MTV recently ran a big contest to see who was the Greatest Movie Badass of All Time, with online voters choosing from a pre-selected list. Number 1 isn’t too hard to guess because he is, indeed, extremely badass:

Dirty-Harry-Clint-Eastwood1
The runner-up is a bit more surprising because we’re always hearing how women action movies suck and men won’t watch them:

Alien-Ripley-Gun-Small
Lt. Ellen Ripley from the ALIEN films, certainly a memorable Badass. Could it be that SUCKY movies SUCK, and good movies, like the first 2 1/2 ALIEN films, succeed even with a female hero?

BONUS: Can you be a Badass without holding a bigass GUN? Discuss.

Here’s the entire Badass list:

1. Dirty Harry
2. Ellen Ripley
3. John McClane
4. Mad Max
5. Walker
6. Sarah Connor
7. Pike Bishop
8. Khan
9. Boba Fett
10. John J. Rambo

1 COMMENT

  1. A few comments about this list:

    1) John McClane should be #1 or, at the very least, #2. As Badass as Ellen Ripley is, there’s no way she’s more Badass than McClane.

    2) Where’s Eastwood’s The Man With No Name?

    3) Boba Fett should be replaced with The Landlady from KUNG FU HUSTLE.

  2. Boba Fett doesn’t belong on the list at all; he’s just there because lots of people like the character. If Walker, Texas Ranger can be there, where’s Xena, Warrior Princess? Was Schwarzenegger’s Terminator robot considered? Jack Bauer? Rutger Hauer, as *either* “The Hitcher” or Roy Batty? Bruce Lee?!

  3. Boba Fett doesn’t belong on the list at all; he’s just there because lots of people like the character. If Walker, Texas Ranger can be there, where’s Xena, Warrior Princess? Was Schwarzenegger’s Terminator robot considered? Jack Bauer? Rutger Hauer, as *either* “The Hitcher” or Roy Batty? Bruce Lee?! Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams?

  4. This was the most fun panel at NYCC. Boba Fett’s inclusion is redeemed by Method Man’s dead serious declaration that Fett is “real gangster. He’s in it for the money and that’s it.”

  5. 1. Darth Vader (I find your lack of faith disturbing.)

    2. Termintor ([1st Movie] – I’ll be back)

    3. Man with No Name ( I don’t think it’s nice, you laughin’. You see, my mule don’t like people laughin’. Gets the crazy idea you’re laughin’ at him. Now if you apologize like I know you’re going to, I might convince him that you really didn’t mean it…)

    4. Sanjuro (Get 3 Coffins Ready)

    5. Mr. Smith ([Matrix not Brad Pitt] – Miiisterr Annderson)

    6. The Bride/ Beatrix Kiddo (I am gonna ask you questions. And every time you don’t give me answers, I’m gonna cut something off. And I promise you, they will be things you will miss.)

    7. Ellen Ripley (I don’t know which species is worse, Burke. You don’t see them fucking each other over a god damn percentage.)

    8. John J. Rambo ([I prefer 1st Blood] In town you are the law, out here it’s me. Don’t push it, don’t push it or I’ll give you a war you won’t believe. Let it go, let it go…….)

    9. Mad Max (The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel. It’d take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now, if you’re lucky, you could hack through your ankle in five minutes. Go.)

    10. Tommy Udo ([The Movie is Kiss of Death 1947 – A Must See] I wouldn’t give you the skin off a grape. )

    There are plenty. My not James Colburn’s Charater Britt in the Magnificent Seven, Jubei from Ninja Scroll or Rooster Cogburn. I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man. Classic.

  6. It’s cool to see the kids at MTV still remember these movies:)
    I remeber seeing the first Alien when it came out -and the big shock then was the fact that the female character was the one who survived: it was a really neat progressive trick. Really memeorable -and way badass!
    How about Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct… well, ok she’s not carrying a gun.
    Also, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure as they are pretty bad movies -but I enjoy the Resident Evil films (yeah, I said it.).

  7. Popeye IS the ultimate badass! Happy 80th, Popeye!

    Also, old school asshole Woody Woodpecker…..what a bastard!

    Movie-wise, I vote for Yul Brynner as The Double Man. The ULTIMATE badass! And you thought he was bad in Westworld. Guess again!

  8. Boba Fett??? WTF? Any other character on this list could beat Boba Fett armed only with a bowl of oatmeal. How about this – I’d put WESELEY frickin CRUSHER on this list ahead of Boba Fett. Yeah. I said it.

  9. Toshiro Mifune in any samurai role, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Ken Watanabe all prove that you can be totally, 100% hard-core badass without a big gun. Jackie Chan is kind of too cuddly to be a badass, though.

