On February 25, 2017, Hollywood suffered a major blow with the sudden death of the beloved Bill Paxton. Indeed, the multitalented actor, writer, director, and producer has been a part of some of the most iconic films of his day, and quite possibly ever made. Paxton not only served as one of James Cameron's primary muses, but he could also play a leading protagonist just as credibly as he could a ing antagonist. He truly knew no limits!
On May 17th, Paxton would have turned 65 years old. To celebrate such an honor, we with fondness Bill Paxton's 10 Best Movies, According to Rotten Tomatoes!
Magnificent Desolation: Walking On The Moon 3D (2005) 88%
Given his stellar turn in Apollo 13, who better to participate in the celebratory moonwalking doc Magnificent Desolation than Mr. Paxton?
The terse 40-minute doc physically attempts to give viewers a sense of what it feels like to walk on the lunar surface. Paxton s other high-profile celebs such as Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, and a slew of others awed by the astronomical feat.
Near Dark (1987) 88%
Straight up, Near Dark is the best vampire flick you've never heard of. Co-written by the underrated Eric Red (The Hitcher) with Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, the film also features one of the most badass Paxton performances of his career.
The hyper-violent genre mashup picks up when a simple farm boy is recruited by a vampiress to her clan of bloodsucking car thieves while hitting the road for fresh flesh. Paxton steals the show as a wildly unhinged vampire with a maniacal grin!
Titanic (1997) 89%
After working with James Cameron on The Terminator, Paxton has shown up in nearly all of his subsequent films. So when it came time to casting Titanic, the self-proclaimed "king of the world" went right back to the well!
Of course, until Cameron broke his own record with Avatar, Titanic was the highest-grossing film of all time. We all know the gist, so instead let's Paxton's role as Brock Lovett, a present-day treasure hunter obsessed with finding the "heart of the ocean" amid the Titanic wreckage.
Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) 90%
Paxton always had a knack for holding his own opposite movie megastars, and in Edge of Tomorrow, he gave Tom Cruise all he could handle. Over and over again!
The action-packed Groundhog Day-like thriller finds U.S. Soldier Bill Cage (Cruise) stuck in a time-loop, which restarts every time he dies in battle. Cage is forced to relive the same day over and over until he can figure out what the hell is going on and defeat the enemy onslaught. Paxton owns the screen as Master Sergeant Farell.
A Simple Plan (1998) 90%
Sam Raimi's superb and still overlooked response to his pals Joel and Ethan Coen's Fargo, A Simple Plan, features one of Paxton's most gripping and morally challenged performances of all. A great film!
When Hank (Paxton) and his mentally-impaired brother Jacob (Billy-Bob Thornton) stumble on a duffle bag full of stolen cash in the snowy woods, their simple plan of dividing the money among themselves goes horribly awry. Hank's wife (Bridget Fonda) has her own scheme, Jacob's drunken buddy wants a piece of the loot, and the criminals who the money belongs to come looking to collect.
Nightcrawler (2014) 95%
2014 was the last truly great year of cinema. One of the chief reasons why includes Dan Gilroy's rivetingly original Nightcrawler, in which Jake Gyllenhaal gives an inspired turn as a predatory hustler and crime journalist.
Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal) is a disturbed con-man who carves a niche by filming immediate road accidents and intense violent crimes, the footage of which he sells to a seedy news station. Paxton plays Lou's chief rival, Joe Loder, a veteran newsman who always seems one step ahead of the breaking news. As a result, Lou takes drastic measures!
One False Move (1991) 96%
One of the main reasons Paxton and Thornton displayed such natural onscreen chemistry in A Simple Plan is because they'd already built a rapport on the set of One False Move seven years earlier. Both films are among the best crime titles of the 1990s!
Co-written by Thornton and directed by Carl Franklin, One False Move is a gritty road-picture in which a trio of criminals try to safely evade Los Angeles for Star City, Arkansas following a soured drug deal. What transpires in between is what makes this movie a must-see!
Apollo 13 (1995) 96%
In Ron Howard's celebration of American ingenuity and problem-solving, Paxton had the thankless task of contracting a fever in outer space. Unlucky #13 indeed!
Paxton plays Fred Haise in Apollo 13, who ventures to the moon along with fellow astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon). When a major engine failure ensues en route to the lunar surface, the three men must think fast and work with mission control to hatch a plan to return home safely. As mentioned, Haise nearly died in the spacecraft from a high fever!
Aliens (1986) 97%
After making a glorified cameo at the beginning of The Terminator, James Cameron gave Paxton a much bigger, cooler, and far more memorable role in the awesome Aliens. All hail Private Hudson!
You know the deal. Rather than the slow-burning tension and suspense mounted in Ridley Scott's original, Cameron imbued the sequel with a nonstop action assault more akin to a first-person shooter videogame. Both films are bona fide classics, but the hilarious characters like Hudson in Aliens make the cast a bit more human.
The Terminator (1984) 100%
As alluded to, Paxton merely appears as a spiky-blue-haired punk at the start of The Terminator, whom Arnie the Schwarz coldly approaches and tosses against a metal gate. Hey, that's what you get for calling the robotic killer "a couple of cans short of a six-pack."
As for the plot, it couldn't be simpler. A murderous cyborg is sent from the future to murder Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and prevent the birth of her messianic son John. To prevent such, a futuristic soldier named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent to hunt the cyborg. As for Paxton, it's fitting that his highest-rated film (per RT) is one that led to his relationship with James Cameron and thus a 30-year film career. RIP Mr. Paxton, we love your work!