50 Greatest Movie Teams

Team America – Team America: World Police (2004)

The Team: A team of paramilitary policemen (and women) who are responsible for protecting the world from various forms of evil.

Their headquarters are inside Mount Rushmore.

How awesome is that?

Key Member: Gary Johnston, a new recruit who previously worked on Broadway. The team want him to use his acting skills to infiltrate terrorist organisations.

Greatest Team Work: The team, with new recruit Gary, infiltrate a terrorist meeting in Egypt and manage to capture the terrorists.

Sadly, they also leave Cairo in ruin…

TMNT – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The Team: Heroes in a half-shell! Four human-sized turtles called Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael.

They’re equipped with mad ninja skills.

And love pizza.

Radical.

Key Member: Raphael, who falls into a coma after being thrown through a skylight by The Shredder’s Foot Clan.

Greatest Team Work: The Turtles go up against the Foot Clan in a fight that jumps from the sewers to the city streets to the building rooftops.

Then comes master Splinter, who teaches Shredder a lesson or two.

The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense – Hellboy (2004)

The Team: Exactly what it says on the tin. The BPRD recruit Hellboy (Ron Perlman), who meets scaly psychic Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and pyrokinetic Liz (Selma Blair).

Key Member: Liz, whose burgeoning abilities are both terrifying and important to the plot.

Greatest Team Work: The team take out Kroenen, then infiltrate the monster Sammael’s nest, where Liz uses her (literal) firepower to burn it to a crisp.

Crew of the Orca – Jaws (1975)

The Team: Brody (Roy Schneider), Quint (Robert Shaw) and Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), who are out to kill the tiger shark that’s targeting Amity Island swimmers.

Key Member: Quint – it’s his boat, the Orca, that the trio set out on to nab their fishy menace.

Greatest Team Work: The heart-in-mouth moment when Hooper gets into the ocean inside a shark-proof cage, only for the cage to buckle…

Colour-Code Criminals – Reservoir Dogs (1992)

The Team: Eight criminals, six of whom use colour-coded aliases.

They include Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino) and Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi).

Key Member: Mr Orange.

We couldn’t possibly say why.

Greatest Team Work: The diamond heist, which we never actually see – only the aftermath.

Sure, it’s pretty much entirely cocked up, but they still worked as a team, which is what counts.

Considering this lot argue at length about a concept as basic as tipping, that's pretty impressive.

Studio Six – Argo (2012)

The Team: In order to safely extract six US embassy workers from Tehran, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) and movie bods John Chambers (John Goodman) and Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) set up a fake movie studio as a cover.

Key Member: Mendez – it was his crazy plan to begin with.

Greatest Team Work: The nail-biting finale, when everything comes together – or does it?

The Incredibles – The Incredibles (2004)

The Team: The Parr family, which consists of papa Bob (aka Mr Incredible), mama Helen (aka Elastigirl) and kids Dash, Violet and Jack-Jack.

Key Member: Clearly, Elastigirl is the one responsible for keeping this family from killing each other at every given moment.

That said, Jack-Jack could prove pretty formidable as he comes into his super-powers.

Greatest Team Work: Taking down Syndrome’s evil, galumphing Omnidroid – which requires the whole family (sans a babysat Jack-Jack).

Channel 4 News Team – Anchorman (2004)

The Team: Headed up by Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell).

The team includes field reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champion Kind (David Koechner) and ‘special’ meteorologist Brick Tamland (Steve Carell).

Key Member: New team member Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), who ruins everything by usurping Ron as the channel’s favourite news reader.

Greatest Team Work: The team go head-to-head against four enemy news teams, including the evening news team, the Channel 2 news team and the Spanish language news team.

Fiiiiight!

The Rebel Alliance – Star Wars (1977-1983)

The Team: The coalition formed to rival the evil Republic, as seen through the eyes of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher).

Key Member: At its heart, this is Luke’s story – he goes from innocent farmboy to adept Jedi, and resists joining the Dark Side even after discovering Vader’s his father.

Greatest Team Work: Sure, Leia and Solo are on Endor, while Luke’s with Vader and the Emperor.

Still, their double-pronged attack – paired with the Rebel fleet’s attack on the Death Star – results in happiness and much-deserved partying.

The Magnificent Seven – The Magnificent Seven (1960)

The Team: A bunch of talented gunslingers who’re hired to defend a Mexican village from sinister bandidos.

(The film itself is a US remake of Seven Samurai. )

Key Member: Cowpuncher Britt (James Coburn), who takes everything in his stride.

Also, he’s just a really cool cat.

Greatest Team Work: The Seven (alright, sans Harry, wuss) fight to regain control of the village taken over by Calvera (Eli Wallach).