1

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)

Image: superneox lightsaber

Luke Skywalker is one of pop culture’s most beloved icons. In the first "Star Wars" movie, this young man goes from a life of solitude and safe boredom to a wondrous journey filled with lasers and space magic. Luke not only finds invaluable friends, mentors, and comrades, but he also discovers the purpose he has been looking for his entire life.

Mark Hamill portrayed this character for over 40 years, from his days as a young Jedi apprentice in 1977 "A New Hope", to Luke’s last days as a wise hermit in 2017 "The Last Jedi". You would think that being typecast for such a long time would discourage Hamil, but the actor seems to always be happy to portray Luke on the big screen.

2

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford)

Image: Colton Jones

Indiana Jones proved to an entire generation that archaeologists can be cool too! Harrison Ford first brought this iconic adventurer to life in the 1981 classic "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and continued to portray him for 4 more films, with the last one in the series (so far) being released in 2023.

Indiana is instantly recognizable through his wide-brimmed fedora, his trusted whip, and his quick-witted sense of humor. There’s not much we can say about this character that’s not already common knowledge, so we’ll end this entry with a less-known fact: Did you know that Indy’s full name is Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr?

3

Superman (Christopher Reeve)

Image: Jon Tyson

While up to date over 13 actors have portrayed " the Man of Steel " on film since the character’s creation in 1938, a pretty strong argument could be made that Christopher Reeve’s performance in the 1978 movie "Superman" truly brought this iconic superhero to life.

Reeve was just perfect for the part: He effortlessly brought a level of nuance and depth to Superman while still maintaining the warmth and disposition that made him a pop culture icon. In the end, Reeve is able to show us that, just like every American hero, Superman’s main source of strength is his heart.

4

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox)

Image: Roger Ce

Marty McFly , the quick-witted and hot-headed protagonist of the "Back to the Future" trilogy, was meant to represent a typical American teenager. And yet, Marty is by all means definitively way cooler than the average teenager: He is charismatic, an amazing guitar player (so much so that he "invented" rock n’ roll), and extremely proficient with his trusted skateboard.

Much of Marty’s legacy as a pop icon can be attributed to Michael J. Fox’s performance. This amazing actor was able to portray Marty’s coolness as well as his bravery, sensitivity, and daredevil ways. Almost 40 years have passed since the release of the first "Back to the Future", but most of us still get goosebumps whenever we see Marty and his iconic Delorean speeding up through time.

5

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)

Image: Diego Marín

Few sci-fi characters inspire the awe and admiration that Ellen Ripley does. The very first movie in the Alien series depicts her as a cool-headed and strategic leader, who almost single-handedly manages to defeat one of the deadliest creatures in the universe.

As the films went on, Ripley’s guts and strength continued to grow, saving the Earth from a full-blown alien invasion on at least three different occasions. Portrayed by legendary actress Sigourney Weaver, Ripley is to this day considered to be one of the toughest characters in this genre’s history.

6

John McClane (Bruce Willis)

Image: Matt The Artist

Is John McClane the ultimate action hero? That’s definitively a heated debate, so it might be better to set that question aside for another article. However, no one can deny that Bruce Willis’ character in this groundbreaking series is one of the finest cops the NYPD has to offer.

Based on a character from the 1979 novel "Nothing Lasts Forever", John McClane is a sarcastic, wisecracking, and particularly skilled detective who finds himself in dangerous situations in which he is forced to single-handedly save the day. Willis has played McClane in five different films, which go from the original 1988 film to 2013’s "A Good Day to Die Hard".

7

Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)

Image: Yosuke Ota

Some believe that Forrest Gump is the quintessential American protagonist, and with good reason: Whether it's his huge heart or a random stroke of luck, Forrest seems to always be at the right place at the right time. Not only that, but his personal story seems to be directly connected to major turning points during the latter half of the 20th century.

Portrayed by Tom Hanks in an outstanding performance that earned him an Academy Award, Forrest Gump is a simple-minded but warmhearted and extremely talented Alabama man who lives an extraordinary life. His search for his childhood love takes him on a journey throughout American history: Forrest teaches Elvis how to dance, helps expose the Watergate Scandal, and runs a three-year marathon across the United States.

