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Top 10 Lone Wolf Movie Characters

What makes for a memorable movie lone wolf – what are the defining cinematic characteristics?  Are they quiet, bitter, emotionless, focused or perhaps just plain mean?  The one thing they do all have in common is a lone wolf likes to work alone, embodies a sense of isolation and stays firmly in control by doing things their own way.  So while some favorites may not have made the list for one reason or another including the article namesake (Lone Wolf McQuade is cool but not top ten!), iconic turns (Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey did have hope with each new film!) and characters fed up with the status quo (Falling Down’s mayhem minded D-Fens was trying to get home to his estranged family!), the below represents the essence the hard men – or women – who just love the idea of all things alone.  Anti-heroes, fed-up folks, burnt out warriors, revenge seeking psychos and strong women who outmuscle their male counterparts – love them or hate them, agree or disagree these are my….Top 10 Lone Wolf Movie Characters! (In no particular order!)

1. Snake Plissken – Escape From New York

If one character were ever the epitome of the solo spirit it would be Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken.  As the unlikely hero of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York (not counting Escape From LA film fans – sorry!), Plissken was the apathetic tough guy men wanted to be and women just wanted – and the one-eyed bastard couldn’t have cared less.  Interested in nothing, refusing to pick sides and with a palpable distain of any and all authority, he represented someone who though of himself first and others never – call him Snake.

 

2. The Driver – The Driver

Quiet, cold and calculating, Ryan O’Neal’s unnamed character The Driver (the best work of his career!) in the film The Driver proved that it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.  An emotionless skilled driving machine that gets involved with others only when he has too, there’s a closed off look in his eye that seems to say do not disturb.  Working and living alone is not merely a rule – it’s what drives him.

 

3. Inspector Harry Callahan – Dirty Harry/Magnum Force/The Enforcer/Sudden Impact/The Dead Pool

While there are some romances in the life of San Francisco Inspector Harry Callahan over the span of five films, there’s just too much individual angst not to include his bitter character wares on this list.  (Even more than Clint Eastwood’s other iconic character – the wild west Man With No Name!)  A dedicated cop willing to break the rules, lose partners and live the life of a monk all in the name of justice, Dirty Harry gave up everything to get bad guys.  But for Harry even dating seemed futile – he was already married to the job.

 

4. Sergeant Rita Rose Vrataski – Edge of Tomorrow

Yes, Emily Blunt’s no-nonsense Sergeant Rita Rose Vrataski did assist Tom Cruise’s ailing and bumbling blowhard Major William Cage in becoming a kick-ass solider, but before learning of the strategic war advantages she had no problem putting him in harms way by taking his battery pack and leaving him for dead. (Not to mention the many times she killed him just to reset the day!) Mean, lean and herself a true alien killing machine, the notorious Angel of Verdun may lead an army of men, but as an unapologetic warrior woman and lethal lady she simply stands alone.

 

5. Max Rockatansky – The Road Warrior

More so in The Road Warrior than any other Mad Max installment, there’s an almost emotionless feel from lead character and former top Main Force Patrol cop Max Rockatansky.  Now devastated by the loss of his wife, child and fellow police buddies, Max is a man who just wants to drive.  Drive to forget, drive to keep moving, but most of all drive to get away from everyone and everything. His relationships are short lived, his interactions are to the point and all deeds are done in the service of the getting the almighty gas.  The open road may brandish many battles, but for Max the real war is always within.

 

6. Mélanie Prouvost – The Page Turner

Proving that those who feel shunned, humiliated and wronged can still be slyly sophisticated, Déborah François’s revenge seeking piano page-turner Mélanie Prouvost is a young gal who has spent a ton of time alone.  Taking all her loneliness, isolation and failure out on fragile pianist Ariane Fouchécourt whom she feels is responsible for her troubles, Mélanie perfectly fakes all emotions and connections in the name of a little personal payback.  But beware, this beautiful outsider isn’t just a loner – she’s lethal.

 

7. Buddy Revell – Three O’Clock High

The strong silent psychotic type, Richard Tyson’s hard-as-nails Buddy Revell is the kind of guy you don’t want to mess with.  A checkered past, an icy cold attitude and a strong aversion to being touched in any way, shape or form, Buddy may have the best reason for being alone more than any others on this list – everyone’s afraid of him.

 

8. James Cullen aka Driver – Faster

Void of emotion, guilt or even a moment’s hesitancy, the lead character of Faster is a man with a singular solo purpose –revenge.  On a focused post-jail journey to take down all involved in the cold-blooded murder of his brother, Dwayne Johnson’s Driver heads down a dark path of alienating everyone and everything in the name of vengeance.  A place of isolation not merely given – it’s earned.

 

9. Major Eden Sinclair – Doomsday

While there are admittedly a TON of similarities between Rhona Mitra’s badass military maven Major Eden Sinclair via Doomsday and former list selection Snake Plissken (one eye, anyone?!), there are just way too many individual character cools to not give her the nod here.  Chip on her shoulder, eagerness to throw down and the joy that comes with knowing you’re the toughest hombre in the room, the orphaned Sinclair obviously learned from years of solitary to live alone – and liked it.

10. Napoleon Wilson – Assault on Precinct 13

While charismatic, witty and somewhat heroic in a pinch, you get the feeling watching Darwin Joston’s Napoleon Wilson that he’s a guy who would rather be in a dark corner alone somewhere having a smoke.  The silent ringer inside the under siege police station in John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, Wilson is forced to help others to survive, citing a moral code as his reason for doing so, but it nevertheless leaves an interesting question.  Would Wilson go to war if his own life weren’t on the line?  Good or bad, Wilson’s lone mellow man nevertheless has moments.