Characters With Missing Arms
by Satantangoandcash | created - 13 Oct 2013 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicComments may contain spoilers.
These are movies with a character who has lost one or two of their arms.
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1. El Topo (1970)
Not Rated | 125 min | Drama, Western
A mysterious black-clad gunfighter wanders a mystical Western landscape encountering multiple bizarre characters.
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky | Stars: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, José Legarreta, Alfonso Arau
Votes: 31,359 | Gross: $0.04M
A man without legs is strapped to the back of a man without arms, merging them together in perfect symbiosis. This would make a great sit-com.
2. Santa Sangre (1989)
NC-17 | 123 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother - the leader of a strange religious cult - and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name as he becomes "her arms".
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky | Stars: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell, Thelma Tixou
Votes: 23,298
Fenix' father cut off both of his mother's arms and she built a church to worship a raped child-saint. She uses her bewitched son Fenix's hands reaching out from behind her body in a nightclub act she performs and then later when she fights the soul mime girl who Fenix loves until Fenix rises as an eagle from his dead Puppetmaster's ashes as naked zombie brides rise from their graves. I'm not making this up.
3. Mother India (1957)
Not Rated | 172 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
In this melodrama, a poverty-stricken woman raises her sons through many trials and tribulations. But no matter the struggles, she always sticks to her own moral code.
Director: Mehboob Khan | Stars: Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar Tuli, Raaj Kumar
Votes: 9,850
Mother India's husband tried to move a huge boulder by putting both arms under it, but it fell and crushed both of his arms which had to be amputated.
4. Sholay (1975)
Not Rated | 162 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After his family is murdered by a notorious and ruthless bandit, a former police officer enlists the services of two outlaws to capture the bandit.
Director: Ramesh Sippy | Stars: Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Amjad Khan
Votes: 58,692
In this popular Bollywood action rom com musical buddy movie, we learn, after he is accused of being a coward for not picking up a gun, that a main character we've seen always wearing a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, didn't join the fight because both of his arms were cut off by a bandit. We see him do it in a flashback in one easy stroke with one sword in each hand. Yet, oddly, the armless guy is still way better groomed than everybody else. At the end when they're about to fight the bandit says something like "You can't fight me I cut your arms off" and the armless guy says something like "You use your feet to crush a snake not your hands" then they really get into it with hands and feet.
5. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Not Rated | 931 min | Crime, Drama
In late-1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight. However, he soon finds himself embroiled in the city's criminal underworld.
Stars: Günter Lamprecht, Claus Holm, Hanna Schygulla, Franz Buchrieser
Votes: 4,895
Franz lost an arm after it was crushed under a car tire.
6. Foolish Wives (1922)
Not Rated | 117 min | Drama, Thriller
A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
Director: Erich von Stroheim | Stars: Rudolph Christians, Miss DuPont, Maude George, Mae Busch
Votes: 4,018 | Gross: $0.40M
A woman seated on a patio drops her book in front of a soldier who wears a military cape that hides his arms. He just sits there without picking it up for her. We see by the look on her face that she is insulted, and we don't blame her. Von Sternberg even reads a passage from her book about how Americans have no honor. Later she drops her purse next to the same soldier in an elevator and again he does not pick it up, to her annoyance, and ours also. Who is this bum? Finally, she exits the hotel door, not looking where she is going, and she bumps into him, knocking his cape to the ground. He stops and looks at her as if he expects her to pick it up and we are just as outraged as she is - until the camera shows us that he has no arms. She picks up the cape and puts it on him then fondles his empty sleeves, kisses the insignia on the wrist, and tearfully apologizes to him in what becomes a very uncomfortable scene because she looks like she's turned on by his lack of arms.
7. 127 Hours (2010)
R | 94 min | Biography, Drama
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Sean Bott
Votes: 401,073 | Gross: $18.34M
Aron Ralson's arm gets caught in a rock slide, trapping him inside a slot canyon, so he slowly cuts off his entire arm with a dull pocket knife to escape.
8. The Unknown (1927)
Unrated | 68 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
A criminal on the run hides in a circus and seeks to possess the daughter of the ringmaster at any cost.
Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Lon Chaney, Norman Kerry, Joan Crawford, Nick De Ruiz
Votes: 9,135 | Gross: $0.41M
Lon Chaney pretends to be a circus freak with no arms who shoots guns and throws knives with his feet, but he's really a crook with both arms and three thumbs. When he falls in love with Joan Crawford and finds out she has a terrible fear of being touched by a man, but trusts him because he has no arms and hands, he blackmails a surgeon and forces him to cut off his arms to win her over. But as soon as his second arm hits the floor, she loses her fear of grabby-armed guys and hooks up with the strongman, the guy with the biggest arms in the circus.
