10 OF THE BEST
❚ Die Hard (1988) was just Willis’s fifth film role — and two of those were as extras! — but he was already a name thanks to TV’S Moonlighting when he introduced the world to the NYPD’S John Mcclane, and forever changed the way we think of the term “yippee-ki-yay.”
❚ Pulp Fiction (1994) from Quentin Tarantino featured an ensemble cast including Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Ving Rhames and more, but Willis stood out as boxer Butch Coolidge, particularly for the way he and John Travolta’s character (briefly) meet.
❚ Twelve Monkeys (1995) is one of his many “number films” — see Loaded Weapon 1, Four Rooms, The Whole Nine Yards, 16 Blocks, etc ... It’s also one great piece of sci-fi about a man sent back in time to stop a deadly virus. We can relate.
❚ The Fifth Element (1997) gives us more numbers and more science-fiction, as Willis plays a cab driver caught up in the search for a valuable weapon that might also be a person.
❚ The Sixth Sense (1999) ignited the fortunes of writer/director M. Night Shyamalan and child actor Haley Joel Osment, but where would their careers be without Willis as child psychologist Malcolm Crowe? Dead.
❚ Live Free or Die Hard (2007) is the fourth Die Hard movie of five but it’s always been one of my favourites, in part thanks to Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mcclane’s chip-offthe-old-block daughter.
❚ Looper (2012) is a whip-smart piece of sci-fi from writer/director Rian Johnson, with Joseph Gordon-levitt as a hitman in the near future, and Willis as his older self, and target.
❚ Moonrise Kingdom (2012) has Willis in a small role amid a typically sprawling Wes Anderson cast. But it’s a wonderful movie and everyone, Willis included, is giving it their all.
❚ RED 2 (2013) is not a great film, and many would list Armageddon as a better option when you want to watch Willis on the screen while not thinking. But this one has John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and a truly insane number of hats.
❚ Untitled Future Bruce Willis Hit (20??) is what we’re calling the next great movie he’s going to make. Will it be one of the many listed on this page are in production or ready to go? Probably not. Will it be a long-rumoured sixth Die Hard, which I insist must be called Only the Good Die Hard? Maybe. But we’re guessing Willis will take us by surprise one of these days, perhaps with the Oscar-worthy performance we’ve long known was inside him.