FRwL

I don't get it, the coolest ones do it for money and gold, greed is possibly the most boring, yet also "safest" sin.

The best Bond villains (Red Grant)
The rogues of Dollars trilogy
LOTR
Han Solo/Indiana Jones
Vito Corleone
Scarface

No one really references the characters that go "I'm going to totally go on this mission, for ass!" or "We have to do this, for pizza." Maybe in a goofy jokey way, but the ones that end up in film books are greedy assholes.

Cardiac161

The ultimate...Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (not the Part 2 though). Even he himself said it: "Greed is good."

PopcornTreeCt

LOTR? That was a power trip not greed.

riotinmyskull

anti-heroes don't usually follow this model.

Jay G.

Both Han Solo and Indiana Jones seem like a stretch.

Han Solo is motivated by money at the beginning of the first Star Wars, but we quickly learn that it's due to owing a debt to Jabba the Hutt. By the end of the movie, helping Luke with the trench run, he's clearly motivated by more than just money (and Leia says as much).

For Indiana Jones, he's only motivated by money in one of the films, Temple of Doom, and again only at the beginning. For the others, he's motivated by historical interest and/or concern over family or friends.


A good example of a greed-motivated character is Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood.

cleaver

The Joker is a great character motivated by anarchy. Magneto is motivated by mutant prosperity. Colonel Nicholson by sense of duty. Colonel Kurtz by God knows what.

Ash Ketchum

Great, widely-quoted heroes not motivated by greed:

Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) FRANKENSTEIN
Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) THE MALTESE FALCON
Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) THE BIG SLEEP
George Bailey (James Stewart) IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) THE SEARCHERS
Yojimbo (Toshiro Mifune) YOJIMBO

obscurelabel

McTeague was possibly the greediest of all.

I saw Oliver! when it first came out (I was in the first grade or so) and Fagin's hoarding of his jewels led to a scene that still disturbs me to this day:

Charlie Goose

Hannibal Lecter also by something other than greed.

islandclaws

The OP is already wrong since no one on that list was played by Kurt Russell, and he plays the greatest characters.

Ash Ketchum

Couldn't one argue that Dexter Riley, Snake Plissken and Wyatt Earp (to name his three greatest characters) were all motivated to some degree by greed?

islandclaws

Go ahead, argue it. I don't see it, though. Plissken wasn't motivated by greed in the least. If anything, his motivation was purely survival.

Solid Snake

pft. Greed. He was greedy to live. That asshole.

Mabuse

Vito Corleone isn't motivated by greed. I think he would have said his motivation was "family"--both his own direct family and the Italian-American immigrant family. And an outsider would say he was motivated by power; the desire to lead his people with him in charge. The Don never seemed concerned with wealth only power and influence.

gp1086

Not necessarily greed, but I would say the greatest characters are generally villains. They're just more interesting and complex. If I was an actor, I feel like I would so much rather play the villain than the protagonist.

whoopdido

Indiana Jones has always been motivated by "Fortune and Glory" Sure, he was interested in the historical aspects of the items he found, but he was also very interested in what the museum would pay for them and for the notoriety he'd receive for finding them. I'm really talking about the first 3 movies. His motivation was helping his friend in the 4th movie.

OldBoy

Darth Vader certainly not influenced by greed.

E Unit

I think Harold and Kumar would argue otherwise. Burgers were enough for them.

Jay G.

The "fortune and glory" was only brought up in Temple of Doom, which was intended as a prequel to Raiders. He's outgrown that sentiment by the end of the film.

In Raiders, the initial artifact he's going after to put in a museum, in contrast to Belloq, who will sell it to the highest bidder. Then he's hired by the US government to track the Ark down before the Nazi's can, and the government tells him that his friend Ravenwood is involved.

In The Last Crusade, the "young Indy" intro has Indy explicitly saying that the item he steals from the other tomb raiders is meant to be in a museum. When recruited to search for the Holy Grail, he turns the job down until he learns that his father went missing. He then takes the job to find his father, and then continues it to keep the Grail from falling into the Nazi's hands.

So in 2 out of the 3 films, he's motivated by more than just "fortune and glory".

inri222

This is true, that is why he wanted nothing to do with the drug business. It was Santino that kept telling the old man that there was lots of money in dope.

PenguinJoe

Bonnie & Clyde were motivated more by celebrity but the money made them celebrity.

Ash Ketchum

In real life, Bonnie & Clyde were so inept as robbers that they only stole a total of a few hundred dollars in their entire (thankfully brief) career. But they killed several innocent people in the course of it.

PenguinJoe

They were real people?

Solid Snake

Yeah add in...Bonnie had a very slow and painful in. They were a pair of dumbasses essentially.

Nick Danger

Three of the greatest villains in movie history were Dracula, T-1000, and Hal 9000. No money there.