9. True Grit (2010)
PG-13 | 110 min | Drama, Western
A stubborn teenager enlists the help of a tough U.S. Marshal to track down her father's murderer.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin
Votes: 357,286 | Gross: $171.24M
Snakebite cure in the old West was a shot of whisky and a sawed-off arm. These days it is recommended that the victim remain quiet and seek immediate medical help. 14-year-old Mattie Ross falls into a pit where she is bitten on the arm by a rattlesnake. She is rescued and taken to a doctor who cuts her arm off. We see her years later as a grown woman with one arm.
10. Soul Surfer (2011)
PG | 112 min | Biography, Drama, Family
Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer, loses her left arm in a shark attack. Unwilling to pay attention to the gravity of her situation, Bethany decides to get back into the ocean and surf again.
Director: Sean McNamara | Stars: AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Carrie Underwood
Votes: 52,850 | Gross: $43.85M
A shark bites off a surfer's left arm so she breaks an arm off her Barbie Doll and learns to tie on her bikini top with only one arm. She also learns to surf again.
11. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many, very silly obstacles.
Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones | Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam
Votes: 569,801 | Gross: $1.23M
King Arthur: [after he has cut off both of the Black Knight's arms] "Look, you stupid Bastard. You've got no arms left." Black Knight: "Yes I have." King Arthur: "Look!" Black Knight: "It's just a flesh wound."
12. Freaks (1932)
Not Rated | 64 min | Drama, Horror
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates
Votes: 50,558 | Gross: $0.63M
A traveling circus has a freak show with a girl with no arms and a guy with no arms or legs.
13. The Holy Mountain (1973)
16+ | 114 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
In a corrupt, greed-fueled world, a powerful alchemist leads a messianic character and seven materialistic figures to the Holy Mountain, where they hope to achieve enlightenment.
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky | Stars: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas, Zamira Saunders, Juan Ferrara
Votes: 47,959 | Gross: $0.06M
It seems like every Jodorowsky film must have at least one character with no arms. In this one, there is a brief scene of a very small shirtless man with no arms who angrily kicks a fallen statue on the ground with his feet.
Another small man has half of his arms missing, and we see him light and smoke cigarettes with his stumps.
14. The Fugitive (1993)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.
Director: Andrew Davis | Stars: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore
Votes: 318,346 | Gross: $183.88M
Dr. Richard Kimble, a fugitive from the law who want him for the murder of his wife, insists that she was killed by a man with a prosthetic arm. "When I came home, there was a man in my house. I fought with this man. He had a mechanical arm. You find this man. You find this man!"
15. Predator (1987)
R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Horror
A team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.
Director: John McTiernan | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Elpidia Carrillo
Votes: 454,273 | Gross: $59.74M
Carl Weathers' character gets his arm shot off by an alien hunter with dreadlocks.
16. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
R | 169 min | Drama, War
Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns
Votes: 1,494,932 | Gross: $216.54M
During the Normandy invasion in WWII a soldier's arm is shot off so he picks it up and carries it with him.
17. Blade (1998)
R | 120 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A half-vampire, half-mortal man becomes a protector of the mortal race, while slaying evil vampires.
Director: Stephen Norrington | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, N'Bushe Wright
Votes: 298,611 | Gross: $70.09M
A bad guy gets his arm sliced off by Blade's sword.
18. The Terminator (1984)
R | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn, Paul Winfield
Votes: 923,241 | Gross: $38.40M
The Terminator loses his arms but they can be replaced because he's just a machine.
19. Toy Story 2 (1999)
G | 92 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends set out on a rescue mission to save Woody before he becomes a museum toy property with his roundup gang Jessie, Prospector, and Bullseye.
Directors: John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich | Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer
Votes: 619,118 | Gross: $245.85M
It's all in a day's work for a toy cowboy; lose an arm, sew it back on.
20. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
PG | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Ten years after initially meeting, Anakin Skywalker shares a forbidden romance with Padmé Amidala, while Obi-Wan Kenobi discovers a secret clone army crafted for the Jedi.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee
Votes: 758,243 | Gross: $310.68M
Anakin's severed arm is replaced with a mechanical one.
21. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
PG-13 | 140 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Three years into the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi pursues a new threat, while Anakin Skywalker is lured by Chancellor Palpatine into a sinister plot to rule the galaxy.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson
Votes: 844,622 | Gross: $380.26M
Anakin loses his second arm, gets covered in hard black plastic with a respirator, and turns into a really bad guy named Darth.
