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From Darth Vader to Mary Poppins, pop culture icons can excite, enrage, or inspire us. And though most characters tend to be wholly fictional in nature, some famous ones are actually based on real-life people. Here’s our list of 10 pop culture figures who existed IRL.

10 Don Draper (Mad Men)

If you haven’t seen Mad Men (2007–2015) yet, do yourself a favor and watch it right now. The legendary period drama about mid-20th century advertising agents and the “mad men”‘ who run the business is legendary for a reason. Don Draper, the series’ main character, has become one of TV’s most beloved characters. However, few people know that he is based on a real person.

Even if you don’t know Draper Daniels, the man, you know his work. He was one of the most influential admen of the 20th century. He was one of the foundational figures behind the Marlboro man and helped push Marlboro cigarettes to become one of the world’s leading cigarette brands. Don Draper of Mad Men was also based on him, as the showrunners wanted to create a character with Daniels’s signature charisma and confidence. Even the names Don Draper and Draper Daniels are very similar.^[1]

9 Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

The film Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) was a huge financial and cultural success, endearing millions to the sassy charm of Holly Golightly and Audrey Hepburn. The film, which launched Hepburn’s career, was based on a book of the same name by Truman Capote of In Cold Blood fame. Continuing his tradition of taking influence from real life, Capote based Golightly on real-life socialist Gloria Vanderbilt.

Born into the illustrious Vanderbilt family, Gloria Vanderbilt was a well-known fashion designer who made her own brand line of clothes catered to the upper class. Her most well-known factoid might be that she was involved in a very famous child custody case between her mother and aunt. Her sense of high fashion and taste gave Capote a direct influence when creating the iconic Golighty.^[2]

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8 Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)

It is no overstatement to say that Harper Lee is probably the most beloved Southern American writer of all time. Written on July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird is the novel the author is most famous for. It is an eviscerating critique of racism and systemic injustices that flows with biting prose word to word. Atticus Finch is the hero lawyer of the story who defends a Black man falsely accused of a heinous crime in court. Some readers might not know that Finch was actually based on Lee’s own father, Amasa Coleman Lee.

Like Finch, Amasa was also a lawyer who practiced law in Monroe County and also edited for local newspapers. By 1927, he was elected as Alabama’s House Representative. Amasa was driven to fight for justice and preserve the integrity of the law at every step, much like Finch. Given his legal vigor and influence, it is no wonder she became the base for one of literature’s best characters.^[3]

7 The Dude (The Big Lebowski)

The Dude probably needs no introduction. Serving as the main protagonist of the Coen Brothers’ mega-hit classic The Big Lebowski (1998), The Dude is a hilarious and crass layabout who goes through a series of wild circumstances with plot threads as nonsensical as the premise itself. Jeff Bridges did a fantastic job bringing this character to life, and his performance is even more noteworthy, considering the character was based on film producer-activist Jeff Dowd.

You may not know Dowd, but his work as a producer and activist is fairly important. He has produced such movies as FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and Zebrahead (1992), and was part of the protest group the Seattle Liberation Front. He and several other members of the group known as the “Seattle Seven” were arrested frequently during the Vietnam War for their anti-war protests. Eventually, the Coen Brothers would use his personality and biographical details to form the basis of The Dude.^[4]

6 Italian Mafia Patriarch Vito Corleone (The Godfather)

If you ask anyone who is the most famous mobster in all of cinema, they’ll say Vito Corleone. Corleone is the central figure of both The Godfather book by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola’s groundbreaking movies of the same name. As head of the Corleone Crime family, Vito clawed his way to the top from nothing but the clothes on his back. With bottomless drive and swagger, Corleone’s portrayal is nothing short of breathtaking, and much of it comes from a real-life infamous mobster named Frank Costello.

Born on January 26, 1891, Costello was head of the infamous Luciano Family, which was one of the most powerful crime syndicates in American history. Costello ran numerous bootleg operations during prohibition and was engaged in plenty of racketeering. He was eventually arrested for contempt and tax evasion and served five years in prison. His legacy would live on as an influence through Puzo’s iconic character.^[5]

5 Logan Roy (Succession)

Created by Jesse Armstrong in 2018, Succession was one of the funniest comedy dramas on television. The story followed the all-powerful Roy Family, which owned one of the largest corporate empires in the world. The family’s head patriarch, Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox, has received critical acclaim for his strong characterization and dynamic acting performance. Some fans may have already noticed that Logan Roy’s characterization is based on real-life news tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch is the single most successful media magnate in history. His company, News Corp, owns hundreds of publishing companies like The Sun, Sky News, and most famously, Fox News. Murdoch has six children who are currently locked in their own succession fight over who gets to inherit the media empire, much like the TV show. Armstrong himself even wanted to make a Murdoch documentary but ultimately canned the project to work on Succession.^[6]

4 Chef Boyardee’s Principle Inspiration

Whether you love him or hate him, Chef Boyardee is here to stay. He’s the mascot behind the somewhat maligned mass-produced food product line of the same name. Products like Spaghetti-O’s, Beef Ravioli, Spaghetti & Meatballs, and others are among the most popular. Most folks might not know that Chef Boyardee was real and that his name was Ettore (Hector) Boiardi.

