Few Hollywood screenwriters have generated the cult following, huge payouts, and watercooler-friendly one-liners of Shane Blacka screenwriter whose words entered our hearts with the release of Deadly weapon in 1987. He seemed to catch lightning in a bottle in the 1980s, with his snappy dialogue, graphic action sequences, and some hard-hitting characters that quickly became household names. While the box-office returns of his movies haven’t always lived up to the big hype (or higher fees) associated with his scripts, nearly every movie he’s ever written has found cult status among cinemaphiles who still hark back to its glorious days. .
In addition to his immense talent for writing great action movies, his quirky turns as an actor in movies like Predator and Dead heat further fueled his mythos as a Hollywood anti-hero. Add to that Black’s almost one-handed resurrection of Robert Downey Jr.’s career. in the directorial debut of the former, Kiss kiss bang bang, and there are even more reasons for us to fawn over the screenwriting legend. To this day, movie nerds still debate Sargeant Murtaugh’s too-old-for-this-ness, the merits of Black’s setting of nearly all of his films at Christmastime, and whether Wolfman does indeed have nards. Listed here are the movies Shane Black has written.
10 Last action hero
We must credit the critical failure of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-driven blockbuster Last action hero on the fact that Shane Black merely did a rewrite of Zak Penn’s original script, which was then hacked by Columbia Pictures before production. But as reviled as the film was by critics of the time, Black’s DNA remains firmly entrenched in the final product, a guilty pleasure for action-oriented audiences and Arnold fans alike. The list of writers who have attempted to edit this script is a virtual who’s-who of Hollywood royalty, from William Goldman to Carrie Fisher, but we like to think that the best parts of the film, the nonsensical comedic action sequences, their success to the influence of Black’s design on the film’s final product.
9 The predator
Perhaps the most underrated offering of the Predator franchising, The predator was one of the few times Shane Black actually directed one of his own action scripts. While not exactly beloved by critics, the film more than met its budget with a successful theatrical release, thanks in large part to Black’s adherence to the intimate, action-ensemble cast idea and cat-and-mouse theme of the franchise’s original installment. The fact that Black had appeared as an actor in the original movie as the dimwitted Rick Hawkins only added to the excitement for Pred Heads, who came to theaters for one reason only: the non-stop action. Black did not disappoint, as Boyd Holbrook and Olivia Munn’s casting (as well as Keegan Michael-Key’s comedic relief) highlighted what has now become a classic script in the Shane Black canon.
8 Deadly weapon 2
If black the Deadly weapon follow-up script is to be believed, executive producer Joel Silver may have done the film a disservice by creating Black’s script, originally titled Play dirty, in a more studio-friendly, comedic version. While it’s fun to speculate how Black’s original dark version of Deadly weapon 2 may have hit the screen, the final product was still an extremely fun movie with plenty of laughs from Black’s gutsy dialogue and the addition of Joe Pesci as the annoyingly sweet Leo Getz. Deadly weapon 2 may not be our favorite Black script, but it certainly did a good job of showing off some of its comedic chops, and at least is testament to the push and pull between studio and creatives during franchise-making in the late ’80s.
7 The nice guys
Perhaps the funniest script on this list, The nice guys also marks Black’s best-executed film. At the time of its creation, Black was perhaps the only person in Hollywood who understood Ryan Gosling’s potential for comedy, and Gosling’s turn as wannabe sleuth Holland March yielded some hilarious readings of iconic Black lines like “You know who else was follow orders? Adolf Hitler.” Black used Gosling and co-star Russell Crowe as well as any other writer, introducing us to the lost Angourie Rice, writing some of his best-ever lines for her character, Holly March (most of which are firmly in the NSFW- category).
6 The Last Boy Scout
Known today for its $1.75 million payday (a record at the time). The Last Boy Scout screenplay, this is perhaps Black’s most prototypical work. The irreverence, ultra-violence, and complete disregard for the plausibility of the screenplay’s action sequences are the hallmarks we’ve come to love about Black’s screenwriting. Though underrated at the time of its release, any ’90s action man knows that The Last Boy Scout belongs high in the ranks of the many insanely hyperbolic films of the decade.
