The 10 Greatest Action Heroes That Started As Criminals

Being good is boring. Year after year we’re forced to watch countless movies where the hero of the story is a cookie-cutter do-gooder idolized by an army of admirers from every race, creed, color, and gender. That may work on celluloid, but in the real world people aren’t always so benevolent. And throughout history, society has always had a natural inclination for cheering on the bad guys.

From outlaws such as Jesse James to maniacal killers like Charles Manson, there is little doubt that viciousness and violence stir the imagination more than altruism and generosity. Not only do these sociopaths headline the nightly news, they're the stars of pop culture as well. Despite Hollywood’s insistence on giving us heroes they can slap on the side of lunchboxes, it’s always the criminals and scoundrels that really sell tickets. And the makers of the upcoming Riddick (opening September 6), the latest chapter in the Vin Diesel sci-fi series, are banking on this.

However, every once in a while, tinseltown gives us the best of both worlds: a hero with the heart of a hardened crook. These criminals turned heroes have the moral ambiguity and edge that we admire, but they also do the right thing in the end, which makes us feel a lot less guilty about cheering them on. To celebrate some of our favorite antiheroes, check out or rundown of The 10 Greatest Actions Heroes That Started as Criminals.

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When we’re first introduced to Richard B. Riddick in Pitch Black, all we know is that he is a ruthless convict. But when the prison transport ship that he’s on crashes on a seemingly deserted planet, he's forced to go from outlaw to hero once he learns that his ability to see in the dark is the only thing that can save him and the rest of the ship’s stranded crew from a band of viscous creatures roaming the darkened planet.

Riddick’s characterization as being a monosyllabic antihero fits Vin Diesel perfectly, who works best when his main objective is to scowl and occasionally let out a menacing grunt. Riddick is like an intergalactic Man with No Name; he remains mostly a mystery during Pitch Black, but we still can’t help but root for him in the end. We’re not exactly sure why Riddick was locked up in the first place, but his penchant for violence throughout the movie has us assuming it wasn’t for tax fraud.

Acting as a loose remake of the classic sci-fi still-photography movie, La Jetée, 12 Monkeys is a paranoid thriller from the visionary mind of director Terry Gilliam. Bruce Willis plays James Cole, a convicted criminal living in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by plague. Cole is forced by a group of scientists to go back in time to the point where the virus is thought to have been released in order to find a sample. If he can manage that, maybe the scientists can manage to fashion a cure.

Despite his slim chance of making it out of the past alive, Cole goes on a hunt for the virus, racking up an impressive body count in the process. While we’re accustomed to seeing Willis in action movie roles, the character of Cole is completely unhinged and manic, as opposed to the blue collar John McClane. In spite of his tenuous grasp on reality, Willis brings classic action hero chops to the bizarre world Gilliam create, and, in the process, created one of the most unique criminals-turned-heroes ever.

In order to track down an elusive assassin known as the Jackal (Bruce Willis), the FBI and Russian authorities turn to an incarcerated Irish Republican Army sniper named Declan Mulqueen. It turns out that Mulqueen has inside information of who the Jackal may be and is capable of identifying him for authorities. Plus, as a fellow assassin, he can get inside of the Jackal’s mind in a way that traditional law enforcement can’t.

Gere is best known for his romantic dramas and “Sexiest Man Alive” status, but he manages to unleash his inner killer here as a cold-blooded assassin turned hero. His performance is a far cry from his days mugging for the camera with Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, especially during the film’s white-knuckle standoff of an ending.

The line between criminal and hero has been a blurred one across Jason Statham's filmography, and in no character is that more evident than the crass antihero of the Crank franchise, Chev Chelios. When the fist movie begins, Chelios is working as a hit man for a crime syndicate in Los Angeles. In a quick flip of the script, Chelios is injected with a virus called “The Beijing Cocktail” by a rival gang, which will kill him unless he constantly keeps his adrenaline pumping.

To maintain, Chelios is forced to spend his time wildly fornicating with his girlfriend in public and getting into high-speed car chases and shootouts with the gang members who poisoned him. Not a bad existence. Chelios may have started the film as a hired gun for organized crime, but after his turn into a reluctant hero he became an action movie icon for the video game generation.

Set in the spring of 1944, The Dirty Dozen focuses on an Ally platoon of convicted felons who are drafted into the military for a special mission against the Germans that could change the momentum of WWII. Of the 12 nasty criminals assembled, none have the the cool and collected malice of Joseph Wladislaw, played by legendary action icon Charles Bronson.