Born on October 22, 1897, Boiardi was a mastermind Italian-American immigrant chef who came to America in 1914. Boiardi quickly established himself in upscale restaurants across NYC and even served dinner for Woodrow Wilson once. Eventually, he started pre-packaging his famous spaghetti sauce in bottles to sell to hungry patrons, which gave him the idea for the Chef Boyardee product line. The product line was created in 1928, gaining popularity in the following years. He named it Boyardee to help Americans pronounce his last name more easily.^[7]

3 Snow White

If you didn’t already know, most of Disney’s classic movies like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White are all based on fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm. Snow White, in particular, is one of the most well-known fairytales in the world. The original tale had all the iconic elements like a magic mirror, seven dwarves, a poisoned apple, and an evil queen. Snow White herself was most likely based on the details of real-life Countess Margaretha von Waldeck.

Born in 1533, Countess Waldeck was the daughter of Count Philip IV, whose family ruled over Waldeck and Pyrmont (part of the Holy Roman Empire and then the German Empire). Many of Waldeck’s own life details mirror that of Snow White’s, like her having an awful stepmother, being strikingly beautiful and of fair skin, and rumors of her dying from a poison assassination. Waldeck’s father also had copper mines that were worked almost entirely by children, which could translate to the seven dwarves. Waldeck also once made a journey through Siebengebirge, which means “Seven Hills” in English, mirroring Snow White’s journey through the seven mountains.^[8]

2 Mary Poppins

What is there to not love about Mary Poppins? The iconic English nanny was the brainchild of Australian-British writer P.L. Travers, who first wrote and published the Mary Poppins book series in 1934. The stories follow a magical nanny who flies from home to home with her umbrella and cares for unruly children. Walt Disney made a film adaptation of the books in 1964 called Mary Poppins. Here’s a fun fact for Poppins fans: the British nanny was based on Travers’ great-aunt Helen Morehead.

Morehead had much in common with the flying umbrella caretaker. For one, both women were exceedingly graceful and full of warmth. Travers recalled Morehead, or “Aunt Ellie,” as a firm woman who was open to fanciful imagination and whimsy. This eloquently describes the Poppins stories best, as the books are stern lessons for children wrapped in whimsy and soft kindness.^[9]

1 Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

Although Danish author Hans Christian Andersen first wrote the original The Little Mermaid was created and written by storytelling geniuses John Musker and Ron Clements. It has since gone to unimaginable success, smashing multiple box office records and stealing Academy Awards for both Best Original Song and Best Original Score. Ursula, the villain of the movie who tricks Ariel into an evil deal, became one of Disney’s most iconic villains. There’s also a reason for her over-the-top flamboyance: She was based on drag queen performer Divine.

Divine was an actress in her own right, having been in movies like Hairspray (1988) and Polyester (1981). Both Ursula and Divine look fairly similar in appearance down to their makeup, hairstyle, and body shape. Divine was also known for her high theatrics and good old-fashioned sass, much like Ursula’s stage presence in the film. Sadly, Divine died on March 7, 1988, but her legacy will live on forever through cinema.^[10]

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The comic book-to-movie adaptation is far from a fine art. In this hero-centric cinematic world, moviemakers and actors are inclined to bend the rules and break away from the source material when bringing characters to the big screen. Indeed, many writers, directors, and stars have all but ignored the comics they are adapting to suit what they want from a character’s personality, powers, appearance, and narrative arc.

Herein lie the secret sources and inspirations for comic book characters who have transitioned to the big screen, where sometimes pretty extreme choices are made to base the new portrayal on someone, or something, other than the source material—including bare-knuckle boxers, music videos, real-life gangsters, and even Clint Eastwood.

10 Gorr (Thor: Love & Thunder)—Thin Man

Taikai Waititi’s second run at the Thor franchise came in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which sees the god of thunder’s old flame, Jane Foster, take up the hammer Mjolnir and wield its awesome power for the first time as Mighty Thor. But exciting as this new development was, everyone’s attention was fixed on the villain—Christian Bale’s silver-skinned, yellow-eyed Gorr the God Butcher.