8

The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood)

Image: Luis Domenech

Let’s start this entry by addressing the elephant in the room: Yes, Clint Eastwood’s iconic cowboy character does have a name. In fact, he has several: In the three movies this laid-back and quiet gunslinger appears, he is called by several names including "Blondie", "Joe", and "Manco". However, the truth of the matter is that a man with many names is the same as a man with none, so in the end "The Man with No Name" seems like an appropriate title.

Eastwood played this taciturn antihero in "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." While his most notable characteristic is his silent manners, he is also instantly recognizable by his poncho and tan cowboy boots.

9

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone)

Image: Zane Burko

Rocky’s story, both inside and outside the movie set, can be summed up into a single word: Resilience. In the first film, released in 1976, Rocky is an up-and-coming club boxer who risks it all at a shot at the heavyweight title. Likewise, Sylvester Stallone was a financially broke actor when he wrote the screenplay for "Rocky" in just three days. However, he resisted and persevered with his intent of playing the titular character, which eventually resulted in his most iconic movie role.

After the first movie became a huge hit, winning the Oscar for Best Picture, Stallone reprised this Philadelphia boxer in six different "Rocky" films. Not only that, Balboa has now taken on a mentor role in the franchise’s spin-off series "Creed".

10

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart)

Image: Darius

We’ll end this article with an American legend. The 1942 film " Casablanca " is now considered one of the most influential films of all time: It is consistently on the top of lists of the best films in history, and it was selected for preservation by the U.S. Congress in the National Film Registry. In that regard, much of what made this film so unforgettable comes from Humphrey Bogart’s performance as Rick Blaine, a cynical American expatriate with a heart of gold living in Casablanca, Morocco.

Alongside Detective Sam Spade, Rick is perhaps Bogart's most iconic character. His seemingly bitter persona hides the pain of his long-lost love Ilsa Lund, wonderfully portrayed by Ingrid Bergman. In the end, Boggart helps Ilsa and her husband escape the German army, showing his good nature before leaving Casablanca.

1

Townhouse

Image: Aman Kumar

Most commonly found in cities, townhouses have spacious layouts, more amenities than the condo styles, and lower maintenance than most residential homes. They’re typically two or three-story homes, usually sharing one or two walls with adjacent properties, and a rooftop deck to enjoy sprawling views.

While the most famous examples are the ones from New York or San Francisco, thanks to TV series and movies, these types of homes can be found all over the country.

2

Cape Cod

Image: Phil Hearing

Cape Cod houses bring to mind the classic American cottage style but with a weekend feel to them. This type of home design migrated from the UK to the United States, maintaining its symmetrical design and central chimney.

These houses feature a steep roof to keep snow from accumulating, dormer windows for added light, wood siding and shutters to keep the heat in, and hardwood floors for comfort and practicality.

3

Modern

Image: Avi Werde

Funny how the word "modern" is used to define things that happened 100 years ago, right? Emerging in the 1920s to embrace minimalism and reject the more ornate house styles, modern house styles include progressive elements such as asymmetrical exteriors, flat roofs, and integrated outdoor spaces.

Many modern interiors also feature minimal to zero molding and trim, neutral color palettes, and metal accents to accentuate the simplicity of its design.

4

Farmhouse

Image: Raychel Sanner

A house design that has been around for a long time, the farmhouse style was created back in the early 1700s, as housing for farmers and is all about practicality.

Modern farmhouses still showcase many of the same features from the original design such as large, wraparound front porches, clapboard siding, large fireplaces, wood floors, eat-in kitchens, and oversized kitchen sinks.

5

Craftsman

Image: Lernestorod

This style became increasingly popular in the 1900s and has remained a staple throughout the 21st century. Craftsman style adds charm to any neighborhood with its exterior features, including shingles, low-pitched roofs, and covered front porches.

These types of houses feature interior details such as thick trim, prominent ceiling beams, and built-in shelving and seating.

