is a character really a good character
without a traumatic past this room
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top ten
fictional characters with tragic
backstories it seems in your anger you
killed for this list we’re taking a look
at big screen characters who may seem a
little hard to figure out at first but
once we learn about the events in their
past all of their strange or obsessive
or murderous behavior sort of makes
sense the majority of the backstory must
have occurred prior to the film start
meaning we aren’t counting any character
whose story is fully revealed early on
and only those whose histories are
alluded to or expanded upon in their
cinematic journey so that means you
won’t be seeing characters like Maximus
from gladiator on this list father to a
murdered son
husband to a murdered wife and I will
have my vengeance in this life or the
next
number 10 man and boy the road the roads
are people by refugees – in carts and
gangs carrying weapons looking for fuel
and food the fact that this is a
post-apocalyptic movie should be clue
one that some less-than-stellar events
took place in these characters past
house we grew up you know like in
Apocalypse based on the book of the same
name the road follows an unnamed man and
his son as they do what they can to
survive in the wake of a world changing
disaster we have to we will survive this
we are not gonna quit it things are
consistently bleak for the pair as they
make their way through the remains of
the planet and flashbacks reveal that
the man’s wife committed suicide shortly
after giving birth to the boy Turner
raped me and they’re gonna rape your son
and they’re gonna kill us and he does
what makes this even more tragic is
realizing that the kids entire life has
basically just been one near-death
encounter after the other yes yes
just take me with you number nine
Tallahassee Zombieland Columbus you
Tallahassee in this sleeper hit and dark
zombie centered comedy woody harrelson
plays a tough guy from Florida who likes
a solitude as much as he likes his
Twinkies good days
he also misses his puppy a college
student on a journey to locate his
parents soon joins Tallahassee and the
pair is later joined by a couple of
sisters who’ve also managed to survive
hey Tallahassee Wichita why don’t you
take that way little right here where I
get stuck with her during a fireside
chat Tallahassee reveals that the puppy
he’d been referring to earlier in the
movie was actually his toddler
and that his dearly beloved son was
slaughtered by zombies I’ll tell you I
never thought I could love anything like
but just de who was more I just lost my
mind losing a child is devastating
enough on its own but losing a child to
a horde of marauding zombies has to be
the ultimate gut punch
Tallahassee’s face during this all
revealing scene makes his pain all too
apparent take away a man’s son you’ve
truly given him nothing left to lose
number eight Koba dawn of the Planet of
the Apes Gilman what Gilman what this
sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of
the eight reveals a world where humans
are on the verge of extinction we’re all
genetically immune or we would have been
dead a long time ago after a deadly
virus wipes out the majority of mankind
highly intelligent apes have started
developing their own civilization Hey
what wha Apes together so many of the
Apes gained their heightened
intelligence through the same virus that
wiped out the humans including the
film’s main antagonist Koba
cold heartless and with a brutal hatred
of humans this scarred bonobos anger is
directly tied to the years of cruel
experimentation he suffered at the hands
of his captors it would be easy to say
that he has a chip on his shoulder but
those years of torture are more like a
boulder number seven Dom Cobb inception
Oh what are you doing here I thought you
might be missing me clever and complex
this cerebral hit stars Leonardo
DiCaprio as a thief for hire Dom Cobb
who along with his crack team of experts
plucks secrets directly from other
people’s heads if you can steal an idea
from someone’s mind why can’t you plan
one day instead he’s been hired to
perform the pretty tough job of planting
an idea in a target subconscious and
assembles the best and the brightest for
the assignment during a mission to
recover their target from limbo Cobb
reveals that his wife committed suicide
and implicated him in her death so that
he kill himself too
I’m asking you to
it was a romantic gesture gone horribly
wrong as his wife lost sight of reality
after she and Cobb spent too much time
in the dream world oh god damn it
because you sweetheart look at me this
is the reason why he’s a criminal on the
run estranged from his kids and jacking
people’s dreams for a living I’m the old
anything anymore
number six the bride killed bill
actually Bill’s last bullet put me in a
coma the coma I was to Lyon
in this Quentin Tarantino gorefest uma
thurman plays the bride a badass
assassin with an axe to grind and when I
arrived my destination
I am gonna kill
she’s tracking down all of her former
killer colleagues to enact deadly
vengeance the fight scenes are
entertaining and her murderous rampage
is as official as they can get in the
midst of the bloodbath it’s eventually
revealed that her assassin pals attacked
her and left her for dead during her
wedding rehearsal well it’s your money
to make matters worse she was pregnant
with a head assassins child and the
