Contradicting Popular Opinion:
An Enquiry Concerning The Badass list
Intro
Various Popcorn Junkies made and ranked their own lists, and characters were given points accordingly for PJ’s Ultimate list of the greatest badasses in film. I was in charge of the compiling the final order. As such, I have all the raw data! These things excite me.
The Honorable Mentions
All right, here is the list of folks who just missed the top 60:
#100. Dashiell “Dash” Parr (The Incredibles)
#99. Nino Brown (New Jack City)
#98. Alien (Alien)
#97. Lo Pan (Big Trouble in Little China)
#96. Doc Holiday (Tombstone)
#95. Neo (The Matrix)
#94. Harmonica (Once upon a Time in the West )
#93.Chernabog (Fantasia)
#92. Satan (Rosemary’s Baby)
#91. Leroy Green (The Last Dragon )
#90. Legolas (LotR)
#89. Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth )
#88. Jack Wilson (Shane )
#87. Wong Fei Hung (Drunken Master 2 )
#86. Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction )
#85. Carnosaur (Carnosaur)
#84. Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , 1974)
#83. Candyman (Candyman)
#82. Zatoichi (Zatoichi’s Revenge)
#81. Dracula (Various Flicks)
#80. Norma Desmonde (Sunset Boulevard )
#79. Mad Max (The Road Warrior)
#78. Tony (Hard Boiled)
#77. JJ McQuade (Lone Wolf Mcquade)
#76. The Wolf Man (Universal Horror Pics)
#75. Killer Bunny (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
#74. Chen Zhen (The Chinese Connection)
#73. John Robie (To Catch a Thief)
#72. Tony Montana (Scarface)
#71. Chen Zhen (Fist of Legend )
#70. Lola (Run, Lola, Run)
#69. Wah Sing Ku (Lethal Weapon 4)
#68) The Gunslinger (Westworld)
#67) Walker (Point Blank)
#66) Sarah Connor (Terminator 2)
#65) Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride)
#64) Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver)
#63) Frida Kahlo (Frida)
#62) Tom Ripley (The Talented Mr. Ripley)
#61) Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
What is in a name?
Counting Jacks and The Killer, there are a total of 9 Johns in the top 45.
What is in a Gender? Are there really no parts for women?
Despite taking both the first and second slots in the list, there are only 2 other female characters in the top 60. Both are animated Disney villains.
The most badass actor?
Multiple actors appear more than once, but only Clint Eastwood has two characters in the top ten.
Classic Rivalries
Based on the wacky scoring rubric I used:
The Predator outscored Alien by a margin of 552 to 324
The T-800 outscored the T-1000 by a margin of 548 to 216
King Kong outscored Godzilla 1026 to 4.
Evil Toons!
The only cartoon character to crack the top 99 were villains. Other, more heroic characters who received votes include Vampire Hunter D, Batman (of Mask of the Phantasm), Frozone, Howl (of the Moving Castle variety, and Fantasia‘s wizard Yensid.
The Other Boxing Men
Rocky Balboa scored 200 points, but not unlike the first film Apollo Creed beats him with 276. Drago was in a dead heat with Rocky at 200 points.
Badass films
Many films/ film series had multiple nominees.
Star Wars had votes for Vader, Han Solo, The Emporer, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul. Shockingly, Boba Fett has 0 points.
The Seven Samurai garnered votes for Kikuchiyo, Kyuzo, Kambei.
Pulp Fiction received votes for Jules, Vincent, Mia, Butch and Marcellus Wallace.
Kill Bill brought in votes for the Bride, Elle Driver, Gogo, and O-ren Ishii.
In Closing
If there is anybody you don’t see who you feel deserved a spot in the top 100, I’ll be happy to tell you how many votes he/she/it received. There were a ton of nominees from The Dude to Willy Wonka.
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