The greatest heroes of the silver screen
The Marvel films may have filled our screens with saviours in spandex, but true heroism requires more than a superpower
How do you draw up a list of film’s greatest heroes and stop at 20? There were 29 in alone, for Avengers: Endgame goodness’ sake.
The answer is to set some ground rules, and accepting only solo acts — no duos or groups — is a good place to start. Contenders should capture the essence of heroism itself, rather than just be great characters: Scarlett O’Hara might be the quote-unquote heroine of Gone with the Wind, but she wouldn’t win any prizes for valour.
And although we’re ranking the stature of characters, rather than actors, individual performers should appear no more than once.
Also, this is open only to purebreds — the heroic subcategories (tragic, romantic, anti-, the everymen, the wrong men) deserve lists of their own.
Lastly, biases will be reflected rather than worked around. You may have noticed that cinema likes its heroes white, American and male — and if you haven’t, you will while reading this.
20. Will Kane — Played by Gary Cooper in High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) No national cinema is more in love with heroism than Hollywood, and Cooper’s stoic lawman — hours from retirement when an old foe blows into town with vengeance in mind — may be the exemplary all-American specimen. He begs his community for help, receives none, and proceeds to clean up regardless.
19. Lucas Jackson — Played by Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967) In the late 1960s, with Vietnam ablaze and the civil rights movement under siege, the wrong side of the law became heroism’s natural habitat. On a Florida chain gang, Newman’s convict weathers the worst the system can throw at him with a smile that won’t be snuffed out.
18. Douglas Quaid — Played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in (Paul Verhoeven,
Total Recall 1990)
A lowly construction worker unearths memories of his secret agent past, roars off to Mars and saves the day ... or does he? Thirty years on, Verhoeven’s Philip K Dick riff remains the definitive screen treatment of the male fantasy of heroism — and Arnie’s guileless Quaid the perfect avatar for our beefcake yearnings. 17. Foxy Brown — Played by Pam Grier in (Jack
Foxy Brown
Hill, 1974)
After decades of mammies, Jezebels and scolds, the 1970s saw a revolution in how black women could be seen on film. Grier, an obvious movie star in waiting, could suddenly play a completely new type of heroine: empowered, streetwise, and able to use her sexuality to her advantage. Foxy Brown is very much of its time, with all the compromises that entails — but still trailblazing. 16. Beatrix Kiddo/ The Bride
— Played by Uma Thurman in (Quentin
Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2
Tarantino, 2003-4)
A scholar of 1970s pulp, Tarantino gave Grier (above) the role of her career in 1997’s Jackie Brown — then afterwards, with Thurman, elevated the vengeful-woman stereotype itself to mythic status. A lover, a mother, a fighter and above all a survivor, Thurman’s Bride was an instant icon — a living distillation of countless trash-cinema thrills.
15. Ethan Edwards — Played by John Wayne in The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) No directoractor duo did more to market the American frontier hero than the Johns, Ford and Wayne. But the pair’s renowned twelfth collaboration fascinatingly darkened the brand. In this tale of a Civil War veteran scouring the Texas wilderness for his abducted niece, heroism is fuelled by obsession, even hatred — and conventional happy endings kept at arm’s length.
14. Detective John McClane — Played by Bruce Willis in the Die Hard films (1988-2013)
For most of the 1980s, Hollywood’s heroes were glinting, preposterous he-men. Then along came John McClane, an average Joe in the wrong place who somehow comes out on top. Willis revitalised the action genre with his vulnerability, nonchalance and ribbed cotton vest. What a pity the sequels lost sight of why director John McTiernan’s original had clicked.
13. Chen Zhen — Played by Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury (Lo Wei, 1972)
There were few more popular 1970s fantasies than sticking it to the man while staying true to your culture — in China, Hong Kong, the US inner cities, and elsewhere. Lee’s Shanghai martial artist who takes a stand against his smirking Japanese oppressors was his most politically charged role, and raised cathartic cheers around the world.
12. Mildred Pierce — Played by Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945)
Failed and betrayed by men, and buffeted by the dark forces of melodrama and noir, Crawford’s steely single mother does the only thing she can: knuckle down. Making a success of yourself in 1940s California is no mean feat, especially with a nightmarish teenage daughter around, but Mildred’s ingenuity and forbearance are her superpowers.
