A Few Good Men (1992)
The Soldier: Colonel Nathan Jessep
Up Against: The court of law, which has accused him and his Marines of murder.
The Awesome: “You can’t handle the truth!” If nothing else, Jessep deserves a massive medal for unloading one of the most quotable lines of cinema history. No, we never see him fighting, but he’s still a skin-like-steel Colonel who’s as scary as he is enigmatic.
Fort Apache (1948)
The Soldier: Captain Kirby York
Up Against: The arrogant, power-hungry Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday.
The Awesome: When York is overlooked for the position of commander at Fort Apache, losing out to Thursday, he doesn’t flounce around and moan. Instead, he carefully discounts every one of Thursday’s actions by exposing the young Lieutenant as the showman he is. Finally, York deservedly becomes the rightful Lieutenant of Fort Apache. Awesome.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Soldier: Animal Mother
Up Against: The Vietnamese. Again.
The Awesome: First, what a name. There’s not a single soldier on this list who can trump Animal Mother when it comes to a blow-your-mind moniker. Second, what a soldier. Purposeful and proficient, Mother’s a dab hand with an M-60, and ain't afraid to use it. We want to be him.
The Terminator (1984)
The Soldier: Kyle Reese
Up Against: The future, for all intents and purposes. A killer robot’s been sent back in time to eradicate the future salvation of man, but Reese will do everything in his power to stop it.
The Awesome: It takes balls of steel to face off against a near indestructible machine literally built for killing, but Reese is no coward. Plus, the fact that he inadvertently spawns the aforementioned salvation of man shows he’s a hero right down to his DNA coding.
Black Hawk Down (2001)
The Soldier: Hoot
Up Against: A Somalian warlord and his lieutenants.
The Awesome: Some soldiers love to fight. Others simply see it as a necessity. Hoot falls into the second camp of thinking, recognising that war is a horror that shouldn’t be celebrated. But that doesn’t stop him popping caps in his enemies’ skulls while simultaneously getting verbose about the war. A thinking man’s hero.
Predator (1987)
The Soldier: Dutch
Up Against: An intergalactic visitor who’s hunting soldiers for sport – and skinning the ones he manages to capture.
The Awesome: Aside from having the coolest accent this side of Rambo (we’ll get to him), Dutch matches his muscle mass with surprisingly keen survival skills. Realising that it’ll take more than just guns and, well guns to stop the Predator, Dutch hatches genius ways to catch his foe off-guard (see mud-lathering and tree-traps).
The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006)
The Soldier: Damien
Up Against: The British, the looting bastards.
The Awesome: Damien’s anti-war at heart, but when he witnesses unthinkable acts of violence and injustice, he’s forced to join his brother in a resistance group against the British. The fact that this leads to Damien having to fight his own brother only acts to signal the great tragedy of war.
Starship Troopers (1997)
The Soldier: Sgt. Rasczak
Up Against: Big, gross, hulking space bugs. Ick.
The Awesome: Deep gravelly voice, no-bullshit attitude and a swagger to make even John Wayne pink with shame, Rasczak lives for the battlefield. He’s only alive when he’s fighting giant nasties – and when he’s doing it, heck just watch him go.
Platoon (1986)
The Soldier: Sgt. Barnes
Up Against: Uh, yeah, Vietnam again. These guys just love fighting the Vietnamese.
The Awesome: Nobody ever said being a soldier was easy, which perhaps accounts for Barnes’ view on war. His experiences out on the battlefield have affected him to such a degree that he now thinks of everybody as the enemy, and will deal out his bloody version of justice accordingly. He’s sick in the head, but you wouldn’t want him on the other team.
Rambo (1982-2008)
The Soldier: John Rambo
Up Against: Numerous foes over the years, among them Washington sheriffs, a sadistic Vietnamese captain and Afghans.
The Awesome: When there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Well, Rambo, because he’s the only one with the guts to tackle whatever it is that’s making your life hell.
A resourceful Vietnam vet, Rambo’s hired to do the jobs nobody else wants to, and uses everything at his disposal to make sure that job lands in the ‘completed’ file. He also has a really cool bandana.
