"Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else."
If Hans Gruber is the greatest in the line of dastardly, scene-chewing, cold blooded terrorists, then Tyler Durden is the most ingenious character of them all and for that he takes the number one spot. The mastermind behind Fight Club, Tyler Durden transforms into the terrorist leader of anti-materialist and anti-corporate organization called Project Mayhem. Slick, cool and very dangerous, Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances and it's easy to see why Edward Norton's narrator is swayed by his charisma and cause. But number one? Well there are a couple of reasons. As with any great terrorist on this list, the destruction and mayhem Durden's organisation causes is suitably impressive. Until the climax of the film, we assume the project's actions are small in scale but as we watch as several corporate buildings collapse, the Narrator and Helena Bonham Carter's Marla Singer hand in hand, we see just how far Project Mayhem is willing to go. But the best thing about Tyler Durden is his real identity and that reveal acts as one of the best twists in movie history; Norton's Narrator is Tyler Durden. Brad Pitt's persona is a figment of his own mind and the Narrator is the man who has descended from mild mannered, insomniac travelling automobile company employee into a violent and aggressive terrorist out to destroy the capitalist world. Whereas all the other terrorists on this list are defined by their cause alone, Tyler Durden is a whole lot more and that makes his character not just the greatest movie terrorist but an amazing icon of movie history. The Method Behind His Madness To wage war against corporate America. The Degree Of Terror And Destruction He Leaves In His Wake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVof0qj7SOw A whole lot of physical violence, the death of Meat Loaf and the complete obliteration of the city's financial district with most likely hundreds of lives. His sheer force of character The creation of a man driven to madness, Tyler Durden isn't a man, he's an idea...and a very dangerous one at that. So there you have it. Ten of the ruthless, diabolical, dangerous men in movie history. Some of them have a cause, others are consumed by greed and out to destroy everything in their path. Good or bad, these are some crazed lunatics that have managed to push our favourite heroes to their very limits. If nothing else, we've learned that the 1990s produced the crème de la crème of movie terrorists. Do you agree with these choices? Are there some of movie terrorists you thought were more deserving of a place on this list. Are you immediately going to raid your DVD collection for a weekend's viewing of Die Hard, Fight Club and Skyfall? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
A writer for Whatculture since May 2013, I also write for TheRichest.com and am the TV editor and writer for Thedigitalfix.com . I wrote two plays for the Greater Manchester Horror Fringe in 2013, the first an adaption of Simon Clark's 'Swallowing A Dirty Seed' and my own original sci-fi horror play 'Centurion', which had an 8/10* review from Starburst magazine! (http://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/eventsupcoming-genre-events/6960-event-review-centurion) I also wrote an episode for online comedy series Supermarket Matters in 2012. I aim to achieve my goal for writing for television (and get my novels published) but in the meantime I'll continue to write about those TV shows I love! Follow me on Twitter @BazGreenland and like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BazGreenlandWriter