As Gorr is a classic Thor villain, fans were dismayed at his lack of god-killing and short shelf-life, getting dispatched before the credits rolled. While speculation was rife that Bale has based his character on Marilyn Manson, the actor revealed that he had, in fact, modeled the God Butcher on the hellish Thin Man from Aphex Twin’s “Come to Daddy” music video.

Bale tried to insist on including Thin Man’s iconic scream in the film. However, though Waititi filmed it, it was left out of the edit as this aspect of the character was deemed too horrific for a PG-13 superhero movie.^[1]

9 Bane (The Dark Knight Rises)—Bartley Gorman

Comic book fans know Bane as a South American mercenary with a keen intellect and a nasty addiction to luminous green Venom that gives him the superhuman power to terrorize Gotham City. However, the version Tom Hardy brought to the screen in 2012 is somewhat removed from this, with only muscles, a mask, and a name linking the characters.

A Christopher Nolan creation, Hardy’s Bane traded on the popularity of the actor to sell the final chapter of the Dark Knight trilogy but did so at the expense of the character’s origins, ethos, and personality. He swapped Bane’s M.O. for something more like minor DC anti-hero, Anarky.

Nolan said, for Bane, he “wanted to do something very different in this film. He’s a primarily physical villain… but with a terrific brain” and hoped fans would “get a kick out of” this version. As part of this, Hardy based his performance on bare-knuckle boxer Bartley Gorman, attempting to create his own origins for the character, including an idiosyncratic vocal performance.^[2]

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8 Electro (The Amazing Spider-Man 2)—An L.A. Gangster

A staple of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery, Electro went from a blue-collar New Yorker with green spandex and a spiky yellow hat to a blue-skinned electrical engineer in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Following his transformation, Jamie Foxx’s Electro is not the gaudy-costumed cocksure Max Dillon from the comics, but a genius who breaks bad big time and quite literally turns blue—eyes, skin, everything. This physical change provided some significant developments for the character. Foxx spent hours looking at his costume in the mirror and worked with his manager to find the new character to fit, dropping his voice down a register and laying on something new and sinister.

However, a deeper inspiration for the character came from a gangster Foxx once approached for help when he was younger, who then rode him for favors. He took this energy to Electro and channeled the gangster mentality, acting as if Spider-Man owed the character big time, hounding him wherever he went.^[3]

7 Weasel (The Suicide Squad)—Bill the Cat

Weasel is one of the highlights of director James Gunn’s super-zero team-up The Suicide Squad, but that doesn’t mean his portrayal is in any way faithful to his comic origins. In the comics, he is John Monroe, a criminal dressed in a weasel outfit with claws sewn into the hands, using his agility and hand-to-hand combat skills to pursue his own ends.

In the film, however, he is a feral, mutant, bipedal weasel who is implicated in the murder of 27 children. Rather than remain faithful to the comics, Gunn used this character as an entry point for his brother Sean (who plays Weasel) into the DCEU and as a brief comic relief. But how did he get so far away from the source?

As it turns out, Gunn based this new version of the character on Bill the Cat from the 1980s comic strip Bloom County. He wanted him to be weird, out of place, and “barely more than an animal” and directed his brother to imagine himself as a German Shepherd being sent to war.^[4]

6 Penguin (Batman Returns)—Dr. Caligari

One of the most iconic members of Batman’s rogues gallery, Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, is typically portrayed as a shrewd and shady businessman with an umbrella, an eyeglass, and a penguin-like stature. Yet in 1992’s Batman Returns, Tim Burton went off the deep end and had him become rotund, pale, and physically deformed.

A big fan and devotee of German Expressionist cinema, Burton rooted much of his early career in this style, creating a neo-expressionist gothic look of his own. And this seeped into his Batman movies, including Batman Returns, where he based Danny DeVito’s Penguin character on Werner Krauss’s Dr. Caligari (from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), to give him a stronger psychological foundation. Far from a member of organized crime’s refined upper echelons, this Penguin is a lumbering, leering, dark-eyed sewer-dweller who has no idea how to be part of “normal” society.

But Burton also took the penguin aspect of his Penguin too literally. He had DeVito’s Cobblepot eating raw fish and struggling with fused finger “flippers,” all the while making him a far more sympathetic character.^[5]

5 Aquaman (Aquaman)—Slash

When it came to putting together a 21st-century Justice League, the DCEU would have to do something to rehabilitate Aquaman’s safe, stale Beach Boys image from the comics. Prior to the character’s reinvention, he had never recovered from his Silver Age heyday. He had frequently become the butt of jokes for comic fans globally, with his pristine hair, scaled shirt, and green spandex.