Only Shane Black would have the guts to write a sequence where a running back pro football player pulls out a gun as he runs to the end zone, blowing away his competition and eventually himself. Quentin Tarantino himself has even admitted to switching Bruce Willis’s Joe Hallenbeck character from Black to his own Butch Coolidge character in Pulp Fiction. The thought that Black, Tony Scott and Joel Silver worked on the same film still makes action buffs’ mouths water for what could have been had the film’s production not been a battle of egos. Still, we’ve got a cult classic with all the gore and spunk we hope for when we see Shane Black’s name in the credits.
5 The long kiss goodnight
Another 90s action movie, another record payday for Shane Black – as the bidding war for this script netted him a cool $4 million dollars. While black enthusiasts will always say he earned every dollar of that fee, The long kiss goodnight was not the box office boon that New Line Cinema had hoped for, possibly because audiences of the time were not ready for a female-driven, hard-boiled action flick. Cult aficionados of the movie couldn’t care less, however, citing Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson’s incredible performances and laugh-out-loud dialogue.
The studio was clearly making another failed attempt at turning a Black script into a super franchise (look no further than the film’s poster, essentially cut and pasted from the earlier Deadly weapon surf). Sure, it didn’t live up to the hype of Black’s exorbitant payday, but it takes fifth place on this list, if only ahead of Davis’ Samantha Caine delivering the most Shane Black line ever: “Life is pain. Get used to it at.” We may never get the long rumored sequel The long kiss goodnight what we have always hoped for, but can only dream of.
4 iron man 3
It’s nothing short of poetic justice that Robert Downey Jr., then one of Hollywood’s biggest actors, chose Shane Black in 2010 to direct the third installment of Marvel’s Iron Man franchise. It was a return of favor, as Black took a chance on Downey Jr. less than a decade earlier. to play in Kiss kiss bang banga film that addresses the concerns of the major studios about casting the unlucky Downey Jr. in major roles after some notable substance abuse problems.
Despite his own career lull prior to iron man 3Black did not disappoint – with the film making and cementing more than $1 billion worldwide Iron Man as the great superhero in the Marvel Universe. It also ranks as one of Black’s best scripts, co-written by Drew Pearce, and arguably the funniest screenplay of any Marvel film to date.
3 Kiss kiss bang bang
While he barely made his budget back at the box office, Kiss kiss bang bang is one of Black’s most beloved films because of the perfect marriage between Black’s writing and Downey Jr.’s narrative voice. The film also proved that Black’s talent as a director was undeniable, making great use of Val Kilmer’s diverse talents at a time when he too was largely forgotten by Hollywood’s tastemakers. It’s the most brilliant plot of Black’s films, utilizing a Raymond Chandler-esque murder mystery with dialogue-driven hilarity that reminded audiences just how special Robert Downey Jr. is. action rich.
2 The Monster Squad
While anyone under 40 could convulse at finding The Monster Squad so high in the Shane Black script rankings, any ’80s baby worth their salt knows how pivotal this movie was to any Halloween sleepover back in the day. Not only did it dare to unite Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Wolfman in a line of killer movie monsters, it also gave us glimpses of Black’s prowess as a writer and plenty of giggles to work its way into our pre-pubescent hearts. Although it ranks among the best kids’ ensemble films of the 1980s, its legacy will forever be linked to its most famous line (and the title of a subsequent documentary on the film): “Wolfman’s got nards?” If you weren’t alive, then…don’t ask.
1 Deadly weapon
It can be hard to imagine a world without the Deadly weapon franchise, but there was a time when few knew the name Mel Gibson, even less Danny Glover and nobody had heard of Shane Black. The original script for this movie was so good that even meddlesome studio executives couldn’t have messed it up. Say what you will about Gibson, he was born to play Riggs, a character so close to the brink of insanity that only Black could have figured out a way to endear him to audiences. It is often forgotten how dark and violent the original film was, as this was the first time moviegoers became aware of a sponge being used as an instrument of torture.
Butchering Black’s script for the sequel is a testament to all the ways screenwriters of Black’s depth should be given carte blanche to execute their ideas, even on an over-the-top studio action movie. The fact that this was Black’s first major film as a screenwriter is mind-boggling considering the myriad ways Black has been copied over the years and how inexperienced a screenwriter Black was at the time. While he may have peaked early with his freshmen Deadly weapon script, he never stopped entertaining audiences in the ensuing 35 or so years of writing movies for our enjoyment.