Top 11 Movie Villains

It’s  now time for the third part of my top eleven villains, this time we go into the movies. And this actually proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be since many of the villains I wanted to put on here were originally from books. I got round it though by putting together a new list that will be part four of these lists.

But for now, here’s my top ten movie villains.

11. Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader – Star Wars franchise

Well how can we start this list off any better?

Let’s start with Darth Vader. When we first see him he walks onto a ship carrying Leia Organa, basically walking past the recently killed thinking “Meh, don’t care”. It isn’t long until Vader is killing main character Obi Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu, slaughtering children, literally disarming his son/main character Luke and blowing up planets.

He was such a complex and interesting character, that George Lucas just had to go make him into a whiny bitch in the prequel trilogy. Then again he probably did that to show how far Vader has gone since being little Ani.

But why is Vader so high up? Well I suppose the prequel trilogy didn’t do him much good and he did kill the evil Emperor in the final film and, alongside his son, saves the galaxy, and that’s not really that villainy.

10. Freddy Krueger – A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise

Freddy Krueger meanwhile was introduced back in 1984 and has haunted our dreams since. Ignoring the terrible 2010 remake, Freddy was a child killer who got off scot free because of a technically. So the parents of Elm Street decide to kill him. Great morals there.

In the first film Freddy is a creepy, smart and terrifying individual. He takes his victim’s greatest fears and uses them to take his revenge. In the later films he turns into more of a witty and cunning individual who enjoys his work.

It is largely due to Robert Englund’s performance as Freddy which makes this such an awesome character. While Jackie Earle Haley did an okay job, no-one can replace Englund. The thing is, one of the things I didn’t like about Haley’s performance, was his voice. If they went with the same voice that he used in ‘Watchmen’ I’d have been okay with it, but they thought that was a bad idea.

But both are terrifying and fearsome, yet funny as well. Freddy’s intelligence also makes him one of the deadliest antagonists to ever grace the silver screen. Just don't play skin-the-cat with him.

9. The Rejected – The Final

Okay, I’ll start this off by saying that the group of villains in ‘The Final’ are not actually called the Rejected. They’re not actually given a name, but the leader, Dane, does say at one point “We are the rejected, the humiliated, the outcasts”, so I’m just going to go with the Rejected since it actually sounds quite fitting.

The Rejected however are just kids. The characters were just your normal teenager. They are the ones who are bullied each and every day, until finally they take out their frustrations on their tormentors. It’s not just the bullying that screws them up, as we do see they have crappy home lives as well, but the bullying isn’t your standard...bullying. One is even branded a terrorist and has his camera broken. Seriously, it wasn’t bullying, it was a witch hunt. I hated everyone except the Rejected (and one guy) so much, it’s hard not that hard to like the villains in this.

The characters themselves are determined to go through with this. How determined? They ask God to show them a sign and they won’t go through with it; no sign came, so the Rejected saw this as God giving them permission. But it’s not just that, it’s the rage that had been building up in these characters, especially Dane. The second he gives into the rage, he’s just gone, there was no turning back, he truly became the monster that he blames (his main tormentor)  Brad for creating.

What was frustrating was that at the end, the news report says that the Rejected tortured their classmates, “for no reason”. It may be because details haven’t emerged yet, or they might be covering it up so other bullied students don’t copy them. But it was really annoying that the anti-bullying message is immediately overwritten by senseless violence by the in-film media.

But what is quite possibly the most worrying thing from ‘The Final’, is the Rejected last words before the last member, Jack, kills himself, “there are more of us out there”, possibly implying that they have been in contact with other groups like themselves, implying that, while they are gone, it is not over.

8. Max Cady – Cape Fear (1962)

Yes I am talking about the original, rather than the remake. Mainly because I haven’t seen the remake, but from what I hear, the original villain is better.

Max, played by Robert Mitchum, was put in prison after lawyer Sam Bowden testified against him. While in prison he read books on law and, now that he’s out, uses that knowledge to help terrorise Sam and his family.

Max was scary, really scary. His extensive knowledge meant that he could get away with pretty much anything. Which he does. Despite the fact that everyone knew that he was essentially evil, they had no evidence to support it. Hell, the only crime where they could’ve gotten him arrested was when he beat a woman he met. While it may have been a stupid thing to do, he scared the woman so much she left town. He made Sam’s daughter run through a school (she thought he was following her), just by walking up to her, he is that scary.

Then there’s the remake. Again, I haven’t seen it so I can’t really comment on it.  But in comparison, based on their appearances, we have Robert Mitchum in the original where he looks just like any other person on the street. He can easily slip into the crowd and disappear, people can easily be persuaded to think that he’s an innocent party. We then have in the remake, Robert De Niro.