But Jason Momoa was just the tonic, ditching the green tights and blonde comb-job for tribal tattoos, long hair, and a hard-living, rock star lifestyle. Stepping seamlessly into the Arthur Curry (Aquaman’s alias) role, Momoa reinvigorated the character for a whole new generation, looking darned cool in the process.

Already a fan of motorcycles, tattoos, heavy music, and the ocean, the part wasn’t a massive leap for the actor. In fact, he offered up some of the material he needed to fully realize the character. But the real inspiration for the overall character’s style, swagger, and design came from Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist Slash, Momoa’s favorite musician.^[6]

4 Big Daddy (Kick-Ass)—Adam West

Mark Millar’s brutal superhero comic series Kick-Ass offers a world in which heroes are just regular Joes dressed in capes and scuba suits fighting real and unforgiving criminals. Enter Big Daddy, an accountant-turned-vigilante who trains his pre-teen daughter to become a killing machine and wears a trench coat and red mask.

While the character was kept on for Matthew Vaughn’s 2010 big-screen adaptation, the movie version of Big Daddy is basically a knock-off Batman, complete with armor and gadgets. He is also a tragically widowed ex-cop avenging the death of his wife. However, the dissimilarities don’t end there because Nicolas Cage portrayed the character on screen and really went to town on the performance as only he could.

Rather than attempt to contain this, Vaughn let the actor do his thing, resulting in a baffling performance that doesn’t really tally with the stoicism of his comic counterpart. This is rooted in Cage’s decision to draw inspiration from the original Batman, Adam West, aligning his approach and delivery with the veteran actor’s 1960s caped crusader style.^[7]

3 Eric Draven (The Crow)—Post Malone/Lil Peep

Following actor Brandon Lee’s untimely death while filming the first adaptation of James O’Barr’s comic book series The Crow, the property has been cursed, with subsequent adaptations failing to make a financial or critical impact. Nevertheless, director Rupert Sanders entered the fray with a new version of the original Crow story in 2024.

Bill Skarsgard plays Eric Draven, who is resurrected as the Crow to avenge the death of his one true love and switch places with her in the afterlife. Rather than follow the leather-and-industrial rock style of either the comic character or the original adaptation, Sanders and Skarsgard went for a new, contemporary approach.

This Crow wears tracksuit bottoms, smokes weed, sports a mullet, and is covered in Soundcloud rapper tattoos. Sanders drew a little on his own aesthetic from when he was a raver scene in London but focused the character’s modern influences on Post Malone and Lil Peep. Why? Well, he wanted “people who are 19 today to look at [Eric] and go, ‘That guy is us.’”^[8]

2 Fox (Wanted)—Clint Eastwood

With a focus on animal imagery, hybrid mutated creatures, and full-body rubber suits, Mark Millar’s comic miniseries Wanted was always going to need to be changed for the big screen, but most of the characters—and especially Angelina Jolie’s Fox—bear little resemblance, in personality or appearance, to their on-page counterparts.

Jolie brought Fox to life in the oft-forgotten 2008 adaptation of Wanted. Still, the differences between her portrayal and the comic character couldn’t be starker. First, there’s the outfit: in the comic, she is a scantily clad, fox-ear-wearing maniac; in the film, she is basically just a normal woman who is tough and devious but down to earth. Definitely not an all-out psycho-killer.

Jolie consciously pulled back on the character, creating a sense of distance and intrigue around a part that would have had her chewing scenery if true to the page. Instead, she chose to base her performance on Clint Eastwood, channeling the Hollywood icon to try and keep a fun sense of distance and become “the coolest person who says nothing.”^[9]

1 The Joker (The Dark Knight)—Sid Vicious

The greatest superhero movie of the century, if not of all time, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, was based on the iconic Batman comic book stories “The Long Halloween” and “The Killing Joke.” Despite the apparent influences, Nolan and his cast did everything they could to make their movie and its characters truly original.

