Val Kilmer's Best Movies, Ranked
Although he never quite got the recognition that he deserved, Val Kilmer was one of the greatest performers of his generation.
He began acting in 1984 and came out swinging with a beautiful comedic turn in spy spoof Top Secret! From there, Kilmer continued to traverse every genre and worked with heavy-hitting directors including Tony Scott, Oliver Stone, Michael Mann, and Ron Howard. His final credit came in 2022 when he reprised his role of Ice-Man in Top Gun: Maverick.
Throughout his career, Kilmer was plagued by reports of being difficult to work with, and yet in the documentary Val it is clear that there was more going on than the headlines had space for. Try as these rumours might, nothing could stop Kilmer from getting in front of the camera, and each and every time he disappeared completely inside his roles. Whether front and centre in Wonderland, or barely there, such as in True Romance, Kilmer had an intense screen presence and created some genuine icons of cinema in the process.
If you missed the works of Val Kilmer the first time around, here is a round-up of some of his finest work and where you can find them.
With Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns, Michael Keaton made the Caped Crusader his own. It was going to be a tough job for whichever soul stepped into the cowl after him, and Kilmer was the actor who had to deal with that pressure. By Batman Forever, Burton had also departed the project and the film was instead directed by Joel Schumacher. Often criticised, Batman Forever is not a bad movie; it’s just tonally different to the two films that preceded it, and the bulk of the movies that followed after. The use of neon took it out of Burton territory, but it didn't go full high camp like the OTT Batman and Robin, making it a great bridge between everything else.
As with most actors, Kilmer was stronger at one half of the Bruce Wayne / Batman dynamic, with Kilmer far better at the Wayne side. That could be due to the actor feeling silly in the Batman garb, or that when suited, he was face-to-face with Jim Carrey’s Riddler, a performance that did not rely on subtlety. When out of the suit, Kilmer sings on screen, presenting a version of Bruce Wayne that is actively trying to unpick and heal his trauma with the assistance of Doctor Chase Meridian. Kilmer also gets to enact more of the detective side of the superhero as he solves the (very easy) riddles he starts receiving through the post.
Of all of Kilmer’s roles, Top Gun’s Iceman is perhaps the one that springs to mind for most people. It is well documented that Kilmer was contractually forced to make Top Gun, but even when placed into a role he really didn’t want, he nailed it. The character is the bitter rival of Tom Cruise’s Maverick, and the two repeatedly butt heads before finally learning to respect one another.
Kilmer doesn’t really have a great deal to do other than pout, gloat, and shout (all whilst looking immaculate) in Maverick’s direction, but Kilmer pulled the character off beautifully. His return in Top Gun: Maverick had fans in tears, not bad considering his appearance was just one scene.
Val Kilmer started his career in the comedy Top Secret!, but became known for his more serious roles. In 2005, however, Kilmer decided to remind audiences that he had a softer and sillier side, and signed on for Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The film marked a return to the screen for former problem child Robert Downey Jr., which was cemented when he became Iron Man and kick-started the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only did Kiss Kiss Bang Bang prove that Downey could hold himself together, but it also reminded audiences that underneath the stoic façade, Kilmer housed a clown desperate to goof around.
In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Kilmer plays Gay Perry, a detective who pairs up with Downey Jr’s Harry Lockhart as they try to solve a murder mystery. Shane Black is known for his witty and slick dialogue, and Kilmer met the challenge, making Gay Perry the snippiest and sharpest queer character of the new millennium.
In Michael Mann’s Heat, Val Kilmer almost steals the whole film, and he isn’t even the lead role. Instead, he plays Chris Shiherlis, the right-hand man to Robert De Niro’s crime boss, Neil McCauley. The pair rob banks together, and Neil is in a bitter war of hide and seek with cop Vincent Hanna, played by Al Pacino. At the time of release, much of the focus of coverage of Heat was trained on the café meeting between the titans of acting, De Niro and Pacino. However, those who have sat down with Heat on more than one occasion understand that Chris is the more compelling character.
Chris is head-over-heels in love with his wife, but ultimately has to leave her behind after the net closes in on him. The scene where he walks away from his wife lands like a gut-punch, and it is purely down to the physicality of Kilmer’s performance, his face expressing more than a thousand words could.
In 1991, Val Kilmer starred as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors. Despite being a very strong biopic, The Doors found itself locked out of the awards season. This was a massive shame for Kilmer, as his performance as Morrison is uncanny. Long before people were singing the praises of Austin Butler for his turn as Elvis, Kilmer was somehow possessed by the spirit of the departed Morrison.
Kilmer recorded all of his own vocals for the movie, and they are so close to the genuine article that even surviving members of The Doors who heard Kilmer’s work struggled to distinguish the two voices.
Given Kilmer’s talent for stealing the spotlight in ensemble pieces, it comes as no surprise that his finest performance was in a film where he was not directly in the spotlight. Tombstone is one of the greatest westerns ever made. The plot tells the story of the famous Wyatt Earp and those around him. Tombstone might technically be about Kurt Russell’s character, but most only remember the sequences involving Earp’s huckleberry friend and confidant, Doc Holliday.
Whenever Doc Holliday is on screen, Tombstone almost visibly brightens; the character is charismatic and intoxicating. When paired with Holliday’s nemesis, Johnny Ringo, played by Michael Biehn, Tombstone kicks up another gear, and the air begins to sizzle. The role of Doc Holliday allowed Kilmer to demonstrate the range of his acting abilities, the character going from silly to serious in a nanosecond. Holliday also enabled Kilmer to showcase his gunslinging prowess. If you didn’t understand his magnetism before watching, you 100% will after watching Tombstone.
