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Over the past 15 years , Edgar Wright has become one of today ’s best - known director , among nerds on the internet anyway . In that X and a one-half , Wright has made five celluloid , each of them replete to the brim with memorable characters . Looking back though , who are the characters that stick out ? Among the zombies , aliens , and video biz reference book , which human existence pull off to make an impression ?
Keep scrolling for our top ten picks .
Spoilers for Edgar Wright ’s cinema .
Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton) - Hot Fuzz
" Lock me up ! I ’m a slasher … of prices ! " Timothy Dalton cheerfully intones as he first jogs into frame inHot Fuzz . From then on , almost all of his dialogue consists of obvious two-fold entendres and gawky execution - theme innuendos . As flaky supermarket possessor Simon Skinner , Dalton is basically an elaborate scarlet herring , but beyond his story function , he ’s one of the funniest thing in the moving picture . Skinner ’s antic are really comical , But Dalton makes a meal out of every delivery , and the merriment he ’s birth is infectious . Skinner may not be the only murderer inHot Fuzz , but he ’s the one you think of , and his eventual licking is more grim than anything inShaun of the Dead .
Barbara (Penelope Wilton) - Shaun Of The Dead
The first time you seeShaun of the Dead , it ’s easy to look out on Barbara . If you see the picture show enough times though , two thing become clear-cut ; how important she is to the narrative , and how perfect Penelope Wilton ’s carrying into action is . Most memorable is her ability to show Barbara softly spacing out , and Wilton mine it for both clowning and pathos . look more close , however , there ’s something much sadder happening with Barbara . Her willingness to make excuses for her Logos Shaun is endless , and it touch a zenith near the close of the film . Barbara finds blossom Shaun buy for her in the scraps , but still gracefully accepts them as a mother ’s day gift . Her expiry soon after forces Shaun to grow into the person she always thought he was .
Peter Page (Eddie Marsan) - The World’s End
Another type who may be easy to overlook , this may actually be the point of Peter Page . Quiet for much of the motion picture , Peter agrees to accompany his old friends for a few drinks in their hometown . Then , after a guy wire at a legal community innocuously ask Peter to adopt a electric chair , Page acknowledge him as his high shoal hooligan and his heartbroken that he is n’t recognized in income tax return . Marsan than have a poor soliloquy , once again proving that he is one of today ’s most underrated worker . Page ’s hurt , and hissubsequent failure to get past it , is one of the sad elements in an already deeply sad movie .
Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman) - Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
It ’s hard to put too manyScott Pilgrimcharacters on this list because they are so faithfully play from the comic strip , but he merit credit for bringing them to lifetime so absolutely . In the books , Roxy is a memorable and original character , and Wright brings all of her best component to the filmdom . Her foreign movement pattern , wounded sensibility , and maybe most vividly , her unchecked rage . Whitman is prompt casting , and she feels like one of the most attached performances in the movie , which is saying a lot . Wright for his part , creates Roxy ’s most famed line ( " I ’m a little bi - furious " ) , which was not in the books , and establish her into net fame forever .
Bats (Jamie Foxx) - Baby Driver
" No motivation for unveiling , everybody from the jungle to the trap know Bats " add up Jamie Foxx ’s rhythmic first line inBaby Driver . Even if that ’s a slight exaggeration , by the end of the film it definitelyfeelstrue .
Not much is explained to us explicitly about bat , but his history is hinted at through vivid character details . A brutal , smooth talking depository financial institution robber , everything Bats says verbalise intensity . His pre - heist rite ( " What ’s in there is ours , it belongs to us " ) , his response when recognized ( " You still alive ? I hazard we have n’t met . " ) and his philosophy on bank building robbing ( You rob to digest a drug habit , I do drugs to hold a looting riding habit " ) . Still , despite all his posturing , Bats is clearly driven by insecurity , and his unfitness to get a read on Baby understandably mess up with his sense of control . None of this make him less shivery though , as he will seemingly do anything to save face .
We ’ve all run for into a rowdy that talks like Bats before , but one who do like him ? Pray that you never do .
Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) - Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
Knives Chau ( 17 class old ) is one of the most memorable parts of the Scott Pilgrim comics . A high schooler jilt by the Word of God ’s supporter , Knives becomes a stalker deflect on take revenge . Wright cast newcomer Ellen Wong in the part , and she sells every pulsation of Knives ' arc perfectly . While Scott ’s journeying to maturity date is maintain front and middle , Knives ' progression from heartbreak to demurrer , to ultimate espousal channel just as much weight . Knives even end up with Scott in thefilm ’s original termination . Wong is fantastic in this movie , and her shortage of movie roles since is a legitimate travesty .
Phillip (Bill Nighy) - Shaun Of The Dead
One of a handful of player to appear in all three of Wright ’s " Cornetto Trilogy " motion-picture show , warhorse histrion Bill Nighy makes the biggest impression inShaun of the Dead . As Shaun ’s gruff step - dad Phillip , Nighy does a half - zombiefied deadpan utterly , and even as his reference is about to die , it seems like that ’s all there is to Phillip . Then , in his terminal second , Phillip has an aroused heart to center with Shaun , and amid a zombie car pursual , the two are forced to intromit that they care about each other . This all lead to one of the motion picture ’s best emotional payoffs .
Throughout the film , Shaun has been correct people when they call Phillip his pop , insist " He ’s my Step - Dad " . As Shaun and his admirer are about to give up a zombiefied Phillip in his machine , Shaun ’s mother Barbara insists they ca n’t leave his dad .
Shaun : He ’s not my pappa .
Barbara : Oh Shaun , I wish you would stop with that-
Shaun : No , I mean he was my dad , but he ’s not any longer !
beau ideal .
Ed (Nick Frost) - Shaun Of The Dead
Nick Frost , over the course of Wright ’s three Cornetto motion-picture show , trade three character who could easily have conduct this maculation . His naiveSgt . Butterman fromHot Fuzzis always uproarious , and Andy fromThe World ’s Endis his best dramatic work . Still , Ed rest his most pictorial conception .
Everyone has had a supporter who was holding them back , or at the very least reverted them back to their youthful selves , and Ed is the ultimate version of this . hoarfrost get comedic gold out of Ed ’s continuing laziness ( " I ’ll do it on the night " he says after being postulate to impersonate a zombi ) , but there ’s an endearing pathos to him too . Ed ’s ability to bring down Shaun can be galling , but as the end of the film seems to indicate , Shaun should n’t have to rent go of Ed , and by extension , his old self , completely .
Baby (Ansel Elgort) Baby Driver
This may be a disputative choice , as Baby seemed to rub a lot of masses the wrong way , but this appears to come up from a misunderstanding of Baby as a fictional character . Despite all grounds to the contrary , Baby is n’t supposed to be cool . He ’s a new guy wire trying extremely hard to be cool . Whether he ’s quote thing he saw on TV , obsess over his perfect soundtrack , or taking his date out to a restaurant he get a line someone else advert , it ’s clean Baby does n’t have a great deal of life history experience . Hispop culture knowledgeserves as both an escape valve from literal life history and a buffer zone to keep anyone from getting to live him . It also drowns out the consequences of his criminality , further isolate him from make grown - up decisions . Wright has pandered to movie nerds before , but Baby is his most honest look at crack fandom . At it ’s effective it can enhance real life , at it ’s worst , it shields you from it . Like Scott Pilgrim , many people mistakenly took Baby as a role model , but looking at his filmography , Wright ’s intentions are clear .
Baby is a critical , fond , self - portrait .
Gary King (Simon Pegg) The World’s End
The World ’s Endmight be Wright ’s most complex motion picture , and it has frequent collaborator Simon Pegg ’s best execution at its shopping centre . A heavily - partying teenager who has never leave the heights of his elderly year , Gary King is a pickle , but the way that mess drips through his fun outside is endlessly compelling and admirably subtle . WhileTheWorld ’s Endgot a lot of bunkum for it ’s stop , King ’s journeying there is all but an inevitableness . After 20 years of surd imbibing , he ’s finally forced toface the hangover . As for his last moments , Gary ’s nostalgia has n’t vanish , it ’s just evolved .
Starting the movie romanticizing his high school years , Gary end it nostalgic for that romanticization . He ’s nostalgic for his previous nostalgia . Gary may have complain his potomania , but his habituation to looking back , at the past , is in full intact . Still , there ’s hope to the fact that at least he ’s now enjoying it . In fact , a lot of Wright ’s main characters seem to approach life this mode . A warmth for the past , and a blind charge , weapons pull in , towards the future .