22. Evil Dead II (1987)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
Ash Williams, the lone survivor of an earlier onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits, holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley DePaiva
Votes: 181,756 | Gross: $5.92M
Technically, for an arm to be severed the cut must be above the elbow. Ash's arm is cut below the elbow, but he straps a chainsaw to his remaining arm and uses it to rip through demon heads, and that is just too cool to leave out.
23. Snowpiercer (2013)
R | 126 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.
Director: Bong Joon Ho | Stars: Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris
Votes: 388,649 | Gross: $4.56M
A man's right arm is frozen solid then smashed off with a big hammer. He does OK later using a weapon in his left hand. Another man has only one arm. We learn that he cut it off to feed some starving people and keep them from needing to kill and eat a baby. Hard times.
24. 7th Heaven (1927)
110 min | Drama, Romance
A street cleaner saves a young woman's life, and the pair slowly fall in love until war intervenes.
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ben Bard, Albert Gran
Votes: 4,157 | Gross: $3.92M
A soldier returns from the war missing an arm.
25. Marketa Lazarová (1967)
Not Rated | 162 min | Drama, History, Romance
A grim portrayal of the shift from Paganism to Christianity in medieval central Europe - as a young virgin promised to God is kidnapped and raped by a marauder who her religious father seeks to kill in return.
Director: Frantisek Vlácil | Stars: Josef Kemr, Magda Vásáryová, Nada Hejna, Jaroslav Moucka
Votes: 6,011
A main character Adam was having sex with his sister in a field when a viper bit his arm. His father chopped it off with an axe because of the incest and because of the poison from the snakebite.
26. 13 Assassins (2010)
R | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A group of assassins come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yûsuke Iseya, Ikki Sawamura
Votes: 68,558 | Gross: $0.80M
A sadistic feudal lord cut off the arms, feet, and tongue of a woman because she was related to a rebel leader. She's only in the film for a few minutes but that's enough to give you nightmares.
27. The Last Wagon (1956)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Western
Wagon train survivors of an Apache attack entrust the sheriff's prisoner, scout Comanche Todd, with their lives despite his wanted-for-murder status.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: Richard Widmark, Felicia Farr, Susan Kohner, Tommy Rettig
Votes: 3,657
The Union Army judge during the trial at the end was missing an arm.
28. Irma la Douce (1963)
Approved | 147 min | Comedy, Romance
When a policeman falls in love with a prostitute, he doesn't want her to see other men, so he creates an alter-ego who will be her only customer.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi, Bruce Yarnell
Votes: 21,324 | Gross: $25.25M
Jojo the pimp is a short man with only one arm. He lost the other one in an explosion when he was a safecracker.
29. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger
Votes: 24,225
Spencer Tracy's character still has his arm, but he can't use it, so he's technically missing an arm, right?
30. Major Dundee (1965)
PG-13 | 123 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In 1864, due to frequent Apache raids from Mexico into the U.S., a Union officer decides to illegally cross the border and destroy the Apache, using a mixed army of Union troops, Confederate POWs, civilian mercenaries, and scouts.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn
Votes: 8,822 | Gross: $0.01M
James Coburn is Samuel Potts, a scout for the U.S. Cavalry who has only one arm.
31. The One Armed Executioner (1981)
R | 95 min | Action, Drama
This is the story of Ramon Ortega, an Interpol agent turned restaurateur who is out for revenge against the gangsters that cut his left arm off of his body and killed his young wife, Ann. ... See full summary »
Director: Bobby A. Suarez | Stars: Franco Guerrero, Jody Kay, Mike Cohen, Pete Cooper
Votes: 325
It's right there in the title.
32. The Horse Soldiers (1959)
Approved | 120 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1863, a Union outfit is sent behind Confederate lines in Mississippi to destroy enemy railroads but a captive southern belle and the unit's doctor cause frictions within ranks.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers, Judson Pratt
Votes: 11,642 | Gross: $1.75M
A Confederate officer who was once the comrade-in-arms of a Union doctor is missing an arm.
33. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
R | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max.
Director: George Miller | Stars: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz
Votes: 1,084,797 | Gross: $154.06M
Imperator Furiosa is missing her left arm and uses a prosthetic arm and hand.
34. They Drive by Night (1940)
Approved | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
When one of two truck-driving brothers loses an arm, they both join a transport company where the other is falsely charged as an accessory in the murder of the owner.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino
Votes: 8,807
Bogart loses his right arm in an accident.
