10 Iconic Movie Characters That Defined The 1990s

A handful of movie characters defined the 1990s with their attitude, sense of style, and impact on pop culture. They are not characteristic of the decade because they are the stars of any one of the highest-grossing movies of the 90s but because they exemplify all the trends and sensibilities of the time. They possibly helped make some of these trends popular, depending on when the movie came out and how popular it was.

The 90s saw the rise of grunge and gothic fashion, sarcastic and referential humor, teenage rebellion at its max, and an undercurrent fear about the end of the world. Yet it wasn’t so completely bleak — there were still plenty of rom-coms, fun adventure movies, or save-the-world hits that promised humanity would pull through. Movie characters who embody the 1990s are defiant but ironically hopeful, as they will often endure anything that comes their way.

10 Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Tim Burton’s place as a cinematic giant was cemented in the 90s, after his several hit movies in the latter half of the previous decade. While Burton was busy with other projects, his idea for The Nightmare Before Christmas was handed off to his collaborator Henry Selick. Meanwhile, the strangely intriguing drama Edward Scissorhands kicked off the decade with one of the most famous titles featuring multiple actors who often star in Burton’s movies.

Edward Scissorhands made Burton’s candy-coated gothic aesthetic a staple of the decade. Johnny Depp’s Edward is a Frankenstein-reminiscent character who intrudes upon a setting that is reminiscent of properties from an earlier time — very symbolically representing the darker (both literal and metaphorical) style that defines the 90s. Edward’s gothic fashion, with just a touch of incredulity, makes him one of the earliest characters who exemplifies his time.

9 Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin)

Home Alone (1990)

The same year that Edward had his star-crossed romance with Winona Ryder, eight-year-old Kevin came to represent an idealized independence from a young age. Kevin is remarkably clever and vicious for a child, setting some very painful traps for the two burglars who attempt to invade his home while his family is abroad. However, despite its darker aspects that lean into the edginess of the 90s, Home Alone is still a heartwarming Christmas tale.

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Kevin gets into some typical fights with his parents because he feels overshadowed by his siblings. However, the movie positions Kevin as the wise one when he can hold his own after his parents forget him and go to Paris; he also encourages a lonely neighbor to reconnect with his son, something the man would have apparently never attempted on his own. In the end, all is right because of Kevin: His parents come home and apologize, and the neighbor reunites with his son and granddaughter.

8 Neo (Keanu Reeves)

The Matrix (1999)

Permeating the 90s was a certain amount of existential dread about the impending end of the millennium. The Matrix came out at the perfect time if it was hoping to achieve extra dramatic effect — just months before Y2K, with a new modern cyberpunk take on the apocalypse. However, The Matrix doesn’t overwhelm the audience with terror about machines revolting because of its level-headed protagonist, another classic 90s hero.

Neo (and Trinity) is where the style of the 90s meets the end of the world. As a hacker, Neo is well-versed in the technology being developed at the time, while all the characters don one of two 90s aesthetics throughout the movie: laid-back, threadbare minimalist while in the real world or sleek punk-rock while in the Matrix. Neo’s understated attitude while fighting agents and computers makes him just the action star needed to complete the decade.

7 Woody (Tom Hanks)

Toy Story (1995)

The results of the then-incredibly strange advancement of 3D computer animation would not be seen in movies outside of Pixar until the very early 2000s. For five years, give or take, the medium was entirely associated with Toy Story and the Pixar movies that followed it. This fact, combined with some of Tom Hanks’ best movies coming out in the 90s, makes the character of Woody the cowboy doll the embodiment of multiple cinematic milestones of the decade.

Additionally, Woody’s mean-spirited sense of humor can be called characteristic of the 90s — but the entire first movie is about him realizing his flaws. Woody, like some of the other fan-favorite characters of his time, is a perfect blend of sarcastic and heartfelt. Toy Story makes his jealousy of Buzz understandable enough that he can be forgiven for it by the third act. Additionally, Toy Story 2 also came out in the 90s, making Woody and his friends some of the most groundbreaking characters of the decade.

6 Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet)

Titanic (1997)

Rose is a period drama star for the 90s. Her approach to the problem of being discontent in her formal, upper-class life and impending arranged marriage is to simply run away. Even after her only support in her planned new life dies in the Titanic sinking, she sticks to her plan. There are no concerns about the practicalities — she can just get a job, like every other unqualified barista in the 1990s.

