10 Movie Heroes Who Were Secretly Just Awful

Let’s forget for a moment that Jaden Smith most recently reprised the role, and focus on the original. Daniel, who moves from New Jersey to sunny California with his mother, isn’t in Cali for long before he bumps into a gorgeous blond girl about his own age.

Of course, Karate Kid isn’t a love story. The boy who believes himself to be the beautiful Cali-girl’s boyfriend, and some of his most post-pubescent friends, corner Daniel and beat him to a pulp for flirting with the apparently untouchable female. Mr Miyagi, a lowly gardener, sees the altercation and uses his almost-supernatural karate abilities to beat up a group of school boys, saving Daniel (who promptly becomes his pupil in order to learn how to beat up his fellow peers himself). Daniel then enters the All-Valley Karate Championships after encouragement from Mr Miyagi, and with the agreement that his bullies will stop bullying him until after they’ve fought him at the tournament.

Hours of training montage follow, but really, at the end of the day, Daniel LaRusso’s motivation for learning karate? Trying to get into high school cheerleader (and vivacious blond) Ali Mills’s pants.