35. Wind Across the Everglades (1958)
Approved | 93 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
An ornithologist battles a family of bird poachers in the Florida Everglades.
Directors: Nicholas Ray, Budd Schulberg | Stars: Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer, Chana Eden, Gypsy Rose Lee
Votes: 1,248
A Seminole guide in the Everglades is named "Billy One Arm" for obvious reasons.
36. Virtuosity (1995)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
When a virtual reality simulation created using the personalities of multiple serial killers manages to escape into the real world, an ex-cop is tasked with stopping its reign of terror.
Director: Brett Leonard | Stars: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Kelly Lynch, Stephen Spinella
Votes: 32,362 | Gross: $24.05M
Denzel Washington plays an ex-cop convict whose left arm was blown of in the explosion of the bomb that killed his wife and daughter. It was replaced with a metal arm that is useful when he needs to stop a huge building ventilation fan - he just shoves the metal arm right into it.
37. Until the End of the World (1991)
R | 158 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In 1999, Claire Tourneur's life is forever changed after she survives a car crash. She rescues Sam and travels the world with him. Writer Eugene Fitzpatrick follows and writes their story as a method of recording dreams is being developed.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Pietro Falcone, Enzo Turrin
Votes: 11,312 | Gross: $0.75M
An Australian man has a mechanical arm and hand.
38. The 10th Victim (1965)
Not Rated | 92 min | Action, Comedy, Romance
In a future where a human vs. human "Big Hunt" is used as an alternative to war, a veteran huntress' plan to kill a "victim" for a major TV sponsorship deal is compounded by romance.
Director: Elio Petri | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, Salvo Randone
Votes: 4,993
A trainer in a gym for assassins has an artificial arm that has a hook with a cigarette lighter built into it.
39. Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
R | 111 min | Drama, War
During World War I, a patriotic young American is rendered blind, deaf, limbless, and mute by a horrific artillery shell attack. Trapped in what's left of his body, he desperately looks for a way to end his life.
Director: Dalton Trumbo | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards
Votes: 18,334 | Gross: $0.55M
A soldier wakes up in an Army hospital bed a prisoner in his own body with no legs, arms, face, or sensory organs.
40. Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Approved | 107 min | Drama, Western
A fiercely independent cowboy gets himself locked up in prison to escape with an old friend.
Director: David Miller | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, Michael Kane
Votes: 9,911
Actor Bill Raisch, who lost his right arm in WWII and played the one-armed man in the TV series The Fugitive, appears as a man called "One Arm" who takes on Kirk Douglas in a famous fight scene in a bar where Douglas fights him with only his left arm - and loses.
41. Spartacus (1960)
PG-13 | 197 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The slave Spartacus survives brutal training as a gladiator and leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic, as the ambitious Crassus seeks to gain power by crushing the uprising.
Directors: Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Mann | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton
Votes: 143,072 | Gross: $30.00M
Bill Raisch, who lost an arm in WWI and played the one-armed man in the tv series The Fugitive, appears in an uncredited role as "Soldier Whose Arm is Hacked Off"
42. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.
Director: Jonathan Frakes | Stars: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton
Votes: 131,993 | Gross: $92.00M
Alice Krige plays the Borg Queen who we first see as only a head with an upper chest and a spinal cord, swinging down a wire into a body suit with arms and legs.
43. Doctor X (1932)
Unrated | 76 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Preston Foster
Votes: 4,260 | Gross: $0.88M
When the police see a doctor remove his artificial arm and hand, they decide that he could not have been the strangler they are looking for. Later we see that he has used synthetic flesh to make another artificial arm and hand, which could be used for strangling.
44. I, Robot (2004)
PG-13 | 115 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
In 2035, a technophobic cop investigates a crime that may have been perpetrated by a robot, which leads to a larger threat to humanity.
Director: Alex Proyas | Stars: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, Alan Tudyk
Votes: 574,805 | Gross: $144.80M
Del Spooner is a Chicago cop who lost his left arm in an auto accident. A robot designer replaced it with an artificial arm that looks like a normal human arm but is much stronger. When the artificial skin is torn, he just sprays some artificial skin on it to hide its metallic insides.
45. Enter the Dragon (1973)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A Shaolin martial artist travels to an island fortress to spy on an opium lord - who is also a former monk from his temple - under the guise of attending a fighting tournament.
Director: Robert Clouse | Stars: Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri
Votes: 112,900 | Gross: $25.00M
One of Bruce Lee's adversaries is a man with an artificial metal arm with a claw on the hand.
