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Rutger Hauer in the low-budget flick Hobo With a Shotgun
Photo: Karim Hussain, Courtesy Magnet Releasing

There are performers who play vengeful with a vengeance: Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Liam Neeson, Ashley Judd. Then there’s retribution personified. We’re talking, of course, about Rutger Hauer. As Roy Batty, the skin job with a silicon soul in 1982’s Blade Runner, Hauer thumbs out the eyes of his omniscient creator, Dr. Tyrell. In The Hitcher, he punishes C. Thomas Howell by staging an automotive tug-of-war with girlfriend Jennifer Jason Leigh as the rope. With the May 6 release of low-budget grindhouse flick Hobo With a Shotgun, he expands his repertoire to revenge-fueled drifter. With a shotgun. “I don’t make the decision about what percentage of good guy or bad guy I play,” Hauer says. “For some reason, if I put my energy into the bad guy, that scares people. It’s magic.” Lucky for us, it’s magic he’s willing to share: In 2006, the veteran thespian launched the Rutger Hauer Filmfactory in his native Netherlands to teach a new generation the art of evil. Let’s hope Hollywood is soon flooded by an army of Hauer disciples looking to get even.