Skip to main content
Games Radar Newsarama Total Film Edge Retro Gamer SFX
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The smarter take on movies
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows
Don't miss these
Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride
Movies The 32 greatest action movie quotes of all time
Great Gerwig's Booksmart
Movies The 32 greatest high school movies
The robot from Ex Machina
Movies The 32 greatest movies about technology
Keir Dullea in 2001: A Space Odyssey
Movies The 32 greatest sci-fi movie quotes
The 30 best sci-fi movies of all time: pictures of Alien, Arrival, Terminator, Brazil and 2001.
Sci-Fi Movies The 30 best sci-fi movies of all time
Furiosa from Mad Max Fury Road
Movies The 32 greatest female action movie characters of all time
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land
Movies The 32 greatest Los Angeles movies of all time
Stacey Dash and Alicia Silverstone as Dionne and Cher in Clueless
Comedy Movies 30 years after its release, I'm still convinced Clueless is the gold standard for teen movies
Glen Powell in Hit Man
Action Movies Glen Powell says Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy allowed leading men in action movies to be "sillier" and not "brooding" like Christian Bale
The Naked Gun popcorn bucket
Comedy Movies The Naked Gun's wild popcorn bucket is an ingenious throwback gag to one of the original movie's raciest jokes
Upcoming video game movies - Five Nights at Freddy's
Movies Every upcoming video game movie you need to know about
Caesar from the Planet of the Apes reboot
Movies The 32 greatest movie reboots ever made
Superman
DC Movies Every comic book character in Superman, listed in order of appearance in James Gunn's new movie
Frodo in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Movies The 32 greatest movie trilogies of all time
Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four
Marvel Movies New Fantastic Four teaser is hiding a C-list villain 'cameo' – and it confirms they've already been defeated before the events of the movie
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies

15 Unrealistically Cool Movie Geeks

Features
By Simon Kinnear published 27 July 2010

Nerds & know-it-alls who get the girl and save the day

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

Geek Clique: He's a bow tie-wearing professor who gets visibly uncomfortable when girly students flutter their eyelashes at him.

And, even in his spare time, he's still on the job, spending his vacations rooting around for old artefacts.

Why He's Too Cool For School: He's no museum piece. Without exception, those holidays are legendary adventures

And, of course, he's handsomeness personified. Wasn't the pretty student lusting after him enough of a giveaway?

Page 1 of 15
Page 1 of 15
Randall

Randall

Geek Clique: He works in a video shop and spends his days theorising about the Star Wars trilogy. When he's not watching hermaphrodite porn, that is.

Why He's Too Cool For School: His sheer attitude. Randall doesn't give a fuck about anything, which might be a constant source of irritation to fellow Clerk Dante, but an inspiration to the rest of us geeks.

Check out every other Kevin Smith film: Randall's influence pervades the lot.

Page 2 of 15
Page 2 of 15
Thomas A. Anderson

Thomas A. Anderson

Geek Clique: By day, he's an office drone tapping away on a keyboard for an anonymous corporation.

By night, he's a hacker with a silly name (Neo), tapping away on a keyboard out of a vague sense of anti-establishment ennui.

Why He's Too Cool For School: The small matter of being The One, the physics-defying demi-god of the virtual world.

What most geeks wish themselves to be, he is. See also: Kevin Flynn in Tron .

Page 3 of 15
Page 3 of 15
Major Boothroyd (aka Q)

Major Boothroyd (aka Q)

Geek Clique: Locked in the lab, the boffin of blowy-uppy things remained the model of the upper-class English geek for four decades.

Why He's Too Cool For School: There's one hell of a sense of humour implicit in those inventions. A machine gun hidden in a mannequin of a sleeping Mexican? Ay caramba!

But that attitude is matched by Q's willingness to put James Bond in his place. Yes, this geek can out-cool 007.

Page 4 of 15
Page 4 of 15
Will Hunting

Will Hunting

Geek Clique: Although he's a janitor at MIT, secret genius Will likes nothing better than to sneak into classes after hours and correct the mistakes of the students...and the teachers.

Why He's Too Cool For School: In this case, he's literally too cool for school, preferring to hang out with his bros, drink beer and try and pull the college totty.

Better still, his blend of encyclopediac knowledge and street-sense can batter smug smartarses into intellectual submission. How d'ya like them apples?

Page 5 of 15
Page 5 of 15
Peter Parker

Peter Parker

Geek Clique: He lives with his Aunt and Uncle, spends his spare time in dark rooms developing photographs. No wonder real life is a challenge, particularly when laydeez are involved.