46. The Machine (I) (2013)
R | 91 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In efforts to construct perfect android killing machines in a war against China, UK scientists exceed their goal and create a sentient robot.
Director: Caradog W. James | Stars: Toby Stephens, Caity Lotz, Denis Lawson, Sam Hazeldine
Votes: 32,058
A soldier who has lost both of his arms is given prosthetic arms that have superhuman strength.
47. The One-Armed Swordsman (1967)
R | 115 min | Action, Drama
A noble swordsman, whose arm had been chopped off, returns to his former teacher to defend him from a villainous gang of rival swordsmen.
Director: Cheh Chang | Stars: Jimmy Wang Yu, Chiao Chiao, Chung-Hsin Huang, Yin-Tze Pan
Votes: 3,613
It's right there in the title...
48. The New One-Armed Swordsman (1971)
R | 98 min | Action, Drama
Lei Li lost his right-arm in a sword duel with the master of a martial arts school, long ago. Now, he is able to defend himself well with just his left arm, and kung fu techniques. That he ... See full summary »
Director: Cheh Chang | Stars: David Chiang, Ching Lee, Lung Ti, Feng Ku
Votes: 1,743
It's right there in the title...
49. Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (1971)
Not Rated | 94 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Two of Japan and China's greatest heroic swordsman find themselves caught in a plot to protect a young child. But will national distrust and simple misunderstanding keep the two kindred spirits apart?
Director: Kimiyoshi Yasuda | Stars: Shintarô Katsu, Jimmy Wang Yu, Michie Terada, Kôji Nanbara
Votes: 1,714
It's right there in the title...
50. Innerspace (1987)
PG | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A test pilot is miniaturized in a secret experiment, and accidentally injected into a hapless store clerk.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Kevin McCarthy
Votes: 65,052 | Gross: $25.89M
Mr. Igoe, a professional killer, has an artificial right arm made of metal and electronics. He can detach the hand and replace it with various attachments, including a pistol that shoots through the index finger, a corkscrew, a sex vibrator, a propane torch, and a drill.
51. Malena (2000)
R | 108 min | Drama, Romance, War
Amidst the war climate, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Votes: 111,874 | Gross: $3.45M
Malena's husband was thought to be killed in combat in North Africa, but he returns after the war missing his right arm.
52. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
PG-13 | 147 min | Action, Sci-Fi
Political involvement in the Avengers' affairs causes a rift between Captain America and Iron Man.
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo | Stars: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan
Votes: 849,171 | Gross: $408.08M
American soldier Bucky Barnes lost his left arm in WWII. It was replaced with an artificial weaponized metal arm in a secret HYDRA operation, before Tony Stark/Iron Man tore it off and Barnes was cryogenically preserved without it.
53. Logan Lucky (2017)
PG-13 | 118 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Two brothers attempt to pull off a heist during a NASCAR race in North Carolina.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Farrah Mackenzie
Votes: 162,043 | Gross: $27.78M
Adam Driver's character is missing his lower left arm below the elbow from a combat injury in Iraq. At first he wears a simple strap-on prosthetic arm, but at the end he has a mechanical arm with functioning fingers.
54. A Bullet for the General (1967)
M | 115 min | Action, Western
A band of Mexican gunrunners employed by a revolutionary General accept an American mercenary into their gang, unaware of his true intentions.
Director: Damiano Damiani | Stars: Gian Maria Volontè, Klaus Kinski, Martine Beswick, Lou Castel
Votes: 5,072
A Mexican man named Raimundo is missing an arm he lost in battle.
55. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Votes: 810,369 | Gross: $6.10M
The very first person we see in the movie is a bounty hunter who is then shot in the right arm by Tuco, the man he is hunting. Eight months later he finds Tuco and we see that he is missing his right arm. He is wearing the same jacket he was shot in, which has a bullet hole in the right arm. He tells Tuco he has had plenty of time to practice shooting with his left hand.
56. Airplane! (1980)
PG | 88 min | Comedy
After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker | Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Votes: 260,750 | Gross: $83.40M
A man sets off the alarm when walking through the metal detector at an airport. He is asked to remove all metal from his person and put them on a table so he removes his artificial metal arm and foot. Good thing he didn't also have a plate in his head.
57. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
PG-13 | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
As Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world, he teams up with a fellow Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Black Widow, to battle a new threat from history: an assassin known as the Winter Soldier.
