How many Sniper movies are there?
Sony PicturesThe Sniper movies span 30 years, with Chad Michael Collins’ entries finding a second life on Netflix – if you’re curious about the franchise, this is a breakdown of the whole series.
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 action movies aren’t any different – and that’s where the Sniper franchise comes in.
Three decades 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.
Are all the Sniper movies connected?
Sony PicturesOfficially, yes, all of the Sniper movies are connected. However, the later entries don’t require any extensive knowledge of the earlier films, so don’t worry about ticking them all off or remembering anything specific.
As noted above, Berenger’s Beckett appears throughout the franchise, but the baton (or the gun, I should say) has definitely been passed to Chad Michael Collins’ character. Zane reprised his role in Sniper: Reloaded, reinforcing the idea that the franchise is one long chronology – but you won’t be confused if you haven’t seen all of them.
If you’re a purist, you should watch them all, but Sniper: Reloaded is a good start point to fully understand the rest of the series.
What is the best Sniper movie?
Tri-Star PicturesThe Sniper movies have never garnered critical acclaim – in fact, many of them don’t have critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes. However, one film has a higher audience rating than the rest: 1993’s Sniper, the first entry in the franchise.
This isn’t that surprising: it was the movie that launched the franchise, it has the slickest production values, and every other film was released direct to DVD. You can compare the franchise’s scores below:
- Sniper – 55%
- Sniper 2 – 42%
- Sniper 3 – 43%
- Sniper: Reloaded – 34%
- Sniper: Legacy – 37%
- Sniper: Ghost Shooter – 37%
- Sniper: Ultimate Kill – 39%
- Sniper: Assassin’s End – 39%
- Sniper: Rogue Mission – 25%
- Sniper: G.R.I.T. – N/A
Sniper: Ghost Shooter, Sniper: Ultimate Kill, Sniper: Assassin’s End, Sniper: Rogue Mission, and Sniper: G.R.I.T. are all on Netflix now. In the meantime, find other new movies streaming this month and check out our list of the best movies of 2024.