At the forefront of all of this was Heath Ledger, whose grimy, manic, chaotic portrayal of the Joker stunned audiences and critics alike. It scored him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Although the urban legend goes that Ledger based his Joker on a drunk, rambling Tom Waits—and the similarities are definitely there, especially when it comes to his vocal performance—Ledger mentioned several influences while preparing for the character, including A Clockwork Orange’s Alex DeLarge, and the Sex Pistols’ late bassist Sid Vicious. Co-star Christian Bale confirmed that, among these, the primary inspiration for Ledger’s character during filming was indeed Vicious, bringing a uniquely punk rock attitude to the comic book villain.^[10]

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War is generally not something to aspire to. It’s a desperate measure to resolve one’s differences when all other options fail. Fighting forgoes people’s evolutionary intelligence and reduces them to their baser instincts. Such barbarism leaves both sides licking their wounds, coping with the pain and death that their actions have wrought. Granted, combat is necessary in some situations, but most civilized societies consider it a last resort. Then again, they don’t all see it that way.

Certain fictional species prize the art of fighting. Their biology, instincts, and tools often help them excel as warriors. That inherent prowess might go hand-in-hand with a cultural justification—viewing warfare as a way of life. Discovering where these qualities originate and intersect is an intriguing process in itself. In that sense, the battles become an engaging bit of world-building. Audiences must slowly determine whether these species are frightening foes, powerful allies, or both.

10 Klingons

Star Trek is a utopian universe of interspecies cooperation. The Klingons stand out in that crowd. These hairy aliens make their name through conquest instead of peace. Their culture revolves around battle. Combatants strive for great deeds to prove their valor, thereby achieving honor for themselves and their dynasties. Luckily, their bodies are more than up for that challenge.

Klingons are tough cookies. They’re inherently stronger than other sentient species, and their bulging craniums basically serve as built-in helmets. Complementing that biology is a plethora of blades and techniques prioritizing close-quarters combat rather than long-range phaser fire. There’s no glory in killing foes from a distance, after all. This behavior doesn’t do much to assuage their bestial reputation, but Klingons couldn’t care less what outsiders think.^[1]

9 Saiyans

Dragon Ball revolves around fighting. The martial arts series sees countless characters push their limits in search of greater power. Even by that standard, though, the Saiyans are a breed apart. Although they look human, these space warriors are anything but. On top of having godlike strength, endurance, and durability, they come with a wealth of transformations to further enhance their abilities. These aspects perfectly complement their capacity for growth.

The Saiyans’ entire biology serves to boost their might. Their insatiable appetite for combat causes them to seek out powerful opponents. Their own power then increases after every bout, particularly if they sustain grievous injuries. This perk consequently prompts them to face tougher enemies. The cycle continues indefinitely, meaning Saiyans have virtually no limit. As scary as that prospect sounds, it fits Dragon Ball’s themes to a tee.^[2]

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8 Krogan

War is a recurring event in the Mass Effect series, and few species are better suited than the Krogan. These reptilian aliens are the fiercest fighters in the galaxy. Their bulky frames and hardened structures mean they can take insane amounts of abuse. In fact, they often use these gifts to charge their enemies, like rampaging rhinos. No wonder other species frequently call on their aid against overwhelming forces. Unfortunately, this reliance walks harbors a healthy fear.

The Krogan’s penchant for pugilism scares their allies and enemies. Not only does their territorial mindset decimate their native planet in a nuclear war, but they breed at an exorbitant rate. These offspring then emerge from the womb with the same deadly demeanors. Surrounding species worry they could expand throughout the galaxy, paving an unstoppable path of conquest. Thus, the Krogan are Mass Effect’s double-edged swords.^[3]

7 Krill

As a Star Trek substitute, The Orville has its own antagonistic species in the Krill. No, not the tiny sea creatures. These Krill are galactic reptiles with horned heads, bad attitudes, and a slew of weapons. They use these traits to ruthlessly slaughter anyone infringing on their territory. As appalling as these acts are, they don’t stem from instinct.

Krill aggression comes down to nurture over nature. These armored lizards worship a vengeful god called Avis. This dark deity decrees that all other species are soulless abominations who are unworthy of life. That xenophobic doctrine puts the Krill in a perpetual state of war against the rest of the galaxy. Even their children must forego a normal education in favor of military school. With such ironclad beliefs, peace is a pipe dream.^[4]

6 Orcs

Orcs are nasty customers in most fantasy tales, with the most imposing examples coming from the Warcraft universe. The towering legions of the Horde are monumental in size. Not only are they taller than most races, but every muscle also rivals a grown man’s body weight. These solid walls of beef can shatter steel in a single blow. Despite their intimidating image, however, the Warcraft Orcs start as shamans. They don’t become the Horde until a demonic intervention.

