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Best Shotgun Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of shotgun cinema — measured across 1,306 indexed frames from 19 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Shotgun films over-index on fog, blood and handgun — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    The Terminator (1984)

    James CameronDP Adam GreenbergIMDb 8.1TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Sent back from a dystopian 2029--where the cold machines have conquered the entire world--to 1984 Los Angeles, the indestructible cyborg-assassin known as the "Terminator" commences his deadly mission to kill humankind's most important woman: the unsuspecting Sarah Connor. However, from the same war-torn post-apocalyptic future comes a battle-scarred defender--Kyle Reese, a brave soldier of the human Resistance Army--bent on stopping the cybernetic killer from eliminating the world's last hope. But, the Terminator has no feelings, he doesn't sleep, and above all, he won't stop until he carries out his grim task. Does our future lie in our past?

  2. 2

    Hobo With A Shotgun (2011)

    Jason EisenerDP Karim HussainIMDb 6.1TMDB 5.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    A vigilante homeless man pulls into a new city and finds himself trapped in urban chaos, a city where crime rules and where the city's crime boss reigns. Seeing an urban landscape filled with armed robbers, corrupt cops, abused prostitutes, and even a pedophile Santa, the Hobo (Rutger Hauer) goes about bringing justice to the city the best way he knows how - with a 20-gauge shotgun. Mayhem ensues when he tries to make things better for the future generation. Street justice will indeed prevail.

  3. 3

    Dawn of the Dead (2004)

    Zack SnyderDP Matthew F. LeonettiIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    Ana goes home to her peaceful suburban residence, but she is unpleasantly surprised the morning that follows when her husband is brutally attacked by her zombified neighbor. In the chaos of her once picturesque neighborhood, Ana flees and stumbles upon a police officer named Kenneth, along with more survivors who decide that their best chances of survival would be found in the deserted Crossroads Shopping Mall. When supplies begin running low and other trapped survivors need help, the group comes to the realization that they cannot stay put forever at the Shopping Mall and devise a plan to escape.

  4. 4

    Halloween 2 (2009)

    Rob ZombieDP Brandon TrostIMDb 4.8TMDB 5.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    Michael Myers is still at large and no less dangerous than ever. After a failed reunion to reach his baby sister at their old home, Laurie Strode is immediately taken to a hospital to be treated by the wounds that had been afflicted by her brother a few hours ago. However, Michael isn't too far off and will continue his murdering 'Halloween' rampage until he gets his sister all to himself.

  5. 5

    Saw

    James WanDP David A. ArmstrongIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.

  6. 6

    Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

    James CameronDP Adam GreenbergIMDb 8.6TMDB 8.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    Over ten years have passed since the first machine called The Terminator tried to kill Sarah Connor and her unborn son, John. The man who will become the future leader of the human resistance against the Machines is now a healthy young boy. However, another Terminator, called the T-1000, is sent back through time by the self-aware computer system, Skynet. This new Terminator is more advanced and more powerful than its predecessor and its mission is to kill John Connor when he's still a child. However, Sarah and John do not have to face the threat of the T-1000 alone. Another Terminator (identical to the same model that tried and failed to kill Sarah Connor in 1984) is also sent back through time to protect them. While John teaches the Terminator about humanity, Sarah tries to prevent the creation of Skynet and the Machines.

  7. 7

    Nikita (1990)

    Luc BessonDP Thierry ArbogastIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    An urgent life-or-death dilemma befalls Nikita--the feral street girl and violent drug addict--after killing a police officer at point blank. Hopeless, Nikita is given a new lease of life, when she reluctantly exchanges her doomed fate for a secret government program that promises to mould her into a cold-blooded assassin under the wing of her sadistic mentor, Bob. Now--with a new set of skills, a new identity, and lethally sophisticated looks--Nikita is the ultimate weapon and the perfect puppet for doing the government's dirty work; however, what happens if this trained killer chooses love over death?

  8. 8

    Team America: World Police

    Trey ParkerDP Bill PopeIMDb 7.2TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    The North American counter-terrorism force Team America attacks a group of terrorists in Paris. Later, the leader of the organization, Spottswoode, invites the famous Broadway actor Gary Johnston to join his world police and work undercover in Cairo, infiltrating a terrorist organization in the hope they will disclose their plan of destroying the world. Team America destroy the cell of terrorists, but then the Panama Canal is attacked by the criminals as a payback. Gary feels responsible for the death of many innocents and leaves the counter-terrorism organization. When the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, joins a group of pacifist actors and actresses with the intention of using weapons of massive destruction, Team America tries to avoid the destruction of the world.

  9. 9

    The Silencing (2020)

    Robin ProntDP Manuel DacosseIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    A reformed hunter now living secluded in a wildlife sanctuary after the disappearance of his teen daughter years ago saves a young girl from being killed by a serial killer but gets caught in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. His path crosses with the town's sheriff who also seeks to bring the serial killer to justice after the discovery of the body of a teenaged girl.

  10. 10

    L.A. Confidential (1997)

    Curtis HansonDP Dante SpinottiIMDb 8.2TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    1950's Los Angeles is the seedy backdrop for this intricate noir-ish tale of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style: Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out; Bud White, ready to break the rules to seek justice, but barely able to keep his raging violence under control; and Jack Vincennes, always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley and White down the one-way path to find the truth behind the dark world of L.A. crime.

What shotgun films are made of

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

  • fog3.8×
  • blood2.9×
  • handgun2.8×
  • smoke2.5×
  • neon sign2.1×
  • asphalt2.0×
  • jacket2.0×
  • leather jacket1.9×

How shotgun 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 shotgun from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 11%low anglevs 5% baseline
  • 29%naturalvs 43% baseline
  • 56%low keyvs 40% baseline
  • 30%dayvs 42% baseline
  • 29%closeupvs 21% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Slow West (2015) 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 1,306 frames from 19 films carrying the shotgun 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/shotgun

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