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo | Stars: Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford
Votes: 898,379 | Gross: $259.77M
American soldier Bucky Barnes lost his left arm in WWII. It was replaced with an artificial weaponized metal arm in a secret HYDRA operation as part of his transformation into "The Winter Soldier."
58. The Majestic (2001)
PG | 152 min | Drama, Romance
In 1951, a blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 57,624 | Gross: $27.81M
Bob is a WWII veteran who works in a diner and has a prosthetic hook device on the missing half of his right arm.
59. Black Panther (2018)
PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
T'Challa, heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda, must step forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country's past.
Director: Ryan Coogler | Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira
Votes: 836,756 | Gross: $700.06M
Klaue is a villain whose missing arm was replaced by an artificial arm that opens into an Arm Cannon that was made in Wakanda. It seems the Wakandans have cornered the Arm Cannon trade since the end credits teaser preview seems to indicate that Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, will use one of their weapons, also.
60. Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
R | 141 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
After the Kingsman's headquarters is destroyed and the world is held hostage, an allied spy organization in the United States is discovered. These two elite secret agencies must band together to defeat a common enemy.
Director: Matthew Vaughn | Stars: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Channing Tatum
Votes: 362,657 | Gross: $100.23M
Charlie had his right arm blown off by the Kingsmen so he joined a global drug cartel who replaced his arm with a metal weapon arm that can continue to move and function even after it is torn off. Poppy, the head of the drug cartel who prefers the reliability of robots to humans, presents him with an even more powerful arm she calls "Arm-a-Geddon" which can fire its hand on a wire that can be pulled back to retrieve it. Sign that guy up at shortstop.
61. Deadpool 2 (2018)
R | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (a.k.a. Deadpool) assembles a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy with abilities from the brutal, time-traveling cyborg Cable.
Director: David Leitch | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison
Votes: 644,504 | Gross: $324.59M
Deadpool complains that his movie sequel has yet another character (Cable) with a "Winter Soldier" robotic arm.
62. Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, Thriller
To avoid a death sentence for her prior acts of bloodshed, the vengeful swordswoman Lady Snowblood is conscripted by the Japanese Secret Police to assassinate political dissidents.
Director: Toshiya Fujita | Stars: Meiko Kaji, Jûzô Itami, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Yoshio Harada
Votes: 4,207
A spying secret police thug is captured by slum residents and tied up with one arm chained, guarded by a man with an axe. When the guard passes out, the spy unties himself, cuts off his chained arm with the axe, kills the guard, and escapes. Later we see him in a coat with one arm empty fighting Lady Snowblood with his remaining arm. She cuts off that arm with her sword in a shower of blood then someone else kills him.
63. Broken Arrow (1950)
Approved | 93 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Tom Jeffords tries to make peace between settlers and Apaches in Arizona territory.
Director: Delmer Daves | Stars: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget, Basil Ruysdael
Votes: 9,665
General Howard "the Christian General" is missing his right arm which was lost in battle (based on a real person.)
64. The Dance of Reality (2013)
Unrated | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Fantasy
In a little Chilean town, the son of an uprooted couple formed by a rigorous communist father and a loving but weak mother tries to pave his own path in a society that does not understand their Jewish-Ukrainian origins.
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky | Stars: Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Jeremias Herskovits, Alejandro Jodorowsky
Votes: 9,516 | Gross: $0.19M
We see a man who lost both his hands in a mining explosion, then a group of other ex-miners all missing limbs, including some men who are missing both arms, which is a characteristic of this director. The men sing a song about dynamite having no heart as the police drag them away to the dump in a truck.
65. The Sisters Brothers (2018)
R | 122 min | Drama, Western
Eli and Charlie Sisters, an infamous duo of gunslinging assassins, chase a gold prospector and his unexpected ally in 1850s Oregon.
Director: Jacques Audiard | Stars: John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed
Votes: 70,405 | Gross: $3.14M
Charlie Sisters injures his right arm with a chemical liquid and a doctor cuts it off with a hacksaw.
66. Border Incident (1949)
Passed | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Mexican and American federal agents tackle a vicious gang exploiting illegal farm workers in southern California.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva, James Mitchell
Votes: 2,734
American bandits kill a group of illegal Mexican workers and rob them of their pay after they return to Mexico, but one of them escapes with only a wounded arm, which he loses to infection. He serves as an example to other Braceros of the dangers of illegal immigration.
67. Fear in the Night (1972)
PG | 94 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown moves with her husband to a boys' school, and finds herself being terrorized by a mysterious one-armed man, but nobody believes her.
Director: Jimmy Sangster | Stars: Judy Geeson, Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Peter Cushing
Votes: 2,390
A woman is terrorized by a mysterious one-armed man.