6

Contemporary

Image: James Kovin

A style often compared to modern style architecture, contemporary is very much a trend these days among house builders. These homes have simple forms without elaborate ornamentation or detail.

Showcasing geometric lines, large windows and doors to bring in light, and open floor plans, contemporary homes often incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly building materials, textures, and components, exposed roof beams, and flat or low-pitched roofs.

7

Cottage

Image: Czapp Botond

As the name implies, cottage houses of the 1920s and 30s were inspired by the cozy cottage-style houses of the English countryside, but with a more modern twist.

This style of house typically has a steep, thatched roof, arched doorways, and shuttered windows. They can be found in semi-rural areas, closed communities, and holiday spots, among other places.

8

Mid-Century Modern

Image: Lenalensen

A style that has been well represented in modern media, the mid-century modern style is part of the modernism movement and dates back to post-World War II, and remained popular throughout the 1970s.

This design is characterized by minimalism. Think of clean lines and floor-to-ceiling windows, open layouts, and a mix of natural and manufactured materials for the interior elements like wood, stone, steel, and plastic.

9

Colonial

Image: Mateus Campos Felipe

Another early style, colonial architecture has maintained its allure in many parts of the United States. These classic homes are known for their vintage charm, decorative doorways, and symmetrical window placement.

Many of these houses will be similar to the Cape Cod-style home because of their symmetry and side-gabled roofs but with two or three stories, fireplaces, and brick or wood exteriors.

10

Ranch

Image: Michal Průcha

A style that dates back to the 1930s, ranch homes grew in popularity during the 1950s and 1960s, and are still popular today. This architecture is known for its simple, single-story floor plan, low-to-the-ground look, often with an open layout and occasional basement.

With a smaller yard, attached garage, and a low-pitched roof, the ranch-style home often features large windows and sliding glass doors, encouraging an indoor-outdoor living style. A ranch can also be called a ‘rambler,’ depending on which region in the country it is located.

1

Cars are dramatically safer

Those enormous old cars may look indestructible, but appearances are deceiving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the average vehicle on the road in 2012 posed a 56% lower fatality risk to its occupants than the average vehicle of the late 1950s .

Seat belts, airbags, improved crash structures, electronic stability control, child restraints, and other innovations transformed driving. NHTSA estimates that vehicle safety technologies saved more than 600,000 lives between 1960 and 2012. We may love a beautiful classic car, but we'd rather crash in a modern one.

2

The air is cleaner

If you could travel back a few decades, one difference might hit you in the nose before anything else. Cigarette smoke was once commonplace in restaurants, offices, airplanes, and countless other public spaces. In 1965, an astonishing 42.4% of American adults smoked cigarettes. By 2022, that figure had fallen to 11.6%.

Outdoor air has improved, too. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that combined emissions of six major air pollutants dropped 79% between 1970 and 2024, even as the population, economy, and number of miles driven increased enormously . Whatever stylish old ads tell us, America literally breathes cleaner air today.

3

Medicine saves far more lives

Modern medicine isn't perfect, but compared with the not-so-distant past, its achievements can seem almost miraculous. In 1900, more than 30% of all American deaths occurred among children under five. Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea, and diphtheria were among the country's leading killers.

Vaccines, antibiotics, sanitation, diagnostics, surgery, and modern drugs changed that landscape. Cardiovascular death rates fell by roughly 60% between 1950 and the end of the 20th century , while treatments transformed diseases such as HIV. Today, the five-year survival rate across all cancers is approximately 70%, up from 20-25% in 1950.

4

Finding information takes seconds

Remember having to actually look something up in an encyclopedia? Before the internet, answering a simple question might involve a trip to the library, a telephone call, searching through reference books, or accepting that you simply weren't going to know the answer.

Today, most of humanity's accumulated knowledge is sitting inside the device in your pocket . By 2023, 95% of American adults were using the internet. A historical date, recipe, translation, weather forecast, repair manual, or explanation can appear within seconds.

