11 - R. J. MacReady

Played by: Kurt Russell

Film(s): The Thing (1982)

Snake Plissken has the patch and the flash, but R.J. MacReady is the greatest product of the fruitful friendship between John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. A cynic and budding drunk, MacReady, an outsider in the camp who lives apart from the rest of the men, comes into his own when the shit starts assailing the fan. Effortlessly cool (and sometimes cold), Mac is a wonderful character: smart enough to come up with the blood test theory, dumb enough to mistake Norwegians for "crazy Swedes" and noble enough to sacrifice himself, and his colleagues, for the rest of mankind. And even then, he goes out on his own terms, swigging Scotch straight from the bottle while the camp burns all around him.