The immortal Kil’jaeden of the Burning Legion corrupts the Orcs into monsters. On top of turning their skin green, he persuades them to drink demon blood. This ritual fills the Orcs with an endless appetite for warfare. Their newfound bloodlust prompts them to conquer their native world before advancing on others. Though tasting their share of defeat, the Orcs’ incorrigible need to kill never fades, making them the most enduring foes in Warcraft.^[5]

5 Uruk-hai

The Lord of the Rings mirrors many fantasy works in its portrayal of Orcs. This epic odyssey, however, concocts a fresh breed of these creatures. After throwing in with the Dark Lord Sauron, the treacherous wizard Saruman must build an army for his new master. He doesn’t settle for recruitment, though, opting instead for a grotesque breeding program.

By crossing standard Orcs with “goblin-men,” he crafts a subspecies called Uruk-hai. These monsters have their predecessors’ bloodlust with the bodies to back it up. In addition to larger frames and greater muscle mass, they can run and fight for days on end. The icing on the cake is their ability to walk in sunlight, overcoming the crippling weakness of their forebears. The Uruk-hai quickly rise to the top of the food chain, turning once-proud kingdoms into charred wastelands.^[6]

4 Kree

Most Marvel characters gain their powers through external accidents. The Kree buck that trend by being extraordinary from birth. Though human in appearance, these blue and pink aliens enjoy increased strength thanks to their planet’s heavier gravity. In addition, many specimens gain abilities like flight, energy blasts, telepathy, and life draining. Such gifts rival any superhero, but their uses aren’t nearly as noble.

On the contrary, the Kree construct their empire through imperialism. They serve the Supreme Intelligence: a supercomputer comprised of their people’s greatest minds. This ancient entity strives to jump-start the Kree’s evolution, and its methods usually involve military offensives. As such, these cosmic warriors conquer planets across the universe, their religious devotion driving them to please their master. This supposed “Intelligence” sounds like a brainless bully.^[7]

3 Thanagarians

Speaking of deceptive appearances, the Thanagarians are DC’s offenders. With their heightened senses, superhuman strength, and majestic wings, these aliens could easily pass for angels. Their true personas aren’t nearly as heavenly, though. A history of slavery and plague forges them into hardened warriors who take whatever they can get.

The Thanagarians soon move from a scientific people to a military mob. Fashioning their native Nth metal into unrivaled weapons and ships, they violently expand their territory to neighboring worlds. They no longer worry about their advancement; they simply co-opt the tech of conquered races. This tactic, in turn, lets them overcome stronger forces. Such dirty methods are how the Thanagarians soar ever higher.^[8]

2 Mandalorians

The Star Wars galaxy is rife with exotic aliens, so the humanoid Mandalorians seem quaint. However, this tribal race has a storied history of warfare. United under a leading Protector, these tribes have a strict code of honorable victory, standing with their fellows and keeping their word. Embodying that code is their ceremonial armor. On top of sporting jet packs and an explosive arsenal, the impregnable armor can resist most conceivable attacks. Obviously, this equipment gets plenty of use.

Like several species on this list, the Mandalorians embrace their warrior culture through expansion. Their offensives are so formidable that it takes both the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order to beat them back. True, Mandalore eventually adopts a policy of pacifism. Still, extremist groups like Death Watch soon return their culture to its former glory. The right to rule only comes through the purity of battle. Next to these armored aggressors, Stormtroopers don’t seem so bad.^[9]

1 Narn

Circumstances often shape a culture. That’s certainly true of the Narn. One of the many alien races of Babylon 5, this species starts as a society of farmers. Unfortunately, a 100-year occupation by the imperialist Centauri forces the Narn to change with the times. Although they eventually repel the invaders, their culture is forever warped.

Thereafter, the Narn exist as distrustful warriors. They often focus on overcoming foes through military means. Any perceived wrongdoing yields a bloody vendetta, affecting both offended parties and their families. Their large frames, durable skin, and deadly armada can usually satisfy those vendettas, but that’s still not enough for some. The Narn routinely experiment with gene manipulation to gain biological perks like telepathy. In essence, they try to fast-track their evolution in pursuit of supremacy. Never again will they submit to being stepped on.^[10]

Indeed, it’s often not our fault for missing the bigger picture, even if it is existential. Man-made climate change has been a known and growing concern for people around the globe since the latter half of the 20th century. With greenhouse gases accumulating, ocean levels rising, and global temperatures spiking, plenty of directors have taken note.

The films that have been made as a result purport to be about one thing—child robots, alien overlords, forest gods—but really use their narratives and characters as vehicles to explore climate change, global warming, environmental damage, and consequences (whether we think of them this way or not).

