Six of the Best Movie Franchise Antiheroes

There’s a special place in every movie-viewer’s heart for the bad guys of the screen. Not the really evil bad guys that run around slaughtering innocents (though we do appreciate them in a certain special way), but the bad guys that are really, deep down, good guys that don’t give a crap. The proper term is “antihero” and they’ve become quite the staple of modern-day cinema. So much so that people tend to rally around those of questionable morals much more than they do the prim and proper heroes.

In making this list there were a great many names left off. If I just went through and grabbed every amazing antihero, the list would have gone on forever. So I decided to narrow it down by only using characters that have appeared in movies (sorry Walter White fans) and only those that appeared in more than one movie. Thus, six were left to fill my list. Unfortunately, I could also not think of any good female antiheroes, so it’s all dudes on the list. If anyone can name some great female antiheroes, please sound off in the comments. Until then, enjoy the show.

Han Solo -

To be honest, Han Solo almost didn’t make this list. His position as an antihero is questionable. Though he begins the first movie in the original Star Wars trilogy as a selfish bastard that only want to get paid, by the end of the third flick he’s a fully-fledged rebel leader. Still, he’s a scoundrel and a jerk and, at least in the beginning, only looks out for himself. When we think of Han Solo, he conjures to mind the very template of what it means to be an honorable rogue. And though he doesn’t slaughter evil people with abandon, he does certainly do some morally ambiguous things during the course of his screen-time.

Max Rockatansky (AKA Mad Max) -

Mad Max battles in my head for the spot of top antihero of all time. He was a good guy once and got caught up in extreme circumstances. After his wife and baby are murdered, Max changes his tune. Justice is no longer on his mind excepting when it involves killing each and every person that gets in his way. For the most part, Max leaves people alone. But when he’s on the warpath, he has no remorse over taking a life or ten. What’s more, Max almost never helps anyone willingly. All his “good” deeds are forced upon him, either through threats, bribes or the fact that the right path is the only path available.

Snake Plissken -

Though he’s only had the chance to show up twice on the big screen (and the second movie was a mess), Snake Plissken is still one of the best antiheroes out there. He does what he thinks is best and pretty much discards other people’s opinions of right and wrong. Snake is a killer that despises the government that turned him into what he is. He gets tricked into helping them out and does so only because he has a will to survive. Snake is a bad-ass that will beat you and everyone you know down in a heartbeat if he doesn’t like the way you’re doing business. But he’s also smart enough to know when to just walk away and let the bad guys devour themselves.

Harry Callahan (AKA Dirty Harry) -

One of the most iconic antihero roles, Dirty Harry was a rogue cop that made his way through five films and became a household name for his no-nonsense brand of justice. It could well be argued that if it weren’t for Dirty Harry we wouldn’t have gotten more heroic “rogue cops” such as John McClane (Die Hard) and Martin Riggs (Lethal Weapon). And though people probably sit down to watch the Die Hard movies a lot more than Clint Eastwood’s old stuff, Dirty Harry is still meaner and nastier than any of his modern-day pretenders.

Connor and Murphy MacManus -

Yes, there are two of them, but you can’t have Connor MacManus without Murphy. Even though Boondock Saints wasn’t a massive action blockbuster when it first released, the presence of these two bad-ass, revenge-seeking brothers has turned it into one of the most beloved cult classics out there. They kill who they need to kill, but they don’t just deliver wholesale slaughter on everyone they encounter. Better yet, the MacManus brothers never back down from anything. They jump in the way of bullets, smash people over the head with toilets and hunt their enemies down to the last man. If they’re your friends, you’re the luckiest person in the world. If they’re your enemies, you’re likely already dead.

Severus Snape -

This guy managed to make it through eight movies, all the while giving off the air of being a complete bastard. In truth Snape was busy working behind the scenes, being one of the most conflicted types of antiheroes in existence - the spy. Sure, Snape didn’t like most people one bit and he was always willing to tell them that to their face. But when push came to shove he did exactly what he knew needed to be done. Snape wasn’t a hero because of honorable feelings. He was driven by selfish desires and an extreme sense of pragmatism. And by the end of the story, no matter how much you hate him he ends up redeeming himself and proving you wrong.

If you want to get a look at a more extensive list of antiheroes, check out this site. Or if you’re interested in what television antiheroes are making the top of the list, head over to this other site. Next week, I’ll be tackling TV antiheroes here. And yes, Walter White will be on the list.

Photo Credits -

Han Solo courtesy of salon.com

Mad Max courtesy of theshootening.com

Snake Plissken courtesy of ingunowners.com

Dirty Harry courtesy of dingyharry.com

MacManus Brothers courtesy of joblo.com

Severus Snape courtesy of fanpop.com