Anti-heroes are frequently some of the most interesting characters in movies, asking audiences to question their own stringent views on morality. There are many conflicting definitions of an anti-hero which date back long before the medium of film was even invented. Generally, an anti-hero is someone who fights on the side of good despite lacking virtues typically associated with heroes. There is often a tension between their motivations and their actions. It’s important to distinguish between anti-heroes and villain protagonists, who are completely immoral even though they are the main characters of the story.
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Anti-heroes fall outside the traditional boundaries of good and evil, which is part of what makes them so fascinating. Their unique moral codes tend to make them unpredictable characters, and they can throw off the dynamic of a group if they are acting alongside pure heroes. The New Hollywood movement led to a boom in movie anti-heroes in the 1970s, and they have been captivating audiences in many genres ever since.
10 Loki
The MCU
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Loki’s time in the MCU sees him undergo several huge character changes. The trickster god starts out as a villain in Thor and The Avengers, trying to seize power in Asgard and on Earth by any means necessary. While many villains in the MCU are taken out and never heard from again, Loki instead returns for a complex redemption arc. In the next two Thor sequels, he embodies the anti-hero archetype.
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Loki’s time in the MCU sees him undergo several huge character changes.
In Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok, Loki forms a tentative alliance with his brother. Thor is always wary of Loki, but he knows he can use his brother to defeat greater evils. For example, Thor and Loki work together to bring down Hela when she threatens the entirety of Asgard in Ragnarok. Loki continues his anti-hero streak in his own spinoff TV show, eventually concluding his arc as he accepts a more purely heroic role by sacrificing himself for the greater good.
9 Quint
Jaws (1975)
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Jaws wasn’t the first shark movie, but it’s the one that all subsequent thrillers in the subgenre have been compared to. Part of what makes Jaws so special is the dynamic between the three main shark hunters. During the long stretches of the movie without the shark rising to the surface, their tense working relationship provides enough tension and intrigue to keep the plot moving along.
Quint’s presence as an anti-hero makes him a fascinating addition to the team, and he pushes the other men to interrogate their own motivations.
Quint introduces himself at the town meeting by stating plainly that he is motivated by money. He may work alongside Brody and Hooper to ride Amity Island of the shark, but his motivations aren’t as noble as theirs. This creates a lot of internal conflict within the team while the three men wait for their chance to take down the shark. Quint’s presence as an anti-hero makes him a fascinating addition to the team, and he pushes the other men to interrogate their own motivations.
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8 The Dude
The Big Lebowski (1998)
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The Big Lebowski is one of the best Coen brothers movies, and a lot of its comedy is built around its protagonist’s status as an anti-hero. The Big Lebowski is a shaggy dog crime story that seems fairly traditional at first. There is a case of mistaken identity and some eccentric criminal archetypes like a Hitchcock thriller or a film noir classic, but the Dude is a reluctant anti-hero who only wants to replace his soiled rug and go bowling with his friends.
The Big Lebowski
is one of the best Coen brothers movies, and a lot of its comedy is built around its protagonist’s status as an anti-hero.
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The plot of The Big Lebowski suits a righteous detective character like Chinatown‘s Jake Gittes or The Maltese Falcon‘s Sam Spade. Instead, the Dude is a slacker who doesn’t care about the crimes being paraded in front of him unless he can directly benefit from them. The tension between his motivations as an anti-hero and the dynamism of the plot is what gives The Big Lebowski such a unique sense of humor.
7 Sonny Wortzik
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
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Heist movies often feature anti-heroes of some kind, because they’re characters who audiences can root for even if they’re carrying out criminal acts that may seem immoral on the surface. Dog Day Afternoon‘s Sonny Wortzik is one of the finest examples of this archetype. He may be robbing a bank full of hostages, but he’s doing so to get money for his lover’s gender-affirming surgery.
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The moral divide between Sonny’s motivations and his actions is something that pops up in many great heist movies. Danny Ocean in Ocean’s Eleven is seen as a hero by contrast to the man he’s trying to rob from, Dalton in Inside Man is an anti-hero because his robbery is used to expose a much worse crime, and Baby in Baby Driver is forced into a life of crime to help care for his foster father. Like Sonny, these characters all lack the stringent morality that makes a true hero, but their actions are easily justified.
6 Max Rockatansky
Mad Max Franchise
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The character of Max Rockatansky was first played by Mel Gibson in the original Mad Max trilogy, but Tom Hardy takes on the role in Mad Max: Fury Road. One thing that unites the two interpretations of the character, aside from his stoic, laconic persona, is his status as an antihero. Max often finds himself on the side of good, fighting against dystopian despots like Immortan Joe and Lord Humungus, but he rarely shares the virtuous motivations of his allies.
Max often finds himself on the side of good, but he rarely shares the virtuous motivations of his allies.
