The 10 Best Bruce Willis Movies, Ranked According To Letterboxd

There aren’t many actors that audiences associate with pure quality, and while Bruce Willis got a little more cavalier with his movie choices in the late 2000s and 2010s, his name was attached to the very best movies of the 1990s.

Many of Willis’ movies changed the course of Hollywood in a major way and are hugely iconic. And with the recent announcement of Willis’ retirement, it’s worth looking back at the movies he helped become such a huge part of pop culture and that current Letterboxd users still can’t get enough of.

10 Death Becomes Her (1992) – 3.6

While Die Hard arrived in 1988 and proved that the actor could carry a movie and could be an action hero, Death Becomes Her proved Willis can act. The movie was originally critically panned when it was first released in 1992, and it underperformed at the box office too, despite its star power of Willis, Meryl Streep, and Goldie Hawn.

However, it has since become a cult classic and is loved by cinephiles for its gothic but camp aesthetic. What’s most admirable about the movie is that, even though Willis was a ladies’ man and action star at the time, he wasn’t afraid to act silly and look goofy for the wacky comedy.

9 Sin City (2005) – 3.6

Sin City is very much a multi-stranded narrative with an ensemble cast, and every character is so strange with their own unique quirks. However, given how Bruce Willis’ gruff demeanor is something only he can do, the grumpy everyman character of Detective John Hartigan is the perfect role for the actor, and he steals the show whenever he’s on screen.

Hartigan calls to memory another character called John that Willis played, the iconic John McClane, and they both share a lot of characteristics. But it’s so fascinating to see Willis in a movie that’s so unapologetically stylish and full of oddball characters. The actor hadn’t let his hair down in a movie that’s as much about the aesthetic as it is about the narrative since The Fifth Element, which came 8 years earlier.

8 Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995) – 3.6

The second Die Hard movie was a fine popcorn flick, but it essentially repeated the same story of the original movie beat for beat, only it was set in an airport instead of a skyscraper. However, Die Hard with a Vengeance, the third movie in the series, took the franchise to New York, which was the first of many refreshing changes.

The film had the style of a buddy-cop comedy more than anything, as it teamed up Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, who sped around New York solving a villain’s clues almost like Batman and Robin solving the Riddler’s puzzles. The 1995 movie is by far the best of the four Die Hard sequels, and some even think it’s better than the original.

7 The Fifth Element (1997) – 3.7

Just like Sin City, The Fifth Element sees Bruce Willis playing an everyman surrounded by strange and peculiar characters, and it doesn’t get talked about enough when debating the best sci-fi movies. The 1997 film is a weird science fiction blockbuster with an even weirder cast that, on paper, wouldn’t gel.

Along with Willis, the movie stars Gary Oldman, who plays Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, an evil and hammy space dictator, and comedian Chris Tucker, who plays flamboyant talk-show host Ruby Rhod. But somehow, the movie works, it’s so much fun, and it has the aesthetic of a Ru Paul-directed Star Wars movie.

6 Unbreakable (2000) – 3.7

Unbreakable was the start of an unlikely and unexpected movie universe, as the series continued with the surprise sequel Split, and then the team-up movie Glass. And while those films are entertaining in their own right, they can’t compete with the philosophical questions that Unbreakable asks and the unique approach it has to comic book tropes.

Though Willis never played a major superhero, despite fans wanting him to appear in the MCU, David Dunn (Willis) is very much a more realistic version of a superhero. And he lowkey has one of the most interesting hero/villain dynamics with Mr. Glass.

5 12 Monkeys (1995) – 3.8

In an interview with Aint It Cool News, Willis revealed his favorite movies of all time, and of all 14 of them, there was only one sci-fi movie on the list. That film was Alien, one of the most thought-provoking and profound films ever made, so his love of the 1979 movie could be what made him take the starring role in 12 Monkeys, a just as profound and mind-blowing sci-fi movie.

The film follows a man who travels from the future to warn people about a deadly virus that kills the entire population. The movie’s complex narrative requires multiple rewatches, not only to grasp what’s going on but because it’s a visual spectacle.

4 The Sixth Sense (1999) – 3.9

The Sixth Sense was a phenomenon when it was released. Through sheer word of mouth, the movie managed to earn $670 million worldwide, which is all the more impressive considering it had a budget of just $40 million. While the box office intake was certainly helped by Willis’s starring role, audiences hadn’t seen anything like it until 1999.

The movie established writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s style of delivering huge, jaw-dropping twists. And while that might have been a case of diminishing returns throughout his career, there was nothing more shocking than that reveal in the film’s closing moments.

3 Moonrise Kingdom (2012) – 4.0

2012 was a huge year for Willis, as he starred in the exciting sci-fi action blockbuster, Looper, which again saw him traveling back in time, just like 12 Monkeys. But 2012 also saw him star in a more modest, wholesome, and character-driven movie, Moonrise Kingdom.

Though Willis doesn’t play the main character in Moonrise Kingdom, as the film is about two 12-year-olds who fall in love, he does have the most important adult role in the movie. And his performance is shockingly moving, especially at this point in his career. The 2012 movie features the last great Willis performance, and it’s made even better by being in the middle of an animated-looking, inventive, Wes Anderson-directed world.

2 Die Hard (1988) – 4.1

People will debate for years over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. But regardless of whichever camp audiences belong to, there’s no denying that the 1988 blockbuster is one of the best action films of all time.

The film was ridiculously influential, as there have been so many knock-off action movies that are all set in one location with a John McClane-type character. But none of them will ever come close to the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of the original. Even despite Willis’s career going on for another 34 years after the movie, Die Hard still contains the best fight scenes Bruce Willis ever filmed.

1 Pulp Fiction (1994) – 4.3

As Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and John Travolta appeared on stage at this year’s Academy Awards to celebrate the 28th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, it wasn’t the same without Willis up there. While Pulp Fiction has a great ensemble cast full of unique characters, Butch had the best scenes.

Whether it’s the initial meeting with Marsellus Wallace, the vignette-like sequence in the taxi with Esmerelda, or when he murders Vincent, Butch could be seen as the protagonist of Pulp Fiction of all the characters. The 1994 classic is one of the most important Hollywood movies ever, and Willis is a major part of its legacy.