68. Prospect (2018)
R | 100 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Forced to contend not only with the forest's other ruthless inhabitants, but with her own ... See full summary »
Directors: Christopher Caldwell, Zeek Earl | Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Jay Duplass, Pedro Pascal, Luke Pitzrick
Votes: 34,433
A teenage girl shoots a man in the arm then helps him treat the wound. When the wound becomes toxic he asks her to cut off his arm to save his life, and she does.
69. Them That Follow (2019)
R | 98 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Set deep in the wilds of Appalachia, where believers handle death-dealing snakes to prove themselves before God, a pastor's daughter holds a secret that threatens to tear apart her community.
Directors: Britt Poulton, Dan Madison Savage | Stars: Olivia Colman, Kaitlyn Dever, Alice Englert, Jim Gaffigan
Votes: 3,898 | Gross: $0.16M
A young man is bitten on the arm by a venomous snake in a snake-handling church. After his arm swells up and turns black, his father cuts it off with a reciprocating saw.
70. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
R | 133 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Six tales of life and violence in the Old West, following a singing gunslinger, a bank robber, a traveling impresario, an elderly prospector, a wagon train, and a perverse pair of bounty hunters.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Tim Blake Nelson, Willie Watson, Clancy Brown, Danny McCarthy
Votes: 167,960
An old west artist called Harrison the Wingless Thrush is billed as a thespian, an orator, and a popular entertainer. He performs his verbal art inside a traveling wagon each night, propped on a chair. He has no legs and no arms.
71. Tank Girl (1995)
R | 104 min | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
A girl is among the few survivors of a dystopian Earth. Riding a war tank, she fights against the tyranny of a mega-corporation that dominates the remaining potable water supply of the planet.
Director: Rachel Talalay | Stars: Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts, Don Harvey
Votes: 34,736 | Gross: $4.06M
The villain Kesslee loses an arm in a battle which is replaced with a weaponized artificial arm.
72. Romeo Is Bleeding (1993)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A womanizing, crooked cop on the payroll of the mafia is confronted with the reality of his double life after he is asked to kill a beautiful and ruthless Russian gangster.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Wallace Wood, Juliette Lewis
Votes: 15,138 | Gross: $3.28M
Lena Olin plays Mona, a beautiful ruthless Russian gangster who fakes her own death by cutting off her left arm and putting it on ice in a cooler. Then she cuts off the left arm of a woman's corpse, removes her own arm from the cooler, and leaves it where the corpse's arm should be. Then she sets fire to the corpse and takes its severed arm. Somehow only Mona's DNA is found by the police and she is declared dead. Afterwards she walks around with a rigid artificial left arm.
73. Dark Journey (1937)
Not Rated | 77 min | Adventure, Crime, Romance
During World War I, a German spy and a French spy meet and fall in love.
Director: Victor Saville | Stars: Conrad Veidt, Vivien Leigh, Joan Gardner, Anthony Bushell
Votes: 1,452
Vivian Leigh dates a man who is missing an arm he lost in France in World War One. Later we find out he works with British Intelligence and is told to investigate her for being a German spy.
74. Kalifornia (1993)
R | 117 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A journalist duo goes on a tour of serial-killer murder sites with two companions, unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.
Director: Dominic Sena | Stars: Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, Kathy Larson, David Milford
Votes: 58,130 | Gross: $2.40M
Brad Pitt's character Early Grayce's parole officer has an artificial right arm with a prosthetic hook. Early calls him "a peg arm piece of s**t."
75. First Love (2019)
TV-MA | 108 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A young boxer and a call girl get caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme over the course of one night in Tokyo.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Becky, Bengal, Masayuki Deai, Mami Fujioka
Votes: 8,029
One-armed Wang is a Chinese gangster in Tokyo who uses a shotgun that he can pump to re-load with one arm. During a gang war he meets the Yakuza who cut off his arm with a sword and they fight with swords.
76. Sympathy for the Underdog (1971)
93 min | Crime, Drama
A yakuza gang gets driven out of Yokohama by a big gang from Tokyo. They relocate to Okinawa to violently start over.
Director: Kinji Fukasaku | Stars: Kôji Tsuruta, Tomisaburô Wakayama, Tsunehiko Watase, Akiko Kudô
Votes: 1,040
Okinawan Yakuza boss Mr. Yonabal is a large man missing his right arm who is called "the one armed giant."
77. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Shang-Chi, the master of weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization.