10 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)

An overlooked gem of contemporary sci-fi, Steven Spielberg’s A.I. appears, on the surface, merely to be about the child robot David’s (Haley Joel Osment) quest to be loved, but, in fact, presents a compelling picture of the consequences of global climate change.

Given the engrossing nature of Spielberg’s filmmaking, it’s easy to forget A.I. is set in “the years after the ice caps had melted… because of the greenhouse gases and the oceans had risen to drown so many cities.” In fact, this is the genesis for the entire film because Western governments responded to the crisis by limiting natural births, and robots proliferated.

A glimpse into the future, the film presents a familiar reality where profit and technological advancement are prioritized over the natural world. Every landscape, building, and gadget presented to us throughout serves as proof of humanity’s hubris. There is no divergence from the failing model of free-market neoliberalism and consumer capitalism that has driven the planet to this point. As we see in the final scene, when David has traveled 2,000 years into the future, it all ends with a frozen planet that harbors no more human life.^[1]

9 Wall-E (2008)

Wall-E is the story of the eponymous 29th-century robot who spends his days patrolling the Earth cleaning up garbage. But after some 700 years in post, he’s a little lonely. Lucky for him, a sleek, shiny love interest—EVE—arrives on Earth on a scanning mission. Wall-E follows her on a cross-galaxy adventure.

So far, so cute and cozy. However, Disney-Pixar’s clanky robot feature has a bigger message behind it because the Earth Wall-E inhabits is a vacant wasteland. Evacuated by megacorporation Buy n Large, humanity abandoned the planet centuries ago. And the little guy was left to trundle around a planet ravaged by corporate greed, overpopulation, and climate abuse.

This stark subtext underpinning a children’s movie caused controversy on release, particularly among U.S. right-wing commentators. When the furor reached fever pitch, director Andrew Stanton was forced to step in to calm the waters and dispel the idea of the film being a “part of some secret, liberal Hollywood agenda,” releasing a statement that Wall-E’s love story is the focus, and the climate message merely incidental…^[2]

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8 Snowpiercer (2013)

Before international darling Parasite swept the world, South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho was creeping into the public with environmentally conscious films like Snowpiercer. The movie takes place on a high-speed train in perpetual motion, where passengers live along class lines, the carriages running from rich and spacious at the front to squalid and cramped at the back.

While this is plenty of social commentary on its own, the deeper message in Snowpiercer is why they’re on the train in the first place and what the world looks like outside. The titular Snowpiercer is, in fact, pelting through an icy tundra, traveling around a “snowball Earth” blighted by the climate crisis and failed attempts by humanity to engineer its way out of warming.

Bong has an affinity for socially conscious filmmaking and saw the opportunity to tell a story fusing social inequity and climate catastrophe in Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette’s graphic novel Le Transperceneige. Bong took their concepts and ran with them to tell a story about how humans try to blindly control everything—society, nature, other humans—so that even when they try to stop global warming using technology, they make disaster inevitable.^[3]

7 FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

One of the rare animated musicals from the ’90s not made by Disney, FernGully: The Last Rainforest is set in an Australian rainforest where fairies work with animals to protect their home from loggers and Hexxus, an evil pollutive entity who destroys nature for pleasure and feeds on smoke and sludge.

Despite the children’s cartoon finding its protagonists in a group of tiny fairy people who ride bugs for fun, the film’s focal point is the real-world message of deforestation and the engulfing smog of industrial intervention in nature.

Producer Wayne Young was the driving force behind making the film and its strong environmental concerns. Coupled with his passion for saving the planet, Young’s inspiration for the film was the bedtime stories his wife Diana told their children, which featured a tribe of fairies living in an endangered natural world. But, despite putting his weight behind the picture from the beginning, it took 15 years to get it made, with him and director Bill Kroyer only securing funding on the wave of celebrity environmentalism that swept the West in the late 1980s and early 1990s against powerful opposition from Disney.^[4]

6 Don’t Look Up (2021)

Adam McKay’s social satire Don’t Look Up tells the story of two American astronomer academics—Leonardo DiCaprio’s Randall Mindy and Jennifer Lawrence’s Kate Dibiasky—who discover a large comet on a trajectory to collide with Earth, and whose attempts to get the word out and warm their fellow countrymen falls on willfully deaf ears.

Randall and Kate are met with derision in the media, denial from the government, and abuse from the everyday man on the street. But this satire of contemporary media and politics was always meant to have a larger implication. The film uses the celestial body as a metaphor for the climate crisis, with everyone with a vested interest vehemently denying its existence right up to the moment it literally destroys the planet.

