Natural Born Killers

"The media made them superstars."

1994 1h 59m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

🥫

52%

ROTTEN

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★7.1TMDB · 3,935🥫52%Rotten Tomatoes●74Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 264,242

CrimeThrillerDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.

“The media made them superstars.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Woody Harrelson
Mickey Knox
Juliette Lewis
Mallory Knox
Robert Downey Jr.
Wayne Gale
Tommy Lee Jones
Warden Dwight McClusky
Tom Sizemore
Det. Jack Scagnetti
Rodney Dangerfield
Mallory's Dad
Edie McClurg
Mallory's Mom
Jared Harris
London Boy

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Oliver Stone
Writers: David Veloz, Richard Rutowski, Oliver Stone
Languages: English, Navajo, Japanese
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.2× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

32 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Navajo, Japanese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Oliver Stone, shot by Robert Richardson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Brent Lewis. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Hank Corwin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis and Robert Downey Jr. carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The media made them superstars.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Oliver Stone directs. Robert Richardson behind the camera. Brent Lewis scores. Hank Corwin cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Navajo, Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 3.2× over at the box office.
232 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Navajo, Japanese.
4Directed by Oliver Stone, shot by Robert Richardson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Brent Lewis. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Hank Corwin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis and Robert Downey Jr. carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "The media made them superstars.".
9IMDB entry: tt0110632 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 18 themes, including "daughter", "journalist", "sadistic", "mass murder".
11Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert Richardson
Original score: Brent Lewis
Editing: Hank Corwin
Production design: Victor Kempster
Costume design: Richard Hornung
Makeup / hair: John E. Jackson
Sound: Scott Martin Gershin
Stunt coordinator: Phil Neilson
Runtime: 119 min · 1h 59m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $34,000,000
Box office: $110,000,000
Return: 324% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Natural Born Killers (1994)
Rotten Tomatoes: 52% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 74/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 264,242 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

5 wins & 10 nominations total

Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Oliver Stone

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Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2023-11-17
★ 6/10
A brutal criticism of our society, in which the film itself takes advantage of what it is criticizing. Oliver Stone is not one of my favorite directors. What happens when he teams up with Quentin Tarantino? This. The script written by Tarantino is an authentic carnage that massacred not only a random number of extras but also popular culture. Ever since the mass media appeared, alarmist and high-sounding voices have occasionally emerged to warn of the enormous dangers they pose. Over the decades, criticism has echoed around the appreciation for what is violent or has sexual connotations. I agree with some, if not most, of the criticisms, although I cannot accept people being considered stupid enough to start carrying out massacres or sexual orgies just because of what they see on certain TV shows. The vast majority of people do not allow themselves to be influenced in this way, and those who allow this already have, a priori, an imperative need for psychological support. The film starts from this premise to create a bizarre story in which a terrible couple of killers, bloodthirsty and sadistic to an extreme point, end up being transformed into authentic “pop” superstars, with legions of fans, interviews and a public frenzy around them. their violent acts, and the heartless hunt that the police carry out against them. I appreciate the satirical tones given to the film, which shows a society where everything that in a normal world only deserves to be execrated is worshiped. However, by taking this path, it is part of the “problem” and is so extremely violent that it bothers any human being with a minimum of compassion. Everything in this film has Tarantino's touch, implicit in a latent hysteria present in almost everything: the direction is raw, rude, the soundtrack is intrusive, and the editing uses brutal, fast cuts and scenes that an epileptic would not be able to handle, including sudden cuts of black-and-white films, TV news and other materials. The visual effects are of excellent quality, but eye-catching. The fast-paced action transforms the film into a race through a world of extreme violence, histrionic and unpleasant characters, and incessant noise. The dialogue is written to be shouted rather than spoken, and the heavy use of swear words may make some people's ears ring. There is a very strong cast in this film that deserves to be highlighted for the superb work it gives to the audience. Woody Harrelson is convincing and appropriately sadistic in his role, which is one of the most brutal and impactful of his career to date, and Juliette Lewis, despite not being particularly “sexy” as required by the character, is believable, intelligent and pleasantly naughty. Robert Downey Jr., who was still far from the stardom he achieved in recent years, is truly devastating in the final part of the film and Tommy Lee Jones, an always competent veteran, is suitably crazy, as if he no longer has a sense of reality and had no fear of abusing the powers with which he was invested. Tom Sizemore ends up being the most restrained actor among those that the script most favored.
BornKnight2023-12-18
★ 7/10
I am a little suspect to talk about of this one - was on my bucket list for ages and finally I could see the director's cult version of it. It simply wasn't anything that I was expecting... and it was way more. Normally this would be a 3 star max, but I took in account the movie editing and the 30y gap. Maybe if I watched it 30y ago it would be a different sense - it deal with the over glorification of serial killers by (old - and now we have again that trend) media shows and that many serial killers have difficult family backgrounds with child abuse (but not all turn to killers and ice-versa, I think the main dialog here is about mental disease in the family). If no one said to me that it was Oliver Stone Behind the camera's simply I couldn't tell. It looked simply a Tarantino movie, and guess what? The screenplay was of him, and "heavily" (?!) edited by Oliver Stone. Sorry for the fans but I am not one of the Tarantino Movies, they rely too much in violence and puns to hide little if any talent for screenplays. I expected way more of the screenplay after Oliver Stone revised it. Some aspects of the movie can be said positive: the acting of the Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) as a modern version of Bonnie and Clyde and Robert Downey Jr. as the show presenter. The cinematography by the talentful Robert Richardson (that works constantly with Tarantino, but with other huge names as Scorsese and Oliver Stone himself) is frenetic and psychedelic and so is the editing that is huge in between scenes, done by Hank Corwin and Brian Berdan (Tree of Life, Don't Look Up, Vice, etc) and the music score is perfect by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (especially Cowboy Junkies "Sweet Jane" and Jane's Addiction ones). Otherwise even the tone of violence is just comic by today standards - but the visual of the killer couple is very aesthetic and some scenes like the opeding and the wedding ones. I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.0 / B
Dr Nostromo2026-05-15
★ 7/10
72/100 This surreal, macabre, blood drenched, ultra-violent art piece from Oliver Stone depicts the killing spree of Mick and Mallory. Praised as cultural icons, they become the means by which all can live out their vicarious need for destruction. Stringently criticized for it's glamorous, artistic and, oftentimes, gleeful depiction of brutality when it was released prior to the Internet and social media, it's become even more relevant in today's world where occurrences such as this have become commonplace ...and we still love to see it splashed across the screen. Brutal! -- DrNostromo.com