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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Harder They Fall, now streaming on Netflix and available in select theaters.
In Netflix’s The Harder They Fall, as much as it’s a Neo-Western, the film has a very modern, stylistic take on violence and death. It makes sense, as director Jeymes Samuel has a music video background, making some of the kills quite extravagant and cinematic. However, as it’s a rage-filled story of revenge as two gangs go at it, each death has a lot of emotion and hatred packed in. With that in mind, let’s dissect and rank the most brutal kills.
8. Nat’s Parents Get Gunned Down
This sets the tone as it opens the film, with Idris Elba’s Rufus Black entering their home right when they’re about to pray and eat. He terrifies the family, but while Nat’s dad begs for mercy, Rufus points his two shooters and takes out Nat’s mom. He then does the same to the father, before carving a cross in Nat’s forehead. It’s very unforgiving as Rufus savors the kill, putting Nat on his revenge quest. More so, he takes pleasure knowing he’s now the devil Nat will grow to spend his whole life chasing.
7. Jim’s Jaw Gets Jacked
Years later, Nat takes a crew to Redwood to fight Rufus’ squad, which leads to a showdown starring the young quickdraw, Jim. He stands off with Cherokee to test who’s faster, but as Jim jokes and slowly counts, Cherokee breaks the rules with a bullet through the face. It instantly kills the teen, leaving Nat’s team pissed at how Cherokee cheated. What’s even more crushing is they always warned the childlike Jim that his lax, arrogant attitude would get him killed as equally brazen opponents aren’t fair when it comes to the art of war.
6. Bill Gets Butchered From Behind
As the gangs square off, Bill — Nat’s sniper from the roof — slithers down in a saloon to kill some villains. However, Cherokee sneaks up from the back, pumping him full of bullets just as Bill tries to calm Cuffee down. Bill turns around and tries to speak, only to get shot through the stomach again as Cherokee teases him for rebuking their offer in the past. It frightens Cuffee, who’s still scarred from seeing him murder Jim. She can’t believe someone so polite and calm like Cherokee could be so vindictive as he taunts Bill using a Native Indian passage about scared men entering the afterlife.
5. Cherokee Takes A Bullet Through The Neck
Cuffee, though, plays on Cherokee’s haughty nature and asks him for a shootout. They use one bullet each with Cherokee seeming like the fastest draw. As they play it by the rules, Cuffee’s pupils dilate with the shot fired. It looks like she got hit, but instead, in a bloody, graphic scene, Cherokee stumbles out, holding his neck. He drops to the floor and dies in the crimson sand as Cuffee jokes that Jim was faster, had Cherokee played fair. It’s a powerful moment showing Cuffee can be just as devious in a toxic man’s game, while garnering her justice for losing her friends and mentor.
4. Angel Is Blown To Bloody Bits
Angel is Rufus’ main goon, and when Marshall Bass rides into town before the firefight, he inspects the horse cart to see if Nat sent the money to buy Mary’s freedom. However, Bass is conning Angel as he pulls Cherokee aside to negotiate. It results in the cart — a bomb fitted with dynamite — blowing up, pitching Angel’s guts and limbs everywhere. It’s at this point Bass indicates they’ve come for war, not a truce or to make a payment for a hostage, as they know Rufus’ reign can only end once his gang’s been murdered.
3. Jesus Is Filled With Lead In Church
Jesus is the goon who held down Nat as Rufus killed his parents, with Nat finding Jesus in a church years later. The man’s wearing a frock, pretending to be a priest, but Nat spots his tattoo and starts firing on him. It’s a sequence Zack Snyder would love, filled with slow-motion shots as Nat’s bullets pitch Jesus into the air. Nat then fires at him, tagging him up mid-air in quite a spectacle. This is Nat’s first kill in the movie and it proves he has no mercy as he wants all of Rufus’ men to be put six feet under.
2. Wiley’s Incinerated For His Betrayal
Wiley’s the sheriff who turned Rufus in and then tried to run Redwood. However, when Rufus returned, Wiley was exiled, causing him to gift Nat’s crew all the guns and dynamite for the assault. Wiley then sneaks around town, shooting up guys who betrayed him and blowing them up with dynamite. But it backfires in a horrific scene as Rufus sneaks up on him, finally ignoring Wiley’s loyalty in their younger days. Remembering Trudy’s words about traitors, he shoots the dynamite sticks, blowing Wiley’s guts all over the room before shooting off his own gloating stare.
1. Rufus’ Death After His Confession
Nat and Rufus eventually face off, with Rufus dropping the bombshell that he and Nat had the same dad. Rufus killed the man as he was abusive to Rufus’ family, killing his mom before fleeing. Rufus taunts a tearful Nat, forcing his brother to shoot him. Nat proceeds to pump all his bullets into Rufus’ body on the floor, hating how he had became the killer outlaw his dad ran from when he reformed. It’s a scary sequence as Nat accepts he’s a monster too, ignoring his morals and humanity to quench his thirst for vengeance.
See all the brutal deaths in The Harder They Fall, now streaming on Netflix and available in select theaters.
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