Who needs a gun when you have a look that could kill?

BBC America’s three-hour Luther movie event (Thursday, 9/8c) brings that rhetorical question to glorious life, and we’ve got an exclusive sneak peek at one of the special’s fiercest face-offs.

In the above clip, Idris Elba’s titular badass — pulled out of seclusion to solve a mystery that hits close to home —  tears into a local East London drug den to collect intel from an informant. He’s immediately confronted by a gun-toting goon, which leads Luther to pull out his signature death glare.

Press PLAY above to see who blinks first.