unborn baby was apparently later plucked
from her belly I told her you were
asleep but that one day you’d wake up
needless to say there are a whole host
of reasons
not to piss off an assassin but not
ensuring that they’re completely dead
when you try to murder them isn’t the
wisest of choices
number five Harry Potter the Harry
Potter franchise you’re a wizard Harry
he may just seem like a regular kid
who’s happy to leave his unbearable
family to attend wizard school but he’s
also a boy with a dark past and he has
the scar to prove it Harry Potter his
bangs hide the visual reminder of an
attack on his life when he was just an
infant by a perpetually unhappy evil
wizard named Voldemort I’m going to
destroy him after tonight no one will
ever again question my power Lord
Voldemort who murdered Harry’s parents
was also raised as an orphan and managed
to pay it forward in the most miserable
way imaginable you must be the one to
kill me Severus it is the only way only
then with a Dark Lord trust you
completely
in spite of Harry’s hardships he seems
relatively well-adjusted
unlike he-who-must-not-be-named you’ve
been so brave sweet Hodge number four
Darth Vader the Star Wars franchise I’m
a person my name is Anakin by most
accounts the Sith Lord formerly known as
Anakin Skywalker didn’t live a charmed
life
born and raised in bondage he didn’t get
the carefree childhood you’d expect from
most precocious kids instead he worked
as a slave before earning his freedom
helping out Queen Amidala and witnessed
his mother’s death I wasn’t strong
enough to save you mom
I wasn’t strong enough as it turns out
the Queen becomes the love of his life
but she ends up dying while giving birth
to their children all of this is enough
to send any average person over the edge
throw in his disfigurement in a pool of
lava and it’s all he can do not to blow
up planets left and right number three
Khan Star Trek – the Wrath of Khan ah
it’s not every day that you find
yourself exiled to a distant planet nor
is it every day that your wife gets
killed as a result of an explosion that
you blame on the same dude that exiled
you killed 20 of my people including my
beloved wife in this 80s sci-fi
adventure Ricardo Montalban reprises his
role as Captain Kirk’s long-standing
arch nemesis but this time he’s out for
blood I cannot help but be touched I of
course remember you following his wife’s
death Khan wants revenge on Captain Kirk
for the series of events that led to her
demise
kill a little Connick he devises a grand
plan that involves mind control a bunch
of explosions and a device that can
create planets Khan was definitely a man
who stuck to his goals
number two leonard momento I’m Leonard
Shelby I’m from San Francisco solving a
murder mystery can prove extremely
difficult when you’re suffering from
short-term memory loss I haven’t short
to memory I Know Who I am I know all
about myself I just since my injury I
can’t make new memories in this
oscar-nominated Christopher Nolan film
Guy Pearce stars as Leonard Shelby a man
who’s relying on a series of tattoos and
Polaroids to help him uncover his wife’s
murderer
he’s unable to form new memories so he’s
stuck in a loop of his wife’s attack
while taking photos and getting inked to
leave himself clues to the killer’s
identity killed my wife took away my
good memory he destroyed my ability to
live he links up with a woman and an
undercover officer who may hold the key
to solving the mystery of his wife’s
death wait a minute
is that John gee I don’t think so you
don’t think so you don’t know you didn’t
write it down well I might have fallen
asleep before I did for Christ’s sakes
it’s a brilliant movie with enough
twists and turns to make Leonard’s
backstory the only thing that grounds
the plot look memory can change the
shape of a room it can change the color
of a car and memories can be distorted
they’re just an interpretation they’re
not a record and they’re irrelevant if
you have the facts before we unveil our
top pick here are a few honorable
mentions my name is Inigo Montoya you
killed my father prepare to die
what’s your name Jago then you’re
exactly the word I’m looking for number
one Magneto the x-men franchise oh it’s
not so surprising really as an
antagonist magneto is a man of action
tell me I’m wrong he’s constantly
devising a plan to get back at the
humans who remain distrustful of mutants
good or bad
humans have played their hand now we get
ready to play ours and considering that
the humans seem to constantly also have
plans to eradicate the mutants you can’t
really blame him so much for diplomacy
in fact his hatred of humans isn’t just
a matter of survival
it extends back to his childhood as a
Holocaust survivor he saw his mother
killed before his eyes by a cruel Nazi
scientist
unfortunately you killed my mother in
x-men first class he’s able to avenge
his mother’s death but the damage has
already been done
he may not be a bad guy through and
through even in spite of his painful
childhood but he does have some really
cool superpowers do you agree with our
list I’d like you to know that I agree
with every word you said
what big screen character do you think
has the most tragic backstory will you
look nervous
is it the scars you want to know how I
caught him for more entertaining top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com can I just let myself
forget what you’ve told me
without a traumatic past this room
