Indiana Jones named greatest movie character of all time in new poll
by Ben Child
Indiana Jones has been named the greatest movie character of all time ahead of James Bond, Batman and Han Solo in a new poll.
Harrison Ford, 72, takes two places (Jones and Solo) in the extensive survey of 10,000 film fans for Empire magazine, but there is only one female character, Alien’s Ellen Ripley, in the top 10. Sigourney Weaver’s battling warrant officer lands in fifth ahead of The Joker, Die Hard’s John McClane, Fight Club’s Tyler Durden, Darth Vader and The Dude from the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski.
The poll result comes as something of a shock, given that plans for a new Indiana Jones movie seem to be on the back burner at Disney. The studio bought Lucasfilm for $4.05bn in October 2012, but has moved forward with proposals for a new series of Star Wars movies rather than focusing on the swashbuckling archeologist. New Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy told Vanity Fair in March that a new Indy film would see the light “one day”, but was unable to offer definitive timelines.
“When it will happen, I’m not quite sure,” she said. “We haven’t started working on a script yet, but we are talking about it.”
Some reports have suggested Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World’s Chris Pratt could be in line to pull on Indie’s battered fedora if and when Disney finally moves forward with a new film. Ford would most likely be in his mid 70s by the time a fifth movie hit cinemas, though advanced age has not stopped him returning as Solo in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Pratt has his pick of projects after sci-fi reboot Jurassic World roared to $1bn in a record 14 days earlier this week.
The Empire poll is relatively light on superheroes, with no place for any of Marvel’s cavalcade of box office plundering masked crimefighters in the top 10. Cult figures such as Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden and Jeff Bridges’ The Dude are in many ways surprising entries, though Durden made the No 1 spot in a similar Empire poll from 2008.
1. Indiana Jones
2. James Bond
3. Star Wars’s Han Solo
4. Batman
5. Alien’s Ellen Ripley
6. The Joker
7. Die Hard’s John McClane
8. Fight Club’s Tyler Durden
9. Star Wars’s Darth Vader
10. The Big Lebowski’s The Dude