Comingsoon.net is taking a look at all the good guys who never feared a beat down. Check out our selections in the gallery below!
With the release of Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw in August of 2019, many critics and fans alike couldn’t stop talking about recently-released contracts for the franchise’s stars that detailed the ways in which they were allowed to be beaten up on-screen. While Vin Diesel and Jason Statham seemed to prefer to tally up their beatings in order to make sure they were never beaten and the fights were we always fair, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seemingly stated he was okay with losing as long as it was balanced out with a win.
It’s a baffling contractual obligation for the filmmakers, to be sure, but it makes sense within the film’s themes of macho masculinity and over-the-top action. However, in the past, there have been many protagonists who wouldn’t have dreamed of such contracts. In decades past—especially the 1980s, it seems—heroes definitely weren’t afraid to take a beating.
tough heroes
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A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
Clint Eastwood is the picture of masculinity for a huge chunk of moviegoers. Even with all the idolization, Eastwood’s character in A Fistful of Dollars is no stranger to a good beating. It’s almost like getting beat up makes the lead more sympathetic, more heroic?
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Batman (1989)
We’ve barely touched on superheroes here, but there’s one who definitely seems to take more punches than any other (and he’s not even technically a super). Batman has gotten the life beaten out of him on more than one occasion, with all kinds of broken bones and scars only fueling his vigilante status.
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Blade Runner (1982)
Harrison Ford might be the coolest protagonist simply for his ability to appear twice on this list. Rick Deckard, Ford’s character in Blade Runner, gets it almost as bad as Indy himself.
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Die Hard (1988)
John McClane is a hero of a completely different breed, plain and simple. It’s hard to believe someone who seems so tough actually cried on-screen, went through all kinds of brutality to save lives, and still managed to come across looking harder than most action heroes.
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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Most of Shane Black’s heroes fit this description, but perhaps none fit as well as Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Not only does he take quite a rough beating, but he wears his cuts and bruises on his sleeve for the duration of the film.
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Oldboy (2003)
Park Chan-wook’s filmography completely changed the way the world looked at South Korean filmmaking. One of his earliest hits, Oldboy, showcases a lead who can’t seem to stop getting pummeled. He loses practically everything over the course of the film’s two hours, but never seems like any less of a force to be reckoned with.
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Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones might be the most definitive example of a hero who could take quite a few hits without ever seeming like a wimp. There’s no counting how many times Indy was beaten within inches of his life, but he never lost that heroic appeal that kept fans coming back for four films.
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Rocky II (1979)
Sylvester Stallone is a close second to Clint Eastwood when it comes to poster children of masculinity. His most famous character, Rocky, absorbs punch after punch to the point of brain damage throughout the saga of Rocky Balboa—especially in Rocky II.
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Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Luke Skywalker remains the greatest hero the galaxy has ever seen, despite getting knocked down on multiple occasions by his own dad. He even lost a hand, for crying out loud. It’s unlikely you’ll see any Fast and Furious stars going through any of the brutality Luke’s faced.
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The Karate Kid (1984)
No one has ever done—or could ever do—what Daniel LaRusso does in The Karate Kid. Winning a fight with a broken foot? Are you kidding? It’s wild.