After the death of his wife and son at the hands of Toecutter in the franchise’s first movie, Max consigns himself to a life of struggle in the wasteland. He forms alliances and serves causes only as far as they serve his own needs. In Fury Road, for example, he helps Furiosa rescue Immortan Joe’s wives because it’s the only way that he can escape from the War Boys. After the Furiosa spinoff, the future of the Mad Max franchise might have to return to its popular anti-hero.
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5 Travis Bickle
Taxi Driver (1976)
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Travis Bickle is one of the great archetypal anti-heroes in film history, and a character who has inspired many other anti-heroes. Many critics noted the similarities between his story and that of Arthur Fleck in 2019’s Joker, who is one of the most famous recent examples of a big-screen anti-hero. Robert De Niro earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Travis, and the movie helped develop Martin Scorsese’s career as a master of the crime genre.
Travis Bickle is one of the great archetypal anti-heroes in film history.
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Travis sees it as his mission to purge society of the filth that he witnesses every night while working. He is inspired to help Iris out of a life of underage sex work, but his motivations for doing so also suggest that he romanticizes the idea of himself as a vigilante hero. With a singular goal in mind, Travis holds no qualms about killing anyone who stands in his way. The ending of Taxi Driver shows his blood-soaked rampage, but there are some question marks over how much of what’s on-screen is merely a part of Travis’ fantasies.
4 Captain Jack Sparrow
Pirates Of The Caribbean Franchise
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Captain Jack Sparrow is a self-serving pirate who often finds himself on the side of good, especially when facing British imperial forces in the Caribbean. Will Turner believes that he can form an alliance with Jack, but he is repeatedly shown Jack’s true nature. The character was so popular that he soon became the central figure of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, although it’s worth remembering that he has a supporting role in the first movie.
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Jack arguably works better as a supporting character than as the focus. This allows him to retain an air of mystery that manifests as an unpredictable streak. Even as he steps into the spotlight in the franchise’s sequels, he stays true to his anti-hero archetype. His priorities include rum and women, but his huge ego also means that he can be easily be coaxed into serving others, if only to retain his precious status as a captain.
3 The Man With No Name
The Dollars Trilogy
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Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy has influenced many movie anti-heroes over the years, although he was inspired in turn by Toshiro Mifune’s character in Yojimbo. Surpassing the legacy of a character from an Akira Kurosawa movie is no easy feat, but Eastwood’s performances are so captivating in the Dollars trilogy that the Man With No Name became a cinematic icon with barely any words.
He’s a lone wolf who sticks to his own code of ethics, even if that doesn’t always align with the common social understanding of morality.
The Man With No Name is referred to by a few names, but these can all easily be dismissed as nicknames. He’s a lone wolf who sticks to his own code of ethics, even if that doesn’t always align with the common social understanding of morality. Unlike other western heroes, he will shoot first and fight dirty if he needs to. His mysterious origins make him an even more compelling anti-hero.
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2 Han Solo
The Star Wars Franchise
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Although Han Solo ends up fighting on the side of the Rebel Alliance, he only joins them by pure coincidence. Before he meets Luke Skywalker in Mos Eisley, he’s a smuggler who only cares for himself and his one friend Chewbacca. Han agrees to help Luke in the first place because of the promise of money that he needs to pay off his debt to Jabba the Hutt. Without this external motivating factor, he probably wouldn’t show any interest in the dangerous mission.
Although Han Solo ends up fighting on the side of the Rebel Alliance, he only joins them by pure coincidence.
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A big turning point for Han comes at the end of A New Hope, when he returns to join the Rebels in destroying the Death Star, even though he has already been paid. This is almost immediately reversed in The Empire Strikes Back, when he threatens to ditch the Rebels once again while arguing with Leia on Hoth. Han’s growing loyalty to the cause is motivated by his loyalty to Luke and Leia. As soon as they disappear from his life, he returns to his smuggling ways, as shown in The Force Awakens.
1 Michael Corleone
The Godfather Trilogy
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Michael Corleone starts out as the black sheep of the family. He’s an honest military man who wants nothing to do with his family’s criminal business, but he soon finds himself poised to inherit the position of Godfather from his ailing father. His motivations are just, at least in his own eyes. He simply wants to protect his own family, especially his father Vito, his sister Connie and his partner Kay.
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Michael ends
The Godfather
having completed his transition to being a fully-fledged anti-hero.
Michael ends The Godfather having completed his transition to being a fully-fledged anti-hero, doing what needs to be done to protect himself and his family. The morality of his actions can be debated, but it’s certain that if he didn’t act first, then he likely would have faced the consequences from rival families. The Godfather Part II finally sees Michael move toward being more of an outright villain, as he abandons his initial moral code to kill his brother in a cold-blooded act of vengeance.
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