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton | Stars: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 434,761 | Gross: $224.54M
Razor Fist is "a giant Romanian with a razor for an arm." His right arm is missing just below the elbow but he can extend a long sword from the remaining arm when he needs it.
78. Cutter's Way (1981)
R | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Richard spots a man dumping a body, and decides to expose the man he thinks is the culprit with his friend Alex Cutter.
Director: Ivan Passer | Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa Eichhorn, Ann Dusenberry
Votes: 7,624 | Gross: $1.73M
Alex Cutter lost most of his left arm in the Vietnam war.
79. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
PG-13 | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
After Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound, spider-like powers and ventures out to save the city from the machinations of a mysterious reptilian foe.
Director: Marc Webb | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Irrfan Khan
Votes: 701,600 | Gross: $262.03M
Dr. Connors is missing most of his right arm. He works on a formula to re-generate limbs using lizard DNA, and when he injects it into the remainder of his arm, he grows a new one, but he also mutates into a giant lizard.
80. One-Armed Boxer (1972)
R | 93 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
After his schoolmate and master is killed and he loses an arm, student Tien Lung has to learn the art of one-arm boxing.
Director: Jimmy Wang Yu | Stars: Jimmy Wang Yu, Yeh Tien, Hsin Tang, Fei Lung
Votes: 1,476
A martial artist loses his arm and has to learn the art of one-armed boxing.
81. The One Armed Executioner (1981)
R | 95 min | Action, Drama
This is the story of Ramon Ortega, an Interpol agent turned restaurateur who is out for revenge against the gangsters that cut his left arm off of his body and killed his young wife, Ann. ... See full summary »
Director: Bobby A. Suarez | Stars: Franco Guerrero, Jody Kay, Mike Cohen, Pete Cooper
Votes: 325
After gangsters cut off his arm, a former Interpol agent learns to fight with only one arm.
82. Live and Let Die (1973)
PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond is sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroin magnate armed with a complex organisation and a reliable psychic tarot card reader.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour, Clifton James
Votes: 115,397 | Gross: $35.38M
A gangster named Tee Hee lost his entire right arm when a crocodile named Albert bit it off. He replaced it with a steel arm with a a metal contraption with a scissor-like attachment at the end that is powerful enough to crush a gun barrel.
83. Murder Mystery 2 (2023)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
Full-time detectives Nick and Audrey are struggling to get their private eye agency off the ground. They find themselves at the center of international abduction when their friend Maharaja is kidnapped at his own lavish wedding.
Director: Jeremy Garelick | Stars: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent
Votes: 68,604
Bodyguard Colonel Ulenga lost his left arm after he took a bullet aimed at his client. He lost his left hand previously in a similar incident.
84. The Machine Girl (2008)
Not Rated | 96 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
Maimed while seeking revenge, a girl becomes stronger than ever.
Director: Noboru Iguchi | Stars: Minase Yashiro, Asami, Nobuhiro Nishihara, Kentarô Shimazu
Votes: 10,687
Bad Guys cut off Ami's left arm when she seeks retribution for her brother's death. Two mechanics take pity on her and give her a new machine gun arm. When it is destroyed, she puts a chainsaw on it.
85. Luca (2021)
PG | 95 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
On the Italian Riviera, an unlikely but strong friendship grows between a human being and a sea monster disguised as a human.
Director: Enrico Casarosa | Stars: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Saverio Raimondo
Votes: 193,866
Massimo Marcovaldo is very large fisherman who cooks for his daughter, goes out on a boat every day to catch fish, and tries to harpoon sea monsters without a right arm. He tells a boy that he was born that way.
86. Double Exposure (1982)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A photographer plagued by horrific nightmares in which he kills the young female models he shoots is shocked to discover that there is a serial killer in his city who is targeting attractive women.
Director: William Byron Hillman | Stars: Michael Callan, Joanna Pettet, James Stacy, Pamela Hensley
Votes: 867
Major Spoiler Alert!
BJ has no left leg or left arm, but that doesn't stop him from working as a car stunt man, from female mud wrestling, or from killing more than a dozen women. He's played by actor James Stacy who lost his limbs in a motorcycle accident.
87. The Creator (2023)
PG-13 | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Against the backdrop of a war between humans and robots with artificial intelligence, a former soldier finds the secret weapon, a robot in the form of a young child.
Director: Gareth Edwards | Stars: John David Washington, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney
Votes: 158,657
Joshua, the main protagonist of the movie, has no right leg or right arm. Both are fitted with futuristic robotic prosthetics and the arm is covered with realistic skin and a working hand.
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