8 Million Ways to Die is a 1986 American neo-noir action thriller film[3][4] directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette, and Andy Garcia.

It was Ashby's final film, and the first attempt to adapt the Matthew Scudder detective stories of Lawrence Block for the screen.

The screenplay was written by Oliver Stone, an uncredited Robert Towne and David Lee Henry (R. Lance Hill using a pseudonym).

An alcoholic Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy, Matt Scudder, takes part in a drug bust that results in his fatal shooting of a small-time dealer in front of the man's wife and kids.

After an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, a woman hands Scudder a note, which invites him to a private gambling club on a hill, accessible only by a funicular, owned by Chance Walker.

Sarah and Scudder head back to Chance's club, and as they ride the funicular up to the house, they see Maldonado standing at the top, waiting for them.

By this time, Stone was committed to directing Salvador (1986) and was unavailable for rewrites, and so Robert Towne was hired to revise his script.

Pappe's edits drastically changed the film, deleting important scenes with Arquette and dubbing new dialogue with Bridges.

Pappe also ordered James Newton Howard to recompose his score for the film to more closely resemble the theme for the popular television series Miami Vice.

He describes it as "an entertaining piece of film noir", though "burdened by the stylistic influence of TV’s Miami Vice and by James Newton Howard’s cloying, synthesized score".