    The general Hollywood wisdom that men won’t go see action movies with female leads after the success of stuff like Aliens, T2, and the Buffy TV series is more evidence supporting my belief that Hollywood will take the explanation with something easily definable over the one that talks about the quality of the movie. They’re like the drunk searching for his keys under a lamppost because the light’s better there instead of in the alley where they lost them.

  10. Just to mirror everyone else, the inclusion of Boba Fett completely invalidates the entire list. You could replace Boba Fett with Bea Arthur, and the list becomes ten times as bad ass.

    And while I like the “classic” feel of the list (as in most are characters from older franchises), why no “modern” badasses, like Jason Bourne or the Daniel Craig James Bond? I’m not trying to take away anything from John McClane or John Rambo (and I’ve seen their respective movies about 1000 times each), but just because you sold a million tickets in 1980 doesn’t mean you get to cut in line ahead of Jason effing Bourne.

  11. Where’s Christian Bale’s Batman? The most frightening Badass of them all. Or Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction? Or the Bride?

    Rambo and McClane feel like relics of their times.

  12. Well, after seeing Gran Torino recently I’d say Walt Kowolski is an even more terrifying version of Dirty Harry. His scowl has aged like a fine wine, ha ha. (Eastwood could honestly fill his own list).

    I think Kurt Russel characters are on the “Trying so hard to be bad-ass that we love them” list.

    I second the Bride and Jules (Sam Jackson before his roles were caricatures of this one…his wallet says “Bad Ass Mutha ****** for crying out loud!)

    And the omission of Bruce Lee on a “vintage” bad ass list like this one is unforgivable and deserves a face-breaking kick to the head.

  13. Nearly every time one of these idiotic lists comes out there’s a complete and total denial of Bruce Lee, and I wanna know why. Then there’s the glaring omission of Tomisaburo Wakayama, aka Lone Wolf, inarguably the single most badassed swordsman in the entire chambara genre. To have Sanjuro on this list and not Lone Wolf is simply criminal, and while we’re at it where the hell is Sonny Chiba as Terry Tsurugi, aka the Street Fighter? If he’s not a badass, I don’t know who is!

    Oh, and Beatrix Kiddo deserves a spot too. Eff Boba Fett — whose popularity defies all logic and reason — and Walker as well. Could Walker take Terry Tsurugi? Emphatically, fuck no!!!

  14. The general Hollywood wisdom that men won’t go see action movies with female leads after the success of stuff like Aliens, T2, and the Buffy TV series is more evidence supporting my belief that Hollywood will take the explanation with something easily definable over the one that talks about the quality of the movie.

    T2 is at least explainable, though.

    How many movie posters did you see featuring Linda Hamilton?

    Now, how many movie posters featured the Governator? There’s room for female action heroes, but I don’t like it when any of the Terminator movies get included because the featured badass is Arnie.

  15. To all the people complaining about the lack of Walker Texas Ranger. First of all, this list was movie characters. Walker, Texas Ranger is a TV character, so he doesn’t qualify.

    Second, the whole Chuck Norris thing is old and I’m sick of it. And Norris can’t hold a candle to Bruce Lee anyway.

  16. Perhaps the only time I’ve ever been in agreement with George Lucas is when he said he didn’t understand why Boba Fett was so popular.

  17. Laevatein,
    TV/Movies it doesn’t matter: that’s how bad ass Walker is:)
    Though I agree on Bruce Lee -who with all due respect gave Chuck Norris his break.

  18. odd list, but I like some of the choices.

    that said, it was pretty cool that they got Clint and Sigourney to actually particiate/respond to this whole thing! :)

  19. Where the heck is Leon. the Professional? He could blow away half the people on that list without breaking a sweat..

    And from among the movie released in the last few years, I’d give it up to Mr Smith, Clive Owen from Shoot ’em Up. Love the movie or hate it, Mr. Smith kicks some real ass. With a frickin’ carrot, even.

  20. Personally I wouldn’t count Mr. Smith from Shoot ’em Up or Ash because those movies are too much comedies to take the badassery seriously. Even though they are GREAT characters.

  21. If you are a huge movie fan looking at the sceen will remind you of Tommy Udo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6W2YQr63A

    To me the Lee Marvin “Walker” is the bad ass Walker. The the persen who was a Toshiro Mifune fan, I am too that is why Sanjuro mae my list. You cannot have the Man With No Name without Sanjuro.

    I think he is a bad ass, others may not, I cannot believe I did not mention him. People may point to Tony Montana but to me you have to look at Michael Corleone when you talk of Badass of Badasses.

    PS (Britt over Chris in Magnificent 7 for me)