Can you think of anyone but Harrison Ford playing rakish rogue pilot Han Solo in Star Wars ? Or anyone apart from Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the T-800 in the Terminator movies? Could there be another to play baby-faced amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne but Matt Damon? There are some actors who own a particular character to the extent that the film would not work without them. Here is a look at that perfect synergy between actor and character to make pop culture history.
Tom Cruise/Ethan HuntThis message will self-destruct in a bit. The girls, the mission, the villains, the locations, the tech and the directors have changed, but Tom Cruise remains a constant in this franchise based on a television show. Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt of the Impossible Missions Force who saves the world from horrid crises perpetuated by standard issue megalomaniac villains. With the sixth instalment in the works, there seems no danger of Cruise being disavowed anytime soon.
Robert Downey Jr./ Tony Stark/ Iron ManIn 2008, when Jon Favreau’s Iron Man came out, Robert Downey Jr. seemed an odd choice for the title role. However, two sequels and two Avengers movies later, it is hard to think of anyone who could nail the part of the billionaire playboy eccentric genius better. Downey Jr.’s brilliance early on in his career followed by substance abuse and his millennial renaissance echoes Tony Stark’s arc where he tries to make reparations for the follies of his youth.
Harrison Ford/ Indiana JonesA fedora, a bull whip, crazy Nazis, runaway boulders, priceless relics and a piratical archaeologist adventurer — the Indiana Jones movies define escapist fare. Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a story by George Lucas, the four movies from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) feature Harrison Ford as the globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones, who believes cultural and historical artefacts “belong in a museum.”
The first three movies are set between 1935 and 1938 with Crystal Skull being set in 1957, 19 years after the Last Crusade . Ford fitted the role of the laconic relic hunter to a T.
Sylvester Stallone/ John Rambo, RockyIn 1976, Rocky Balboa picked up his gloves to fight Apollo Creed and six movies later in 2006, the boxer still carries a reminder of every glove that laid him down. Rocky fought his inner demons as well as teeth- gnashing evil Soviets to the tune of Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Sylvester Stallone’s strongman image was cemented through the 80s and 90s with the characters of Rocky and John Rambo. First Blood in 1982 introduced Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran who takes on corrupt government and assorted baddies with his finely honed survival skills.