5

Getting lost is no longer an option

Paper maps worked perfectly well: provided you knew where you were. Miss a highway exit, misunderstand someone's handwritten directions, or take one wrong turn in an unfamiliar city, and suddenly you might be pulling into a gas station to ask a stranger for help.

GPS changed all that. A breakthrough came in May 2000, when the U.S. government stopped deliberately degrading civilian GPS accuracy . Navigation eventually migrated into smartphones, adding turn-by-turn instructions, traffic conditions, alternate routes, and arrival estimates. Getting lost hasn't disappeared, but you almost have to work at it now.

6

Banking is almost instant

Banking once involved an impressive amount of paper. Checks had to physically move between financial institutions, deposits took time to clear, and many everyday transactions depended on whether your local bank happened to be open.

The transformation happened remarkably quickly. When Check 21 took effect in 2004, 100% of checks processed by Federal Reserve Banks were still handled as paper. By 2010, almost 99% were processed as electronic images. Today, online banking lets customers move money, pay bills, deposit checks, and monitor accounts without visiting a branch . FedNow even allows participating institutions to process payments around the clock, 365 days a year.

7

Buying almost anything is easier

Shopping used to depend heavily on geography. If the stores in your town didn't stock something, your options might involve a catalog, a long drive, a special order, or simply doing without it. Comparing prices could mean physically visiting several stores.

Online shopping demolished many of those limitations. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, Americans spent an estimated $326.7 billion through e-commerce, representing 16.9% of all retail sales. Consumers can now compare prices, hunt down obscure replacement parts, buy products from across the world, and have groceries delivered without putting on their shoes . Whether that's always good for us is another question.

8

Emergency Response is more capable

This country didn't even have a universal emergency telephone number until the late 1960s. The first American 911 call was placed in Haleyville, Alabama, in 1968. Early systems did little more than connect callers with an emergency answering point.

Today's systems can automatically provide callback and location information, helping responders find callers who may not even know exactly where they are . Next Generation 911 is expanding those capabilities further, allowing networks to handle digital data, text, and multimedia. Emergency response still varies enormously from place to place, but the technology available to find, understand, and help someone in trouble is worlds ahead of its predecessors.

9

Commercial flying is safer

Older air travel certainly had glamour: spacious seats, elaborate meals, and passengers dressed for the occasion. It also lacked decades' worth of safety lessons accumulated through engineering, regulation, training, maintenance, and painstaking accident investigations.

The results are dramatic. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that U.S. commercial aviation fatalities fell 95% per 100 million passengers over the two decades it examined . Worldwide, recent statistics put fatal airline accidents at roughly one per several million flights. Modern flying can still be uncomfortable, delayed, and frustrating, but the important part, arriving alive, has become astonishingly reliable.

10

Homes are more efficient, comfortable, and safe

A charming old house can be wonderful, until you discover the drafty windows, questionable wiring, terrible insulation, and complete absence of air conditioning. Nearly 90% of American households were using air conditioning by 2020 , something earlier generations could only have dreamed of during a sweltering summer.

Safety improved as well. Smoke alarms went from relative novelties to standard household equipment, and the death rate in reported home fires is about 60% lower when working alarms are present . Reported U.S. home fires themselves fell from roughly 734,000 in 1980 to about 363,000 four decades later.

11

Communicating with anyone is effortless

Not long ago, calling someone meant calling a place. If nobody was home, you tried again later. Long-distance calls could be expensive, international communication even more so, and letters might spend days traveling across the country.

Now the person travels with the telephone. Smartphone ownership among American adults climbed from just 35% in 2011 to 91% in 2025. A single pocket-sized device can make calls, send photographs, exchange messages, deliver email, host group conversations, and conduct live video calls across the planet .

12

Entertainment is available whenever you want it

Once upon a time, if your favorite television show aired at 8 p.m. on Thursday, you had better be sitting in front of the television at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Miss it, and you might wait weeks, or months, for another chance.

Recording devices began loosening television's grip on the clock, but streaming demolished it. Movies, television series, music, podcasts, games, audiobooks, and decades of archived entertainment are now available almost instantly . By 2026, the U.S. had roughly 593 million online-video subscriptions.