If Breaking Bad taught us one thing, it's that being the 'bad guy' is fun - it gets you where you want to be. The path Walter White followed into anti-hero folklore is one many people could relate to, so much we forgave his darker deeds time and time again. No we didn't, because Heisenberg proves that being the bad guy isn't always the same as being the unlikeable guy. Looking towards film, we'll examine the very best anti-heroes and cinema baddies. Whether it is because of their on-screen persona; their work ethos; superpowers and more, these are the characters we refuse to hate - even when their actions teeter on the inexcusable. Why do we love them so much? Is it because we secretly want to be the bad guy? Or the cool guy? Do we want to abandon the monotony of our everyday existence and take what we desire? You can be the nega-Walter Mitty; dreaming of a world filled with greed and lust, with you as the king atop the pile. These films, stretching from the old to the new, walk the line between what it means to be good and bad? No doubt, the characters are despicably evil and a far cry from their audience's life-choices (unless it's an audience of hitmen, thieves and psychopaths), but they warp our consciousness and outlook for the two-hours or so they linger on the screen; tempting the viewer to drop everything and pursue a line of work with a blurred moral code. It would be easy to list a tonne of antagonists who were 'cool', in fact we'd probably be here all day if that was the case. Where is the fun in that? Instead, we'll be looking at movies centred round an anti-hero; a character we shouldn't root for, but we do nonetheless. Therefore the likes of Khan and The Joker won't be appearing on the list, though they did manage to capture our heart and imagination in their respective films.