Why He's Too Cool For School: After conveniently getting nipped by a radioactive spider, he's also got superhuman agility and web-spinning skills.

We'd have happily lived through those awkward teenage moments if we got to beat up criminals in our spare time.

Page 6 of 15
Page 6 of 15
David Lightman

David Lightman

Geek Clique: Most geeks are easy to avoid, given their preference for staying indoors and mucking about on computers.

Not David, a hacker so bored he'll spend his days pestering the entire neighbourhood just to get details of forthcoming computer games.

Why He's Too Cool For School: As played by cheeky chappie Matthew Broderick, he has enough insouciant charm to get away with his indiscretions.

Which is saying something, when David can bring the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust with a few clicks of the keyboard.

Page 7 of 15
Page 7 of 15
Doc Brown

Doc Brown

Geek Clique: The mad scientist of Hill Valley, people tend to give Emmet Brown a wide berth for his wild wild gesticulations and wild exclamations. Oh, and the hair - yup, that's wild, too.

Why He's Too Cool For School: True, he gets residual cool for hanging out with Marty McFly, but Brown has enough of his own, thanks.

There are few guys around with the balls to turn a sports car into a time machine and rip off Libyan terrorists to get it working.

Page 8 of 15
Page 8 of 15
Spock

Spock

Geek Clique: Logical to the point of pedantry, Vulcan Spock's half-human heritage gives him a mix of alien weirdness and all-too-familiar techy obsession.

Why He's Too Cool For School: Where Kirk's macho thrusting at the galaxy's green-skinned lovelies quickly gets icky, it's Spock's sardonic intonation and raised eyebrows that keep the temperature chilled.

That said, with Zachary Quinto's sexed-up, action-man performance Spock nowadays is even cooler.

Page 9 of 15
Page 9 of 15
David Huxley

David Huxley

Geek Clique: Bringing Up Baby 's bespectacled paleontologist can't organise his own wedding, but he's only an intercostal clavicle away from completing his museum's Brontosaurus skeleton.

Why He's Too Cool For School: Given a little push by carefree force of nature Susan Vance, David is soon hunting leopards and cross-dressing in the hunt for his bone.

The fact he looks like Cary Grant doesn't hurt, either.

Page 10 of 15
Page 10 of 15
Tony Stark

Tony Stark

Geek Clique: He's an inventor, who likes nothing better than to muck around with real-life Robot Wars . However, his weapons cause mass destruction. Not cool , dude.

Why He's Too Cool For School: Real-life inventors look and sound like Bill Gates. The Stark contrast is one of playboy panache and rock-star flair.

Plus, eventually, he sees the error of his ways and gets a Bono-like sense of saving the world. He probably campaigns against WMDs on Twitter.

Page 11 of 15
Page 11 of 15
Kate Libby

Kate Libby

Geek Clique: Just to prove that the boys don't have a monopoly on geekhood, here's a sister who prefers to spend her days on the PC breaking into people's private accounts.

However, those hacking skills don't extend to her haircut, which looks like she did it herself.

Why She's Too Cool For School: Short answer - she's Angelina Jolie.

Anybody else would look stupid calling themselves 'Acid Burn.' With Jolie, the name smoulders.

Page 12 of 15
Page 12 of 15
Chris Wright

Chris Wright

Geek Clique: The shining star of Pacific Tech's elite weapons development unit, Chris knows more about laser technology than is socially acceptable for a man who looks like Val Kilmer.

Why He's Too Cool For School: Like many an undergraduate, Chris is the worm that turned, giving in to the temptations of university.

Here's the geek as mellow dude and - as proved by cult 80s flick Real Genius - his casual karma rubs off on his fellow students.

Page 13 of 15
Page 13 of 15
Richard Wang

Richard Wang

Geek Clique: This schoolboy inventor was always going to get bullied with a name like that, so it's no surprise he gave himself a nickname.

However, only a geek would believe that calling himself 'Data' would be any protection against wedgies.

Why He's Too Cool For School: He's a truly proactive geek, who has applied his knowledge into a way of life.

A one-man mecha army with a gadget for every eventuality, he's as indispensable as a Swiss Army knife.

Page 14 of 15
Page 14 of 15
Scott Pilgrim

Scott Pilgrim

Geek Clique: Perpetually tongue-tied, embarrassed Michael Cera is Hollywood's go-to geek. Here, he's slacker Scott, who just likes hanging out and half-heartedly bashing away on his bass

Why He's Too Cool For School: Some geeks have greatness thrust upon them.

In the forthcoming Scott Pilgrim Vs The World , the love of a good woman sends Scott on a quest to battle her seven Evil Exes...with punch-ups and lightsaber duels. Sounds pretty cool to us.