11. Zatoichi — Played by Shintaro Katsu (1962-89) and Takeshi Kitano (2003)
A blind 19th century masseur with unparalleled sword skills; a trickster, a troublemaker, and an unstoppable force for justice: Zatoichi is the kind of character who could run and run. And run he did — more than 25 films, a spin-off TV series, and a feature-length last hurrah, before Kitano’s acclaimed 2003 revival introduced him to a wider international audience.
10. Erin Brockovich — Played by Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh, 2000)
What was it about this single mother-turned-scourge of corporate America that struck such a lasting, joyous chord? The brass neck? The bras? Well, naturally. But the Roberts-Soderbergh collaboration gave rise to a rare, larger-than-life Oscarwinning star turn with its high heels squarely planted in the real world.
9. James Bond — Played in the James Bond films by Sean Connery (1962-71), George Lazenby (1969), Roger Moore (1973-85), Timothy Dalton (1987-89), Pierce Brosnan (1995-2002) and Daniel Craig (2006-2020)
Only a certain blind swordsman and Godzilla (not his list, frankly) have racked up more films apiece than Ian Fleming’s secret agent. Bond’s officially on 24, with a 25th imminent — we hope — which is some pedigree, even in our franchise-mad age. His secret? Knowing when to tweak the formula and when to just revel in it, vodka martini in hand.
8. Atticus Finch — Played by Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan,
1962)
In Hollywood there’s a significant overlap between heroes and fathers, and Peck’s upstanding Alabama lawyer, who puts everything on the line to defend an innocent black man, is at the dead centre of the Venn diagram. From his daughter Scout’s perspective — and ours too — he’s a beacon.
7. Superman — Played by Christopher Reeve in the first Superman film series (1978-87)
Cinema has already brought us five live-action Supermen. But the one true Kal-El was surely Reeve, who played the DC hero as the embodiment of decency and dependability. You’ll believe a man can fly, the poster promised. Reeve just made you believe, full stop.
6. T E Lawrence — Played by
Peter O’Toole in Lawrence
of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
The unparalleled sweep and magnificence of Lean; the cloud-piercing stature and intensity of O’Toole.
That was what it took for cinema to get its arms and head around the maverick World War 1 hero. His life demanded an epic — but the way the film finds intimacy in the historical, and vice versa, is what makes it miraculous.
5. Juror no 8 — Played by Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957)
By doing his civic duty with diligence and care, Fonda’s lone holdout juror is a hero of the everyday sort. Yet in a New York courthouse on an abnormally hot day, he saves a life against the odds — then slips back into the world. Thank goodness he’s out there.
4. Ellen Ripley — Played by Sigourney Weaver in the
Alien films (1979-97)
Long before Imperator Furiosa, Sarah Connor and (ugh!) Lara Croft, there was Ripley. A role written for a man, the Alien hero’s sex was switched on the say-so of director Ridley Scott. But it was Weaver whose taut and flinty charisma made the character catch fire — and keep on blazing through the variable sequels. 3. Dr Henry Walton ‘Indiana’
Jones Jr — Played by Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones films (1981-2008)
Much like Kill Bill’s chop socky heroine, Indiana Jones started life as a loving pastiche — in his case, of the dashing matinee adventurers Spielberg and George Lucas so admired. But so potently did Indy recapture his forerunners’ appeal, he immediately became the whip-cracking standard against which all swashbucklers would be judged.
2. ‘Buster’ — Played by Buster Keaton (1920-28)
Some of Keaton’s characters had names. Others didn’t. But they were ultimately all Buster: the little guy who knew the world was a) absurd and b) rigged against him. Yet he could outmanoeuvre it, mostly, through sheer nerve and resourcefulness. Never mind hero. The man’s an inspiration.
1. Luke Skywalker — Played by Mark Hamill in the Star Wars original and sequel trilogies (1977-2019)
When George Lucas reshaped his early Star Wars drafts in line with Joseph Campbell’s writings on mythology, he wasn’t just setting his young Jedi apprentice on a particular timehonoured course. Lucas’s popfantasy revival of the “hero’s journey” Campbell had found in ancient faiths and myths went on to change the way we think about heroism outright.
There are substantially cooler, sexier, more charismatic, less whingey figures than Luke on this list (see numbers 2-20); even in polls of favourite Star Wars characters, he never comes first. But like it or not, his shadow outstretches all the others combined. Lineage, predestination, holy gifts, hidden realities: it’s all there in The Matrix, Harry Potter, the Marvel multiverse, and almost every other modern blockbuster craze around. Young Skywalker’s place at the top of this list is both hard-earned and inevitable. Call it destiny. —