10 Most Memorable Hammer-Wielding Movie Characters

It's easy to forget, with hindsight, just how violent Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive actually was. It's mostly remembered for Ryan Gosling's effortlessly cool, taciturn leading performance as the unnamed getaway driver at the centre of the story. For the purposes of this list, though, there's one scene of interest.

After the messy pawn shop robbery that starts the narrative, Gosling's character tracks down gangster Cook at a strip club, armed with a hammer. The driver bashes Cook's hand with the weapon, before interrogating him on the floor of the club, holding the blunt object above his head in order to get the information he needs, after forcing a bullet into Cook's mouth, referring to a "message" he sent to a child in an earlier scene.

Like all of the most compelling hammer-wielding characters in cinema, there's no question as to whether Gosling's driver will go ahead with delivering the beating. If he had not been given the information he wanted, Gosling would certainly have attacked Cook with the same ferocity and brutality with which he later greets a hitman in an elevator. On that occasion, though, his weapon of choice is the boot of his right foot.