A pop-culture term often used in reference to fictional book characters, morally gray describes individuals who toe the line between good and bad. They are not a hero, not a fully committed villain, but rather characters who fall into the middle area, often double-dipping in hero and villain-like tendencies. Ambiguous as to where their moral compass points, it isn't always North, but not South enough to make them irredeemable. They follow their own code that oftentimes mis-aligns with the societal norm.

During the past few decades, movies have made their run at providing audiences with morally gray characters to root for, ship, and relate to. These characters would flounder onscreen, losing appeal to audiences, if it weren't for the masterful performances and dedicated writing behind them. From those adapted from written works to original characters, the best morally gray characters of the 21st Century appear in multiple genres, long-running franchises, and Oscar-nominated features.

10 Lisbeth Salander

'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (2011)

In the role that earned her her first Oscar nomination, Rooney Mara brings to the screen the morally complicated hacker of the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander. The feature film was based on the Swedish crime novels created by Stieg Larsson. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) as he teams up with Lisbeth in his search for answers in a 40-year-old murder mystery. Lisbeth is an emotionally cold but calculated character who falls into the shades of gray in the investigative thriller genre.

When necessary, Lisbeth removes the shy exterior and replaces it with that of an agent of retribution. This persona allows her to exact brutal revenge on characters who reflect the same predatorial behavior she experienced in childhood. Her motivations and driving forces are to punish those for violence against women. Lisbeth falls into the gray because she follows her own path for answers using any means necessary, ethical or not. Unfortunately, audiences wouldn't see just how far Mara could take the character down the gray and moral path after future installments were axed due to low box-office turnout.

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9 Toby Howard

'Hell or High Water' (2016)

Robbing the bank to pay them back is the epitome of morally gray and quite an interesting crime scheme for Toby Howard. In Taylor Sheridan's Hell or High Water, Chris Pine stars as one half of the Howard Brothers, a pair of Texas ranchers whose family homestead is about to be foreclosed upon by the bank. Toby and Tanner (Ben Foster) conduct a series of heists against that same bank, using the money to pay the lien. Gritty and dark, the entire film and Toby's character bleed gray as audiences identify with not only the plight of the Howard brothers but that of the entire town as well.

Divorced and doing everything he can to make a better future for his sons, Toby turns to crime in order to break the generational poverty that plagues his family. During the robberies, he makes it clear to the bank patrons that they are only after the bank's money, not theirs. Toby's calculated and methodical approach to only stealing enough to set their finances straight demonstrates where his morality lies despite his means of achieving the goal. Pine's performance was Oscar-worthy despite missing out on the film's four nominations.

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8 John Wick

John Wick Franchise (2014-)

What started as just a simple premise for an action flick starring the legend himself, Keanu Reeves, quickly turned into a full-fledged franchise. Kicking off the first movie, the titular character, John Wick (Reeves), is a former hitman brought out of retirement to seek revenge on a group of criminals who killed his dog and stole his car. This catalyst created a domino effect for the sequences of events that take place in the subsequent (and upcoming) installments.

Wick is his own shade of gray in an action genre filled with distinctly good guys, bad guys, "good" bad guys, and "bad" good guys (still with us?). However, Wick's character is structured on neutrality in the grayness of being a hitman. While killing is inherently bad, Wick kills for a purpose against those who wronged him (and the unfortunate rabbit hole of connections his successful hits fall down). The John Wick franchise thrives on its audience understanding and rooting for a protagonist who isn't a hero or a villain but the morally gray in-between.

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7 Jack Sparrow

'Pirates of the Caribbean' Franchise (2003-2017)

A complex persona for a man who's always looking out for number one, Jack Sparrow may be the quirky hero of sorts, but his moral compass always points to what he wants most. The infamous former captain of the Black Pearl, Jack (Johnny Depp) may be daft and absurd, but there is a madness to his methods as he gets himself in and out of trouble over the course of the franchise. From the beginning, Jack demonstrates he's willing to use anyone to get what he wants, making deals and omitting details of his logic to manipulate, like knowing Will Turner's (Orlando Bloom) blood was what Barbossa needed to break the curse.

Throughout the franchise, Jack's comedic and heroic(ish) timing tilts him one way, while his refusal to take accountability for his debts and actions tilts him back the other way, ultimately landing him in the gray area—he is a pirate after all. His honesty and dishonesty are always in question, demonstrating just how complicated this character is and how easily he's willing to sell out one side or another as long as he gets out relatively unscathed.

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6 The Bride

'Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2' (2003-2004)

Admitting she lacks mercy, The Bride narrowly falls into the gray area of the revenge genre. Awakened from a coma, The Bride (Uma Thurman) begins her mission of vengeance as she seeks out the team of assassins and ex-lover who betrayed her. Originally released as two volumes, the Kill Bill series drew from the samurai and Spaghetti Western films before it to feature a female antihero fully capable of exacting her own revenge. A former assassin, The Bride was robbed of her happily ever after, having been left for dead at the altar by Bill (David Carradine).

