| Sniper | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Luis Llosa |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Robert L. Rosen |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Bill Butler |
| Edited by | M. Scott Smith |
| Music by | Gary Chang |
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Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5.3 million[1] |
| Box office | $19 million[2] |
Sniper is a 1993 Americanaction film directed byLuis Llosa. The film starsTom Berenger andBilly Zane assnipers on an assassination mission inPanama. It is the first installment in theSniper film series, and was followed by tendirect-to-video sequels:Sniper 2,Sniper 3,Sniper: Reloaded,Sniper: Legacy,Sniper: Ghost Shooter,Sniper: Ultimate Kill,Sniper: Assassin's End,Sniper: Rogue Mission,Sniper: G.R.I.T. – Global Response & Intelligence Team andSniper: The Last Stand. It was shot inQueensland, Australia, and debuted at number two in the United States.
Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett,Force Reconnaissance Marine, an experienced sniper, and his spotter, Cpl. Papich, are on a mission to assassinate a Panamanian rebel leader in the jungle. Upon successful completion of their mission, Beckett and Papich covertly withdraw from the area to await extraction. Because they are erroneously extracted in daylight instead of at night, Papich is killed by a sniper.
Later, Beckett is paired with an inexperienced civilian, Richard Miller, to eliminate rebel General Miguel Alvarez funded by a Colombian drug lord, Raoul Ochoa. Miller is an Olympic medalist andSWAT team sharpshooter, but he has no combat experience and no confirmed kills to his name. Miller is also ordered by his superiors to kill Beckett if hebecomes a liability. While proceeding to the staging area, Miller's UH-1 helicopter is fired upon by a guerrilla. Several of the helicopter's crew and passengers are killed. Miller is unable to shoot him; instead, the helicopter's fatally-wounded door-gunner makes the kill, but the aircraft's surviving aviator believes Miller made the crucial shot, earning Miller a false reputation.
On the mission, Beckett insists on deviating from the plan that Miller was given. Early on, they encounter a group of Indians, who agree to lead them past the rebel guerrillas, in return for a favor: they must agree to eliminate El Cirujano ("The Surgeon"), an ex-CIA agent and expert in torture who has been aiding the rebels. Beckett agrees to do so.
Uncertain of Miller's reliability and skeptical about his "kill" while recently aboard the helicopter, he tells Miller to kill El Cirujano in order to prove himself. However, when the time comes, Miller fails again by first firing a "warning shot," followed by a shot at Cirujano's head, which misses. In the ensuing firefight with the alarmed guerrillas, one of the Indians is killed; the rest withdraw further help.
En route to the target, they realize they are being followed by another sniper. They head to a village to contact their informant, a priest, only to find that he has been murdered well before they arrived. Beckett speculates out loud that it is the work of El Cirujano, calling into question Miller's credibility. That night, Beckett baits the sniper following them into a trap to take him out.
The two men finally reach the General'shacienda. While waiting for their targets to emerge, they find Cirujano to be alive after all. Miller isn't hidden very well, and is spotted by one of the guards trying to sneak up on him. Beckett kills Miller's attacker while Miller takes out the drug lord. Being forced to save Miller's life instead of killing the General, Beckett insists on going back to take out the General. Miller's refusal to complete the mission leads to an exchange of fire between Beckett and Miller. Miller ceases after running out of ammunition.
As rebels close in on the two, Beckett attempts to provide cover fire for Miller. Seeing himself outnumbered, he surrenders to the rebels and, knowing Miller is watching, drops a bullet on the ground. Miller picks it up after Beckett is taken away.
With nighttime approaching, Miller goes to the extraction site, but instead of boarding the helicopter, he heads to the base camp, where he kills the general with his knife. He finds Beckett being tortured by El Cirujano, who has cut off the trigger finger of Beckett's right hand. Beckett spots Miller and uses a ploy to both distract Cirujano and mouth Miller instruction to kill both of them with one shot. Instead, Miller sticks to "one shot, one kill" and shoots Cirujano in the head. The two run to the helicopter for extraction, and Beckett once again saves Miller's life. Using his left hand, he uses Cirujano's pistol to shoot an ambushing sniper. The final scene shows Beckett and Miller on the way back home aboard the helicopter.
Billy Zane was cast after his starring role inDead Calm raised his profile. Director Luis Llosa, who grew up watching American films, called modern films "cartoonish and antiseptic" in their depiction of violence; he said that he wanted to bring back a sense of impact to killing.[3]
Principal filming begain in August 1991[1] at locations inQueensland, Australia[4] includingPort Douglas,Paronella Park, andKurunda.[1] Some additional filming was done inPanama.[1]
Columbia TriStar Home Video released it on VHS in August 1993,[5] LaserDisc in September 1993,[6]on DVD in October 1998[7] and on Blu-ray in July 2021.
Sniper was held back from release in 1992.[8] It debuted at number two at the box office[9] on January 29, 1993,[1] in 1551 theaters and went on to gross $18,994,653 in the US.[2]
Rotten Tomatoes, areview aggregator, reports that 36% of 14 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.7/10.[10]Roger Ebert rated it 3/4 stars and 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."[11]Variety called it "an expertly directed, yet ultimately unsatisfying psychological thriller" that is "undermined by underdeveloped characters and pedestrian dialogue."[4]Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times described it as "partly a badly choreographed action drama and partly a psychological exploration of Beckett's mind, which comes up empty."[12]
Michael Wilmington of theLos Angeles Times called it a shallow film that does not explore the themes suggested by the script and instead turns into a bloodless, macho video game.[13] Clifford Terry of theChicago Tribune called it a formulaic male-bonding drama that features a Hollywood odd-coupling.[14] Richard Harrington ofThe Washington Post criticized the lack of character progression and the implausible conclusion.[15]
Stephen Wigler ofThe Baltimore Sun called it a "poorly written, badly directed film" that substitutes violence for sex.[16] Marjorie Baumgarten of theAustin Chronicle rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote, "Sniper does little that's terribly original but that which it does, it does with great competence and grace."[17]
Sniper spawned ten sequels:Sniper 2 in 2002,Sniper 3 in 2004,Sniper: Reloaded in 2011,Sniper: Legacy in 2014,Sniper: Ghost Shooter in 2016,Sniper: Ultimate Kill in 2017,Sniper: Assassin's End in 2020,Sniper: Rogue Mission in 2022,Sniper: G.R.I.T. – Global Response & Intelligence Team in 2023 andSniper: The Last Stand in 2025.Sniper: Reloaded,Sniper: Ghost Shooter andSniper: Ultimate Kill featureBilly Zane's role of Richard Miller from the firstSniper film reprised, having himself become a sniper following his tour experience with Thomas Beckett.
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