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
counting down our picks for the top ten
fictional characters with tragic
backstories it seems in your anger you
killed for this list we’re taking a look
at big screen characters who may seem a
little hard to figure out at first but
once we learn about the events in their
past all of their strange or obsessive
or murderous behavior sort of makes
sense the majority of the backstory must
have occurred prior to the film start
meaning we aren’t counting any character
whose story is fully revealed early on
and only those whose histories are
alluded to or expanded upon in their
cinematic journey so that means you
won’t be seeing characters like Maximus
from gladiator on this list father to a
murdered son
husband to a murdered wife and I will
have my vengeance in this life or the
next
number 10 man and boy the road the roads
are people by refugees – in carts and
gangs carrying weapons looking for fuel
and food the fact that this is a
post-apocalyptic movie should be clue
one that some less-than-stellar events
took place in these characters past
house we grew up you know like in
Apocalypse based on the book of the same
name the road follows an unnamed man and
his son as they do what they can to
survive in the wake of a world changing
disaster we have to we will survive this
we are not gonna quit it things are
consistently bleak for the pair as they
make their way through the remains of
the planet and flashbacks reveal that
the man’s wife committed suicide shortly
after giving birth to the boy Turner
raped me and they’re gonna rape your son
and they’re gonna kill us and he does
what makes this even more tragic is
realizing that the kids entire life has
basically just been one near-death
encounter after the other yes yes
just take me with you number nine
Tallahassee Zombieland Columbus you
Tallahassee in this sleeper hit and dark
zombie centered comedy woody harrelson
plays a tough guy from Florida who likes
a solitude as much as he likes his
Twinkies good days
he also misses his puppy a college
student on a journey to locate his
parents soon joins Tallahassee and the
pair is later joined by a couple of
sisters who’ve also managed to survive
hey Tallahassee Wichita why don’t you
take that way little right here where I
get stuck with her during a fireside
chat Tallahassee reveals that the puppy
he’d been referring to earlier in the
movie was actually his toddler
and that his dearly beloved son was
slaughtered by zombies I’ll tell you I
never thought I could love anything like
but just de who was more I just lost my
mind losing a child is devastating
enough on its own but losing a child to
a horde of marauding zombies has to be
the ultimate gut punch
Tallahassee’s face during this all
revealing scene makes his pain all too
apparent take away a man’s son you’ve
truly given him nothing left to lose
number eight Koba dawn of the Planet of
the Apes Gilman what Gilman what this
sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of
the eight reveals a world where humans
are on the verge of extinction we’re all
genetically immune or we would have been
dead a long time ago after a deadly
virus wipes out the majority of mankind
highly intelligent apes have started
developing their own civilization Hey
what wha Apes together so many of the
Apes gained their heightened
intelligence through the same virus that
wiped out the humans including the
film’s main antagonist Koba
cold heartless and with a brutal hatred
of humans this scarred bonobos anger is
directly tied to the years of cruel
experimentation he suffered at the hands
of his captors it would be easy to say
that he has a chip on his shoulder but
those years of torture are more like a
boulder number seven Dom Cobb inception
Oh what are you doing here I thought you
might be missing me clever and complex
this cerebral hit stars Leonardo
DiCaprio as a thief for hire Dom Cobb
who along with his crack team of experts
plucks secrets directly from other
people’s heads if you can steal an idea
from someone’s mind why can’t you plan
one day instead he’s been hired to
perform the pretty tough job of planting
an idea in a target subconscious and
assembles the best and the brightest for
the assignment during a mission to
recover their target from limbo Cobb
reveals that his wife committed suicide
and implicated him in her death so that
he kill himself too
I’m asking you to
it was a romantic gesture gone horribly
wrong as his wife lost sight of reality
after she and Cobb spent too much time
in the dream world oh god damn it
because you sweetheart look at me this
is the reason why he’s a criminal on the
run estranged from his kids and jacking
people’s dreams for a living I’m the old
anything anymore
number six the bride killed bill
actually Bill’s last bullet put me in a
coma the coma I was to Lyon
in this Quentin Tarantino gorefest uma
thurman plays the bride a badass
assassin with an axe to grind and when I
arrived my destination
I am gonna kill
she’s tracking down all of her former
killer colleagues to enact deadly
vengeance the fight scenes are
entertaining and her murderous rampage
is as official as they can get in the
midst of the bloodbath it’s eventually
revealed that her assassin pals attacked
her and left her for dead during her
wedding rehearsal well it’s your money
to make matters worse she was pregnant
with a head assassins child and the
