25 Greatest Ever Movie Anti-Heroes

By Jack Pooley /

1. Han Solo (Star Wars)

There's no character in cinema who qualifies as perfectly for the anti-hero label, however, as Han Solo. He's shown to be ruthless right off the bat, his profession as a smuggler and his snappy killing of Greedo (in the original "Han shot first" version, anyway) being prime evidence of that. Plus, when he meets up with Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia (Carrie Fisher), he re-iterates that he's only helping them for the money, and leaves ahead of the final battle, his conscience only later causing him to return and save Luke, thereby allowing him to destroy the Death Star. Solo may have lost his edge a little when the love story with Leia kicked off in the sequels, but in the first movie, he was a perfect combination of prickly, hilarious and totally bada**. He had self-interest in his heart all along, but he's also not completely selfish and does the right thing in the end. He's handsome, charming and hilarious, but also frequently sexist, selfish and obnoxious too. An ambiguous mix of personality traits for sure, though his good-heartedness wins out in the end. Who are your favourite movie anti-heroes? Shout them out in the comments!