MTV released its final list of top-ten badasses, which included contributions by me and a lot of other folks.
- Dirty Harry – “Dirty Harry”
- Ellen Ripley – “Alien/Aliens”
- John McClane – “Die Hard”
- Mad Max – “Mad Max”
- Walker – “Point Blank”
- Sarah Connor – “Terminator”
- Pike Bishop – “The Wild Bunch”
- Khan Noonien Singh – “Star Trek”
- Boba Fett – “Star Wars”
- John J. Rambo – “First Blood”
I picked 1.5 of those. I count Dirty Harry as a half, because I chose William Munny in Unforgiven, or “really, any Eastwood character.”
I went out of my way to pick characters others might not, so I’m not surprised I didn’t match up better to the final list. I never really understood the Boba Fett-ishization, and while I like John McClane, “badass” isn’t the primary descriptor I’d assign to him. I’m happy to see Sarah Connor included on the list, however. And it’s strange the degree to which Mad Max has disappeared from my film memory bank.