Sadly, three years ago, the world learned of the news that Hollywood legend Bruce Willis had been diagnosed with dementia, specifically a rare, degenerative brain disorder known as FTD. In the years since, as his condition has worsened, his legacy has only improved, as newer generations expose themselves to Willis’ illustrious filmography. From his most famous performances in the likes of Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, and Pulp Fiction to hidden gems including 12 Monkeys and Death Becomes Her, there is a smorgasbord of quality to explore in Willis’ catalog.
One of the actor’s most underrated films debuted just two years after The Sixth Sense, which earned an impressive six nominations at the Academy Awards. That film is the 2001 heist rom-comBandits, directed by Barry Levinson, the man most famous for directing Rain Man, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Blending the best of Willis’ romantic exploits and his action talent, Bandits earned most of its praise due to the quality of its cast, which also included Cate Blanchett and Billy Bob Thornton, just two years after the former earned her first Academy Award nomination for Elizabeth.
The film follows Joe (Willis) and Terry (Thornton) after they have escaped from prison, as their criminal enterprise is scuppered courtesy of a chance meeting with Blanchett’s Kate Wheeler, who joins them on their cross-country journey, and romance blossoms. The movie earned mixed reviews upon arrival, illustrated by a 64% average score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. “There’s good on-screen chemistry, good acting, and an incredibly well-written and clever ending,” wrote one critic, but, in contrast, another scathingly wrote, “Terrible. A substitute for sleep medication that’s so self-indulgent and plodding, it drove four people out of my screening midway through.” Either way, you can make up your own mind next month, with Bandits officially streaming for free on Plex on July 1.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Was ‘Bandits’ a Box Office Hit?
With a post-Sixth Sense Willis headlining and the great Levinson behind the camera, Bandits looked set to be a success. Sadly, the film flopped at the box office, not helped by having a bloated budget of $75 million. Against this budget, the film only returned $71.5 million, split between a domestic haul of $41.5 million and a further $30 million from overseas markets.
Bandits will be available to stream for free on Plex next month. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest streaming stories.
