Ten Best Movies Ranked by Bill Pullman, Actor of Independence Day
From romantic comedies to science fiction action blockbusters, traditional Westerns to Japanese horror, and everything in between, Bill Pullman's film career has taken him from Pullman has had an amazing career on stage and on television, but over three decades he has become well-known for his cinematic performances. He has created a place for himself in Hollywood as an actor who can feature in any kind of film even though his movie performances have never been nominated for a major acting award.
Pullman performs quite likeable acting. As witnessed in 2023's Murdaugh Mysteries: The Movie, in which he portrayed real-life convicted killer Alex Murdaugh, there is still a seriousness and honesty to his performances even when he is portraying nasty people. Pullman constantly delivers his A-game whether he is the main man, a supporting actor, or a complete villain. His debut film role was in the grim comedy Ruthless People in 1986; until 2021, there was just one year without a Bill Pullman film. He has given quite outstanding performances in that period.
10. The Grudge ( 2004)
Ju-On: The Grudge is a 2004 remake of the well-known Japanese horror movie. Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, and Clea DuVall are the movie The Grudge centers on Tokyo nurse Gellar, who falls victim to a lethal magical curse. Takashi Shimizu, creator of The Grudge, directed the film.
One of the creepiest horror films of all time, The Grudge easily makes one forget that Bill Pullman had a major part in the 2001 flashbacks of the movie with all the terrible images and gruesome murders. Pullman co-stars as Peter Kirk, a college lecturer Kayako Saeki (Takako Fuji) is utterly captivated and even obsessed with. The terrible ghosts of the film result from Kayako's husband killing her, their son, and himself upon discovering her letters to Peter. Peter also ends his life upon learning of the massacre.
Pullman's filmography features few pure horror films, hence he manages himself like an experienced American remake of a Japanese classic. Though he's elegant enough to make sense Kayako would fall in love with him, he is also charming enough to make it very evident he isn't responsible for encouraging her on. His terrible, hopeless death upon unexpectedly throwing himself off the balcony raises questions about his anguish upon discovering the Saeki family.
9. Battle of the Sexes 2017
Sporting drama directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris is Battle of the Sexes. Em Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs, the movie chronicles the historic 1973 tennis match between the two.
Based mostly on the actual 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, Battle of the Sexes stars Emma Stone as King and Steve Carell as Riggs. As Jack Kramer, a real-life former tennis player and now match promoter paying male sportsmen sometimes eight times more than she is, Bill Pullman costars.
As striking as it is frustrating, Pullman portrays Kramer as a sputtering, back-tracking promoter and the early scene of his trying to gently spar with King about why he pays guys more is rather remarkable. Though not one of Pullman's typical character types, he is a nasty person; his charming smile fits quite nicely as a snobbish sneer. Many people have encountered this kind of person in their professional life—someone undermining their efforts without explaining precisely why they are generating so much misery.
8. A League of Their Own 1992
Released in 1992, Penny Marshall's comic sports drama A League of Their Own is Following World War II, the player count in professional Major League Baseball is declining; the Chicago Cubs owner helps create a women's league to save the game. Now, expecting to go big, the women of the new team have to contend with discrimination against their gender and other competing all-female teams.
Playing the real-life Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which emerged after World War II stopped the MLB, a League of Their Own boasts an outstanding cast of award-winning actors. A supporting character like Bob Hinson (Bill Pullman) might easily vanish among Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, and Rosie O'Donnell, yet Pullman distinguishes Bob even with a minor role.
Back from the battlefield injured, Bob is Dottie's husband. Though he asks Dottie to stop the Peaches, he is gentle and encouraging; she does so to enable him to heal. It's said Bob made his wife realize she had to play in the last game when she gets back on the field. Bob stands out in a movie full of men who don't take the Peaches seriously since he wants what's best for his wife, as she does for him.
7. Casper, 1995
Inspired by the comic character "Casper the Friendly Ghost," the 1995 supernatural fantasy film Casper shows Dr. James Harvey's (Bill Pullman) attempts to find out why Casper and his ghostly uncles are so determined on haunting a home that has been willed to the greedy Carrigan (Cathy Moriarty). Casper is a pretty somber film with many people dying or contemplating death and the hereafter for a movie meant for presumably families.
Dr. James Harvey is named for Harvey Comics, the comic book publisher who developed Casper and Richie Rich among other legendary characters.
Pullman has a profound and complicated role, even if several sequences show him being somewhat naively pranked by the ghosts in the estate. Trying to take care of his daughter Cat (Christina Ricci), he is a man bereaved of his wife and trying to assist the spirits even if they seem not to want him here. Despite all the gloom, Casper is a really enjoyable film; Pullman deftly moves between hilarity and seriousness to ensure the film never gets the wrong tone.
The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017)
As the title role in the 2017 Western, The Ballad of Lefty Brown, Bill Pullman starred. Under Jared Moshe's direction, The Ballad of Lefty Brown tracks Lefty, an aging Montana lawman in 1889. Lefty is enmeshed in a local government conspiracy whereby his friend Ed (Peter Fonda) is murdered. Lefty sets off on his own and realizes, if he wants to get revenge on his pal, he must be the hero instead of the sidekick for once.
Particularly from Pullman, this is a classic Western story with great views, tough faces, and real-sounding speech. Pullman is playing a bold character since Lefty is not a villain nor a hero. He's a man who has never really done much with his life and now has to go out and write his own story at an old age. Pullman depicts the role as terrified but with an underlying power that is increasingly remarkable as the movie progresses; he does not exude confidence or bravacity.
5. Sleepless in Seattle, 1993
Nora Ephron's romance comedy Sleepless in Seattle stars Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin, a widower whose young son phones a radio show in search of his father a new mate. Meg Ryan plays the journalist fascinated by the narrative, Annie Reed. Against the backdrop of two people linking across states without ever having met, the movie examines ideas of love and fate.
