The Way of the Gun is a 2000 American neo-Western heist action thriller film directed and written by Christopher McQuarrie in his directorial debut.

It is about two low-level criminals (Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro) who kidnap a woman (Juliette Lewis) pregnant with the child of a mafia money launderer, only to find themselves facing a more complex and dangerous situation than they first realized.

Longbaugh summons Robin's gynecologist, Dr. Allen Painter, to a truck stop to examine her, and he explains that she is carrying the child of money launderer Hale Chidduck and his wife, Francesca.

The kidnappers call from a motel south of the Mexican border, demanding that Chidduck send the doctor to deliver a $15 million ransom and induce labor.

Francesca is having an affair with Jeffers, and overhears his and Obecks' plan to recover the baby but kill the kidnappers, Robin, and Painter, keeping the money for themselves.

Parker and Longbaugh torture Obecks to reveal that Jeffers has taken Robin to a Mexican brothel, and a mortally wounded Abner notifies Sarno.

An ambulance arrives as Painter emerges with Robin and the baby, and the gravely wounded Parker and Longbaugh inform Sarno that the child is his grandson.

"[2] He spent years as a script doctor while trying to get financing for an epic biopic of Alexander the Great for Warner Bros. before finally realizing that he "had to make a film with some commercial success to be taken seriously.

"[3] He approached 20th Century Fox and told them that he would be willing to write and direct a movie for any budget they would be willing to give him as long as he had complete creative control.

"[2] The first ten pages were a prologue, a trailer to another movie with Parker and Longbaugh (the real last names of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and was "to be shot as slick and hip as possible, but with horrible, unspeakable acts of violence and degradation.

[5] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B− on scale of A to F.[6] In his review for The New York Times, Elvis Mitchell wrote, "It's a song you've heard before, but each chord is hit with extraordinary concentration.

"[8] In his review for the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "Phillippe talks like Brando; Del Toro apes the body language.

"[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "McQuarrie pulls, pummels and pushes us, makes his characters jump through hoops, and at the end produces carloads of 'bag men' who have no other function than to pop up and be shot at ...