A Mexican standoff, at least when it comes to movies, is most often identified as a point — often during the climax — where several characters come to a head and point weapons at each other. Usually, there is very little chance of anyone surviving. It's a great way to inject suspense into a finale, as the characters are usually on equal footing, and there’s rarely a situation where everyone will leave the standoff alive.

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It's unlikely to pop up in any sort of dramatic fashion in the real world, but you are far more likely to see it in westerns, action, and crime movies. Many of these movies end with a variation on the Mexican standoff, gleefully milking all the tension it can from an ending, and ensuring the audiences get a story that ends with a bang (or two).

This article contains spoilers for the movies discussed.

'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' (1966)

Good Bad Ugly

The Mexican standoff trope can’t be discussed without bringing up the iconic ending to Sergio Leone’s classic western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Three characters have spent most of the movie finding a grave that contains a fortune of gold. They end up at its location at the same time, and Clint Eastwood’s character, nicknamed Blondie, suggests the only way to settle who gets the gold is to have a three-way shootout.

In the end, Blondie (“The Good”) and Tuco (“The Ugly,” portrayed by Eli Wallach) make it out alive, with Angel Eyes (“The Bad,” portrayed by Lee Van Cleef) biting the dust. The build-up to the final, inevitable gunshot is incredibly drawn out and suspenseful and is backed by some of Ennio Morricone’s best music in a career full of memorable themes. It’s an iconic and exciting ending that arguably influenced all climactic standoffs that followed it.

'Reservoir Dogs' (1992)

Reservoir Dogs
Image via Miramax

Quentin Tarantino’s violent and suspenseful debut film ends with a doomed Mexican standoff. The surviving characters — many of whom are wounded — gather in a warehouse after an unsuccessful robbery. With the police closing in, tensions rise, and the characters all argue over who’s to blame for the job’s failure. The arguments are inevitably settled not with words, but a flurry of fatal bullets.

Nihilistic and downbeat, Reservoir Dogs shows just about the worst outcome for a Mexican standoff, with Steve Buscemi’s Mr. Pink being the only character to make it out alive. In its final moments, Tarantino shows his audience that violence, rather than being a means to an end, is something that just leads to the end.

'Shaun of the Dead' (2004)

Shaun of the Dead

A more light-hearted example of the Mexican standoff trope, Shaun of the Dead features, in its final act, a standoff between a group of survivors who are held up in a pub (that most of them hate), hoping their barricades will hold against a zombie horde outside. While it’s a comedy for most of its runtime, the tensions that build up among the characters do add some tension, adding a bit of danger and suspense towards its ending.

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It is still light-hearted since no one in the standoff is hurt, and there is a moment where one character requests a weapon from another, seeing as the number of weapons on each side was otherwise unfair. Shortly after, however, the climax does get more violent, as the zombies do end up breaking into the pub, but the brief Mexican standoff right beforehand proves to be an interesting take on the trope, riding the line between tense and hilarious.

'Face/Off' (1997)

Face_Off

With a title like Face/Off, it’s not surprising that John Woo’s classic action film contains an ending where several characters point weapons at each other. FBI Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) and supercriminal Castor Troy (Nicholas Cage) have had a deadly rivalry for years, and it's culminated in them swapping faces to spy for their respective sides. This results in an explosive climax with them holding each other at gunpoint, with Archer's family and Troy's cohorts thrown into the mix.

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It’s wild, brief, and maybe only just makes sense within the movie’s context, but it packs a punch, and is a good burst of suspense before a more traditional action sequence follows to provide a further climax to the film. And, of course, like any big dramatic John Woo action sequence, there are inexplicable (but awesome) doves flying everywhere.

'The Departed' (2006)

The Departed

With so many characters on either side of the law pitted against each other in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning The Departed, and all sorts of uneasy allies and suspicions, it's not too surprising that things end violently. A variation on the Mexican standoff happens towards the end of the film, with Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), who's a criminal posing as a cop, and Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), who's a cop posing as a criminal, encountering each other on a rooftop. When some unexpected "guests" show up, guns are pointed every which way, and only one person makes it out alive.

While there's still a little movie left to go after this standoff's end, it still stands as the climax of the film and wraps up most of the story's loose ends before an epilogue of sorts plays out. It's a great way to end a suspenseful crime-thriller full of morally ambiguous, shady characters, and has helped ensure The Departed's reputation as one of Martin Scorsese's best and most exciting films, which, considering his body of work, is saying something.

'La Haine' (1995)

La Haine
Image via The Criterion Channel

La Haine is a French crime film about a chaotic day in the lives of three friends living in an immigrant neighborhood in Paris, La Haine's ending features a standoff that is equal parts tragic and ambiguous. A police officer mistakenly shoots dead one of these men, after which, another character points their gun at said police officer. Before this standoff can be resolved, there is a cut to black and a single gunshot heard, with no indication of who fired.

The implication is likely that whatever outcome would not have been a good one for any characters involved, and presents the downbeat idea that persecution and violence will continue for people like this, in locations like the one depicted, well beyond the single day that was presented in the film's story. It's a tragic end to the powerful and celebrated film, whose reputation continues to grow more and more positive as the years go on.

'Free Fire' (2016)

A group of well-dressed characters next to a van in a warehouse

Can Free Fire be said to climax with a Mexican standoff if the whole film is essentially one huge, drawn-out Mexican standoff? Sure. And that is quite literally the best way to summarize the plot of the film which, broadly speaking, involves two gangs of criminals meeting in a warehouse, the meeting going poorly, and everyone taking turns pointing guns at each other and/or shooting at each other for the bulk of the film's runtime until only one character remains standing by the film's end.

Free Fire is a playful example of the Mexican standoff, in that it presents it as something as funny as it is suspenseful. Much of the humor comes from how long the standoff goes on. One scene featuring a Mexican standoff isn't anything unusual, but an entire film that is essentially one extended Mexican standoff, sustained for 91 minutes? That's something that has to be seen to be believed.

'Pulp Fiction'

Pulp-Fiction-1

The Mexican standoff in Pulp Fiction is unexpectedly bloodless, especially when compared to the standoff that concludes Tarantino's previous film, Reservoir Dogs in an extremely bloody fashion. Samuel L. Jackson's character, Jules, previously shown to have no problem with violence, has had a spiritual awakening of sorts. He vows to his partner Vincent Vega (John Travolta) that he's going to live his life without violence, which he finds laughable. Minutes later, an armed robbery breaks out in the diner they're in. Jules decides to stick to his word and defuse the situation peacefully.

And he does just that. Offering some of his own money to the robbers before verbally reprimanding them, he manages to have no one fire any bullets, despite all four people in the standoff wielding guns. At the end of it all, everyone leaves the diner alive. It's a redemptive ending for Jules and a rare Mexican standoff that concludes peacefully, without leaving the viewer feeling like it's anticlimactic.

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