How many Sniper movies are there?
Sony PicturesThe Sniper movie series has sparked renewed interest after a number of its films hit Netflix in recent weeks – here’s how many movies there are in the series, as well as a list of them in order.
Sniper scenes have produced some of the tensest, best (and, sometimes, ludicrous) moments in all of cinema, whether it’s the church tower duel in Saving Private Ryan, Wanted’s city-wide whistling bullet, or Will Smith offing a terrorist on a high-speed train in Gemini Man, or the chilling opening of Jack Reacher.
Entire games have been built on the allure of being a distant sharpshooter, and movies aren’t any different – and that’s where the Sniper franchise comes in.
Thirty years after its first movie’s release, the series has been enjoying the limelight thanks to Netflix acquiring and pushing several entries. Naturally, viewers are curious about the rest of the movies, so here’s what you need to know.
How many Sniper movies are there?
There are 10 movies in the Sniper franchise.
The series kicked off with 1993’s Sniper, starring Tom Berenger as Master Gunnery Sergeant Tom Beckett. While it didn’t light the box office on fire, grossing just $19 million worldwide, it stood apart from its contemporaries and the heightened, sillier action of the ’80s.
The first movie has a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 38%, but Roger Ebert wrote: “Sniper expresses a cool competence that is a pleasure to watch. It isn’t a particularly original film, but what it does, it does well… it is, I admit, strange that “Sniper” is so blase about the fact that the heroes are murderers.”
It became the unlikely launchpad for a long-running franchise, returning with Sniper 2 in 2002, the first of several direct-to-DVD sequels.
Sniper movies in order
Below, you’ll find the complete list of every movie in the Sniper series:
- Sniper (1993)
- Sniper 2 (2002)
- Sniper 3 (2004)
- Sniper: Reloaded (2011)
- Sniper: Legacy (2014)
- Sniper: Ghost Shooter (2016)
- Sniper: Ultimate Kill (2017)
- Sniper: Assassin’s End (2020)
- Sniper: Rogue Mission (2022)
- Sniper: G.R.I.T. – Global Response and Intelligence Team (2023)
Berenger’s Beckett has appeared in all but three entries: Reloaded (which introduced Chad Michael Collins’ Brandon, his character’s son), Ghost Shooter, Rogue Mission, and G.R.I.T.
In an earlier interview with MovieWeb, the original star was asked if he ever expected to still be revisiting the character after all this time. “Absolutely not. I had no idea, not even a thought. In the original script, I’m killed by Billy Zane, who shoots me so I don’t get tortured anymore, when I signal him. You know, one shot, two kills, he reads my lips and then he carries my body out of there.
“But, they changed that ending. Maybe they were thinking about it, at the time, or they just like happy endings, who knows. I was kind of disappointed, actually, because I thought it was just a great ending. I thought it was great that he has to kill me to keep me from being tortured. So, here we are. I guess there are five of them now.”
Sony PicturesSpeaking to CBR, Collins was asked why he’s stuck around in the franchise since his debut more than a decade ago. “The selfish answer is I am an actor, and I love to work. If they are kind enough to include me in another one, I jump at the chance,” he said.
“The professional interview answer is it’s just a great opportunity to take a character and keep breathing life into it, keep adding a new layer. This is my sixth movie playing Brandon Beckett, and he has come a really long way since Sniper: Reloaded 10-plus years ago, where we saw him more as a baby-faced soldier, an infantry marine grunt on the frontlines.
“Now, we’ve seen him evolve as a world-class sniper, following in his father’s footsteps. He has gone away from the military stuff and is more of a Special Ops fighter for good. He’s focusing not even on [a] military mission, but as in this one, we touch on a sex trafficking ring and the dirty corruption that goes on at the highest level. It’s almost about humanitarian efforts, which I think is a fun direction to take the franchise.”
It’s currently unclear if there’ll be a Sniper 11, but we’ll keep this space updated with any new information.
Sniper: Ghost Shooter, Sniper: Ultimate Kill, Sniper: Assassin’s End, Sniper: Rogue Mission, and Sniper: G.R.I.T. are all on Netflix now.
