A Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson Collaboration almost always guaranteed a great movie. The '90s was a particularly exciting time to be a film fan, with the emergence of some major actors and filmmakers. As an actor, Jackson had been stealing movies for years, including Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, but it was Quentin Tarantino who made Pulp Fiction. He's rarely stopped working in the years since, and whether the movies themselves are good or bad, he always makes them worth seeing.
The success of Pulp Fiction helped the careers of every major cast member and showed a new side to Die Hard star Bruce Willis. This also kicked off a series of acting collaborations between Willis and Jackson, some of which rank among their most successful projects. The two actors always seemed to bring out the best in one another, but how do the various Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson collaborations rank among one another?
5. Glass (2019)
Even if Split antagonist. Sadly, M. Night Shyamalan's trilogy capper is a muddled, somewhat pretentious psychological drama that lacks both the emotion and depth of Unbreakable. Willis' Dunn is sidelined and underused - with the resolution to his arc being Glass' biggest misstep - Jackson is mute for most of the runtime, with Sarah Paulson and McAvoy being the ones that power the story.
4. Loaded Weapon 1 (1993)
Loaded Weapon 1 is a parody of the buddy cop genre, most notably the Lethal Weapon series, and sees Jackson's straight-laced cop Luger paired with trigger-happy Colt (Emilio Estevez) through a story that takes aim at the '90s biggest hits, including Basic Instinct and Silence Of The Lambs. The result is a choppy, unfocused comedy that still manages a few good belly laughs. It's got a surprisingly stacked cast - including IT's Tim Curry, F. Murray Abraham, J.T. Walsh, etc - while Willis gives his best cameo as a luckless trailer owner who REALLY resembles John McClane. Loaded Weapon 1 is a light, dated snack, but it's entertaining with the right mindset.
3. Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)
Die Hard With A Vengeance changed up the formula of the series, and instead of being trapped in a confined space, Willis' McClane had to race around New York instead. He's paired with the very reluctant civilian Zeus (Jackson), with the uneasy dynamic between the pair powering much of the movie. With A Vengeance is the best Die Hard sequel for its great characters and well-executed setpieces, though the convoluted plan of Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) leaves some glaring logic holes. The film's pacing is also a little slack, but flaws aside it's one of the '90s best buddy cop exercises.
2. Unbreakable (2000)
Shyamalan's thriller Unbreakable was unwisely sold by the studio as another creepy supernatural thriller, following The Sixth Sense's incredible success. This was a mistake, as it was really a grounded take on the superhero movie genre - before that was even really a thing. Willis gives one of his most understated, underrated turns as Dunn, a security guard who survives an unsurvivable accident and discovers his purpose in life. Despite its chilly surface, Unbreakable is one of Shyamalan's most thoughtful and moving works. It features one of the director's trademark "shock" endings too, but the revelation about Jackson's "mentor" Glass feels heartbreakingly inevitable.
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction hit audiences like a bolt of lightning in 1994, with its characters and dialogue becoming instantly iconic. It marked Tarantino - who had an incredible Godzilla pitch - as one of the most important filmmakers of his generation, and despite many other directors trying to emulate his style, they never pulled it off as seamlessly as Pulp Fiction. It's a key Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson Collaboration too - despite the two actors not really sharing any scenes. Jules is still the defining Jackson performance for many, displaying his talent for wordy, brash monologues but also introspection, while Willis' Butch gets Pulp Fiction's most disturbing chapter.
