25 Greatest Ever Movie Anti-Heroes

4. Max Rockatansky (Mad Max)

Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson, Tom Hardy) is a skilled fighter and extremely impressive driver, though most of his violent interactions throughout the Mad Max movies are spurred on by chance rather than any real sense of heroic duty. In the first movie, he avengers his fallen family, but in all the sequels, he's essentially an aimless drifter who gets swept up into a chaotic war zone and finds a way to use his combat skills for good. He's a great anti-hero because he defies so many traits of a squeaky clean hero: he looks incredibly rough as the movies progress, he's got an unassuming, often stoic personality, and he's not above being ruthlessly violent to achieve his goals. In a wasteland as cruel as that depicted in these movies, though, a clean-cut hero just wouldn't survive, so this is really the only way. Plus, compared to the gimp-suit wearing maniacs that populate the desert, Max looks totally normal. Max is essentially a mythic figure throughout the Mad Max films, and though word of his heroism has spread far and wide, everyone also knows that he's a walking enigma, destined to drift from place to place forever more.