The 11 best anti-hero films
Meet our favourite flawed protagonists from the days before Deadpool...
If you enjoyed Deadpool, you’re probably itching to watch another movie where the hero isn’t a shallow, humourless world-saver from planet parental guidance.
Luckily, Wade Wilson is the latest in a long line of anti-heroes. From Walter White to Frank Underwood, the hit shows of recent years prove we love flawed characters – and they don’t get much more flawed than the ones in these movies.
Mad Max: Fury Road
The reboot is as gloriously bonkers and brilliant as us fans of the originals could have hoped, but while Max is certainly a reluctant hero, he’s not exactly an anti-hero. Charlize Theron’s Furiosa, though, is. Having been the first in command of masked nasty Immortan Joe’s war rig and overseer of numerous horrific acts perpetrated against his “five wives”, she eventually has a change of heart and turns against the overlord.
The Crow
It may not have aged incredibly well, but the Crow remains a cult classic in which the scariest character is actually the good guy. Brought back from the dead so he can avenge his own murder and that of his wife, Eric Draven (played by Brandon Lee, who was accidentally shot and killed during filming) dons some superb gothic clown makeup and goes on a murderous rampage of anti-heroic proportions.
Aguirre, The Wrath Of God
Klaus Kinski comes across as a terrifying nutjob in all the films he made with director Werner Herzog; this is because Klaus Kinski was a terrifying nutjob (read his repulsive autobiography if you dare). In Aguirre he plays a conquistador in search of El Dorado. One of the great films of the ’70s.
Léon: The Professional
Luc Besson’s masterpiece, featuring the monastic hitman or ‘cleaner’ Léon Montana, is neo-noir film at its finest. When her family is killed by a corrupt agent, he reluctantly takes in his 12-year- old neighbour. He then trains her to be competent with an arsenal of weapons. Just a big softy, really.
John Wick
John Wick used to be a very bad man; a tattooed assassin for the nastiest of nasty gangsters; “the guy you send to kill the boogeyman”. But then he found love and hung up his shooting fingers. Inevitably, his quiet life goes wrong, culminating in the murder of the puppy left to him by his dead wife. Cue nasty, vengeful retaliation in the form of some of the finest gunplay committed to screen in years.
Birdman
Birdman is a movie about an jaded divorcee with delusions of artistic grandeur. He used to look good in lycra, but now he can’t even take care of his tearaway daughter. Played with schizophrenic finesse by Michael Keaton, this superhero-inspired flick takes gleeful aim at a man who’s incapable of saving himself, let alone anyone else.
Falling Down
We join the divorced, recently unemployed William Foster in a gridlocked traffic jam. It’s the final straw that send him spiralling into a cathartic, GTA-style rampage across early 90s LA. Nothing escapes his wrath, with his trail of destruction taking in payphones, a self-entitled golfer and, most memorably, a fast food restaurant that refuses to serve him all-day breakfast.
Dead Man’s Shoes
Shane Meadows’ tale of revenge in a sleepy Derbyshire town sees Paddy Considine’s Richard return from the army to take revenge on a gang of local thugs for tormenting his younger brother. Considine plays the ex-squaddie with all the terror of a real-life slasher baddie, sneaking into his rivals’ homes at night wearing a creepy gas mask and stalking them around town with a terrifying you-can’t-scare-me intensity.
Dallas Buyers Club
Ron Woodroof is introduced to you as homophobic hell-raiser in Dallas Buyers Club. The kind of guy you wouldn’t want to share a drink with, let alone root for as he takes on the might of US law enforcement. After being infected with AIDs, everything changes for the Texas ne’er-do-well turned pharmaceutical businessman. As does your affection for him.
Mesrine
Vincent Cassel tiptoes the line between charming and loathsome in this horribly compelling two-part biopic of French ultrathug Jacques Mesrine. Hobbies: armed robbery, kidnapping, brutal murder… you may be left sceptical of his self-image as a misunderstood Robin Hood figure.
Kill Bill
The lack of anti-heroines in this list has clearly made Beatrix Kiddo angry – Quentin Tarantino has recently been talking up the possibility of a third instalment to her ‘roaring rampage of revenge’. Which is a great excuse to re-watch her tracksuited travails against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which were heavily inspired by the (also excellent) Japanese film Lady Snowblood.
Mark Wilson
Features editor 
