Phil Connors (Groundhog Day)
The Cool Loner: Misanthropic TV weatherman Phil is not one for company, with his social life seemingly restricted to a couple of co-workers whom he openly dislikes. Bah humbug!
Does He Find A Friend: After reliving the same day many, many times, Phil finally realises that he’s in love with his colleague, Rita. Took him long enough to work it out, mind…
Willy Wonka (Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory)
The Cool Loner: An eccentric businessman living almost exclusively behind closed doors with only a workforce of orange midgets for company. Nothing odd about that…
Does He Find A Friend: A friend and successor in the form of young Charlie Bucket.
Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)
The Cool Loner: An exceedingly wealthy and increasingly dissolute oddball, Gatsby manages to pull off the rather impressive feat of being both loner and socialite simultaneously.
Does He Find A Friend: He has an inner circle of close acquaintances, but whether any of them actually manage to penetrate his barriers is up for debate.
Marv (Sin City)
The Cool Loner: A psychotic, extremely violent headcase with a heart of gold. Well, silver maybe. Okay, bronze…
Does He Find A Friend: Not really, but he does feed a cannibalistic serial killer to a hungry dog, so every cloud…
George McFly (Back To The Future)
The Cool Loner: A slightly pervy misfit who manages to pluck up the courage to stand up to the bad guys and get himself the girl.
Does He Find A Friend: He finds a wife! The very same wife he used to spy on getting changed. Ah, romance…
Henry Spencer (Eraserhead)
The Cool Loner: A bizarre wackjob living in a dismal little flat with his girlfriend, who promptly leaves him after the birth of their first “child”…
Does He Find A Friend: He looks after his bizarre mutant son, if that counts?
Olive Penderghast (Easy A)
The Cool Loner: Poor old Olive finds herself a social outcast at her conservative high school when she pretends to have slept with her childhood buddy.
Does She Find A Friend: They all come crawling back in the end, by which point Olive has also managed to net herself a boyfriend. No longer a loner!
Riddick (Pitch Black)
The Cool Loner: Violent mercenary Riddick begins the movie as the bad guy and ends up the anti-hero, thanks largely to his uncanny talent for self-preservation.
Does He Find A Friend: He ends up bonding with Radha Mitchell’s straight-laced heroine, but sadly, they don’t have much time to strike up a real accord…
Norman Bates (Psycho)
The Cool Loner: With his poor old mother “housebound”, poor Norman has to run the family business all on his own. No wonder he doesn’t have much time to make friends…
Does He Find A Friend: Sadly, he usually ends up killing anyone who comes too close. Pity.
The Hulk (The Avengers)
The Cool Loner: Bruce Banner begins the movie in a very lonely place indeed, living incognito in the middle of nowhere, desperately trying to keep his powers under control.
Does He Find A Friend: He does, thanks to the rest of the Avengers, who take him to their bosom. Eventually…
Jim Carrey used to shun sequels to "move on and do something new" but changed his mind when playing Robotnik in the Sonic movies: "I'd like to have a character that I could sit with for a bit"
Ryan Reynolds says joining the Avengers will be the end of the hero as "his ultimate dream is to be accepted"
