The 25 Most Badass Movie Sunglasses

Image via Complex Original

Being blind would undoubtedly suck, but measurably less so if you were equipped with Geordi La Forge's vision-enhancing VISOR metal optics. Yeah they were literally drilled into Geordi's head, but sheer-fucking-awesomeness requires sacrifice. That sound you hear? Taz Arnold poking out his eyeballs.

You think it's easy being a Vietnam vet? Try telling it to this guy and see what he says. It's gonna be hilarious! But being an abject lunatic with an itchy trigger finger is made 100% more stylish with protective eyewear. Especially under the harsh glare of bowling-alley track lighting. Because this guy gets what he needs: "You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish. These fucking amateurs." Classic and classy.

Being a baby in the mean streets of Las Vegas is tough work. Especially when the identity of your moms is just as sketchy as who your daddy is. The only thing that makes it OK to be slung in the bootleg BabyBjörn of a hirsute retard on GHB? Sunglasses. Especially if you're crying bitter tears that you don't want anyone to see. And it's all downhill from here. Yay!

Sure it’s difficult to wear sunglasses after you've agreed to have both your ears cut off, but then again, if you’d spend the majority of your adult life in prison, you’d know a thing or 12 about being "resourceful." As the infamous Australian criminal Mark "Chopper" Read, Bana pulls off the shades just as handily and charmingly as he pulls his dick out his pants.

Cary Grant is on the run from cops and thugs in this Alfred Hitchcock classic after a case of mistaken identity. The only thing we don't understand is why he put these shades on to be incognito. I mean, what looks more conspicuously sick than these badboys? Seriously. What a maniac.

If your nickname is so kick-ass as to be "Dirty Harry," you pretty much know you’re gonna look dope in sunglasses. Water is wet, the sun rises in the east, and young ladies with daddy issues are ceaselessly entertaining. If you only had shades like his, you too could ask weirdly rhetorical questions in clutch moments when you’re running around San Francisco trying to kill some lunatic. I mean, seriously, what does lucky even feel like?

With a punchline like "You're the disease, I'm the cure," we're sure there is some sort of ego that comes with the Carrera Champion Aviators that Stallone kept on his face throughout this flick. Of course, you won't be as dangerous as Lieutenant Marion 'Cobra' Cobretti—but who the hell cares. You'll look fly, that's for sure.

When Tony Montana told a mansionful of law enforcement officials to say hello to his little friends, he clearly didn't mean his pupils. Regardless, there's a way to enjoy your coke-and-incest bender without federal scrutiny: Stick with timeless frames like these, and your ocular tip-offs can remain your little secret. (N.B.: These aren't for chazzers.)

Pimpin' ain't easy, but it's necessary: Ice Cube said it, but when Joel Goodsen had to pony up for Princeton, it was time for the young buck to live it. And when it comes to peddling flesh, what shields a young entrepreneur's eyes better than the most versatile (and morally flexible) sunglasses ever? Ray-Bans, like spray tans, tilted brims, and the cautionary backhands, will never go out of style. Well, except the last one. Please don't slap your girl. Thanks.

While his riding partner Billy (Dennis Hopper) opted for full black-outs, Peter Fonda's "Wyatt" went semi-transparent so he could look the squares dead-on when he was speaking truth to power. Unfortunately, Wyatt was way stoned whilst speaking said truth to said power, and the very elegant glasses didn't do much to cover up his bloodshot sclera. So the bastards shot out the fuel tank on his chopper and blew his hippie ass up. Don't make the shades any less dope though!

Even though this sci-fi flick was shot on a low budget, it doesn't mean it looks like it. Private Eye Lemmy Caution peeps his brittle glass world through dark-as-shit shades as we drink in Godard's classically jam-packed pastiche. Packed with dope futuristic sunglasses and slick, cold architecture, this film noir was eons ahead of its time.

Axel Foley is the man. Who else but this motormouth from Motor City can wear cop frames and look this hard? And whatever, he's not looking at you, he's looking past you. Especially since this lunatic is peeling away from his boss in his department-funded import, doing 125 on the freeway, and beating Ghostbusters at the box office. How nuts is that? We're telling you, it's the sunglasses.

