Comparison · 3 shared techniques

Blue Steel vs Hit Man

Blue Steel (1990) and Hit Man (2024) share 3 techniques. Here is how each film uses them.

Blue Steel (1990) poster

Blue Steel

Kathryn Bigelow · 1990

Hit Man (2024) poster

Hit Man

Richard Linklater · 2024

Shared

Same technique, two films

Dramatic Irony

Letting the audience know something a character doesn't. You watch them act without that knowledge, which creates suspense, dread or dark comedy.

Blue Steel

You know Hunt is the killer, but Turner does not. Their dates and conversations are tense because you want to warn her. Every sweet moment between them is a threat.

Hit Man

You know Ron is really Gary, a college professor, but Madison does not. Every kiss and every gun lesson plays on that gap. You watch her trust a man who does not exist.

Psychological Manipulation

Showing one character steering another through suggestion, reading, triggers or false trust. The manipulation works because the target wants to believe or cannot resist.

Blue Steel

Hunt gets close to Turner by charming her, then uses her trust against her. At her mother's home, he and Turner trade veiled messages implying they are both armed. He knows what she wants, which is to keep her badge and her family safe.

Hit Man

Gary researches each person before the sting and invents a different hitman persona to suit them. He wins their trust by giving each suspect exactly the criminal they want to see. The trick works because they want to believe it.

Real Locations as Character

Filming in recognizable real places so the setting acts like part of the cast. Streets, buildings and landscapes shape the mood of the story.

Blue Steel

The film ends on the streets of New York. The violent confrontation spills from the subway into the middle of Wall Street, so the city of money and rules becomes the stage for a chase between a cop and a killer.

Hit Man

The film was shot in New Orleans in autumn 2022, and the city's sticky, strange feel suits a story about people pretending to be someone else. Offices, bars and apartments feel lived in, so the lies feel like they could really happen.

Different

Where they split