For a time, it seemed as though the action genre was something of a lost cause - with a heavy reliance on big set-pieces and CGI over decent characters, writing, and stunt choreography, the days of, as Nick Frost’s Sgt. Danny Butterman puts it in Hot Fuzz, “gunfights, car chases, proper action and shit” seemed to be long gone. But a recent resurgence of choreography and practical effect-focused action films, like John Wick, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Atomic Blonde have given the genre new life, reminding the world of just what a great action film can be - and how crucial it is to have a badass lead character.
While many small screen characters are deserving of recognition, the best and most badass characters come from the movies. However, while any action star can fight their way through a dozen bad guys, spout a one-liner, and save the day, they can still not be a badass. So what is the je ne sais quoi that elevates these characters over the thousands of other action heroes to have graced the screen? It’s definitely something you know when you see it, but it's not easy to put into words.
As the legendary Jackie Chan put it, “I'm not just an action star, I'm an actor.” The key to making a character truly badass is to make them a character first, with a real emotional arc, and a badass second. While their motivations might be wildly different, ranging from saving a loved one to getting revenge to protecting the world at large, cinema’s coolest badasses are united in their unwillingness to compromise for what they’re fighting for and the awesome ways in which they fight for it, and we're just lucky enough to be along for the ride. Here's our list of the 25 most badass movie characters in history.
Sarah Connor
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The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
While his comments about Wonder Woman might be rather misguided, Terminator director James Cameron is correct in his assertions that Sarah Connor was a smart, strong, complicated lead when few else were giving women lead roles in action movies at all. Linda Hamilton’s performance as John Connor’s mother sees her go from unwitting slasher victim to a badass woman who breaks herself out of a mental institution, kills a nigh-invulnerable liquid-metal android, and saves the world from Judgment Day. That is, until the next sequel rolls around.
"Dirty Harry" Callahan
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Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), The Dead Pool (1988)
Even in a world where police violence is a too-often occurrence, Clint Eastwood’s ruthless cop still comes off undeniably cool, almost exclusively due to his steely performances. It’s hard not to feel a rush of adrenaline when you see Clint’s through-the-teeth delivery of “Go ahead, make my day” or “Do you feel lucky, punk?” While his relevance to the modern world has diminished significantly since the ’70s and ’80s, Dirty Harry will always hold a special place as one of the coolest characters in movie history.
Brian Mills
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Taken (2008), Taken 2 (2012), Taken 3 (2014)
Despite his turn as Qui-Gon Jinn in the Star Wars prequels, most people thought of Oskar Schindler when they thought of Liam Neeson. However, that all changed when, at the age of 56, he appeared in Taken as a special operative who is pulled out of retirement when his daughter is kidnapped by a human trafficking operation, kicking off a still-running action career and an entire subgenre of late-career action films. Neeson’s intensity and Irish accent make Mills an unforgettable lead and a badass whose “very particular set of skills” are always a blast to watch.
Hit-Girl
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Kick-Ass (2010), Kick-Ass 2 (2013)
At the time Kick-Ass came out, much was written about then 13-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz’s foul-mouthed, violent performance and the morality thereof. While some of the controversy might have been justified, many of the film’s critics didn’t take into account how Moretz utilized the shock value to make Hit-Girl really, really badass. Her gung-ho attitude towards the film’s adult content allowed her to fully embody the character in her all her glory, with the hallway fight scene set to Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” a definite standout. We may never see a child be this cool again.
Alonzo Harris
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Training Day (2001)
The only performance on this list to merit an Oscar nomination, let alone a win, Denzel Washington’s turn as a corrupt detective is, in equal measure, scary, compelling, cool, harrowing, and awesome. It’s rare to see any character so richly textured in an action film, or any film for that stretch, but when Denzel is at the top of his game, there’s pretty much no one who can fill out a role better than him. Detective Harris’ rant at the end of the movie, as Ethan Hawke’s Jake stands to bring him to justice, is one of the finest monologues in film history, and it confirms: King Kong ain’t got shit on Denzel.
Ash Williams
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The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), Army of Darkness (1992), Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015-Present)
When Sam Raimi’s longtime friend Bruce Campbell agreed to play the character of Ash in Raimi’s debut horror film The Evil Dead, there was no way the actor could have foreseen the path his character would take from then on. From Evil Dead II onwards, Ash Williams was no longer merely the victim of demons coming after him: He fought back, adding a chainsaw where his hand used to be and ending up in medieval times. By Army of Darkness and the Starz television series Ash vs. Evil Dead, Ash had become a veritable action hero synonymous with one word: groovy.
The Man With No Name
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A Fistful of Dollars (1964), The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1965), For a Few Dollars More (1966)
Clint Eastwood has had, for lack of a better word, a long-ass career, with a filmography that’s equally prolific and acclaimed as both actor and director. However, his most iconically badass role in any capacity is his turn as The Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy. A drifter who defends the innocent and punishes criminals with squinty-eyed calm, The Man With No Name has a three-film arc that makes him Western’s greatest leading character and its most badass. It set a high bar for what the modern action hero needs to be.