Jesus! Seriously! No-one can tell this guy is evil? Again, in the original, Sam witnesses Max doing a crime, he witnesses a rape and stops him, his testimony puts him behind bars. In the remake, Sam is Max’ defence attorney? Remake Max can’t read but he decides to learn how to just to read law? And according to Wikipedia, the girl who Remake Max was with was apparently promiscuous, which means she has slept with a lot of people. And Remake Sam purposely keeps this piece of evidence hidden? He decides to lose the case on purpose, despite this piece of paper essentially saying that Remake Max is innocent? You created this monster Remake Sam!

Remake Max I don’t know, but Original Max was an awesome villain.

 7. Lt. Colonel Douglas Murphy and his men – The Peacekeeper

I’ve only recently seen this film, but Murphy (Michael Sarrazin) and his henchmen make this film highly enjoyable.

Firstly his men manage to get the launch codes to America’s nuclear warheads from Frank Cross (Dolph Lundgren). That’s no easy feat I’ll tell you. They managed to hack into his communications so that he tells them all his moves, and even manage to turn the tables on Cross and chase him across rooftops. That’s right Christopher Nolan, you weren’t the first film to do rooftop chases.

Then after that they meet up with Murphy at a missile silo, where he and another colleague have already taken control. Murphy and his inside man Decker (Martin Neufield), having taken control of three missiles before the codes were changed, launch a nuke at Mount Rushmore. Decker goes to detonate the missile in mid-air, but Murphy stops him. Cross and the military can’t stop it, so the missile hits Mt. Rushmore, destroying it, radiating the land and killing three thousand people.

Holy Hell was that awesome! In film anyway. I’m actually surprised that they did that, most films would’ve had Decker fry the circuits in the nuke in the air. This film actually had the villains deal an initial strike to show that they are serious. That’s what I really like about these films.

 

Hell, Murphy could have dealt America one of its most humiliating acts ever; the President shooting himself live on television. While it showed the President in a good light as he was prepared to kill himself for his country, Murphy would’ve blackmailed the President into shooting himself on live television! However, the gun was loaded with blanks, showing that Murphy had no intention to bring an end to his plans; to blow up Washington DC with the last nuke.

And he actually would have blown up the capital if he waited five more seconds. He attempted to kill himself with the suitcase (with the nuclear missile codes), but Cross grabs the case as he falls, saving Murphy in the process. Then Murphy does this weird thing where he uses the key to the handcuffs and sets himself free, killing himself and giving Cross the codes. While it does mean Murphy has escaped justice, if he had waited five more seconds (and the film also has the slowest seconds as well), then the nuke would have wiped out Washington.

Five seconds stood between Murphy and his endgame. I don’t think anyone else has ever gotten that close.

6. Sebastian Moran – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

A recent villain, Sebastian (Paul Anderson) is an original creation...I think, in the Guy Ritchie film. Everything I need to say I’ve essentially already said in the film review, but here we go.

Sebastian was the top marksman in his regiment in the British army, and it shows, since he hardly missed a shot; the only shots he missed were the ones he fired in order to keep Watson trapped behind cover. Apart from that he has hit every target he wanted to hit, including moving targets.

No matter what Sebastian is hit with he keeps coming back. Watson shoots him at one point, and Sebastian just got back up and shot another guy who was trying to escape. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this guy is the fricking Terminator. Seriously, the only way Watson could get away when cornered by Sebastian, was by shooting an anti-aircraft cannon at the building he was using for a position, and he STILL got up from that!

And he’s loyal. He helped Moriarty (Jared Harris) and made sure he was safe before chasing Sherlock and his colleagues. I like that in a villain, you don’t see much of that in films. And the best thing is, he’s still alive! He doesn’t die so Guy Ritchie can use him in another film!

5. Syndrome – The Incredibles

The more I think about this guy, the more I like him. Initially called Buddy, he was Mr. Incredible’s (Craig T. Nelson) “number one fan”, but after constantly being rejected, he decided to instead eliminate all the supers of the world and establish himself as a hero.

Despite being jealous of the supers and their abilities, he is actually probably a super. He doesn’t have super strength or flight, but he does have genius intellect, even as a kid he invented rocket boots. He designed and created a base inside (literally inside) a volcano, okay, his main computer is shielded by a giant waterfall made of lava. But it appears his anger at Mr. Incredible masked this.

His intellect was actually too good. His main plan was to build an omnidroid (trademarked George Lucas...yes, George Lucas owns a trademark on the term ‘droid’ apparently, check the credits if you don’t believe me) which had eliminated all the other supers and had proven to be too much for Mr. Incredible to handle, however Syndrome controlled it through a remote control. The omnidroid, however, had a learning program, so it found the remote and blasted it out of Syndrome’s control before knocking him out.

Syndrome was such a fun character. His chemistry with, well, pretty much everyone was brilliant. It was even hinted by the director’s commentary that Syndrome’s actions were actually brought on by psychopathy, rather than jealousy, making him unscrupulous to basically everyone but himself; he fired missiles at Elastigirl’s plane (Holly Hunter) even when told there were children on board, he essentially slaughtered every original super in the world except for three, endangered an entire city, he even risked the life of his second-in-command Mirage (Elizabeth Pena).