Page 15 of 15
Page 15 of 15
Simon Kinnear
See more Movies Features
Read more
Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride
The 32 greatest action movie quotes of all time
 
 
Great Gerwig's Booksmart
The 32 greatest high school movies
 
 
The robot from Ex Machina
The 32 greatest movies about technology
 
 
Keir Dullea in 2001: A Space Odyssey
The 32 greatest sci-fi movie quotes
 
 
The 30 best sci-fi movies of all time: pictures of Alien, Arrival, Terminator, Brazil and 2001.
The 30 best sci-fi movies of all time
 
 
Furiosa from Mad Max Fury Road
The 32 greatest female action movie characters of all time
 
 
Latest in Movies
Mark Hamill admits he thought Luke Skywalker returning in The Force Awakens "would be a mistake" at first
 
 
Man of Tomorrow concept art showing Superman and Lex Luthor teaming up superimposed over a group of heroes from the cover of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
Almost 90 years after Superman was first called the Man of Tomorrow, James Gunn is reviving the name for his big sequel
 
 
David Corenswet as Superman
Superman fans are discussing who should play Brainiac in James Gunn's DCU, and they're looking at actors who embody the character's "cold calculating voice" and "alien intelligence"
 
 
Robert Pattinson in The Batman
Clayface Easter egg could be yet another hint at Robert Pattinson in the DCU, and fans are going wild
 
 
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
Downton Abbey helped me through the toughest times, but The Grand Finale feels like the perfect time to wrap things up
 
 
Jackie Chan & Tony Leung Ka-fai
Jackie Chan meets his match in the trailer for a new action thriller that has been leading the Chinese box office for three weeks
 
 
Latest in Features
Pokemon Pokopia screenshot showing Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle all gathered around a Ditto in human form between two green trees
Pokemon Pokopia: everything we know about the Pokemon game that looks a lot like Animal Crossing
 
 
A taurus-shaped robotic figure with flaming innards, against a dark background with rocks visible
Helsmiths of Hashut review: Fear this new Warhammer Age of Sigmar army, because it's gonna kick ass
 
 
A screenshot of the upcoming Switch 2 game, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave with a character using a purple energy blast
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave – Everything we know about the strategy game's Switch 2 debut
 
 
Mario
How well do you know the Super Mario series?
 
 
Hade 2 early access screenshots
After 105 runs in Hades 2, I suddenly unlocked three huge side stories I thought were bugged and I guess I'll be here 'til launch
 
 
Cronos tips
Bloober Team just teased its unannounced Switch-only horror game for maybe the first time since 2024, and my dream of seeing Nintendo get NSFW has been reignited
 
 
  1. Gwent: The Legendary Card Game box on a wooden surface, with cards visible in the background
    1
    There's now a real version of the Witcher Gwent card game, and it's just as engrossing as the original
  2. 2
    Borderlands 4 review: "Undeniably an excellent looter shooter, but one that requires a bit of tunnel vision to fully enjoy"
  3. 3
    This enormous exploration board game won't be for everyone, but it's a masterclass in narrative and sandbox gameplay
  4. 4
    Hollow Knight Silksong review: "Worth the wait and then some, this isn't just more Hollow Knight but an evolved, spindly beast all its own – even if it's fiddly at times"
  5. 5
    Cronos: The New Dawn review: "An unabashed mash-up of survival horror greatest hits, from Dead Space to Silent Hill, with plenty of its own gory ideas"
  1. Vera Farmiga as 'Lorraine' in The Conjuring: Last Rites
    1
    The Conjuring: Last Rites review: "Not bold or memorable enough for the Warrens' final chapter"
  2. 2
    Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review: "Roars past Mugen Train as Demon Slayer's best adventure yet"
  3. 3
    The Long Walk review: "One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made"
  4. 4
    Frankenstein review: "A classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation"
  5. 5
    Weapons review: "A twisted fairytale that bests Barbarian"
  1. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia Addams, Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, Luis Guzman as Gomez Addams, and Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley Addams in Wednesday season 2 part 2
    1
    Wednesday season 2 part 2 review: "Ortega shines, but it's a zombie who steals the entire show"
  2. 2
    Peacemaker season 2 review: "Darker and sadder than the first year, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids."
  3. 3
    Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: "Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots"
  4. 4
    Alien: Earth review: "Arguably the franchise's strongest outing since James Cameron's Aliens"
  5. 5
    King of the Hill season 14 review: "Hank Hill himself has evolved into a much more open and accepting person"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...