Even when the world is against them, even when they look at each other and say, "We are all we've got", there are some bands of brothers (and sisters) you can still trust to make it through. However overwhelming the odds or terrifying the opposition, these movie crews, mobs and fellowships always have one another's backs. With the launch of the latest Call of Duty incarnation, Ghosts, we took a look at the very coolest, hardest and funniest squads in film history to profile what makes them tick...
Call of Duty: Ghosts is out on November 5th this year and is available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PC and Wii U.
ABOUT THE CREW
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Dolph Lundgren’s Gunnar Jensen, who brings some occasionally much-needed levity to proceedings as the drug-addled, alcohol-befuddled, betrayal-prone, combat-stressed and generally nuts team sniper. He gets bonus points for poking fun at himself: Lundgren’s own degree in chemical engineering is added to Jensen’s character for laughs.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
This gunfight aboard a boat, where their victory over their opponents is so assured that leads Ross and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) take a moment out to bicker over who shoots whom.
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Chris Evans' Captain America, the strong and steady heart of the team. Amid egotists and maladjusts, he's the one who keeps them all focused on the bigger picture and who has enough moral authority to give orders even to Hulk. Respect.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
It's the entire Battle of New York, a small clip of which you can see below. That's when the team finally puts their differences aside and struts their stuff. Teamwork: it's great - although Hulk may still have some learning to do on that score.
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Mifune's hot-headed Kikuchiyo, source of many of the movie's most comedic moments and - spoiler! - arguably its most heartbreaking too.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
As with so many of these movies, the final battle, in which the stakes are high, the group suffers real losses, and yet struggles manfully on.
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Jim Carter's Deja vu, a Frenchman more clueless than Clouseau. From his opening words to Kilmer - "have we not met before?" - he's a one-man case of comedic TNT, enlivening every scene with his doltishness and penchant for surreal non-sequiturs.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The Nazi attack on the Resistance's headquarters at the Potato Farm, home of M. Albert Potato. Featuring, in no particular order, a chorus line dance routine, a game of noughts and crosses played with bullets, and the funniest high-five in cinema history, it's a couple of minutes of demented genius.
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Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) recruits eight Jewish-American soldiers to drop behind enemy lines, dressed as civilians, to kill Nazis and mutilate their bodies. His plan is to slaughter as many as possible, scalp them (one hundred per person, specifically), and leave the bodies as testament to the treatment that Nazis deserve. It's not a bad plan: it should put the willies up the occupying Germans ahead of D-Day and it has the merit of simplicity. And everyone hates Nazis, so the Basterds can be sure of popular support.
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Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz, the "Bear Jew", who beats Nazi prisoners to death with a baseball bat in order to get them to divulge, well, the location of more Nazis for him to beat to death. But we're sure he's a delight at a peacetime dinner party.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
While there are many great moments of the Basterds in action, their defining moment has to be the speech that explicitly sets out their mission, tactics and objective - if only for the way that Pitt pronounces the word "Nazi".
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Garland Greene, the seemingly ordinary celebrity serial killer, played by Buscemi with detached amusement. A world-class nut who gets the best lines, yet the film not only paints him in a sympathetic light, but it lets him roam free at the end. In Vegas...
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The standoff with the cops in the desert airstrip, in which every bad man gets his moment to shine.
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Many have tried to single out one of the Three Amigos! for praise. All have failed. The perfect trio, they complement each other perfectly and each get superb stand-out moments. We couldn't choose a favourite anymore than we could turn down a duet with the Singing Bush.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The My Little Buttercup routine in the Cantina, where Messrs. Nederlander, Bottoms and Day encourage the clientele to join in their jaunty little ditty, completely oblivious to the fact that the locals, for circumstances too complex to go into here, think they're hardcore killers and are, to put it mildly, bricking it.
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Do you even have to ask? Uma Thurman's The Bride, the doyenne of destruction. You can bury her, you can shoot her, you can stab her and blast her with rock salt, but you just can't kill her.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
Sadly, we don't really get to see the D.i.V.A.S in action as a group in Tarantino's revenge thriller, but many tales are told of their legend. The closest we come is when Fox, Hannah and Liu - oh, and Madsen - pay a visit to their former colleague, Beatrix Kiddo's wedding and come bearing gifts of the high-velocity kind.
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Wolverine is the focus, of course, but we're going to plump for Paddy Stewart's kindly, benign and hyper-intelligent Professor X - a character so powerful that each X-Men film found an excuse to take him out of the action early doors. It's just a shame he never found the opportunity to shout, 'To me, my X-Men!' at any point.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
That Statue of Liberty finale, when Jean Grey holds Wolvie in the air, while Storm whips up a wind to lift him towards Magneto, and then Cyclops zaps the mutant baddie from a distance as Wolverine slices his machine to bits. Now that's teamwork.
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John Cassavetes' Victor Franko, an anti-authoritarian livewire (much like Cassavetes himself) who manages to stand out even in this company, and become somewhat redeemed and something of a team player. When he buys the farm while celebrating victory, it's achingly sad.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The war-game run-through, when the denigrated Dozen come together to beat their regular soldier rivals and rub it in the face of snippy, snooty Colonel, Robert Ryan.
