25 Greatest Ever Movie Anti-Heroes

6. William Munny (Unforgiven)

At the start of Unforgiven, William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a former killer who has since taken up pig farming, is raising his two kids and long turned his back on a violent past. However, with his farm failing to keep him financially afloat, Munny decides to take on one last job, to kill two cowboys who disfigured a prostitute's face. During the mission, Munny's old friend Logan (Morgan Freeman) is tortured and killed by sheriff Bill Daggett's (Gene Hackman) men, while Munny's other partner, the Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett) finds that he has no stomach for murder. It then falls to Munny to chug some whiskey and kick some a**, reverting to his prior life of violence temporarily to slaughter Daggett's men and then finally Daggett himself. He then leaves town and appears to live out the rest of his days peacefully. Munny's a classic reluctant hero, brought back to violence first out of necessity and then for the sake of vengeance, and though this is clearly an ugly side of the character, he brings Daggett's cruel reign to an end for the greater good. Still, the fact that Munny still has that unpleasant facet of his personality, and that he simply chooses not to unleash it, is what puts the "anti" in anti-hero. Given the implication throughout the film that he carried out some deeply heinous acts in his younger days, Munny's heroic bloodshed at the end of the movie is also redemptive to a degree.