It's difficult to decide which movie character is the best since an individual taste is subjective and each viewer likes a different type of hero. However, there are some characters that the audience tends to gravitate toward. A lot of them have completely different backstories and lives but what they share is their high cool factor.
In other words, they represent qualities and the type of behavior that the viewers associate with being cool. That doesn't mean these characters are also necessarily good people, but their coolness makes it fun to watch them even when they're doing things that people wouldn't consider heroic or positive in the real world.
5 Sarah Connor
Even in the 2020s, the cool movie heroes are men more often than not. The good news is that women have cool movie heroines to look up to as well. And Sarah Connor was one of the trendsetters in this area, especially in the 1991 movie Terminator 2. Sarah has been through a lot, lost the man she loved, and they took her son from her and locked her up, but even then, Sarah retains her determination to set things right.
Her inner, as well as physical strength, get her through a lot of situations that would make other people give up. It's true that Sarah has the Terminator by her side in the second movie but as the movie's finale suggests, she doesn't need him to do well. Sarah's not the type of person to mess with, even if her enemy is a shape-changing killing machine from the future, that's how cool she is. And unlike with other heroes, Sarah's coolness wasn't diminished with age as Linda Hamilton proved when she reprised the role in the 2019 sequel Terminator: Dark Fate.
4 Captain Jack Sparrow
Among other things, The Pirates of the Caribbean movies are about freedom. About being able to do whatever people want. No one else represents this as well in the franchise as Captain Jack Sparrow. Captain Jack's free lifestyle where he goes where he wants, drinks what he wants, and steals what he wants has a lot of charm thanks to his personality.
One of the reasons is that there's a method to what Jack's doing. He's smarter than many people give him credit for, as he demonstrated multiple times when he escaped his enemies. The babbling, swaying persona is cool as well but the hidden layers of Captain Jack's character are what make him truly unforgettable. Despite the fact that he has an unhealthy obsession with his rum. Some fans, however, believe that Captain Jack's character works the best in the first two movies and the subsequent ones made the antihero into a shadow of his former self.
3 Ellen Ripley
Not many characters can say they were cool enough to go into a battle with the Alien Queen...and come out victorious. Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley is one of the lucky few, and also one of the two most popular female action icons, right alongside Sarah Connor. Ripley's badass nature stems from the fact that even when the circumstances are against her, and she's outmatched, she finds a way how to come out on top.
True, it isn't without sacrifices and losses, but that only makes Ripley more relatable, not less cool. A lot of people who would be in the same situation would die very fast but in the Alien movies, Ripley does her best to find a working solution to the problem, even when she's outmatched. Overall, her bravery and composed mind add to her coolness and make her into the movie legend she is today.
2 Tony Stark
Captain America might have been the heart of the Avengers, but it was Iron Man who was the team's face. He was flashy and a showman, in the best sense of the word. Tony Stark had a strong cool factor right from the start when he lived his best life and didn't give a damn about whether other people liked what he was doing or not.
He became even more impressive when he turned his life around and started using his genius intellect for good rather than personal profit. A significant part of Tony's coolness was caused by his quick mind, the fact that he was always ready to joke, and come up with a good quip. But there was much more to him than just joking, as he proved by helping the young superhero Peter Parker, fighting for the Avengers, and ultimately sacrificing his life in order to defeat Thanos once and for all.
1 Han Solo
Han Solo isn't the only cool science fiction hero, but Captain Kirk got more space to shine in the TV series than in the movies. Han Solo, on the other hand, became the coolest space adventurer and smuggler of all time. A part of Han Solo's charm is that he doesn't give a damn about what's going on in the galaxy because he's too busy carving his own livelihood and enjoying his life. He lets Luke and Leia drag him into their epic adventure but ends up being the cool voice of skepticism that often points out things won't work.
Han Solo has a heroic heart beating in him, but on the outside, he seems like the type who would rather relax in his favorite bar with his friends and let other people fight. His attitude toward life combined with Harrison Ford's charisma drew the fans in and made Han Solo into one of the most popular Star Wars characters, so much so that when the viewers learned Ford would reprise his role in Episode VII, they were overjoyed to hear it.