With muscles that can rival anyone in Hollywood, Vin Diesel is one of the most badass actors in the world.
He has mega-franchises built around him (Fast & Furious, xXx, Riddick); he stars in critically-acclaimed films by Academy Award-winning directors (Saving Private Ryan, Find Me Guilty, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), and he lends his voice to one of the coolest characters to ever hit the screen (Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy).
Diesel helped take the Furious series from a one-off movie about street racing into one of the biggest action franchises in film history. On top of all his movie success, Diesel finds time to stay ripped and shredded in the gym too—here are 10 of his most muscular moments—is there anything this guy can’t do?
It sure doesn’t seem like it. If you need a true movie star, Diesel is your man.
Here are Diesel’s 5 most badass movie roles of all time.
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Toorop, Babylon A.D.
Character Name: Hugo Cornelius Toorop
Movie:Babylon A.D.
How Diesel made the role badass: Even though this film wasn’t as big of a hit as the Furious and Riddick series, it has some of the best action scenes of Diesel’s career. The musclebound actor plays Hugo Toorop, a mercenary and smuggler in the near future who has to bring a mysterious woman to New York. Diesel plays Toorop with a smoldering dark side and uses his expert skills at weapons and hand-to-hand fighting to take down bad guy after bad guy. The visuals of future New York are awesome and the action is intense with Diesel leading a snowmobile chase through the snow, an explosive car chase on a bridge, and a major gunfight on the streets of NYC.
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The Last Witch Hunter, Kaulder
Character Name: Kaulder
Movies:The Last Witch Hunter
How Diesel made the role badass: Diesel goes with swords over guns for this fantasy epic from 2015. In a part that was sparked by the actor’s love of Dungeons & Dragons (he’s a huge fan of the game) Diesel portrays an immortal, witch-hunting badass who needs to save New York City—and the world. Diesel sports a wild beard for part of the film before going to his clean-shaven look and along the way he fights against supernatural forces, dark magic, and and ventures to a scary-looking “Dream World” where he takes on huge monsters.
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Riddick, Chronicles of Riddick series
Character Name: Richard B. Riddick a.k.a. Riddick
Movies:Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick
How Diesel made the role badass: Diesel’s Riddick character was the breakout star of the sci-fi/action film Pitch Black, stealing the show as the antihero criminal with the ability to see in the dark. No one was expecting a film franchise to come out of the movie, but that’s exactly what happened due to the charisma and badass brute strength of Diesel as the character—also because of the awesome action scenes where Diesel took down aliens and other bad guys. Following the sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick in 2004, Diesel brought the franchise back to life with Riddick in 2013 and there’s a good chance a fourth film in the franchise is coming too.
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Xander Cage, xXx series
Character Name: Xander Cage a.k.a. Triple X
Movies:xXx, xXx: Return of Xander Cage
How Diesel made the role badass: One of Diesel’s first major action films—following his breakouts in The Fast and the Furious and Pitch Black—the first xXx installment was basically an extreme sports version of James Bond and Diesel played it to perfection. One of the most badass scenes in xXx comes early on when Diesel leads police on a chase before driving a car off of a bridge and leaping out of it, pulling his parachute before and gliding down safely before the car explodes. He also rides away from an enemy helicopter on a motorbike and makes his way down a mountain during an avalanche—all in a day’s work for Cage.
Diesel sat out the second installment of the series, xXx: State of the Union, but he decided to resurrect the franchise for a third installment, xXx: Return of Xander Cage. The new film looks like it will take extreme to the next level—Diesel skateboards on the side of a bus, skis through a jungle, and rides a motorcycle under water. As Samuel L. Jackson’s character sums up in the trailer: “Kick some ass, get the girl, and try and look dope while you’re doing it.” Watch the action here.
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Dom Toretto, Fast & Furious series
Character Name: Dominic “Dom” Toretto
Movies:The Fast and the Furious, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious
How Diesel made the role badass: As the leader of the Furious crew and the main character of the multi-billion dollar franchise, Diesel’s Toretto is always front and center on the action—and so are his massive muscles. Whether it’s completely defying physics by launching himself off a moving car across a bridge to save Michelle Rodriguez’s character from certain death, or dueling with Jason Statham in one of the wildest car chases to ever hit the big screen, Diesel kicks major ass as Dom.
For the newest installment of the series, The hugely anticipated The Fate of the Furious, Toretto falls under the spell of Charlize Theron’s villain and turns against his “family.” Expect a major throwdown between Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s character Luke Hobbs in the film. Toretto is now one of the most iconic action-movie characters in Hollywood history after the way Diesel totally embodied the role in the series.
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Bonus: Groot, Guardians of the Galaxy series
Character Name: Groot (and Baby Groot)
Movies:Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War
Even though Diesel technically is only the voice of Groot, it’s impossible to leave the character off this list. Diesel’s has made the humanoid tree-monster one of the most popular characters in the Marvel universe and his line of “I am Groot,” which are the only three words he can actually say, has become a pop culture staple. Groot is a scene-stealing character in the film with his awesome abilities and he’ll be back for the second installment of Guardians, although this time it’ll be the Baby Groot version.
