AFI released top 100 heroes and villains

Mr. Vapor writes, The American Film Institue
has posted its list of top 100 heros & villains in movies.
The top genre hero is Indiana Jones at #2 (Ripley is #8, Han Solo
is #14). The top genre villain is Darth Vader at #3 (HAL 900 is
#13, the Alien in Alien is #14). Read the list for more goodness.
Also of note that The Terminator is #48 on the good list and #22
on the villains list. Amazing what a little reprograming can do…
Sadly, Superman and Batman placed 26 and 46 respectively, while Spider-Man didn’t even make the list.

16 replies on “AFI released top 100 heroes and villains”

  1. Pretty Good
    Usually I find these kinds of lists to be crappy. This one seems pretty well thought out. Id does lean a little toward the contemporary.

    • Re: What?

      There’s no KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!

      There weren’t any Star Trek characters, even though they showed clips of the bridge crew during the introduction to the TV special. I wonder if that’s just Viacom deals, since Viacom owns both Paramount Pictures (which owns Star Trek movie rights) and CBS.

  2. Odd
    Anyone else find it slightly humorous that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, two bank robbers, were rank one spot higher the Gandhi? I recognize where they’re coming from, but it’s still fuuny.

    • Re: Top 50+50
      Here’s an amusing exercise: imagine battles between each hero and his/her correspondingly-numbered villain. Ok, I’m laughing too hard right now to comment further….

      • Re: Top 50+50

        Here’s an amusing exercise: imagine battles between each hero and his/her correspondingly-numbered villain. Ok, I’m laughing too hard right now to comment further….

        That is funny. Some would be very entertaining (9, 22, 26, 27, 33, 37). Some might even be good (3, 5, 14, 20, 39, 46).

  3. Wish they’d limited it to fictional characters
    Or at least characters not from this century. Also, it is weird that Butch Casidy & The Sunshine kid are heros, while Bonny and Clyde are villains.

    Also, T.E. Lawrence was not a hero. I thought htat was the whole point of that movie. Or maybe it was to bend our definition of ‘hero’.

    I think we should have all the villains fight each other to get up the to the top spot, and get the natural order going. I think “Man” would climb from #20 all the way to #1. I also don’t think Hannibal Lecter would best Darth Vader, unless he’s developed a taste for plastic. Cruella De Vil and Hannibal Lecter would probably get along famously, joining together to defeat such semi-villains and Bonny and Clyde, Max Cady and ‘The Queen’.

    Alright, I think I should get back to my real job now. You guys want fries with that?…

  4. Vader Kills ’em All
    Of all the characters on that list, not one could stand up to Vader. The only possibility was Obi Wan, but the Obi Wan they picked was from ANH, which Vader killed. So, Vader kills everybody on the list and everyone’s happy.

    • Re:Vader

      Of all the characters on that list, not one could stand up to Vader.

      (mimics Homer’s tutors from the “college” ep):

      Oh, yeah? Unless Vadar’s light sabre uses red sun radiation, or there’s kryptonite in the Star Wars universe, I’d say Superman might present a challenge. Heheheh.

      • Re:Vader

        Oh, yeah? Unless Vadar’s light sabre uses red sun radiation, or there’s kryptonite in the Star Wars universe, I’d say Superman might present a challenge. Heheheh.

        Depends, Does Superman Need His Windpipe?

        • Re:Vader

          Depends, Does Superman Need His Windpipe?

          Technically, yes, but he can hold his breath for close to half an hour. That should give him enough time to deal with Vader if Obi-Wan runs interference.

          • Re: Vader

            Technically, yes, but he can hold his breath for close to half an hour

            Actually, the movie version is based on the 1970s Superman, who did not require air to breathe. Even if we use the current version, can a “force-choke” stop Superman before he say, disintegrates Vader’s mask with heat-vision, reprograms hiss breathing apparatus at high-speed, knocks him out? The guy just has too damn many powers.

    • Re: Vader Kills ’em All

      So, Vader kills everybody on the list and everyone’s happy.

      I think Vader might have trouble with a few on the list, depending on the circumstances of the fights.

      Villians first. The Alien (#14), those creatures are pretty darn good at ambushing victims, so it could get the drop on Vader. If he is up against a hive, then Vader’s odds go down more. Even if he can cut through legions of them in open combat they’ve got that acid-blood, numerical avantage, and all of them are very fast.

      I think Vader can take the Terminator pretty easy, but the Martians (#27) would be pretty tough if Vader doesn’t have a good ship handy.

      And lastly, Dracula would be very tough for anyone to kill if they don’t know going in what his powers/weaknesses are.

      As for heros, Obi Wan, Superman, Ellen Ripley, and James Bond would be the major problems for Vader. Obi because he sorta let Vader win in ANH. Superman because… well, because he is Superman. Ripley and Bond aren’t so much a problem, but they are pretty darn tenatious and both know how to come to a fight prepared. So it isn’t too far fetched to think that one of them might get lucky.

      • Re: Vader Kills ’em All
        Really the only question about who can Vader beat is “Who does the Jedi Mind Trick not work on.” Whilst I do not know the answer to that, I wouldn’t think it would work on Superman…

  5. A sad omission
    I didn’t see this until Wednsday night. But before I did I was standing in Borders, skimming Captian America anthology.
    all I could think was, “Damn, Cap should be on this list, tonight.” Remember I was watching a tape. Unfortunatly I knew that wouldn’t happen. The movie absolutly sucked like a Hoover plugged into a nuclear power plant running at 112%!

    But I kept thinking about it. One of the repeated comments about heros were that they were “orginary people” or that they never wanted or tried to be heros. Then it hit me. Cap is a great hero, because he is a stereotypical comic book hero.

    Work with me on this. Captain America voluntered for the experiment that gave him his augmented body.

      Army Guy: Son, you can take this drug, and probably die.
      Steve Rogers: I’ll take it, sir.
      If you live you’ll be the first of a new breed of soldier and we will send you out on dangerous missions, in all likelyhood, until you don’t come back.
      Steve Rogers: I’ll take it, sir.

    Then when it became clear that he was the only one of his kind, he stepped up again.

      Army Guy: Since you’re all we have we are going to keep sending you out on these suicide missions, until you’re dead or the war is over, which ever comes first.
      Steve Rogers: Anything for God and Country, sir

    Comic readers know that not only has Captain America repeatedly chosen to keep being a hero, but he has chosen to stop being Steve Rogers.

    There is no more Steve Rogers. There is only Captain America. Batman has a similar pyschology, but he acts out of greif and pain and truma. Cap is a hero not out of any exterior obligation or compuslion. He is a hero because he likes what it does to everybody else.

    Now I know I’m going to get attacked for saying that his unbelievableness is good but stay with me now. As a culture we need different types of heros. We need the heros that are hard to tell from the villans. We need heros who are just ordinary men. We need heros who don’t want to be heros but become them anyway. We can see parts of our selves in all of them. Who among us has never felt Frank Castle(AKA the Punisher)’s rage at the justice system and wished we could deliver justice ourselves?

    But while we are looking at these flawed heros, don’t forget the other heros. The ones who are heroic for heroism’s sake. The ones we look to and say, “Damn, I wish I could be a tenth as brave as him.”

    For the record, any person who choses a course of action that offers them threat to life and limb, in the attempt to help another, is a hero.

    Okay, I’ll stop talking… for now.

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