Since the dawn of cinema, all the best movies have featured stellar villains, from The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West to Star Wars’ Darth Vader. Often embodying everything terrifying about the worst aspects of humanity, from greed and cruelty to psychopathy and power, these characters typically steal the show. Played by some of Hollywood’s greatest stars, the best foes are always as charming and captivating as they are deadly.
The art of creating a great villain hasn’t been lost by modern filmmakers, and some of the most disturbing foes ever written for the big screen were made this century. So far, creators like Quentin Tarantino, George Miller and Michael Mann have made sure to give viewers some instant classic bad guys. From assassins to warlords, these characters are sure to live on in the minds of fans around the world.
10
Mad Max: Fury Road’s Immortan Joe is the Warlord of the Wastelands
Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan JoeImage via Warner Bros
In 2015, George Miller shocked action fans everywhere when he released the long-awaited continuation of his Mad Max franchise in Fury Road. The story follows Max as he’s captured by the wasteland warlord Immortan Joe, whose warriors use him as a blood bank as they chase down a traitor, Furiosa. When he escapes, Max joins Furiosa as she escapes with Joe’s enslaved wives, hoping to find sanctuary where they can live safely away from the warlord.
Immortan Joe is a chilling action movie villain and a great example of a villain whose appeal is almost entirely visual, nailing the chaotic mystery of the post-apocalyptic wastelands. Effectively written as a cult leader who holds dominion over the desert, he’s a treat for the audience every time he’s on the screen. Thankfully, Miller even added some depth to the villain for his prequel, Furiosa, which delves deeper into his rule, building him up as an even more impressive bad guy.
9
Captain Barbossa Stole the Show in Pirates of the Caribbean
Captain Barbossa looking out on the oceanImage via Disney
In 2003, Disney gave the world Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, an adaptation of the theme park ride of the same name. The story follows the arrival of pirates to Port Royal, where they kidnap Elizabeth Swan, believing she holds the key to their salvation from a curse. At the Black Pearl’s helm is Captain Hector Barbossa, a man who embodies the black-hearted buccaneer spirit of the high seas.
Played by Geoffrey Rush, who chews the scenery every chance he gets, Barbossa is arguably the best villain in the Pirates franchise. Hamming up his performance wherever possible, Rush sells the villain as a funny character who loves being bad and lets the audience know it. While Jack Sparrow is the face of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Captain Barbossa embodied the spirit of piracy even better.
8
Amy Dunne Shocked the World in Gone Girl
Amy Dunne struggle in her marriage to Nick in Gone Girl.Image via 20th Century Studios
Gone Girl focuses on the story of Nick Dunne, an out-of-work writer who discovers on his anniversary that his wife is missing. Initially afraid for her, he soon begins to believe the disappearance is of her own doing and that she’s setting him up for revenge for being a bad husband. As his story becomes a national sensation, he tries to use his infamy to convince her to come home, realizing it’s the only way he can clear his name.
“Amazing Amy” isn’t a deadly assassin, comic book super villain or hardened criminal. Instead, it’s her switch-up from seemingly ordinary wife to gruesome femme fatale that makes her such a great character. With each passing scene, the audience is left somehow even more disturbed by the lengths she’ll go to for revenge, and more terrified by just how cold and calculating she is. In every sense of the word, she’s a reflection of the Hollywood psychopath through and through, and gave cinema one of its best villain victories ever told, and turned Gone Girl into a modern classic.
7
Bill Completed The Bride’s Quest in the Kill Bill Movies
Image via Miramax Films
Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill saga follows the quest of a woman known as the Bride to avenge her daughter after her old lover and mentor, Bill, murdered her. The head of the Deadly Viper Assassins, Bill is a man of impressive will and a warped sense of honor, gunning down the Bride and her fiancé for having been jilted. For most of the story, he’s a hidden figure, serving as the ultimate target of the heroine as she inches closer to revenge.
Through Bill, Tarantino was trying to give his audience a foe who’d be half Bond villain and half Kung-Fu master, and he excelled on both fronts. Once the audience meets the character they’ve spent hours hating, they can’t help but feel captivated by his speech. Played by David Carradine, the villain is as charismatic as it gets, and that’s part of what makes him so great. The audience never gets to see the full extent of his fighting skills and, by the time Tarantino’s amazing story plays out, they don’t need to.
6
Django Unchained’s Stephen Somehow Overshadowed Calvin Candie
Stephen glares at Django as he rides in on a horse in Django UnchainedImage via Sony Pictures
Django Unchained follows the partnership between German bounty hunter King Schultz and Django, whom he liberated from slavery. After working together, they ride down to Mississippi to rescue the latter’s enslaved wife from vicious plantation owner Calvin Candie. All that stands between them and success is Candie’s right-hand man, a cunning enslaved man named Stephen, who proves far more astute than his master.