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Byrne's beleaguered ex-cop Dean Keaton, a good man trying to live a good life, but brought down by circumstance and conspiracy. Oh, and he's a red herring so big and red that Byrne himself thought he was Keyser Soze right up until seeing the movie for the first time.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The iconic line-up, where the whole bunch, hardened criminals all, are forced to step forward and read the line 'hand me the keys you fucking cocksuker.' Despite the seriousness of the charges and the threat of incarceration, not one of them can keep a straight face.
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We've got a soft spot for Sutherland's big, bearded Doc, dispenser of wisdom, lead justice and terrible poetry.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
Billy's reaction to the death of his friend Alex during the final battle, when he comes back into the heart of danger to off the bad guy, Murphy - decisive and deadly, not to mention risky, it bears all the unshakeable confidence of a young gun who thinks he can never die.
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Swayze's, a born leader who manages to restore the frightened rag-tag bunch to something approaching sanity. And he even has time to follow the last request of his imprisoned father, Harry Dean Stanton: "Avenge meeeee!"
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
They're outgunned, outmanned, and they've even been betrayed. But that doesn't stop the Wolverines from giving it a damn good go when the Russians come to town for the climactic battle.
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Brynner's Chris, as striking as his bald head, and as commanding as they come. You'd have to be to outrank Steve McQueen.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
When the Seven: apart from Dexter, setting up that last-minute return - decide to go in and fight against the Mexican bandit, despite overwhelming odds.
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The immensely thick, but lovable Brick Tamland, whose every barmy utterance is pure comic gold. Note how he's the only one who stays loyal to Ron during his Jerry Garcia phase.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The perfectly executed leap of joy when Ron suggests they go shopping for new suits. Every group of friends should be able to feel this bliss.
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Connery's Malone. There's no mystery why this was the role that bagged the former 007 his only Oscar. Malone is a no-nonsense, charismatic real man, who doesn't suffer fools gladly, shoots first and dispenses wisdom like a foul-mouthed Yoda.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The first real act of teamwork from the gang, as they mount an unannounced raid on a Chicago booze factory, their act of courage in the face of corruption earning them the Untouchable sobriquet.
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It can't be anyone other than De Niro's McCauley, the ice-cool thief who is brought down by a fatal inability to adhere to his own rules.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The precision-timed bank heist, in which Dennis Haysbert briefly replaces the betrayed Trejo as the getaway driver, and the resulting street-set shoot-out, still one of the finest of all time.
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The brooding, charismatic, perfectly coiffed and utterly magnificent Hans Gruber, the daddy of the bunch, and a criminal mastermind who, refreshingly, likes to get his hands dirty.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The brutal efficiency of the group's takeover of Nakatomi Plaza, sliding into the office party almost unnoticed.
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Brad Pitt's Rusty Ryan. OK, so it's Ocean's Eleven, but Rusty is the brains behind the organization, and so impacably cool that he makes liquid nitrogen look like hot coffee.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
Because there are very few scenes with all Eleven together at any one time, we're going for the beautiful moment where, post-heist, the gang watch the fountains erupt at the Bellagio before melting away into the night.
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Kirk - bold, charismatic, swaggering and the glue that held the Enterprise crew together. Here was a man that, you sensed, his colleagues would follow into Hell, if that's where their five-year voyage boldly took them.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
Spock's funeral in The Wrath Of Khan. Inarguably The Shat's finest acting moment, but the grief etched on the faces of Spock's crewmates showed the esteem in which the Vulcan was held and, by extension, the closeness of the colleagues.
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Astin, Brolin, Feldman and Quan all remained in the film business. Only Jeff Cohen got out, but his Chunk is the heart and stomach of The Goonies, if only for the Truffle Shuffle.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The superb opening credits, where a car chase introduces us, one by one, to the Goonies as they each show off their particular characteristics.
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So many contenders here, but we’re going to avoid the obvious and suggest Sam Gamgee, who does all the cooking on their long trek and who provides the heart of the mission. He is the one who keeps his eye firmly on the prize, which is getting Frodo safely to Mordor no matter what the odds.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
Gandalf gives his life for the rest in the Mines of Moria, faced with the mighty Balrog, in an unforgettable scene. After one of the great defiant speeches he cracks the bridge before the Balrog, but is dragged into the pit after it. His last words, “Fly, you fools!” show that his thoughts remain with his companions, who are shattered by his loss.
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Bill Paxton's Pvt. William Hudson, whose wisecracking exterior hides a scared shitless, little boy lost interior. He also gets all the best lines.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
When the crew wakes up on the Sulaco, and instantly falls into a well-worn routine of crabby, testing banter.
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Michael Madsen's wild card, Mr. Blonde, an unpredictable and softly-spoken psycho who's bad news from the moment he enters, sucking on a shake, until the moment he exits, chest torn to ribbons with bullets after his impromptu ear-slicing dance.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The title sequence, in which each member is introduced in ultra-cool slo-mo, while Little Green Bag blares out on the soundtrack.
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Although Arnie's Dutch dominates the group, it's Sonny Landham's Billy, the Native American tracker who intimates from the off that the group is not long for this world, who really stands out. Built like the proverbial brick shithouse, on set, Landham was such a loose cannon that the production had to hire security guards to protect his castmates. Now that's an MVP in our book.
THEIR DEFINING MOMENT
The orgy of destruction as the gang decimate mother nature with their enormous arsenal. All in an impotent rage at the sudden demise of their good buddy, Blaine. Next time you watch this, never forget: real jungle, folks, being really blown to shit.
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