Wladislaw has been sentenced to hang after being convicted of murder when we first meet him, but his ruthlessness and his ability to speak German make him a vital member of the team. Because of his language prowess, Wladislaw is able to masquerade as a Nazi officer and sneak into their stronghold. But in pure Bronson fashion, he’s also more than capable of unleashing a hail of gunfire when necessary. Leave it to Bronson to turn himself from a cold-hearted killer into a national war hero in the span of two and a half hours.

After terrorists take over the island of Alcatraz, the United States government enlists the help of the only known criminal to successfully escape from the prison when it was active: John Patrick Mason. Mason agrees to help stop this terrorist group in exchange for a full pardon. His job is to sneak a Navy SEAL team into the prison through the uncharted tunnel system and take them down before they can fire biological weapons at San Francisco.

Once inside the prison, Mason wastes no time systematically taking down the terrorist group, while his SEAL partners struggle to keep up. Connery proves that, even after decades spent on the sidelines, he can still kick some ass when the situation calls for it. Despite being on the wrong side of the law, Mason manages to flash some classic Hollywood heroism throughout the movie when the world needs it most. And he knows the truth about aliens.

You're probably no good if you wake up next to a dead hooker named Goldie in a sleazy motel room in Sin City. That's exactly what happens to Marv in the adaptation of Frank Miller's comic book series. He's a bad dude, no question, but he didn't kill the dame (we know, but that's just how these characters talk). Realizing he’s been framed for her murder, he wages a one-man war against the cops and politicians of the city as he searches for the real killer. It’s a rare moment of heroism for a man with a laundry list of prior criminal convictions to his name.

Like so many criminal antiheroes we’ve seen over the years, Marv has a skewed sense of morality, which Mickey Rourke portrays with brilliant sensitivity. You know Marv is trying to do right by the people in his life, but his criminal past just keeps coming back to haunt him. But while he may be a hopeless romantic at heart, the trail of dead bodies that Marv leaves in his wake by the film’s end makes it clear that he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.

When a group of cowboys disfigure a prostitute, a bounty is placed on their heads by the prostitutes coworkers in response to the sheriff’s gross leniency. The promise of this money brings an aging outlaw named William Munny out of retirement for one last job. (Note to aspiring killers and thieves: There will always be one last job; don't take it.) He is forced to take the bounty to pay for his ranch, despite the fact that he can’t even stomach the thought of killing again. Munny is notorious throughout the land as a murderer and a thief, but in his later days his sense of malice has been replaced by an upstanding morality and a desire to atone for his past sins.

Even though his days as The Man with No Name were well behind him at this point, Eastwood still pulls off the Western loaner character perfectly in 1992’s Academy Award winning Unforgiven. His hair is a little greyer than we remember from the Sergio Leone films and his reflexes may be a bit slower, but he still deals lead with the best of them when it comes time to draw.

When an airplane full of violent criminals gets hijacked by—you guessed it—violent criminals, it’s up to convicted killer Cameron Poe to save the few Air Marshals onboard and land the plane safely. Unlike the other sociopaths on the plan, Poe is just a man looking to get released from prison and visit his daughter. (He was thrown in the clink after killing a man who stepped to his wife. Dude's zealous.) But he soon finds himself taking down dozens of violent criminals aboard the cramped aircraft with nothing but his wits and some makeshift weapons.

Before Nicolas Cage became hammier than John Goodman’s buffet spread, he was a burgeoning action star who was proven gold at the box office. And in Con Air, he turned in an all-time classic action hero performance by bringing equal amounts of pathos and viciousness to the character of Poe. Here, Cage proves that you don’t need rippling muscles or gaudy CGI to do action right. All that’s really required is a bad accent, a questionable haircut, and some of that Cage magic. (Note to aspiring actors: You will never have the Cage magic.)

Snake Plissken may be the hero of Escape from New York, but make no mistake about it, he was dragged there kicking and screaming. With a hatred of the government and a rap sheet as long as his bar tab, Snake seems more at home causing mayhem in a post-apocalyptic war zone than helping his fellow man. Still, he's convinced by government agents to save the President of the United States from the prison island of Manhattan in exchange for a full pardon for his past crimes. (Note to real criminals: No one is going to give you a full pardon for anything, even convincing your son to attend the right basketball college.)

Plissken is the greatest embodiment of a grizzled antihero: he’s crass and jaded, yet he has a misplaced morality about him that you can’t help but admire. Like most heroes of ‘80s action movies, he’s someone that you love to root for, but would never want to run across in real life. With his iconic eye patch and bedraggled mess of hair, Snake proved that action movie icons don’t have to be choir boys in order to save the day.