And this is no coincidence—director Adam McKay intentionally set out to make a film about climate change. He chose a comet because it circumvents the conceptually challenging “slow-moving, massive, macro change” and used it to highlight so many people’s tendency to ignore, deny, or run scared from the truth.^[5]

5 The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

An underappreciated remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still put Keanu Reeves in what many would describe as his ideal acting role: a detached, monotone visitor from another world. Reeves stars as Klaatu, a being who arrives on Earth with a word of warning for humanity: save the planet from ecocide or suffer the consequences.

Although the most memorable image from the film is the cyclopic behemoth sent to enforce Klaatu’s dictates, the reason for the extra-terrestrial threat is often forgotten: they have come to save the planet from humanity’s rapid industrialization and consumer-capitalist model, which are tearing it apart from the ozone down.

This is a marked departure from the original film, which was released during the Cold War and was more concerned with nuclear disarmament. But it’s also what Derrickson and Reeves (who collaborated on the plot) used to make it relevant and distinct. They even invited real scientists to help them get the science right and design a convincing biotechnology for the aliens that could thematically contrast our man-made industrial, environment-destroying technology.^[6]

4 Soylent Green (1973)

A forerunner of climate-conscious cinema, Richard Fleischer’s Soylent Green offered up a science fiction dystopia unlike any other at the time. The film takes place in an imagined 2022, where overpopulation and global pollution have led to year-round humidity, mass unemployment, and such a depletion of natural resources that everyone exists on a diet of the wafer-like substance Soylent Green.

The big takeaway from the film is that the food is made from people. But behind the horrors of this central conceit, there is a cautionary tale aimed at demonstrating how rampant corporate greed and overpopulation can lead to a devastated environment and a ravaged world.

Despite the high-concept sci-fi twist at its center, Soylent Green responded to developing climate science and painted a fairly accurate picture of what we might expect for a warmed planet. In fact, it was so ahead of its time that it was one of the first Hollywood productions to mention the greenhouse effect, explore climate change in narrative, and portray the associated impacts.^[7]

3 Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar puts Matthew McConaughey in the pilot’s seat as astronaut Joseph Cooper, sending him across the universe in search of a planet that can sustain human life and become the species’ next home. Director Christopher Nolan didn’t spare a cent of his $165 million budget to bring his space and planetscapes to life, using both known and conceptual astronomy to render our universe in ways never before seen on the big screen.

While it’s easy to get swept up in the sublime visuals and time-and-space dilating madness, Interstellar’s plot is borne of one major issue: the Earth has heated, crops are becoming untenable, and humanity desperately needs somewhere else to go before we’re wiped out entirely.

Nolan’s inspiration came from films like Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which speculated about a time when humans were forced to reassess their place in the cosmos—but instead of the arrival of alien life, Nolan used global warming as his basis. And he even made a convert of supporting actor Michael Caine—who hadn’t believed in climate change—in the process.^[8]

2 Princess Mononoke (1997)

Most Hayao Miyazaki films have a deep affinity with the natural world, often pitting spirits and saviors of nature against greedy (frequently Western-coded) capitalists, industrialists, invaders, and madmen. Princess Mononoke pits wolf girl San and her animal allies against the encroaching Irontown, which threatens to swallow the Forest of the Gods.

On the face of it, this can be read as a simple battle of good and evil. But scratching the surface, we see that the environment is personified and mankind is at war with nature itself. At the same time, an environmentalist prince tries to broker peace and prevent mutually assured destruction.

The film’s ending has wounds heal and plants spring to life again, demonstrating the powerful, cyclical form of nature if given the chance to start anew and thrive; a hopeful message from a director whose films are rife with damning critiques of industrial devastation. It is intended as a rallying cry to viewers, to show that no matter how bad the environmental disaster gets, there is always a path beyond despair, a route for life in some form to go on.^[9]

1 Avatar (2009)

James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar was lauded for its technological developments at the time, but it packed a much starker message. Set in the 22nd century, the film takes place at a time when Earth has suffered ecological collapse, and humanity has branched out to other solar systems, colonizing lush alien planets and mining their resources at the expense of the natives.

Cameron intentionally paired high action and personal character dramas with his message, intending not to preach but to engross audiences and create an emotional reaction. His hope was that all viewers’ natural moral outrage would inspire them to be activists for the Earth, face the planet’s damage, and reject the industrial machine and global powers that insist on profit and dominance over nature.

And, true to his own message, the director had a 60-kilowatt solar array custom-built in order to produce enough energy to run his cameras, computers, and performance capture systems so that all of the Avatar sequels could be green and climate neutral.^[10]