Stephen remains one of Tarantino’s most interesting yet hateful villains ever created, somehow radiating racism and disgust more than some of the white characters. Where Candie is intentionally written to be relatively unintelligent, albeit every bit as despicable, it’s Stephen’s cruelty and self-hatred that make him so much more sinister. In truth, both villains work best together, representing different sides of the evil of slavery, but it’s hard to deny that Samuel L. Jackson makes Stephen far more threatening.
5
Vincent is a Chilling Assassin in Collateral
Tom Cruise with a gun in CollateralImage via DreamWorks Pictures
Collateral tells the story of a Los Angeles cabbie named Max as he picks up the last fare of his night, a mysterious man named Vincent. Initially seeing him as an easy customer who pays well, things take a turn for the worse when Vincent is revealed to be a hitman, using the cabbie to ferry him around to his targets. Realizing the night can only end one way for him, the driver tries to outwit the killer, culminating in a game of cat and mouse.
Vincent is a perfect representation of the cynical side of the Noir genre, a man devoid of empathy who spends much of the story contemplating fate and the bleak nature of life. Played masterfully by Tom Cruise, he’s a villain who reels the viewer into his way of thinking, managing to both terrify and intrigue them as he does.
4
No Country For Old Men’s Anton Chigurh is Hollywood’s Most Accurate Assassin
Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old MenImage via Paramount Pictures
No Country for Old Men follows a Texas hunter named Llewelyn Moss as he finds a bag full of money at the scene of a gang shootout. Hoping to make off with the cash for a better life, his dreams are soon foiled by the arrival of an unstoppable hitman, Anton Chigurh. With a reputation for getting the job done no matter what, the killer closes in on Moss, murdering everyone who gets in his way without breaking a sweat.
No Country for Old Men has since become a masterpiece of cinema, and it owes much of that recognition to Bardem’s performance as Chigurh. An assassin beyond compromise, bargaining or material gain, he’s a man with a mission, and nothing and nobody can stop him from murdering someone once he’s set his sights on them. Having been praised by experts as Hollywood’s most realistic psychopath, he’s sure to give audiences chills no matter how many times they’ve seen the movie.
3
Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight Set the Gold Standard For Comic Book Villains
Image via Warner Bros.
In 2008, Heath Ledger gave the world what would become the defining role of his tragically short career before his death. The Dark Knight continues Nolan’s Batman story as the Joker (Ledger) arrives in Gotham, sowing chaos everywhere he goes. As he plans to destroy the soul of Gotham itself, the Caped Crusader sets out to try and outwit him, only to be outmatched by DC’s greatest villain.
As easy as it is for many to dismiss comic book movies, Heath Ledger’s take on the Joker transcended both the film and genre in every way possible. A man who embodies chaos and anarchy perfectly, the star’s intensity shines through in every scene, easily stealing the show from Bale’s Batman. After almost two decades, no comic book movie has presented a villain nearly as chilling or memorable, and it’s doubtful anyone will any time soon.
2
There Will Be Blood’s Daniel Plainview is the Embodiment of Greed
Daniel Plainview looks angrily up at Eli in There Will Be BloodImage via Miramax
There Will Be Blood tells the story of Daniel Plainview, a turn-of-the-century silver prospector who becomes an oil man. When he discovers an ocean of oil beneath the small town of Little Boston, he sets about building his empire, hoping to make enough money to get away from people, most of whom he despises. However, the richer he gets, the audience watches as whatever moral center he had fades away, only to be replaced by greed and resentment.
If any character stood as a testament to the fact that someone could be both protagonist and villain of a story, it’s Plainview. Although the story makes a point of making the audience respect his drive and ambition, he progresses into a monster as the story moves. By the end, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis have transformed him into one of the biggest monsters in cinema, fulfilling the best character arc since Michael Corleone. He represents all the worst aspects of competition and greed, a man who can only recognize his own success if it comes at the expense and failure of others.
1
Inglourious Basterds’ Hans Landa is the Face of 21st Century Villainy
Christoph Waltz smiling as Hans Landa in Inglourious BasterdsImage via Universal Pictures
Created by Quentin Tarantino, Hans Landa is presented to audiences as the primary villain of Inglourious Basterds. Set at the height of World War II, the story follows Jewish American soldiers as they plot the assassination of the German high command, extending to Hitler himself. All that stands between them and success is Landa, a murderous but brilliant SS officer with skills of deduction that place him next to Sherlock Holmes.
From the moment the audience meets Landa, he captures the evil, intimidation and ruthlessness of the Nazis to a tee, making him cinema’s most detestable villain since Amon Goeth. Written to be both a respectable genius and a despicable Nazi, Hans Landa’s inclusion and Christoph Waltz’s performance ensured Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds would be a masterpiece.