Oh toughie, I'd have to go with Edward Fox in Day of The Jackal. He nailed that role. Stellar performance.

Simon | January 07, 12:57 CET

Hmm, that is tough. Just from the trailer i'd say the guy in 'No Country for Old Men' will have the highest body count (not seen it yet) but he seems a bit flat as a character, feels almost Terminator-like in his implacability.

Personal preference, i'd go with Léon ("No women, no kids" - you have to respect a cold blooded killer with morals ;) and Walker from 'Point Blank' because a) it's a great film, b) he's one the meanest most ruthless people I can think of (i.e. he's a person, actual and whole, rather than just a cypher) and c) it's Lee frikkin' Marvin, yo ;).

Honourable mentions to Charly Baltimore from 'The Long Kiss Good Night', Jason Bourne, Martin Blank (whose pen is definitely mightier than most people's swords ;), Ghost Dog and The Operative.

(given the looseness of the list though, there's a glaring omission IMO. Jack Carter from 'Get Carter' - and i'm most definitely NOT talking about the Stallone travesty remake - was one tough bastard, him and his shottie would have most of these modern day cream-puffs running away in tears ;)

Saje | January 07, 13:38 CET

I love the operative scary yes, deadly not quite so (he's also got a team), on account of River and Simon still being alive. I'd go for the bride from the Kill Bills. Something about the hitwomen who's out for you and they want you to know it, oh and that hatori hanzo sword.

eth3er | January 07, 14:12 CET

I'd add Wilson from The Limey to the list as well.

Simon | January 07, 16:06 CET

I agree with Saje. Léon is pretty fantastic.

Valentyn | January 07, 16:20 CET

Yes, when it came down to it, The Operative was not that good, was he? He was hardly secretive and rather went for the overkill rather than the quick, subtle action. Scary though.

Lioness | January 07, 17:03 CET

I honestly can't vote for any one person on this list.

Seriously. Personally I'd rather position all the major movie studios to make a movie in which all of these characters are dumped into some kind of gladiator arena, kind of like Quake III.

Side Note: I honestly started pondering a fight between River and The Terminator before I remembered Summer Glau is in the new series. Can't wait for Next Sunday.

El_Smacko | January 07, 18:13 CET

You have to look at the literal meaning of this poll question. Really, the key word is "deadliest," not "scariest," which basically means "who's got the highest body count?" And the only way to really judge that is to go solely by the number of people said assassin kills that we see die on screen, nothing else.

Given that criteria and granted I've not seen every movie on the list, I'd have to guess The Bride or Leon, personally. Bourne might be up there.

Batman1016 | January 07, 18:50 CET

Hmm, we don't actually see Bourne kill that many people (certainly not as many as the T-800 which kills an entire police station full of folk), i'd maybe even put it in single figures across all three films and also "deadliest" could mean a lot of things e.g. most able to kill you wherever you hide (T-800 probably) or most different techniques displayed (maybe Martin Blank or Léon) or just most apparently skillful (Bourne would do better here).

Basically, as i'm sure we've all found, shopping for assassins is a veritable minefield because there are so many variables to consider. It's almost as bad as buying a computer.

Saje | January 07, 19:33 CET

Totally the Bride. Quantity -- she killed a lot of people, in hand to hand combat no less. Quality -- she killed fellow super-assassins. And most importantly, she was still alive at the end. To quote something Mal almost said, "you can't be deadly if you're dead".

I can't believe the T-800 is winning this thing. It had one target to kill -- somebody's mother (ooh scary); it not only failed to kill her, it was killed by her! Useless piece of junk.

As for the Operative, so he beat up Mal - that ain't so tough.

[ edited by AlanD on 2008-01-07 17:39 ]

AlanD | January 07, 20:37 CET

The Bride was possibly the "deadliest," (although that word has shades of meaning) but, IMHumblestO, those movies were oh so dull, so points off for that. I plump for the Jackal as coolest. And Ghost Dog as coolest.

SoddingNancyTribe | January 07, 21:41 CET

"Do you know what your sin is......it's Pride." Scariest. "I plump...", um, I know this one, I know this one...I'm going with Lust! Leon is the coolest and, I think deadliest in a non-alloy, un-Sylar way.

RhaegarTargaryen | January 07, 22:29 CET

Well when recruiting an assassin my criteria always have been, successrate, dedication and followthrough.

So sorry but all candidates on the list who ultimately failed in their assignments should go, this I am afraid excludes both The Jackal and T-800, otherwise excellent candidates but if the job doesnt get done ...

Jason Bourne might seem like a good candidate at first but a history of memory loss and shooting at former employers makes him a low rated candidate.

I'm also very sorry to have to disqualify such an excellent candidate as Anton C. he got the right attitude for the job but he clearly lacks followthrough, that last act was a shocker and not in a good way.

The top candidates would have to be The Bride and Leon, The Bride would get bonus points for digging herself out of a grave without getting a severe depression, unlike some other women I could mention :) and she does have some impressive skills, but I'd have to give the nod to Leon for the ability to take home a win despite truly bad odds, getting the job done, the look on Stansfields face in the end is just perfect.

jpr | January 07, 22:57 CET

As much as the rest of the movie fell flat, that opening scene of Elektra convinced me that she was a skilled assassin.

Sunfire | January 07, 23:06 CET

Saje...I would say that Anton Chigurh isn't as empotionally devoid as the Terminator. I mean, yeah, by the flick's thematic nature, he's a bit faceless, but Javier Bardem's performance makes him that more compelling.

Go see No Country for Old Men. C'mon. You know you want to. It's the best movie of last year. ;-)

UnpluggedCrazy | January 08, 00:37 CET

This may say something about my movie-going habits of recent decades, but shouldn't the Max von Sydow character from 3 Days of the Condor be on the list? I remember finding him pretty terrifying.

barboo | January 08, 00:53 CET

Go see No Country for Old Men. C'mon. You know you want to. It's the best movie of last year. ;-)

I do indeed and I certainly will but it's not out here until the 18th and i'm not really meant to use my time-machine for this sort of thing, not since the whole cheese debacle anyway.

jpr raises some good points. From an employer's perspective, you really want to go with Léon or Ghost Dog, those guys were loyal all the way and then some. Most of the rest had what you might call "issues" with their bosses (or were self-employed, which raises all kinds of tax questions).

Saje | January 08, 02:16 CET

They put the T-800 on the list, that's hardly fair.

Whistler | January 08, 03:42 CET

So that's what happened to the cheese!

barboo | January 08, 04:12 CET

I don't see how anyone can see No Country for Old Men and not pick Anton. Although I have much love for many on the list. Leon's the man. And I love the Bride. But if we are going for scariest killer it's hands down Anton. All in my humblest of course.
The Operative is one of the greatest villains ever, so he can feel secure in that. Or take it and question the meaning of life. Whatever gets him through the day.

theMidnighter | January 08, 09:18 CET