Rose is independent and rebellious and delivers some brutally accurate retorts to her insipid mother and cruel fiancé. However, Rose is also dramatic and romantic, and the older version of her conveys a sense of a life well-lived, at the end of which she has incomparable wisdom from years of keeping secrets. Titanic is possibly the most impactful movie of the 90s, in which Rose is not just one half of a star-crossed romance; she is a young woman at a crossroads in her life when she steps on board the doomed Titanic.

5 Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

In 10 Things I Hate About You, the entire high school treats Kat like she is “the shrew,” the odd one out — when only she and Patrick seem to have gotten the message that they exist in a 90s movie. Kat transforms the long-standing theory that Shakespeare’s character isn’t intolerable but just a woman who doesn’t feel like catering to the patriarchy, demonstrated by Kat’s disinterest in impressing anyone at school and her taste for feminist prose. However, Kat is also an example of a real-life teenager who is busy embracing all the trends of the decade.

Kat has a muted fashion sense, adores indie rock, and generally does not care about anything. The only way she could be more 90s is if she showed up wearing flannel to school every day. However, the movie also depicts her romance with Patrick, reconciling the iconic rom-coms of the 90s with their somewhat contrasting sensibilities. 10 Things I Hate About You recounts Shakespeare’s story through a modern lens and could not have been released at a more perfect time.

4 Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton)

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The Terminator’s apocalyptic musings and leather-wearing heroes would have been very suited to the 1990s, but the movie came out several years too early. However, the latter decade gets to claim the best Terminator movie, with Terminator 2: Judgment Day setting the bar for the best action movies of the 1990s early on. Meanwhile, Sarah Connor’s drastic character change from the first movie sees her transform into the perfect action heroine for a new decade.

In The Terminator, Sarah is an understandably terrified young woman who demonstrates the potential to become one of her world’s saviors. In T2, she returns as an expert at hand-to-hand combat and all kinds of weaponry, as well as having become a mom with a decidedly tough love approach. In short, she has all the edge needed to be a quintessential 90s character, despite having originated in the 1980s. It goes to show that the 90s lays claim to all the best parts of the Terminator franchise.

3 Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The Shawshank Redemption depicts multiple storylines that speak to a 90s audience, with the biggest one being Andy’s achievement of pulling one over on the corrupt administration of Shawshank Prison with his ingenious escape. However, narrating all of Andy’s exploits is the ever-calm “man who knows how to get things” known as Red. Through Morgan Freeman’s layered performance, Red is always calm but still conveys a sense of being deeply impressed by Andy’s resilience.

Red’s narration has an essence of not caring at all, yet he is clearly passionate about the events happening around him. It is no wonder that Freeman became a go-to cinematic narrator when he can portray so many emotions with very simple dialogue. Red is an observer whose years at Shawshank have left him with a morbid but hopeful wisdom about the world and the lives of the people he meets.

2 Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)

Fight Club (1999)

Fight Club is about confronting the threat of consumerism and capitalism in the most outrageous way possible. Embodying all the movie’s diatribes about corporate greed and Starbucks having too many locations is the surreal figure of Tyler Durden. Tyler lives in a run-down house and espouses philosophies about how his followers should free themselves from their humdrum lives. His wardrobe varies from leather jackets and sunglasses to a bathrobe patterned with brightly colored, steaming cups of tea.

Tyler is all the 90s discourses of rebellion taken to the extreme and conveyed via a singular character. Because of Fight Club’s twist ending, the Narrator’s nihilistic monologues can also be associated with Tyler’s character. On a different note, Forrest Gump’s character is perhaps too innocent and associated with too many earlier historical events to truly embody the 90s. However, Tyler ironically quoting Forrest Gump is completely faithful to the decade’s culture.

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10 TV Shows That Are Essential To Understanding The 1990s

Some television series completely encapsulate the decade in which they are made; these are the essential shows for understanding the 1990s.

1 Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction is as iconic of an image associated with the 90s as there can be. Mia is casual about everything, even being the wife of a crime boss, and does whatever she wants. Crime dramas were on the rise in the 90s; while the widely criticized final installment of The Godfather trilogy came out in 1990, the genre soon made a comeback with Quentin Tarantino’s breakout in Hollywood. Furthermore, Mia’s dialogue is characteristic of the dark and meta humor that spread throughout movies and TV in the 90s.

Mia takes self-referential humor to the next level, alluding to a movie that would come out 10 years later. However, her strange and tense dance with Vincent to “You Can Never Tell” captures a nostalgia for an earlier decade in a uniquely 90s way. Pulp Fiction is one of the biggest movies of the 1990s, and Mia is one of its most characteristic figures of the many iconic characters who embody the era.