As we continue our path through the baffling entity known as the Sniper Franchise, we reach the section of the series that really baffled me. Back in the blissful times when I was aware that the franchise existed far beyond the original three, but was still utterly clueless that numerous titles had been continued to get churned out as late as 2025 (!), the franchise continued to be kept on life support by delivering slick, if forgettable action sequences, while flinging the odd bit of cash the way of the original, founding pillars of the series, enticing either (or both) Tom Berenger and Billy Zane back into the fray while continuing to let Chad Michael Collins’ lead still do all the running about.
It was a system the franchise had milked “successfully” for four films after Berenger’s sole reign, but even the producers behind this unkillable franchise knew that they couldn’t keep playing the Berenger/Zane card forever.
Coincidentally, this is where the Sniper franchise starts to get a little strange as the series started throwing in sniper-ninjas and even more outlandish conspiracy plots into the mix. Assassin’s End? I don’t believe it for a second.
In Costa Verde, the signing of a high-profile trade agreement with the United States hits an unfortunate snag when foreign dignitary, Bruno Diaz, gets a high powered bullet right through his brain pan before anyone can get their John Hancock on the dotted line. Obviously, an international incident such as this needs to get solved as soon as possible, but the perpetrator of the crime – a ninja crackshot who goes by the fitting codename “Lady Death” – is smart enough to frame someone for the impressive shot.
It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to guess who she’s pointed the trigger finger at to take the blame, and thanks to a planted hair from the person of Gunnery Sergeant Brandon Beckett, he becomes the fall guy for the assassination and is subquently arrested for it while sniping the living shit out of a 14 year-old on an online video game (undoubtedly the most relatable thing Brandon’s ever done). However, while he’s being transferred, the shadowy power that orchestrated this situation decides to mop up all loose ends and not only sics Russian mercs on the convoy to wipe Beckett out, but also has Lady Death keeping a watchful eye over the carnage as a safety precaution. But when the bullets stop flying, Brandon is the only person left breathing and makes a bee-line for the only man he can possibly trust: his dear old dad Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett.
While the father and son team have yet another reunion, Federal Agent Zeke Rosenberg (who has the rather strange habit of insisting that people refer to him as Agent Zero) has been digging around to try and prove that Beckett has been framed, much to the annoyance of Agent John Frankin who’d bet his own mother that the prolific sniper and his nine-fingered patriarch are guilty as Hell. Can the Becketts team up one more time to fend off this latest political mess they’ve found themselves in the middle of, or has the hammer finally clicked on empty when it comes to their luck.
Maybe it’s because I’ve never really expected anything much from the Sniper franchise, or maybe because series newcomer Kaare Andrews decides to give this 8th installment something of a comic book face-lift, but Assassin’s End actually managed to stand out from the recent pack to me. At this point in the series, I’m not even sure you can realistically call these movies war films anymore as the reasons for all the shooty shooty bang bang this time round has less to do with shenanigans in some war torn corner of the country and more with some Stateside conspiracy that singles out the Becketts to take the fall. As a result Andrews gives the film a strangely boyant tonal makeover that drops a lot of the military worship and previous backstories in favour of a breezier adventure that throws in ninjas and Marvel-esque glibness while giving Tom Berenger his final outing as Thomas Beckett.
While the Sniper movies have always been fully focused in delivering muscular shootouts, as ludicrous as they’ve ultimately gotten they’ve never felt particularly fun. However, right from the opening that sees a face-painted, female ninja pull off a near-impossible shot before we launch into a title card right out of a Tron movie, it becomes fairly clear that the director has more interest in delivering more of a full bloodied action flick than more of clench-jawed flag waving exercise (the presence of a frickin’ ninja is a dead giveaway) and when you remember that Andrew’s biggest claim to fame is writing that Spider-Man comic where he’s given cancer to Mary-Jane with his radioactive sperm (I guess action isn’t his reward), it isn’t that surprising that he flipped the script.
The more playful nature of the tone of this installment also carries over into some of the more long-running character beats of the series. It seems that after four solid movies of Chad Michael Collins’ Brandon being morally at odds with the perceived dishonor of killing a man from a mile away, he’s finally gotten over his issues much in the same way that running into his dad in the midst of some lethal mission has also become something of a semi-regular occurrence. Strangely enough, after a bunch of movies that’s seen Collins have the responsibility of carrying the franchise repeatedly taken off his back due to a string of glorified cameos by the old guard, the actor finally seems to be building something of an actual screen presence. While there’s a legitimate argument that it’s certainly taken him long enough, the fact that this film finally turned into (probably) Tom Berenger’s last hurrah as the senior Beckett and even though the increasingly exhausted looking actor is understandably in paycheck mode, his grizzled, nonplussed presence will be missed.
However, in a weird quirk that’s fairly standard for the series, the film seemingly thinks that having a master sniper shack up with his equally hawkeyed father isn’t interesting enough to hold the focus on a film that’s barely 90 minutes long and so we get an entire subplot that features Ryan Robbins’ Agent Zero as he tries to clear Beckett’s name. While this doesn’t sound so odd, for a start you have to realise that Zero has almost no scenes with Beckett and it’s kind of odd that the movie isn’t allowing the main character to solve his own frame job in favour of some random other guy. Especially seeing as the main villain (who weirdly looks like a seven foot Anthony Jeselnik) actually has a controversial past with Brendon but doesn’t know Zero from adam. However, by this point I’m genuinely starting to believe that the franchise has beaten me down to the point while I’ll accept any old crap, because even though Zero is obviously being set up to embark on a Nick Fury-ish recruitment drive, future Sniper adventures that continues with this jauntier tone doesn’t sound all that bad.
There’s been better Sniper installments and there’s been blander ones, but while Assassin’s End is noticably missing some of the grander action beats, there’s something confoundingly endearing about the lighter nature of the film. Whether this will bleed down into later sequels will remain to be seen, but now that we no longer will have the Berenger/Zane training wheels to lean on, it’ll be interesting to see if Sniper can keep it’s aim.
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