Top 10 Anti Heroes That We Rooted For

If you’re asking us? We credit Amy Dunne with the death of the ‘cool girl’. Thank you for your service, Amy. It’s true that “Gone Girl” sees her do a lot that’s not cool, per say. Faking your own death and trying to frame your husband for your murder? Yeah! It’s not great! But, as with any great antihero, there’s a kernel of truth to Amy’s ideas about the world that we can’t help but latch onto. It also doesn’t hurt that her cheating husband, Nick, has one of the most punchable faces in all of cinema. Sorry Ben Affleck!

When you’re able to deliver a speech with the gravitas of Miranda Priestly, there’s always going to be a little part of us that’s on your side. Miranda in “The Devil Wears Prada” might be one of the worst bosses we could possibly imagine. She belittles Andy, she makes selfish decisions to better her own position, and a lot of the time, she’s just plain mean. But, while the way Miranda operates might be ruthless, we have to admit that the world she works in is just as ruthless. If she didn’t do the cutting down, she would be the one cut down – and she knows that better than anyone. It’s a stiletto-eat-stiletto world out there.

It has to be Samuel L. Jackson’s level of charisma that makes us sympathize with him in “Pulp Fiction”. In Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece, Jackson plays Jules Winnfield, a hitman. Yep, we’ve resorted to sympathizing with a hitman. Stop looking at us like that. Jules views his job and the world around him with so much ambivalence and nihilism, it’s hard not to be a little in awe of his manner. However, as the film goes on, Jules is one of the only main characters who seems to really go through a change. His final scene, which takes place during a pistol showdown in a diner, feels almost biblical in its essence.

She may not be pure of heart enough to be an Avenger but, boy, is she oodles more fun to watch. Yelena Belova made her first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021’s “Black Widow,” and took the movie by storm. She’s not a character who is as interested in redemption as her sister Natasha, and she definitely has less qualms with… er, violence. But actress Florence Pugh plays Yelena with a boatload of humor, balanced against a well of emotion that brings the character a lot of depth. Yelena’s feelings and motivations feel incredibly human, making her easy to root for, even when her actions are not necessarily entirely moral.

She takes a lot of inspiration from Danny Ocean, sure, but, in “Ocean’s Eight,” Sandra Bullock takes what George Clooney started and makes it her own. As Debbie Ocean, Danny’s equally heist-driven sister, Bullock is both charming and sleazy. She’s clearly not a great person – as soon as she gets out of prison, she immediately decides to run another robbery. However, when you’re robbing an event as sophisticated as the Met Gala, you’ve got to have a little glamor to you, and Debbie brings that in spades. She’s extremely easy to like, and hey – if she’s going to commit crimes, at least they’re against the rich.

For this one, when we say antihero, we quite literally mean antihero. Deadpool is a Marvel comics character who, after he’s given mutant abilities by a crazed lunatic, decides to hunt him down. Played by the beloved Ryan Reynolds and coupled with fourth-wall-breaking mania, it’s really difficult not to love this guy, not matter how much profanity and dirty jokes there are. Deadpool doesn’t really want to be a hero – he’s angry, apathetic, and frustrated. As with so many antiheroes, however, sometimes fate has other plans. Alas, our favorite mutant curses and farts his way to herodom.

A sexy cat burglar who toes the line of good and bad? What else could we ask for in an antihero? Catwoman is a beloved DC Comics character, and has been portrayed in many different lights on screen. Sometimes, she’s one of Batman’s most hated villains; sometimes, she’s his love interest, and sometimes, she’s an antihero in her own right. As we get more and more versions of this intriguing character, it’s been delightful to see her growth. Regardless of her moral compass, we can always be sure we’re in for an intriguing character played by a talented actress. And we can’t wait to see where she goes in the future.

If there was ever a movie that almost has us convinced to take the law into our own hands, it’s this one. “Law Abiding Citizen” stars Gerard Butler as Clyde Shelton, a man who watches his wife and daughter die in a home invasion. In the aftermath, Shelton is rendered powerless as the justice system completely fails his family, with the perpetrator of the crime released in just a few years. Understandably, he absolutely breaks down, turning to a life of revenge. What’s wild about this movie is how it’s somehow able to keep up on Shelton’s side despite all the increasingly messed up stuff he does.

When it comes to vigilantism, no one does it better than V. In the film “V for Vendetta,” where the U.K. has been overtaken by fascism, V is a political anarchist who works against the regime. When organized fascism is the enemy, it’s pretty easy to justify one man’s violence – but V’s backstory makes him all the easier to root for. Turns out, he was actually the unwilling subject of biological experiments performed by the government. While most of the people who underwent these experiments died, V mutated, and started going after those who hurt him and others. Are we supposed to blame him for that?

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Black Adam, “Black Adam” (2022)
Back Off, Superman – Black Adam Is Here

John Wick, “John Wick” franchise (2014-)
Don’t Mess with a Man & His Puppy

Harley Quinn, “The Suicide Squad” franchise (2021-)
Margot Robbie Brings This Beloved Antihero to Life

Sophie, “The School for Good and Evil” (2022)
Good or Evil? You Get to Choose

Jim Stark, “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955)
The Blueprint For the Antihero

When it comes to antiheroes, no one walks the line better than Loki. Throughout the run of the MCU, Loki has flip-flopped back and forth between good and evil many a times. In “Thor” and “The Avengers,” he mainly stayed on the evil side of that line. But, as we moved further into the lore of the MCU, we began to learn more about Loki’s tragic backstory, which put a lot of his decisions into perspective. Pair that with Tom Hiddleston’s perpetually outstanding performance, and by the time we got to “Loki,” we had a true blue antihero to root for.