party. Things go south when a group of terrorists takes over the building, and John is the only one who can stop them. Die Hard is a masterclass of action filmmaking. Willis’s gruff charm and macho persona bring the audience in from beginning to end. This is one of the most iconic action movies of all time due mainly, in part, to the film’s lead.
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
What can be said about this Quentin Tarantino masterpiece that hasn’t been said already? Pulp Fiction made the legendary director a household name and changed filmmaking forever. In typical Tarantino fashion, the story is in a nonlinear fashion and features the tales of several groups of interconnected people. One of them is boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis). This hip and violent film defined a generation. To this day, Pulp Fiction is still just as widely discussed as it was in 1994, if not more so. This movie is a necessary watch for anyone who claims to be a movie buff, and it is fitting that it happens to be a Bruce Willis movie.
