Good versus evil, a tale as old as time itself. Cinematic villains come in all shapes, sizes, ideologies, and levels of craziness. Some are based on real life people; some are complete manifestations of our own fears or desires. Some, to our own dissatisfaction, make sense of what their dastardly deeds may be to a point where we think, “Wow, they’re right.” It takes a talented actor to pull off a truly memorable villain, one that etches their spot in cinematic history and the cultural lexicon forever.
We specifically won’t be addressing monsters and aliens here; there are countless great horror movie villains that scare the hell out of us, but instead of Freddy Krueger and Xenomorphs, we are more interested here in the emotional, intellectual, and visceral performances from humans and the anger, frustration, sadness, and disturbance they evoke within us. That being said, these are the 30 greatest villains in cinematic history, ranked.
30Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York
Based on William Poole, the leader of the Washington Street Gang of New York City, Daniel Day-Lewis' performance as Bill ‘The Butcher’ Cutting inGangs of New Yorkis an iconic piece of movie history. Known as someone who commits 110% to every role he plays, the great actor is lost yet again in the role of The Butcher, making it one ofDay-Lewis' best movies.
Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill ‘The Butcher’ Cutting
Bill is a ruthless and commanding leader of his gang, striking fear into every one he comes across. Bill is a villain that believes in his cause and his deeds so much that he is willing to, and does, die for them. He’s a tad insane, a bit of a revolutionary ideologue, and a deadly person to know.
29Mission: Impossible 3
Mission: Impossible III
Franchises likeMission: Impossibleare filled with villains; in fact, one of the main ways to distinguish entries in some film series likeJames BondandZatoichiis essentially by their villains. Usually over-the-top and vaguely European, the ‘big bad’ of different action franchise entries can be fun or forgettable, but rarely brilliant performances. Leave it to the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman to change the game, turning what could’ve been a tacky, one-bit character into one of the most unsettling villains of all time, Owen Davian, inMission: Impossible III.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian
Arguably the most underrated installment in the entireMission: Impossiblefranchise, J.J. Abrams' film is a surprisingly gritty and emotional entry for the usually entertainingly fluffy Tom Cruise spectacles. Owen Davian is an arms dealer who develops a personal vendetta against Ethan Hunt after their paths cross in a search for a biological weapon nicknamed the “Rabbit’s Foot.”
Hoffman was a great villain inPunch-Drunk Lovebut just didn’t have enough screentime to warrant inclusion. What the actor does here, however, is incredible, turning every glance and each word into a threat. His heavy frame, nasal voice, emotionless indifference, and sudden bursts of rage are provocative and intimidating. Don’t believe us? Just check out the clip below.
28Django Unchained
Django Unchained
Director Quentin Tarantinohas helped produce some of the best on-screen villains of all time. Two of them are in 2012’sDjango Unchained— Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and Stephen Warren,played by Samuel L. Jackson. Candie is the owner of Candyland Plantation, where he collects slaves for brutal fights to the death against other slaves. He meets our titular hero, Django, and his partner, Dr. King Schultz, in one of these fights, and the two protagonists launch a plan to charm Candie into selling them one of his slaves — Django’s wife.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie and Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen Warren
What makes Candie such an effective villain is his own use of charm on the outside while internally harboring such vile hatred toward the Black men and women he inflicts pain upon. Leonardo DiCaprio, a typically beloved actor in his films, takes Candie to new heights in not just one of his personal best performances, but his absolute most monstrous. Jackson, for his part, is disturbing as Candie’s house slave, a man who values the small bit of power and contentment he has over the dignity and lives of other human beings.
27Léon the Professional
Léon: The Professional
Arguably Luc Besson’s best film,Léon the Professionalfeatures the debut performance of Natalie Portman as a young girl whose family is murdered by corrupt DEA agents and their boss, the deliriously unhinged Norman Stansfield. The young girl is taken in by her neighbor, an old hitman for the mob, and the pair develop an unlikely bond as the girl seeks vengeance.
Gary Oldman as Norman Stansfield
Gary Oldman is incredible as the vicious Stansfield, a sweaty but sharply dressed drug user who relishes any opportunity to do bad. He’s a loquacious, trigger-happy lunatic with a great deal of power, but he’s met his match with the stoic and skilled Léon, played with soulful tenderness by Jean Reno.
Nakedis Mike Leigh’s painfully dark, misanthropic, and tragic character study of an antisocial but brilliant man who seems trapped as his worst self. The film opens with this man, Johnny (played by David Thewlisin one of the best performances of all time), assaulting a woman in an alley and being chased out of town, and yet he’s not even the main villain of the film. That would be Sebastian Hawk, who also goes by Jeremy G. Smart, a rich sadist whose path crosses with Johnny after he hides out with an old girlfriend.