Aragorn
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
There are a lot of characters from Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth trilogy who could have taken this spot: Legolas, Gandalf, Eowyn. However, no one comes close to the king. Viggo Mortensen's performance as the ranger known as Strider is made all the more amazing by the fact that he was brought on to replace Stuart Townshend after filming had already begun, and his wholehearted dedication to the role (he ended up in the hospital several times throughout the three-year shoot) comes through in nearly every way, giving the Lord of the Rings its most badass character.
Wonder Woman
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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Justice League (2017)
It’s shocking that it took until earlier this year, 75 years after her creation, for Wonder Woman to get her own movie, but boy, was it worth the wait. Director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot made the film so strong that it broke several box-office records (it’s now the highest-grossing superhero origin film), and it has a real shot of scoring a Best Picture nomination at this year’s Oscars. Wonder Woman’s solo outing proved that her character is one of the world’s most powerful and most necessary icons, and one we hope will never leave the silver screen.
Jules Winfield
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Pulp Fiction (1994)
I mean, come on. The man has “Bad Mother Fucker” written on his wallet, and there’s no one who deserves to carry that around in his pocket more than Samuel L. Jackson’s born-again hitman. The Jheri curl (which happened by accident) and black suit is one of the most iconic looks in film history, and Jules’ intimidation of Brett, leading into the famous Ezekiel 25:17 monologue, is arguably the best scene in Tarantino’s filmography. What really cements Jules’ character as a badass, however, is Jackson’s performance in the final scene, where he calmly talks his way out of the robbery; no violence, no gunshots, just a man showing how dangerous he is using only words.
"Mad Max" Rockatansky
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Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Mel Gibson didn’t intend on trying out—let alone for the lead role—when he accompanied his friend to the auditions for a new film called Mad Max. But he got the part, and, well, the rest is history. Gibson and director George Miller practically invented the post-apocalyptic genre with their trilogy of films, and a great deal of that comes from Gibson’s character, Max. His no-fucks-given approach to taking down bad guys in the Wasteland gives us some of cinema’s most badass moments (the handcuff scene is a standout), and hopefully Miller and Fury Road star Tom Hardy continue to take Max to new kickass heights.
Furiosa
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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
The argument could be made that Mad Max: Fury Road is in sort of a Legend of Zelda type of situation, in that the character whose name is in the title isn’t the protagonist. While Max’s arc throughout the film is phenomenally handled, the film lives and dies by the actions of Furiosa. The best example of this is Max’s inability to hit an oncoming car with a sniper rifle, leading him to give up his shoulder to steady the gun and allowing Furiosa to hit the shot on the first try. Charlize Theron infuses the character with the veritable grit of a lifetime of pain with minimal dialogue, and she kicks a serious amount of ass whenever needed.
Kiyuchiyo
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Seven Samurai (1954)
It’s hard to overstate the influence of Akira Kurosawa on cinema as we know it today. He helped revitalize the Western, almost singlehandedly opened Japanese cinema to the West, and practically birthed the idea for Star Wars in George Lucas’ head. However, his greatest contribution is in action cinema, particularly with the development of his samurai films, the greatest of which is Seven Samurai. While each of the samurai deserve a mention, Kiyuchiyo (played by perennial Kurosawa lead Toshiro Mifune), an aloof peasant with a giant sword who falsifies his family tree but earns his right to be a samurai by the film’s conclusion, is one of the most complex characters in Kurosawa’s filmography, one that is absolutely stuffed full of them.
Léon
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Léon: The Professional (1994)
Luc Besson’s most recent films, Lucy and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, can make it difficult to remember how brilliant and revolutionary his early work is, and nowhere is that more clear than in Léon: The Professional. The titular character, a “cleaner” played by Jean Reno, is in equal measure a phenomenal fighter, brilliant tactician, and loving caretaker, giving his character a unique emotionality. He has a distinct character arc to go with it, from stone-cold assassin with nothing to live for after the death of his fiancee to man willing to sacrifice himself for the life of his semi-adopted daughter in the coolest way possible.
John Wick
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John Wick (2014), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
On paper, there isn’t that much that’s unique about John Wick’s character: He’s a hitman who comes out of retirement when a loved one is murdered. However, anyone who’s seen the movie or its sequel knows that there’s so much to him. Played by Keanu Reeves, Wick is an expert in martial arts and weapons combat, and directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, former stuntmen themselves, worked diligently to ensure that the fight scenes were realistic, brutal, and badass as hell, making John Wick an instant heavyweight addition to the list of cinematic badasses.
James Bond
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Too Many Movies to List (1962-Present)
Ask pretty much anyone who they think of when they think of suave and cool, and 999 times out of a thousand they’re going to say James Bond. Agent 007 has the coolest outfits, the coolest gadgets, the coolest women, the coolest cars, the coolest theme — the list goes on and on. The greatest achievement of the Bond franchise is being able, with a few exceptions, to adapt to the changes in the film industry, most notably in the modern era with the Daniel Craig films, and keep the character relevant for so long. People will talk about who they want to play Bond more than any other movie character — a testament to just how enduringly cool he is.
