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Willie
Hannibal Lecter
The Antihero: The Chianti-guzzling cannibal is the kind of monster you really ought to loathe, and yet somehow, you can’t help wanting to see him sink his teeth into another hapless victim. Not sure what that says about us, really…
Effortless Cool: When does a villain become an anti-hero? Probably about the time you find yourself cheering him on when he’s evading capture by wearing the gnawed-off face of one of his guards!
Alex DeLarge
The Antihero: A violent rapist shouldn’t be an engaging character, and yet Malcolm McDowell’s milk-quaffing sadist is nothing if not beguiling. It’s a worrying combination.
Effortless Cool: It’s all about that unwavering stare, used to brilliant effect in the film’s opening scene.
Jack Carter
The Antihero: A former gangster who sets about blazing a trail of destruction through Newcastle’s underworld in order to avenge his fallen brother. Anyone even vaguely connected with the killing can expect a knock on the door from our Jack…
Effortless Cool: Driving away an assailant from his door with only a shotgun to preserve his modesty. Now that’s what we call cool…
Harry Callahan
The Antihero: He might be one of the boys in blue, but he didn’t get the nickname “dirty” for no reason. He doesn’t play by the rules, if you know what we mean.
Effortless Cool: For someone who spends most of the time growling through his teeth, he certainly has a way with words. So do you feel lucky or don’t you?
Lisbeth Salander
The Antihero: The sexually abused (and sexually abusive) heroine of the Millennium trilogy. Rooney Mara is astounding in David Fincher’s English-language remake.
Effortless Cool: Somehow she manages to appear frightening, sympathetic and sexy all at once. No mean feat.
Michael Corleone
The Antihero: The bright young hope of the Corleone family, who could have been anything he wanted to be, had it not been for his family. Murderous mobster it is, then.
Effortless Cool: Transforming from fresh-faced young man to dead-eyed killer in a matter of minutes, Michael pulls off the restaurant murders with aplomb and never looks back. And he used to be such a nice young man…
Tyler Durden
The Antihero: The anti-consumerist icon of David Fincher’s superbly black satire, Fight Club . Put simply, “all the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.”
Effortless Cool: Brad Pitt distils Tyler’s contemptuous charm into a career-best performance. Never has a red leather jacket looked so awesome.
Withnail
The Antihero: A booze-sodden, self-aggrandising coward without a sincere bone in his body. How we love him.
Effortless Cool: If there were one gesture to perfectly encapsulate the character of Withnail, it would be the self-satisfied smirk with which he responds to Marwood’s fury at having been described to Uncle Monty as a “toilet trader”. The man doesn’t give a solitary fuck about anyone but himself.
Travis Bickle
The Anti-Hero: The ultimate movie antihero, Travis’s heart is in the right place, even if his methods are fairly extreme. Still, in a society this corrupt it takes a man with no boundaries to actually make a difference…
Effortless Cool: The Mohawk aside, it's Travis’ desperation for a better world that really makes him stand out. As the man says himself, “Shit… I’m just waiting for the sun to shine.”