Greg Cruttwell as Jeremy G. Smart / Sebastian Hawk
Nakedis a haunting study of misogyny, sexual violence, and the fractures in Thatcher-era society, where even the protagonist is awful. But there is a glimmer of hope in Johnny, something possibly redeemable. That’s completely absent in the monstrous character of Sebastian Hawk, who represents the evil at the very top of the social ladder, and how that cruelty bears down on the resentful masses at the bottom. With his upturned nose and smug demeanor, Greg Cuttwell is absolutely perfect at attracting your hatred.
25A Fish Called Wanda
A Fish Called Wanda
While comedic villains might not have the same intensity and evil as dramatic ones, they can sometimes be so deliciously fun and over-the-top that they stand with the best. Kevin Kline’s Oscar-winning performance in the madcap crime comedyA Fish Called Wandamakes for one of the funniest villains, hearkening back to moustache-twirling cartoon bad guys in his silly wickedness.
Kevin Kline as Otto West
Kline plays Otto West, part of a gang of diamond thieves who double-cross each other after a successful heist. Otto is a horny sociopath who is sleeping with Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) but pretending to be her brother in order to trick their associates, played wonderfully by John Cleese and Michael Palin of Monty Python fame. Otto is a supreme sleazebag, a bullying American who deeply hates his British counterparts, and is hilariously memorable as such.
24Something Wild
Jonathan Demme’s underrated masterpiece,Something Wildis a terrifically entertaining film filled with wonderful performances. Jeff Daniels stars as a yuppie who yearns for a little danger in his life, and ultimately hooks up with a punk con artist played perfectly by Melanie Griffith. They end up on a road trip to the woman’s high school reunion, where he pretends to be her husband, a ruse which ends up endangering them both when the woman’s violent ex shows up at the reunion, fresh from prison.
Ray Liotta as Ray Sinclair
The late great Ray Liottadelivers a stunning performance, the kind that actually shifts the entire tone of a film.Something Wilddrops its rom-com vibe after Liotta’s character, Ray Sinclair, is introduced, becoming a tense thriller. The actor is a master of intimidation here, simmering throughout the film, putting audiences on edge as they anticipate his explosive violence. This all leads to an incredible ending with one of Liotta’s most physical performances.
23The Big Heat
The Big Heat
Fritz Lang’sfilm noir classicThe Big Heatis a surprisingly dark and upsetting film for 1953 Hollywood, mostly thanks to Lee Marvin’s menacing performance as the criminal villain, Vince Stone. The film follows newly widowed detective Dave Bannon (a wrathful Glenn Ford) who goes to extreme lengths to bring a mob boss to justice. It’s a lonesome quest, as the mob has garnered fear and loyalty from seemingly everyone but Bannon.
Lee Marvin as Vince Stone
Lee Marvin plays the second-in-command for the mob, a nasty and arrogant man named Vince Stone. He was only two years into his film career, and the stand-out performance brought Marvin great acclaim, changing the trajectory of his life. Lanky, slick, and with a gravelly baritone, Stone is a handsome psychopath who acts as if consequences don’t exist, his chauvinism driving his violence (he burns his girlfriend’s face off with acid and puts out his cigar on female flesh). It’s a genuinely scary, sick performance from one of the best actors of his generation.
Akira Kurosawa’s late period masterpieceRanwas the most expensive Japanese film ever made at the time, and it shows. It’s a gorgeous historical epic with many parallels to Shakespeare’sKing Lear(and toKurosawa’s own life as a filmmaker in Japan). The film follows the plotting and feuds that follow a powerful lord’s abdication, with his three sons vying for the territory. There is great villainy afoot inRan, a film as much about betrayal and heartbreak as anything else, but the manipulative Lady Kaede is an unforgettably devilish character.
Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede
Lady Kaede feels like an amalgam of Goneril fromKing Learand the red-handed Lady Macbeth ofMacbeth. Mixing classical Japanese acting with postmodern Shakespearean psychology, Mieko Harada is perfectly contemptible as the manipulative wife of one of the three sons. Her resentment towards the entire family drives her bloody pursuit of power. She uses her body, her wits, and her husband to drive the family apart, and when finally confronted, unleashes all of her bottled-up bitterness in an astounding finale. She’s a tragic, hateful, and awful character we can’t forget.
21The Vanishing (Spoorloos)
The Vanishing
The Vanishingis a very different kind of mystery, one where the crime occurs at the beginning and the perpetrator reveals himself barely halfway through. Instead of following the traditional beats of most thrillers,The Vanishingis an existential tragedyabout the search for truth and meaning, and how people cling to their past and their trauma all the way to the grave. The film follows a man named Rex three years after his girlfriend’s disappearance, when the kidnapper himself, Raymond, introduces himself.
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu as Raymond Lemorne
Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu is perfect as the sophisticated sociopath, Raymond Lemorne, a professor and family man who also recognizes his inner nature and feeds it by committing “the ultimate evil.” There’s an ice-cold logic to Raymond, but also a weird kind of curiosity that’s just short of empathy. He recognizes the desperation of Rex, who will not be satisfied until he learns exactly what happened to his girlfriend. Raymond will show him, but the truth is deadly.
