8. Jim - 28 Days Later
"What do you mean there's no government? There's always a government, they're in a bunker or a plane somewhere!" Imagine awakening from a coma in an abandoned hospital, only to find the world outside is empty. Imagine the first human you find is blood soaked, angry and wants to take a chunk out of you. That's the world that the unlikely survivor of Danny Boyle's modern zombie masterpiece awakens to. But somehow he adapts to it with ease. Some might call it a plot lenience, pushing his character forward for the sake of advancing the story. I call it an awesome hero. Jim adapts to his new world with ease, fighting off zombies and getting to know Naomie Harris. Score one for the survivor. By the end of the film he goes up a few ranks, taking out morally repugnant soldiers (led by a very creepy pre-Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston) and saving the day, an act that every good hero needs to accomplish at least once. And to top this, he and the other characters were liked by test-audiences so much that an alternate cut which saw him die was removed. Well done to Jim. Not even a director's wrath could kill him off.