It's no easy job to co-star in a '90s romantic comedy with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and not be completely forgotten in the face of their electric chemistry, particularly in a movie as timeless as Sleepless in Seattle. Walter Jackson, Annie Reed's (Ryan) fiancé is played by Bill Pullman. Walter is not some envious boyfriend the viewer instantly does not want. He is a quite kind and lovely dude. At the end of the film, he boldly and gently says he cannot be with Annie over supper.
Pullman gives his best in the part, which is crucial for the film since it has to be plausible that Annie would stay his fiancé. Walter's speech about marriage and expectations is thoughtful and emotional. He even manages a joke while Annie is ending things that leaves their relationship on a high note and ensures the romance between Sam (Hanks) and Annie isn't built on a bad breakup.
4. Spaceballs (1987)
Directed by Mel Brooks, Spaceballs parodies a number of beloved science fiction classics, most notably Star Wars. The film stars Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, a mercenary who helps rescue Princess Vespa from the clutches of the evil Spaceballs who wish to use her as a ransom. While on the run, Lone Starr, Vespa, and company are pursued by Spaceball commanders Dark Helmet and Colonel Sandurz, whose bumbling attempts to retrieve Vespa make up much of the comedy of the film. Bill Pullman stars as Lone Starr, with a further cast that includes Rick Moranis, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga, and Joan Rivers.
Spaceballs was only the second movie of Bill Pullman's career, and his third role ever, but it immediately made him a star. As one of Mel Brooks' many spoof comedies, Spaceballs was always going to be a beloved hit. Making the highly relevant Star Wars the target of the spoof ensured fans of both the original trilogy and Brooks' films would find reasons to love the hilarious send-up of the science fiction epic. Pullman plays Lone Starr, a parody version of Han Solo, who flies a Winnebago rather than a Millennium Falcon.
It's a role like this that made it easy to see how well Pullman could work in comedies and action Movies in equal measure. As both Luke Skywalker and Han, Lone Starr gets all the action sequences and the comedy sequences, and he's capable of both. By playing the character as a credible space opera hero, Pullman only ramps up the comedy throughout the movie, juxtaposing it against his legitimate skills as a pilot and "Schwartz" user. It's a role like this that made it easy to see how well Pullman could work in comedies and action movies in equal measure.
3. Lost Highway (1997)
David Lynch's surreal Lost Highway was not as well received when it debuted as his previous psychological noirs like Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. However, Lost Highway has undergone a critical reappraisal with many viewers realizing just how complex and intricately designed it is. Bill Pullman stars as Fred Madison, a saxophonist who begins receiving mysterious videotapes of himself and his wife in the mail. To explain any more of the film would risk spoilers and confusion, but like most Lynch films, Lost Highway's meaning isn't obvious on first watch.
Pullman ranks highly among the many incredible performances in Lynch's films. Fred is haunted and exhausted but unwilling to confront the parts of himself that may be causing so much pain. He has the perfect face of someone trying to figure out a puzzle but knowing that they will inevitably fail. Pullman's portrayal of a man descending into that madness feels visceral.
2. While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Lucy is a lonely Chicago subway worker who has a platonic crush on a passenger named Peter. One day he is mugged and thrown onto the train tracks. Thanks to Lucy, Peter is saved but lies in a coma in hospital. When she visits him, she is mistaken for Peter's girlfriend, causing a series of misunderstandings, especially as Lucy begins to fall in love with the victim's brother.
Though Bill Pullman had appeared in a handful of romantic comedies previously, he had yet to star in one. He finally did in While You Were Sleeping, alongside Sandra Bullock in one of her earliest romantic comedy lead roles as well. In the film, Lucy (Bullock) is a lonely Chicago Transit Authority fare operator who finds herself caught in a lie. She has accidentally convinced the family of a comatose man that she's his fiancée, only to meet his brother, Jack (Pullman), and realize she's actually falling in love.
It's a complex but tightly written romantic comedy that never feels obvious or ridiculous. Instead, the chemistry between Bullock and Pullman is so palpable that there's never any doubt the two won't end up together. Pullman is at his most charming in the role, and it is instantly understandable why Lucy would fall for him. His argument with his brother about Lucy later in the movie is a showcase of Pullman's range of emotion, as Jack's devotion to her is inspiring and poignant.
1. Independence Day (1996)
Roland Emmerich's iconic 1996 sci-fi disaster movie Independence Day chronicles the attack of a hostile race of aliens against planet Earth. When extraterrestrial aircraft occupy Earth without warning, the forces of humanity quickly band together to stop them. At the behest of President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), US Marine pilot Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) and satellite engineer David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) organize humanity's last-ditch counterattack against the technologically-advanced alien mothership.
Bill Pullman stars as President Thomas J. Whitmore in Independence Day, the U.S. president in office, when militaristic aliens descend on the Earth and begin blowing up cities wholesale. It's one of the most spectacular blockbusters ever, with incredible VFX, music, and performances by an ensemble of '90s stars. Pullman stands out as a different kind of hero from David Levinson's (Jeff Goldblum) scientific hero and Captain Steven Hiller's (Will Smith) military hero. Whitmore is a champion of the common person.
Bill Pullman reprised his role, now as former President Thomas J. Whitmore, in Independence Day: Resurgence.
Whitmore is often regarded as one of the best presidents in movie history, and for good reason. His stirring speech, where he challenges humanity to band together and even name-drops the title of the movie, is as rousing as movie speeches get. It may be the best moment of Pullman's career and has been copied unsuccessfully dozens of times since. Bill Pullman doesn't stop there either. When he dons a pilot's outfit, the audience easily believes Whitmore could take out all the aliens by himself.