These joints don't belong to John Lennon, they're all Mickey Knox. He wouldn't hesitate to slice a cop to death in 3.3 seconds if they were messing with his girl. You don't have to be a psychopath, but only a guy with the confidence to kill his way out of a maximum-security prison can mess with shades like these. Just sayin'.

Nino Brown was every drug dealer's favorite drug dealer. The guy was smooth, ran his operation with an iron fist, and rocked the hell out of a pair of shades. Too bad they weren't bifocals. Maybe he would have moved before that old man shot him in the chest. Spoiler alert!

What pair of acetates can last through time travel, fights with cyborgs, multiple botched assassinations, self-performed robot-arm surgery, and shootouts in police stations? Oakleys, obvs. Linda Connor WISHES she looked as good in these. So does her unborn Eddie-Furlong-Christian-Bale-weirdo-amalgam seed.

Despite being engaged, tabloid newsman Marcello Rubini canoodles oodles of smokin' hot randoms including an heiress, an actress, a waitress, and a dancer, all of whom he meets in 1950s Rome. And when you're an Italian manwhore (ciao!), you'll need this fashionable pair to conceal the fact that your eyes are finger-blasting all females within eyeshot. Blam!

The difference between "Joliet" Jake Blues, the cool-ass R&B-singing ex-con who hides the whites of his eyes behind dark shades, and your average pale-faced “blue-eyed soul” crooner, is that Jake's authenticity and acceptance is never in doubt. Also, he doesn’t have a vagina.

When it comes to freewheeling, over-the-top eccentrics, it’s hard to beat Hunter S. Thompson. Yo, dude had his ashes rocketed into stratosphere! Johnny Depp’s performance as Raoul Duke—Thompson’s fictional alter ego—is perfect not only with the insanity factor dialed up to 11 on a paranoid, acid-fueled mindfuck, but because he sports these quintessentially Thompson-ish sunglasses.

Léon Montana is the ultimate badass: He looks like Serge Gainsbourg, knocks people off like John McClane, and has a creepy pedo relationship with a weirdly precocious, slutted-up 12-year-old Natalie Portman. The key to his swag? A pair of clear, bull's-eye-round joints that are bold, sophisticated, and—when worn correctly—intimidating beyond belief.

Popularized by gonzo journalists and unshaven Miami detectives in Member's Only jackets, who'da thunk that an actual aviator would bring back Aviators? Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell was just that fuckin' cool. Granted, he didn't actually wear them while flying, but these classic wire frames provided the perfect cover for strutting down the runway—or playing the gayest game of volleyball ever.

Tarantino's entire crew of skinny-tie criminals made good use of black shades, but nobody looked as badass as Mr. White during the film's flashback heist-gone-wrong scenes. Forget dancing in your underwear while your parents are gone—Wayfarers were meant for busting twin glocks at the cops. Two guns up!

Staying up all hours sucking the life out of bar sluts can age you centuries. Especially in the crow's feet region. Thankfully, these sunglasses at night cover the bags under your beady red eyes in timeless style. Let's dance!

The classic proto-Twilight pretty-dudes-who-suck-blood-pause movie is the O.G. vampiric gem of the late-80s. Jason Patric, Keifer Sutherland, both Coreys, and their entire thirsty crew kills in this Santa Clara town. Yet despite all the 360-degrees heartthrobbery, it's Michael No-Last-Name's nighttime sunnies that take the cake when it comes to snatching girlfriends and impaling heads with wooden stakes. Pause.

To anyone in this toilet of an abusive city who goes batshit crazy trying to both save-a-hoe and woo a lady out of his league by attempting to shoot her boss in the face, these sunglasses are for you. Travis Bickle is the patron saint of any lonely a-hole looks who looks dynamite in an M65 and a mohawk—and frames like this just gild that lunatic lilly.

This sartorially ICONIC film is #1 on our list of Badass Movie Sunglasses, not only because of the debonair flair of just about everyone, but because Thomas Crown stuck up a bank for 2 milli, bagged a smokin' hot Faye Dunaway, and pulled it all off in these cold-ass frames. In fact, this flick was so insane stylish that the diluted, 1999 remake is also sorta watchable. Sorta.