Ellen Ripley
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Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997)
The influence of Alien on cinema is almost immeasurable - it practically invented the modern sci-fi horror genre, created arguably the most memorable movie monster ever, and had one of cinema’s most iconic movie posters. However, its most important impact was a result of Ridley Scott’s decision to change the character of Ripley from a man to a woman, shattering gender norms and creating one of the coolest characters ever to grace the screen. Sigourney Weaver’s performance as Ripley throughout the Alien franchise is complex, layered, competent, and badass as hell, serving not only as a landmark for women in cinema but for action movie leads in general.
Robocop
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Robocop (1987), Robocop 2 (1990), Robocop 3 (1993)
Anybody who shoots rapists in the dick belongs on this list, and Robocop does that and so much more. Peter Weller’s human cop turned cyborg undergoes a serious arc of rediscovery in the first film, giving him human empathy alongside his list of cybernetic enhancements, including a gun that holsters in his leg, incredible marksmanship, and amazing one-liners. Robocop is such a badass that citizens of Detroit raised money on Kickstarter to erect a statue of him in the city, which is due to be unveiled sometime next year.
The Bride
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Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Writer/director Quentin Tarantino isn’t known for subtlety, and Kill Bill, an homage to bloody kung fu films, is no exception. However, by infusing Uma Thurman’s character with heart, love, and a hell of a lot of flaws, Tarantino and Thurman co-created the best character in either of their filmographies, and one of the most badass in history. Driven by her desire to, well, kill Bill after he shoots her in the head and murders her loved ones at her wedding, Beatrix Kiddo fights her way through the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad across two movies until she finally gets her revenge by exploding Bill’s heart. It’s hard to get more badass than that.
Snake Plissken
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Escape from New York (1981), Escape from L.A. (1996)
Between Bone Tomahawk, The Hateful Eight, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, Kurt Russell’s career is having another renaissance, a fact that should be a joy to everyone on the planet. Responsible for such badass characters as Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China and Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Russell’s best, badass, and most iconic role is in John Carpenter’s Escape series as Snake Plissken. A former Special Forces soldier who is brought into the maximum-security prison colony of New York City to save the president, Plissken remains one of the coolest and most influential (he inspired the main character of the Metal Gear franchise) characters in film history.
Indiana Jones
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Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
It’s impossible to separate Dr. Jones from John Williams’ “Raiders March,” the indomitable theme that calls to mind adventure, hope, optimism, and pure badassery. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ archaeology-professor-slash-adventurer throwback to the serials of the 40s is brought to life through Harrison Ford’s timelessly awesome performance, which manages to never get old — even in the mediocre Temple of Doom and the maligned Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — and proves he is one of cinema’s coolest and most enduring badasses.
The Terminator (T-800)
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The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), Terminator Genisys (2015)
Can you imagine what the world would be like if James Cameron listened to the studio and cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as the heroic Kyle Reese rather than the terrifying T-800? That is a universe few people want to live in. Schwarzenegger, who spoke fewer than 100 lines in the film but made almost all of them instant classics, imbues the Terminator with a phenomenal mix of terrifying unemotionality and badass brutality — which is only even more awesome in the sequel, when he uses his powers for good. It’s impossible to imagine anyone who could do it better.
Han Solo
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Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
It was a toss-up for which of Harrison Ford’s iconic roles would end up on top, but the smuggler ultimately won out. If all Han Solo had to his name was his introductory scene, he’d still end up a fixture on this list. The scruffy-looking nerf herder’s run-in with Greedo is one of the coolest scenes to have ever graced the screen, and regardless of whether or not Han shot first (he did), it shows just why he’s one of cinema’s greatest badasses. Of course, we have a four-film arc following that scene that shows that no matter what, Han will fight for what he believes in — and look good doing it.
John McClane
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Die Hard (1988), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
Die Hard came out in 1988 like an explosion at Nakatomi Plaza. It quickly rocketed to recognition as one of the best action films and Christmas films of all time, and spawned an entire subgenre of “Die Hard in a…” films, in which a lone man fights his way through an entire location swarmed with bad guys. But none of them are more badass than Bruce Willis’ John McClane. While Willis’ level of giving a shit diminishes little by little in each film, McClane’s continued dedication to kicking ass and taking names in ridiculously awesome ways kicked off a whole bunch of copycats. But none can top the cowboy. Yipee-kiyay, motherfucker.
Wolverine
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Every X-Men Film (2000-2017)
By all accounts, Hugh Jackman was a terrible choice to play Wolverine. The comic book character is short, ugly, and hairy (hence his name), and Jackman is 6’2” and gorgeous, not to mention a near-unknown at the time of his casting in 1999. However, the decision turned out to be arguably the most enlightened in movie history, with Jackman appearing in a record-breaking nine films, and he’s almost certainly the best part of every one of them. Logan is a complex, compelling antihero whose arc over almost two decades came to a violent and emotional end with this year’s R-rated Logan, proving that Wolverine’s level of badassery is unmatched by any other movie character in history.
