Action movies will always be popular because people like heroes. Heroes that walk away from explosions without flinching, dodge bullets, ignore serious injuries, do death defying stunts and witty one-liners along the way. The number one prerequisite of being an action movie character? Toughness (and the ability to generate suspension of disbelief). So let’s count down the most popular and toughest action movie characters.
10. Han Solo
A space smuggler with a lot of charm and a thing for princesses. Along the three original Star Wars movies, Mr. Solo(wittily played by Harrison Ford) escapes Death Stars, space worms and Imperial Destroyers in his hamburger shaped spacecraft, has a couple of shootouts with Storm Troopers, rescues Luke from a frozen death, and gets the girl in the end. Bonus points for a capable, memorable sidekick in Chewbacca (who wouldn’t like a Wookie as a partner?), less so for treacherous old friends (even though Lando eventually joined the rebels).
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Likely to end up frozen in carbonite.
9. Rocky Balboa
The ultimate boxer, the Italian Stallion (Stallone that is) comes out of nowhere and manages to last all 15 round with the champion, and defeats him in the rematch. Couple of movies later and he’s fighting Mr. T, the rock that was Ivan Drago (I honestly believe in an honest match between Stallone and Lundgren at their best would end up with Lundgren over Stallone beaten to a pulp) and his protege in a street match. The man gets a bonus for unorthodox training methods(punching meat in a slaughterhouse? check, using terrain and training in the snowy mountains? check) and stubbornness.
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Likely to come out of retirement at 80 due to brain damage.
8. John McClane
I honestly would’ve placed McClane(Bruce Willis is one of the ultimate action actors) higher, if not for the fact that he’s had a lot of luck over the years (right place, right time? check, arrogant villains? check, help from sidekicks? check). The character that started all the “Die Hard in a…” trend (of which Seagal took advantage to its fullest), his favorite type of villain is always intelligent and overconfident (preferably from Europe). He defeats a gang of bank robbers by himself (with a little help from a cop named Al), and jumps from an exploding building, stops terrorists who’ve taken over an airport, stops another high-profile robbery planned by the brother of his first villain, and finally takes down a hacker, while driving a car into a helicopter and escaping an F-16. Bonus points for witty deliveries and for the Yipee-kay-yay.
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Likely to stop ending up in dangerous situations (besides this guy, only Jack Bauer is more prone to unknowingly end up mixed up in something)
7. Indiana Jones
This one may be surprising, but there’s no putting down Indy(Harrison Ford’s second appearance on the list). Give him a whip, a fedora and a gun in a sword fight and he’s all set. Mostly gets in trouble over artifacts that almost never get to a museum of any sort. Defeats Nazis in Egypt, a religious cult in India, defeats the Nazis again and finds The Holy Grail (the one King Arthur and his knights couldn’t find), survives a nuclear explosion locked in a fridge, defeats the Russians and escapes alien wrath. Bonus points for having James Bond, I mean Sean Connery for a father.
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Likely to retire due to a phobia of snakes.
6. Ellen Ripley
So, need I say this? Survives aliens (“the” aliens) encounters throughout 4 movies. Starts out by blasting one into space while wearing tiny underwear, outlasts marines to kill an alien queen in a exoskeleton, kills herself so as not to become experiment fodder (thus denying the alien in her survival and victory), gets resurrected with a bit of alien DNA mixed into her own (yes, she gets super powers), kills off a human alien hybrid by getting it sucked into space through a tiny hole. Bonus for a killer line delivery – “Get away from her, you bitch!” while manning a mech suit.
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Likely to break down over long lost cat.
5. Mad Max
“Mad” Max Rockatansky(as played by Mel Gibson). Now that’s a name. Due to his family getting brutally killed (always a good origin story), he picks off the gang responsible one by one in his supercharged Pursuit Special (1973 Ford Falcon XB GT coupe), then becomes a wanderer. That doesn’t last for long, as he gets sucked into helping an outpost of humans against raiders lead by Lord Humungus , defeats half of Master Blaster (namely Blaster) in the Thunderdome and clashes with Tina Turner.
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Likely to die due to dehydration due to his antisocial behaviour.
4. Dirty Harry
Now here’s a man’s man. This is not only Dirty Harry, it’s Clint Eastwood (also though of including his “Man with no name” on the list) at his best. Inspector Harry Callahan is a hard man, a tough cop and a gun-toting lunatic at times (” “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?”). With his .44 Magnum, “the most powerful handgun in the world”, he’s the archetype for the lawful cop, held back by bureaucracy, he gets stuck with “every dirty job that comes along.”. He gets extra points for the big gun, and tough guy attitude, enough to get the villains to surrender on its own.
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Likely to get too old for this ****.
3. Snake Plissken
So you’ve got an ex US Special Forces soldier, with 2 Purple Hearts, who turned to a life of crime, being disillusioned by the government. When you’ve got only one eye (double points for the eye patch and for Kurt Russell’s raspy voice), get sent into no win situations in inescapable(popular belief) locations on a daily basis (at least in every movie you make), and you survive, it’s no wonder people keep telling you they thought you were dead. He fights off lunatics, mad doctors, evil terrorists, soldiers, you name it. He survives where no one else would and manages to stay cool and walk away laughing (as a figure of speach).
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Likely to end up poisoned or blown up by the military in yet another of their plans involving him.
2. Rambo
The ultimate killing machine? Almost, that’s reserved for number 1 on our list, but Rambo is as effective as he is tough. According to dialog in the movies, the Green Beret received a Medal of Honor, 2 Silver Stars, 4 Bronze Stars of Valor, 4 Purple Hearts and 1 Distinguished Service Cross – that’s enough for 3 or 4 action hero backgrounds. Fighting off an entire town’s police force (and recruited hillbillies) returning from the war he ends up back in Vietnam, where he rescues a bunch of POWs while gunning down, and hacking off anyone that stands in his way (and there’s plenty of those). After this he retreats to a monastery in Thailand, where he often meditates and participates in violent stick matches, donating his winnings. When his old friend, Col. Trautman gets captured in Afghanistan, he embarks in a mission to save him, while killing Soviets left and right, and driving a tank into a helicopter (take that, McClane!). In the 4th movie, he defeats a whole lot of Burmese soldiers while battling arthritis.
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Likely to die of old age while strangling a couple of enemy soldiers to death at the same time.
1. The Terminator
Here you have it. Though not exactly a hero if you count the 1st movie, this is the true killing machine, built for that purpose only. It helps that he’s mostly metal and that he’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. Blasting away an entire police force, or defeating a superior model (not once, but twice), The Terminator is very much unkillable. It helps that there’s more than one model, and John Connor is always happy to reprogram them. Oh, there’s also a cool motorcycle/truck chase, fending off an entire SWAT team without killing them and while carrying a huge coffin, and also the cool sunglasses.
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Likely to have the highest body count before throwing himself into molten metal.