While her primary focus is to kill Bill, she's also looking for solace once she reaches that destination with a new version of that happily ever after. This violent mission finds The Bride crossing moral lines left and right, occasionally jumping back to morality, like when she invites 4-year-old Nikki (Ambrosia Kelley) to exact her own revenge against The Bride someday for killing her mother, Vernita (Vivica A. Fox). It's not a great look, but it's a gray one to give Nikki the opportunity to one day settle her own score. When viewed as a whole from start to finish, The Bride's arc just scratches the surface of morally gray.

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5 Severus Snape

'Harry Potter' Franchise (2001-2011)

In a franchise where the hero and villain represent the polar opposites of the spectrum, there is always room for a much-welcome, morally gray character. Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), always vying for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, exudes moral ambiguity up until the final installments of the franchise. It's unclear whether his intentions are against Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) or to protect him from Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). In the movie adaptations, audiences are dropped hints that sway Snape into one camp or the other.

Snape and the franchise characters are based on the best-selling novels by J.K. Rowling, a series where morality and doing the right thing are not always black and white. For morally gray characters, redemption isn't always in the cards. For Snape, his arc isn't dependent on a major redemption but rather the revelation of his behind-the-scenes purpose, which ultimately doesn't excuse his bullying and sometimes vindictive behavior toward Harry.

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4 Harley Quinn

'Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn' (2020)

It is a breakout film for this iconic comic character; there's no denying the shades of gray Harley Quinn plays with. With her first go-around in 2016's Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie's portrayal beautifully set up Harley's moral ambiguity internally and externally as she questions her identity and relationship with Joker (Jared Leto). The movie tanked with critics and DC Universe fans alike. However, when Robbie donned the pigtails once again in Birds of Prey, audiences came running.

As she sets out to make a name for herself, Harley colors with multiple shades of gray as she decides what kind of person she chooses to be post-Joker. Consistently throughout the movie, Harley must choose between herself and others, most often choosing the former before pivoting to the latter. While she still relishes being a criminal of sorts, she proves her soft spot for young women still finding their purpose or who've lost their way. She returned for more hijinks and criminals-doing-good in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad in 2021, reprising her morally gray persona all over again. Robbie, as Harley in the trio of films, ensured the character's live-action legacy as one of the cinema's strongest female film characters.

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3 Kylo Ren

'Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII, IX' (2015-2019)

In a franchise centered around battling the Dark Side, Kylo Ren introduced a whole lot of gray, providing a new antagonist for generations of Star Wars fans, old and new. Kylo (Adam Driver) proved to be morally ambiguous from the start as he attempted to fill the presence left by Darth Vader (James Earl Jones). A reincarnation of Vader, Kylo struggles with identity issues, stumbling through his reign in the First Order and allegiance to Snoke (Andy Serkis). Struggling to fill the shadow or step out from it, Kylo's grayness of antagonist versus lost soul became more apparent as the episode trilogy wore on.

A driving force of Kylo's character color wheel was his relationship with Rey (Daisy Ridley). Rey's unwavering allegiance to the Force and using it for good allowed her to continuously chip away at Kylo's darkened exterior until his perspective shifted. Just as audiences believed he was coming into his own as a villain, Kylo's moral ambiguity started to shift and ultimately led to a redemption arc in the final episode. The modern episodes of the franchise rely on nostalgia and happy endings, allowing its newest antagonist to end on a high note.

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2 V

'V for Vendetta' (2005)

In a unique instance, V falls into the gray for his roles as both a hero and a villain. The feature film is based on the dystopian graphic novel by Alan Moore. V (Hugo Weaving) is a freedom fighter, a shadowy figure responsible for terrorist attacks as he seeks to overthrow the now tyrannical British government. He is joined in his efforts by a young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman). In the film version, V's ultimate motives are based on liberation instead of anarchism, which tips the meters toward the hero, while his methods tip him toward the villain.

The complexity of V for Vendetta and the socio-political themes play into V's development as morally gray; however, in one significant change from the graphic novel to screen, V develops a budding romantic relationship with Evey. This, although limited, relationship further blurs V away from a brutal antihero and into the gray of a man seeking to build a better future for those he cares about through questionable means.

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1 Loki

Marvel Cinematic Universe (2011-2018)

The God of Mischief or God of Morally Gray? Excluding his widely successful jump to television, Loki proved to be one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's best morally ambiguous characters. Since his first outing as the iconic character, Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of Loki had audiences hooked with 2011's Thor. With a chip on his shoulder and standing in Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) and Odin's (Anthony Hopkins) shadow, Loki sought for multiple films to rule as he was burdened with glorious purpose.

As Loki discovered he was not truly Odin's son, he descended into the villainous rage that saw him as the central antagonist of The Avengers. As the MCU expanded, Loki slowly let go of his passion for ruling as he began to learn the meaning of trust, fighting beside Thor in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok. By the time Loki's character meets his abrupt and unexpected fate in Avengers: Infinity War, his dynamic shifted from threat to ally. However, there always remained a certain trepidation about whether Loki was being honest or manipulative. To watch Loki's leap to television, check out Loki on Disney+.

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NEXT: 10 Movies That Prove Superheroes Aren't Always Righteous