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Best Bounty hunter Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of bounty hunter cinema — measured across 1,661 indexed frames from 20 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Bounty hunter films over-index on revolver, rider and saddle — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    True Grit (2010)

    Joel Coen, Ethan CoenDP Roger DeakinsIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.

  2. 2

    The Wild Bunch (1969)

    Sam PeckinpahDP Lucien BallardIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    It's 1913, and the "traditional" American West is dying. Amongst the inhabitants of this dying era are a gang known as "the wild bunch." After a failed railroad office robbery, the gang heads to Mexico to do one last job. Seeing their times and lives drifting away in the 20th century, the gang takes the job and ends up in a brutally violent last stand against their enemies deemed to be corrupt, in a small Mexican town ruled by a ruthless general.

  3. 3

    Slow West (2015)

    John MacleanDP Robbie RyanIMDb 6.9TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    'Slow West' follows a 16-year-old boy on a journey across 19th Century frontier America in search of the woman he loves, while accompanied by mysterious traveler Silas.

  4. 4

    For A Few Dollars More (1965)

    Sergio LeoneDP Massimo DallamanoIMDb 8.2TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    With his reputation preceding him after a white-knuckle duel eighteen months ago, a taciturn American bounty hunter rides into the godforsaken town of Tucumcari. After all, nothing can stop him--this time, the solitary stranger is after El Indio, a psychopathic bandit leader bent on destruction and mayhem. But the sadistic outlaw and his murderous jackals have already set their sights on robbing the impenetrable Bank of El Paso. As a result, the poncho-clad Americano has no choice but to break an unwritten personal rule: join forces with Colonel Douglas Mortimer, a hawk-eyed marksman with a hidden agenda. Now, two seasoned hunters, The Man with No Name and The Man in Black, are after the same prey. And as silent double-crosses and fragile allegiances pave the way for a bloody showdown at high noon, a question arises. Once, the nameless American risked life and limb for a fistful of dollars. Is it worth dicing with death for a few dollars more?

  5. 5

    Django Unchained (2012)

    Quentin TarantinoDP Robert RichardsonIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    In 1858, a bounty hunter named King Schultz seeks out a slave named Django and buys him because he needs him to find some men he is looking for. After finding them, Django wants to find his wife, Broomhilda, who, along with him, was sold separately by his former owner for trying to escape. Schultz offers to help him if he chooses to stay with him and be his partner. Eventually they learn that she was sold to a plantation in Mississippi. Knowing they can't just go in and say they want her, they come up with a plan so that the owner will welcome them into his home and they can find a way.

  6. 6

    The Proposition (2005)

    John HillcoatDP Benoît DelhommeIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    In 1880s Australia, a lawman offers renegade Charlie Burns a difficult choice. In order to save his younger brother from the gallows, Charlie must hunt down and kill his older brother, who is wanted for rape and murder. Venturing into one of the Outback's most inhospitable regions, Charlie faces a terrible moral dilemma that can end only in violence.

  7. 7

    Dead Man (1995)

    Jim JarmuschDP Robby MüllerIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    In the late-1800s, the meek accountant from Cleveland, William Blake, spends the last of his already meagre savings to get to the frontier community of Machine where a job awaits him. Eager to make a fresh start, Blake arrives at his destination, only to discover that the position no longer exists. Gravely wounded and on the run from a relentless trio of bounty hunters after a deadly shoot-out, William flees the inhospitable industrial town and has a chance encounter with the enigmatic Native American spirit-guide named "Nobody", who believes Blake is the reincarnation of the visionary English poet, William Blake. Now, before the endless American wilderness, the two companions embark on a peril-laden odyssey of mysticism, transformation, and spirituality, until William crosses over into the spirit world. What lies on the other side?

  8. 8

    The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)

    Sergio LeoneDP Tonino Delli ColliIMDb 8.8TMDB 8.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    During the American Civil War, three men set off to find $200,000.00 in buried gold coins. Tuco and Blondie have known each other for some time, having used the reward on Tuco's head as a way of earning money. They come across a dying man, Bill Carson, who tells them of a treasure in gold coins. By chance, he reveals the name of the cemetery and the name of the grave where the gold is buried. Now rivals, the two men have good reason to keep each other alive. The third man, Angel Eyes, hears of the gold stash from someone he's been hired to kill. All he knows is to look for someone named Bill Carson. The three ultimately meet in a showdown that takes place amid a major battle between Confederate and Union forces.

  9. 9

    The Hateful Eight (2015)

    Quentin TarantinoDP Robert RichardsonIMDb 7.8TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Some time after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. Bounty hunter John Ruth and his fugitive captive Daisy Domergue race towards the town of Red Rock, where Ruth will bring Daisy to justice. Along the road, they encounter Major Marquis Warren (an infamous bounty hunter) and Chris Mannix (a man who claims to be Red Rock's new sheriff). Lost in a blizzard, the bunch seeks refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery. When they arrive they are greeted by unfamiliar faces: Bob, who claims to be taking care of the place while Minnie is gone; Oswaldo Mobray, the hangman of Red Rock; Joe Gage, a cow puncher; and confederate general Sanford Smithers. As the storm overtakes the mountainside, the eight travelers come to learn that they might not make it to Red Rock after all...

  10. 10

    The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

    Rob ZombieDP Phil ParmetIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    In Ruggsville, Texas, the police under the command of Sheriff John Quincy Wydell attack the house of the sadistic serial killers Firefly family (a.k.a. The Devil's Reject) and they arrest mother Firefly, but Otis B. Driftwood and Baby Firefly escape from the siege. Tiny is wandering nearby the house and also escapes. Otis and Baby call their patriarch, the mad clown Captain Spaulding and they schedule to reunite at an isolated motel in the desert. When Otis and Baby arrive, they kidnap two families of singers, using sadism and violence against the harmless persons. Meanwhile, Sheriff Wydell promises to capture and kill the runaways, seeking revenge for the death of his brother, the Deputy George Wydell.

What bounty hunter films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a bounty hunter frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — revolver is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • revolver15.2×
  • rider14.9×
  • saddle14.2×
  • cowboy hat10.8×
  • horse9.6×
  • hat5.9×
  • dust5.1×
  • rifle5.0×

How bounty hunter films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate bounty hunter from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 15%low anglevs 5% baseline
  • 31%widevs 20% baseline
  • 36%mediumvs 48% baseline
  • 34%nightvs 43% baseline
  • 52%dayvs 42% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Alita: Battle Angel is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,661 frames from 20 films carrying the bounty hunter label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/bounty-hunter

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used