Very few actors have proven as versatile or as magnetic as Denzel Washington. Washington can embody nearly any role, whether it’s a corrupt cop in Training Day or a socially awkward lawyer in Roman J. Israel, Esq. He can also slip into different genres and has proven himself a bona fide action hero in movies like The Equalizer trilogy and Man on Fire. However, one of Washington’s more underrated action roles is in a remake of one of the greatest Western movies ever made, which not only put a fresh spin on a classic story but also reunited him with The Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua.
That movie is The Magnificent Seven. Like the original 1960 Western (and its original inspiration, Seven Samurai), Fuqua’s take on The Magnificent Seven features seven bounty hunters being recruited to protect the small town of Rose Creek. The screenplay by Equalizer writer Richard Wenk and True Detective scribe Nic Pizzolatto provides some clever updates: instead of a group of bandits, the Seven are fighting against robber baron Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), who wants Rose Creek’s residents to turn over their land to him and isn’t shy about using force to do it. While The Magnificent Seven might have received a mixed reception 10 years ago, it remains an action-packed watch.
Denzel Washington Leads a Star-Studded Cast in ‘The Magnificent Seven’
Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
Perhaps the biggest draw of the Magnificent Seven remake is the cast that makes up the titular group of bounty hunters, thanks to its diversity and the characters that bring something unique to the table. Joshua Faraday (Chris Pratt) is a skilled gambler and crack shot. The Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) is an expert tracker. Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) possesses terrifying strength, but a contemplative soul. This mix of skills and personalities helps Fuqua add depth to scenes where the Seven get to know each other, and deliver action sequences you wouldn’t see in any other Western.
Of course, it’s Washington who delivers the best performance as bounty hunter Sam Chisholm. Chisholm steals every scene he’s in, thanks to Washington’s quiet yet powerful performance and a slow unraveling of his past that reveals his very personal reasons for wanting to defend Rogue Creek. Washington’s presence also might have helped The Magnificent Seven top the box office in its opening weekend, as he was the biggest star in the cast. Ironically, most of the Magnificent Seven cast have gone on to have healthy careers, with Martin Sensmeier and Luke Grimes joining another massive Western story thanks to their roles in the Yellowstone franchise.
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.
The ‘Magnificent Seven’ Remake Doubles as a ‘Training Day’ Reunion
The Magnificent Seven features one of the most unlikely reunions in Hollywood history, as its cast includes Ethan Hawke — who previously worked with Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua on Training Day. Hawke later revealed that he asked Fuqua to cast him in the movieonce he learned about it, especially since Fuqua let him flesh out his character, Goodnight Robicheaux.
“Antoine gave me a lot of free rein. We’ve learned to trust each other over the years, so he knows I won’t totally go off the deep end. I mean, there is something dynamic about [my character] Goodnight, a former Confederate soldier who’s now partnered with Denzel. How could that be?”
This resulted in a gripping performance from Hawke, who peels back Robicheaux’s layers as The Magnificent Seven plays out. While Robicheaux is best known for his expert sharpshooting, the Civil War left him emotionally broken. This level of character work separates The Magnificent Seven from other remakesand proves you can have great acting and greatviolence in an action movie. Prime Video is developing a new Magnificent Seven television series, and they should look to Fuqua’s take for inspiration, or better yet, cast an actor who can match Denzel Washington.
