8. Rick Deckard - Blade Runner
This is the first example of where this piece gets tough -- because, Rick Deckard is awesome. A man who won't give up until his task is complete. It doesn't matter that he's constantly getting his ass handed to him -- he perseveres. Rick is a Blade Runner, a man who hunts replicants and "retires" them. He is tasked with hunting down several who have come to Earth in an attempt to prolong their life cycles. Rick struggles throughout the film to get to the bottom of the central mystery and is constantly running headlong into danger. The real star of the film is Rutger Hauer's, Roy Batty, a replicant questioning his very own existence. Roy wants more than a prolonged life cycle, he wants answers. In the end, it is Roy who kills his master, Tyrell, the man behind the creation of the replicants. Rick refuses to give up the chase and engages in one last fight where he is saved from death by Roy. Rick watches as Roy questions their very existence and what it means to live and die. What DOES happen to our memories? It's a heartbreaking, profound scene in one the most revered science fiction films of all time. A scene that leaves us questioning our own existence and exactly why we thought Rick was the hero in the first place. And then, the unicorn.