After watching it tonight, I would say Christian Bale’s character in Equilibrium.
Now that I consider it, I have to go with Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction based on the evidence presented. Either that or his work as Cowboy Curtiss; I can’t decide. 
My first reaction to the OP though was Patrick Swayze’s character in Roadhouse. He a) Bangs his “lady” up against a rock wall, and on a tin roof in front of GaWd and everybody (although, now that I think about it, that makes HER more badass); b) is riddled with scars from wounds he SEWED CLOSED HIMSELF, c) ripped out a man’s throat with his hand; d) whatever damn-fool crap he did while actually IN the Roadhouse. It’s been a while but, man, lol…that is one messed up movie! Hilariously so!
NOOOO! I swear to GaWd that all black people don’t look the same to me! I KNOW in my heart that Cowboy Curtiss is Laurence (Larry) Fishburne. (Holy carp.) I am just really, really, really drunk and NOT a racist. I SWEAR TO GOD! Jebus, that’s what I get for trying to be witty. :smack:
BTW. Laurence Fishburne as Furious Styles in Boyz in the Hood? TOTAL BADASS! For reals. Damn, his name is FURIOUS, for cripes sakes! AND he called all the cops in his neighborhood Uncle Toms. Day-mn.
Baldwin beat me to Max Cady, but nobody so far has mentioned Avery Brooks as Hawk, Spenser’s friend from the TV series and the spinoff TV movies. For an example of his badassery, when Spenser walks into a restaurant to talk to a gangster, he’s confronted by two thugs. Hawk, who has somehow managed to remain inconspicuous to this point, suddenly shows up, chops one thug in the throat, takes his gun, and convinces them both to leave, all in about ten seconds and without speaking a word. Then he goes and sits down peacefully to watch.
Wow I’m surprised no one has mentioned one of the all-time creepy cinema villains - Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in “Blue Velvet”.
While Payback wasn’t necessarily the greatest movie, I did enjoy Mel Gibson’s character. This guy was pretty badass. I wouldn’t want to tangle with this guy ever.
And that’s the bottom line
If you will allow made-for-TV movies, Joe Mantegna in ‘Spenser: Small Vices’.
It’s amazing he can play a character who seems so nice and yet has such a strong sense of menace and toughness. The weird thing is that Urich had the look of the character better, but didn’t seem at all scary.
That same one had another badass, the Grey Man.
Half of the characters in Predator. My favorite was the character played by Jesse Ventura, not only did he utter the immortal line “I ain’t got time to bleed” when wounded in a fire fight, he also carried a fricken Vulcan mini-gun. Heh heh heh, when he opened up with that thing in the jungle-- now that was bad ass!!
What, no mention of RoboCop?
“I’m not arresting you anymore.”
Oh, and nearly all the characters John Cleese played in Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
The Black Knight
Sir Lancelot, the Brave
The Ferocious French Taunter
Tim the Enchanter
Especially Sir Lancelot:
King of Swamp Castle: You only killed the bride’s father, you know!
Sir Lancelot: Well, I didn’t mean to.
King of Swamp Castle: Didn’t mean to? You put your sword right through his head!
Colonel John Matrix
“I’m holding you vis my veak ahm”
Who would win in a fight? Mickey O’Neil or Tyler Derden? Remeber it’s ok to say you like Fight Club and Snatch. It’s not ok to say you are a Brad Pitt fan.
You is all IG’NANT!! Here’s the baddest of the good guys -
Arnold Schwartzennigger - The Terminator
Bruce Willis - John Mclaine (he had no shoes for Gods sake!)
Sylvester Stalone - John Rambo
Richard Roundtree - Shaft
Clint Eastwood - The man with no name
Kurt Russel - Snake Pliskin
Mel Gibson - Sergeant Martin Riggs
Clint Eastwood - “Dirty” Harry Calahan
Steven Segal - Casey Ribek (and he also cooks!)
Chuck Norris - Walker Texas Ranger…just kidding Col. James Braddock
Honorable Mention
Charles Bronson - Paul Kersey
Mel Gibson - Mad Max Rockatansky
And now, the baddest of the bad guys
James Earl Jones - Darth Vader
Arnold Schwartzennigger - The Terminator
Al Pacino - Antonio ‘Tony’ Montana (Scarface)
Kevin Spacey - Kayser Houze
Anthony Hopkins - Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Joe Pesci - Tommy DeVito (you think I’m funny?!)
Samuel L. Jackson - Jules Winnfield
Michael Madsen - Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega
Alan Rickman - Hans Gruber
Gary Busey - Mr. Joshua
Have we really gotten to almost two full pages without a single female character being named? That makes me 
I believe Eve mentioned Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity on the first page.
However, in the interest of bad ass gender equality I will propose the following:
Sgt. Vasquez in Aliens,
Nikita in the original (French) version of La Femme Nikita (NOT Bridget Fonda),
and…
Sharon Stone in that cowboy movie.
Actually, I’m just kidding about that last one.
Ooops, I missed that one. Makes me feel slightly better, and I’m quite glad to see you’re doing your part too. Thanks!
Shout out to Sam Jackson in “pulp fiction” and even more so in “coming to america” -bad mutha fucka
“say what again, I dare you, I double dare you”
Old school props to Dolemite -O.G. bad mutha fucka
And I cannot believe no one is nominating Tony Montana
“say hello to my little friend”
I did like Clint eastwood in “Unforgiven”
But if we’re whipping out Spaghetti Westerns, then no one comes close to
TRINITY. movies: “they call me trinity” and “trinity is still my name”
That was called, “The Quick & the Dead”, which would have been a really good movie if she wasn’t in it.
Female Badasses:
Red Sonja
Aeon Flux
the woman from Heavy Metal
Ellen Ripley (Alien etc.)
Trinity (The Matrix)
Buffy Summers
Willow Rosenberg
And if you want to count books:
Elspeth and Kerowyn (Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books)
Arya Stark (and she’s only 10!), Brienne of Tarth, Asha Greyjoy, Daenerys Targaryen (George Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series)
Y.T. (Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash)
While Ash has it all sewed up on the domestic front, IMHO, here are my contenders from overseas.
Most badass hero (sorta):
Prisoner KSC2-303 from Versus.
Most badass villain:
Sadako from Ringu. :eek:
Samuel Jackson was not a badass in Coming to America. He was the robber with a shotgun who got beat up by Eddie Murphy with a mop handle.