10 Utterly Bad-Ass Movie Characters Who Ruled 2013

9. Luke Glanton €“ The Place Beyond The Pines

Before Nicolas Winding Refn got his claws back into Ryan Gosling and tried to shove his misguided, imaged mythology down everyone's throat in the posturing, and downright unforgivably bad Only God Forgives, the decidedly unloquacious actor furthered his cult appeal in Derek Cianfrance's cool crime drama. Following his performance as a stunt car driver, the natural progression was always going to be for Gosling to try his hand at something with a little more depth, so Cianfrance cast him as a motorcycle stuntman €“ arguably the two coolest words ever to sit side-by-side in film history. But this was no Evel Knievel love-in €“ Glanton is a complex character, locked in a criminal world by good intentions, who meets his end inauspiciously, and fittingly becomes the centre of a plot for vengeance. But none of that is before he proves himself not only hugely charismatic, and a bad-ass of the famous Without A Cause school, but also willing to give up everything that makes his life cool for the sake of his son. In other words, he's a damn good guy.