Poster © Gaumont Buena Vista International. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Crime & Drama
RatedR
Runtime1 hr 50 mins
ReleasedSeptember 14, 1994
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorLuc Besson
StarringJean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman
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Léon: The Professional (1994)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Léon: The Professional's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Crime & Drama |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 09/14/1994 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Budget | $16M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | France |
| Language | English |
| Léon: The Professional's Interests | |
| General | Milk, houseplants, round sunglasses, long coats, quiet hallways in Little Italy. |
| Music | Éric Serra, Besson's go-to composer. Sting's 'Shape of My Heart' plays over the credits. |
| Movies | The Fifth Element (1997). Besson and Gary Oldman again, way more orange. |
| Television | La Femme Nikita (1997). Besson's other assassin story, turned into five seasons of TV. |
| Heroes | The plant. Léon's best friend, and an excellent listener. |
| Léon: The Professional's Crew | |
| Director | Luc Besson |
| Writers | Luc Besson |
| Producers | Patrice Ledoux |
| Cinematography | Thierry Arbogast |
| Music | Éric Serra |
| Edited By | Sylvie Landra |
| Production | Gaumont, Les Films du Dauphin |
| Distributed By | Gaumont Buena Vista International |
There are two movies inside Léon: The Professional. One is a slick, sad hitman thriller. The other is a story about a grown man and a twelve-year-old girl that drifts into some deeply uncomfortable places and never fully owns it. You can’t watch one without the other. The thriller half is excellent. Jean Reno plays a killer who sleeps sitting up, lives on milk and treats his houseplant like his only friend, and somehow he’s gentle about all of it. Natalie Portman is fierce and way beyond her age. Gary Oldman, playing a dirty drug agent who twitches along to Beethoven, gives the most unhinged villain turn of the ’90s. IMDb voters love it, an 8.5 from 1.37 million ratings, while critics stopped at 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 7.6 because the action and acting are top shelf and the creepy parts are real. $4,734 says you check on your houseplant tonight and apologize for the last time you forgot it.
What works: Jean Reno’s quiet, odd killer, Gary Oldman’s unhinged villain and Natalie Portman’s fearless performance.
What doesn’t: Mathilda’s crush on Léon is played in ways that get genuinely uncomfortable, and the movie doesn’t handle it with enough care.
Who it’s for: Grown-up action fans who can enjoy the craft and still call out the parts that don’t sit right.
Spoilers
Stansfield’s team corners Léon in his building, and he gets Mathilda out through a vent before taking Stansfield down with him. Mathilda goes back to school and plants his houseplant in the ground so it can finally have roots.
Léon (Jean Reno) is a hitman in New York who works for a Little Italy boss named Tony (Danny Aiello), drinks a lot of milk, and takes better care of his houseplant than himself. Next door lives Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a sharp twelve-year-old with a rough home life. Her dad has crossed a crooked DEA agent, Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman), and Stansfield shows up with backup while she is out buying groceries. She makes it to Léon's door. He opens it. Luc Besson directs. One hundred ten minutes, one very well-watered plant.
Anyone with a sunny windowsill and no follow-up questions. The plant needs light.
| Jean Reno | Léon |
| Natalie Portman | Mathilda Lando |
| Gary Oldman | Norman Stansfield |
| Danny Aiello | Tony |
| Michael Badalucco | Mr. Lando |
| Ellen Greene | Margie Lando |
| Peter Appel | Malky |
| Adam Busch | Manolo |
| Joseph Malerba | Stairway Swat |
| Maïwenn | The Blond Babe |
| George Martin | The Hotel Clerk |
| Jean-Hugues Anglade | Cameo |
| Keith A. Glascoe | Benny |
| Willi One Blood | 1st Stansfield Man |
| Betty Miller | the Orphanage Headmistress |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 8.5 / 10 (1,369,959 votes) → 8.5 / 10 (1,370,052 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $20.3M; Domestic box office $19.5M; Opening weekend $5.3M; Profit / loss (est.) -$13.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 76%; CinemaScore B; box office chart updated; RT 76% (66 reviews); Metacritic 64 / 100; CinemaScore B; IMDb users 8.5 / 10 (1,369,959 votes); movie.guru score 6.9.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.