The Top 10 Best Final Guys
Showing Some Love to Those Elusive Final Guys from Horror Movies.
Updated: October 2020
Fans of horror are all too familiar with the trope of “The Final Girl,” but what about those Final Guys that manage to make it out of the other side of horror films still in one piece? This week, I tackled one of my toughest lists of all time as I pulled together the 10 best Final Guys in horror history. In order to qualify for this list, the character has to be 1) Male 2) Appear in a horror film as a primary character and 3) Survive until the very end. These characters don’t have to “fight back” so long as they survive, but those that do will get extra points for “badassery in the face of danger.” I will also accept characters that die in sequels, so long as they survive at least one movie. That “badassery in the face of danger” applies here too, and those that survive multiple movies will also get bonus points.* I will not be including characters that have had military training or are going into a situation fully prepared for it (For example Corporal Hicks from Aliens, Dutch from Predator or Dr. Loomis from Halloween). That being said, get ready for this list of final guys to show you just how to survive your next encounter with a monster or knife-wielding psycho.
*Please Note: I will not be sharing the point system because 1) I’m bad at math and 2) they look like the random scribblings of a mad man.*
**This list includes some spoilers.**
10. Andy Barclay- The Child’s Play Franchise
Most long-running horror franchises have featured final guys over the years. I’m kicking this list off with a final boy who isn’t quite a man yet. Andy Barclay has gone toe-to-toe with Charles Lee Ray AKA Chucky, one of the scariest dolls in cinema history, multiple times and has managed to come out on top every time (even in the recent reboot Andy was victorious). Although he’s too young to buy a beer or even drive, Andy has proven time and again that he’s resourceful and brave enough to take on one of the least intimidating horror film characters of all time. Despite being only two and a half feet tall, Chucky is not to be taken lightly. After all, he’s got the soul of a notorious serial killer inside him (at least in the original) and wants to steal Andy’s body with voodoo. Because he’s managed to survive every attempt on him (so far), Andy has earned his spot with the rest of the big dogs here.
9. Shaun Riley- Shaun of the Dead
Not all the final guys on this list are going to be badasses who have their lives together. In fact, a lot of them are loveable losers who are forced to rise to the occasion when all hell breaks loose. Take the titular Shaun of Shaun of the Dead for example. He’s one of the biggest losers in all of England, barely making it through each day with his horrible job, lazy roommate, and lackadaisical attitude. When the zombie apocalypse hits though, Shaun isn’t going to just roll over and let the undead eat him alive. In fact, as soon as he finds out what’s happening he leaps into action to save his parents and his ex-girlfriend. He even comes up with a pretty solid plan to survive. Of course, nothing goes right for Shaun, but he still manages to keep calm (for the most part) and think outside the box, making him a good friend to have during a zombie uprising.
8. Tucker McGee and Dale Dobson- Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
This next entry had to be a twofer since there was no way I was going to separate these best buds. Besides, they both manage to survive until the end of what is easily one of the greatest horror comedies of all time. They’re just a couple of good old boy hillbillies (not the flesh-eating, human hunting, racist kind) who want to spend the weekend doing a little fishing and fixing up their new vacation home. Well, life has other plans for them as a comedy of errors ensues leading to a group of college kids believing these two sweethearts are crazed rednecks hellbent on killing them. The college kids go on the offensive and attack Tucker and Dale, causing mass confusion as the two try to figure out just what in the hell is going on. Despite being pacifists, for the most part, these two are forced to fight for their lives against the ultimate evil, Chad.
7. Doug Bukowski- The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Horror movies really love to put their final guys through hell and poor Doug (Aaron Stanford) might have gotten it the worst of them all. When The Hills Has Eyes starts, Doug seems like the kind of guy who should die in the first 15 minutes. He’s snarky, soft, and such a pacifist that he refuses to even carry a gun. That all changes when a cannibalistic clan of mutant hill people brutally attack him and his family. They kill multiple people and run off with Doug’s newborn baby daughter. At first, Doug puts on his “big brave dog” face as he goes after the Jupiter clan and things go from bad to worse. Just when it looks like Doug is done for, something snaps inside him. What follows is a bloody trail of carnage as Doug transforms from a dweeb into a full-blown berzerker. Despite taking a savage beating over the course of his rampage, Doug refuses to go down, making him one of the scariest final guys of all time.
6. Jim- 28 Days Later…
Put yourself in Jim’s shoes for a moment. You wake up in the hospital, have no idea how you got there, and there’s no one there to fill you in on what’s going on. Stumbling outside, you discover that an outbreak has turned everyone in England into a zombie, and not those slow ones, the rage-filled ones that are more than happy to get their cardio in. Despite starting off 28 Days Later in a hospital dressing gown with no idea what’s happening, Jim proves to be a resilient bastard. Not only is he able to get out of the metropolitan area with his fellow survivors, but when he eventually discovers the age-old apocalypse trope that humans are the biggest threat, he flips out and goes medieval on them. Jim shows repeatedly that he will do whatever it takes to survive and protect the ones he cares about, making him a perfect addition to this list of final guys.