Kimber Firepower On Film & TV
This Iconic Firearm Brand Has Had Many A Starring Role
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Kimber has become a well-established name in the pantheon of American gunmakers as a premier handgun company that initially made top-of-the-line 1911s that were so very eye-catching. It’s no surprise that Kimber, which has since branched out beyond sexy 1911s to other semi-auto models and revolvers, became a star of the silver screen, both big and small.
The gunmaker has been around since 1979—when it was founded primarily as a rifle company. It started making 1911s in the mid-1990s, and after spec ops teams and S.W.A.T. teams came calling, so did Hollywood armorers.
Today, Kimber pistols have been seen in more than 50 movies and shows. While there are far too many to list here, we can go over the greatest hits.
Kimber Guns In Movies
S.W.A.T. (2003)
Gun: Custom TLE II
This action flick with some big names in their younger years focuses on the Los Angeles Police Department’s famed S.W.A.T. team, and as such, the team members all carry Kimber Custom TLE II 1911 pistols fitted with SureFire 310R gun lights. They get a lot of screen time throughout the film, especially during the simulated airliner hijacking sequence when they’re used to fire Simunition rounds. The pistol also shows up without the weapon light in several scenes.
Why did the filmmakers choose this handgun? Because that’s what the real LAPD S.W.A.T. teams were using at the time, just like the elite FBI Hostage Rescue Team, which also stuck to their 1911s for years after 9mm pistols became the standard.
The TLE II has gotten a whole lot of screen time, actually. After S.W.A.T., it showed up as Keanu Reeves’ sidearm and was used by two other primary characters in Street Kings (2008), Arnold Schwarzenegger used in Sabotage (2014), and John Cena carried one in F9: The Fast Saga (2021), just to name a few. On the small screen, the TLE II has made appearances in The Unit, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Better Call Saul, Fear the Walking Dead, and Yellowstone. More on that last one later.
The Expendables (2010)
Gun: Twin Custom Kimber Gold Combat II pistols
The Kimber Gold Combat II pistol got a huge role in The Expendables film franchise, which is saying something because all of those movies feature literal truckloads of firearms.
The protagonist, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) carries a pair of customized Gold Combat pistols on a custom leather gun belt and holster set from Galco Gunleather as his primary sidearms, along with a backup snub-nosed, quick-draw Colt Peacemaker.
There are some slick scenes where Ross fires a single Gold Combat with its distinctive black grips in rapid fire, dropping and feeding mags without taking the gun off target. Ross carried the pistols in The Expendables parts 1 through 4, with minor cosmetic differences in each movie.
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
Gun: Kimber Warrior
In a pivotal scene toward the end of the second installment of the action-milestone John Wick franchise, the titular hero (Keanu Reeves) is utterly disarmed and receives one weapon to exact his revenge on Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scarmarcio). The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) presents Wick with a wood gun case containing a Kimber Warrior pistol with Black G10 grips, and only one 7-round magazine.
With this meager amount of ammo for Wick, who is used to dropping casings and bodies aplenty, he heads off into battle. The gift of the Warrior comes back to haunt the Bowery King in the next film when he is tortured severely for his actions by emissaries of the High Table.
This film was a massive hit and a huge bit of exposure for Kimber, especially since Wick uses the Warrior to execute a one-handed press check that went viral around the firearms world.
The film grossed $90.5 million worldwide in its first nine days of release, surpassing the entire theatrical gross of the first film, which was $88.8 million. There are currently four films in the franchise, with a rumored fifth on the way.
The Fate of the Furious
Speaking of the Kimber Warrior, a special version of the pistol got another big role in 2017, when the street racing, action, heist franchise phenomenon that began with Fast and the Furious logged its eighth installment (there are currently 10).
The Fate of the Furious features a Kimber Warrior SOC TFS (Special Operations Capable, Threaded For Suppression), which is the civilian version of the military’s MCSOCOM ICQB handgun used by SOF operators. In the movie, it’s fitted with a SureFire X300 weapon light and a threaded barrel. This higher-end Warrior is primarily used by Connor Rhodes (Kristofer Hivju).
Kimber Guns On TV
Yellowstone (2018 - )
Guns: Kimber Ultra CDP II and Kimber Micro9 Bel Air
A show that had millions of eyes on a Kimber was the super hit series, Yellowstone.
Throughout the popular series, the Kimber Custom TLE II mentioned above is carried by Montana Livestock Agents. In a memorable scene, Kayce prominently uses a two-toned TLE II in the season five premiere episode to take out two militia members sent to kill him in his office.
In season four, episode three, John Dutton (Kevin Costner) is seen checking a Kimber Custom TLE II Two-Tone prior to a meeting, and then uses the same pistol later in the episode to exact some deserved revenge.
In that same season, the Kimber Ultra CDP II makes several appearances in the hands of at least two characters. Jamie (Wes Bentley) uses one to confront his biological father, Rip (Cole Hauser) uses a CDP II in “No Kindness for the Coward” during the shootout in Ruby’s Cafe alongside John, armed with a Winchester Model 1894 lever gun.
Lastly, Beth Dutton wielded the robin's egg blue Kimber Micro9 Bel Air in the season four finale, "Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops."
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
Gun: Kimber Ultra Raptor II “Custom Shop”
This TV movie was a continuation of the mega-hit TV drama Breaking Bad, which showed what happened to Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) immediately after the series finale and during his captivity in the final season. The film’s primary antagonist, Neil Kandy (Scott MacArthur) prefers to carry a Kimber Ultra Raptor II “Custom Shop” model when pretending to be a cop and when he’s just a welder/criminal.
We first see the compact, stainless 1911 in Todd’s apartment when Kandy and Jesse are searching for Todd’s stash of cash. In the epic final showdown in the last act, Jesse and Kandy face off in a Western movie-style showdown. Jesse ultimately wins by outthinking the coked-up criminal and uses the Ultra Raptor to take care of the other lowlifes hanging out in Kandy’s welding shop.
The same handgun appears in the beloved Breaking Bad series finale “Felina” carried by Kenny (Kevin Rankin) in Walt’s (Bryan Cranston) final showdown with the gang that betrayed him, stole his money, and killed his brother-in-law.
Once the smoke from the M60 machine gun fire clears, Jesse picks up the Ultra Raptor and threatens Walt with it, before sliding the gun toward him and leaving him to die of his wounds.
Training Day (2017)
Guns: Kimber SIS and SIS Pro
While Kimber pistols are all over the big screen, they are also popular in television shows. In 2017, the short-lived television show, Training Day featured the good-looking Kimber SIS. Pro. Sadly the show, which was a continuation of the Oscar-winning movie of the same name, ended after 13 episodes due to the untimely death of star Bill Paxton.
In the show, a Kimber SIS Pro was wielded by Det. Rebecca Lee (Katrina Law). This gun caught my eye because it is not a standard off-the-shelf Kimber. The SIS Pro was a custom gun built for The Los Angeles Police Department's Special Investigations Section. Det. Tony Campbell (Drew Van Acker) carries a similar Kimber SIS pistol.