unborn baby was apparently later plucked
from her belly I told her you were
asleep but that one day you’d wake up
needless to say there are a whole host
of reasons
not to piss off an assassin but not
ensuring that they’re completely dead
when you try to murder them isn’t the
wisest of choices
number five Harry Potter the Harry
Potter franchise you’re a wizard Harry
he may just seem like a regular kid
who’s happy to leave his unbearable
family to attend wizard school but he’s
also a boy with a dark past and he has
the scar to prove it Harry Potter his
bangs hide the visual reminder of an
attack on his life when he was just an
infant by a perpetually unhappy evil
wizard named Voldemort I’m going to
destroy him after tonight no one will
ever again question my power Lord
Voldemort who murdered Harry’s parents
was also raised as an orphan and managed
to pay it forward in the most miserable
way imaginable you must be the one to
kill me Severus it is the only way only
then with a Dark Lord trust you
completely
in spite of Harry’s hardships he seems
relatively well-adjusted
unlike he-who-must-not-be-named you’ve
been so brave sweet Hodge number four
Darth Vader the Star Wars franchise I’m
a person my name is Anakin by most
accounts the Sith Lord formerly known as
Anakin Skywalker didn’t live a charmed
life
born and raised in bondage he didn’t get
the carefree childhood you’d expect from
most precocious kids instead he worked
as a slave before earning his freedom
helping out Queen Amidala and witnessed
his mother’s death I wasn’t strong
enough to save you mom
I wasn’t strong enough as it turns out
the Queen becomes the love of his life
but she ends up dying while giving birth
to their children all of this is enough
to send any average person over the edge
throw in his disfigurement in a pool of
lava and it’s all he can do not to blow
up planets left and right number three
Khan Star Trek – the Wrath of Khan ah
it’s not every day that you find
yourself exiled to a distant planet nor
is it every day that your wife gets
killed as a result of an explosion that
you blame on the same dude that exiled
you killed 20 of my people including my
beloved wife in this 80s sci-fi
adventure Ricardo Montalban reprises his
role as Captain Kirk’s long-standing
arch nemesis but this time he’s out for
blood I cannot help but be touched I of
course remember you following his wife’s
death Khan wants revenge on Captain Kirk
for the series of events that led to her
demise
kill a little Connick he devises a grand
plan that involves mind control a bunch
of explosions and a device that can
create planets Khan was definitely a man
who stuck to his goals
number two leonard momento I’m Leonard
Shelby I’m from San Francisco solving a
murder mystery can prove extremely
difficult when you’re suffering from
short-term memory loss I haven’t short
to memory I Know Who I am I know all
about myself I just since my injury I
can’t make new memories in this
oscar-nominated Christopher Nolan film
Guy Pearce stars as Leonard Shelby a man
who’s relying on a series of tattoos and
Polaroids to help him uncover his wife’s
murderer
he’s unable to form new memories so he’s
stuck in a loop of his wife’s attack
while taking photos and getting inked to
leave himself clues to the killer’s
identity killed my wife took away my
good memory he destroyed my ability to
live he links up with a woman and an
undercover officer who may hold the key
to solving the mystery of his wife’s
death wait a minute
is that John gee I don’t think so you
don’t think so you don’t know you didn’t
write it down well I might have fallen
asleep before I did for Christ’s sakes
it’s a brilliant movie with enough
twists and turns to make Leonard’s
backstory the only thing that grounds
the plot look memory can change the
shape of a room it can change the color
of a car and memories can be distorted
they’re just an interpretation they’re
not a record and they’re irrelevant if
you have the facts before we unveil our
top pick here are a few honorable
mentions my name is Inigo Montoya you
killed my father prepare to die
what’s your name Jago then you’re
exactly the word I’m looking for number
one Magneto the x-men franchise oh it’s
not so surprising really as an
antagonist magneto is a man of action
tell me I’m wrong he’s constantly
devising a plan to get back at the
humans who remain distrustful of mutants
good or bad
humans have played their hand now we get
ready to play ours and considering that
the humans seem to constantly also have
plans to eradicate the mutants you can’t
really blame him so much for diplomacy
in fact his hatred of humans isn’t just
a matter of survival
it extends back to his childhood as a
Holocaust survivor he saw his mother
killed before his eyes by a cruel Nazi
scientist
unfortunately you killed my mother in
x-men first class he’s able to avenge
his mother’s death but the damage has
already been done
he may not be a bad guy through and
through even in spite of his painful
childhood but he does have some really
cool superpowers do you agree with our
list I’d like you to know that I agree
with every word you said
what big screen character do you think
has the most tragic backstory will you
look nervous
is it the scars you want to know how I
caught him for more entertaining top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com can I just let myself
forget what you’ve told me
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