Who's the most tragic action hero?

Not every action hero has fun.

The one that comes to mind right now is definitely Paul Kersey. I saw Death Wish II last night, and man this man's life is just horrible. First he loses his wife, then his daughter and housekeeper, then his new fiancée leaves him once she realizes he's a murderer. Can it possibly get any worse?

He's definitely not a lucky chappie is he but I guess he could have crapped himself when almost at the checkout in Lidl after having queued for a couple of hours with a basket full of goods. Personally I'd much rather lose a fiancée than go through that experience.

Considering that they made three more sequels after that and they tended to involve his friends and loved ones getting maimed or murdered or otherwise traumatised, then yeah, it definitely does get worse.

First one I thought of was Thor from the MCU. One of the more memorable moments of Infinity War is when he monologues how many people he's lost and how much he's failed despite his heroic exploits (and that's only made worse during the rest of the movie and also during the events of Endgame).

Also, John Wick definitely can't catch a break.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Paul Kersey, my favorite vigilante.

Léon from The Professional. Without question. I mean, he loses his first love tragically, and then falls in love with a kid (which obviously couldn't work). I mean, his life was so lonely that his plant had to become his best friend.

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Art is like a public restroom, we can all gratefully use it to release something, but most people just make a mess and don't respect it. --Night Monkey

Arnie in Predator (1987). He goes into a special ops mission for the military thinking it would be a simple raid where they kill the bad guys and save the hostages, but it ends up being so much more. Carl Weathers reveals that he lied to Arnie about the raid being just a hostage situation they were also there to capture a woman so she can give them information about a terrorist group. Those men they found earlier who died in a helicopter crash? They were sent before Arnie's team but never made it to the camp. Even though our masculine bodybuilder protagonist wants to kick Carl Weather's ass for lying to him he doesn't because he has self-control.

The team leaves the camp and tries to get an evac but it's too hot for any helicopter to come within a few miles of them instead they will have to walk some miles away so it's safe for pickup. Getting away though is not that simple. The Predator kills off the team one by one until there's only Arnie and the girl left. Arnie is able to kill the beast, but by then the damage has been done both physically and emotionally. On the helicopter ride back to base he just stares out the window realizing what has been done to his friends, and his understanding of life.

the movie is french based: it s called "Leon Le professionel"

i m gonna go with John wick, i am gonna go aswell with 1994s action thriller , sly stallone as ray quick, in the 1994 action thriller "The specialist", he s kinda tragic because he had to deal with the bomb going off on the bridge killing that kid in the jeep, had to live with it and his friend s lust for explosions played by James Woods.

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That damn IMDb screws everything up.