Syndrome was a brilliant villain, it’s just a shame that he had to learn the ‘no cape’ rule too late.

4. Jason Voorhees – Friday the 13^th franchise

I love this guy! Really, I do. Heck, between Jason, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers (Halloween), Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Chucky (Child’s Play) and the Leprechaun (Leprechaun), Jason has the most kills at 146. And yes, that isn’t including the remake or the space station he inadvertently blew up in ‘Jason X’.

What makes this guy (and Michael I suppose) so good, is that his face is hidden by a mask and he’s silent for about 95% of the time. The feeling of being hunted by a silent killer who doesn’t show any emotion or facial expressions is just terrifying. Jason is, to me, a brilliant character.

But don’t get me wrong, Jason isn’t some walking Apocalypse, he is a tragic villain. Well, the other kids at Camp Crystal Lake bullied him for his appearance and tried to drown him. His mother, citing the camp counsellors to blame for failing to keep an eye on the kids, starts killing any and all counsellors on the site, before being killed by Adrienne King. So Jason, not knowing any better, resumes his mother’s killing spree before being killed by Tommy (Corey Feldman) in ‘The Last Chapter’. Of course when you have a film with the subtitle ‘The Last Chapter’, it isn’t the last chapter. ‘A New Beginning’, okay it was a copy cat, but in ‘Jason Lives’ Tommy (now played by Thom Mathews) couldn’t leave well enough alone. He went to Jason’s grave, stabbed him in the heart with a metal pipe, which then got struck by lightning and brought Jason back to life, as well as giving him regeneration, enhanced strength, basically he became a juggernaut.

Thanks a lot Tommy. It’s your fault that that girl in ‘Jason X’ got her head frozen.

3. May – May

The only single female villain on this list, not including Emily in the Rejected at number 9. Which is odd because I do like Tamara from...‘Tamara’ (in all fairness she should be on this list but let’s make her number 12), um, Rebecca from ‘The Roommate’, Mallory from ‘Natural Born Killers’ and etc.

But what makes May (Angela Bettis) a better villain than all of them is that we come to care about by the time she finally snaps. She had an awkward childhood due to a lazy eye with her only friend being a doll named Suzie, which results in her being a weird but lonely woman.  A doctor fixes her lazy eye with glasses and a contact lens, and she tries to be more sociable, resulting in getting a boyfriend (Jeremy Sisto) and a lesbian lover (Anna Faris). However May’s awkward behaviour (which causes her boyfriend to break up with her) and feeling of constant betrayal by others, causes her to flip and decide to create the ‘perfect friend’...by building one out of the perfect parts from others.

May is such a complex villainess, we want her to be happy even though she is now going round killing people. Before she starts her slaughter she makes a Halloween outfit that resembles her doll. The ‘normal’ May was a sweet and shy girl who lacked strong communication/social skills. The May that puts on the outfit has a stronger, more confident personality, she even had a different tone in her voice, suggesting that she has a split personality, probably Suzie.

May is a tragic villain, and I love tragic villains. She was just a misunderstood, scared little girl who wanted a friend, she didn’t want to be alone any more, a lot of people can relate to that.

Maybe if one other human being was her friend during the hard times, she wouldn’t have snapped. Or if she continued making out with Anna Faris.

It’s also weird that the boyfriend calls May a freak, despite the fact that he’s the one who made a film about two people eating each other at a picnic.

2. Alec Trevyn - Goldeneye

Sean Bean! What’s not to love?

Oh okay I’ll say a bit more. Alec, a.k.a 006, was the partner of James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), before faking his death and becoming the major antagonist. He orchestrated the theft of a prototype helicopter (which can withstand an EMP blast) as well as a Goldeneye satellite; a satellite which emits an EMP blast and wipes out anything electronic. Alec finds that he is a child of members from Cossacks; a group who collaborated with Nazis. They attempted to defect to Britain but were instead returned to Russia where they were executed. Alec’s parents survived but committed suicide later. Alec, in revenge, plans to fire the Goldeneye satellite at London, England.

Having been trained by MI6, Alec is a skilled warrior; there are times where he even bests Bond in a fight. He is essentially the only other 00 agent to have been given any substantial role in the films.

The fact that he tricked Bond and MI6 is significant enough to show how smart he is, let alone the fact that he managed to create a powerful criminal empire without any organisation noticing. He even managed to survive a fall of significant proportions, though severely injured...before a satellite dish fell on top of him.

But he left such an impact. This was the first James Bond film I ever watched, and it’s my favourite. It’s got my favourite Bond, my favourite Bond girl, one of my favourite car chase scenes, and my favourite Bond villain.

1. Jobe – The Lawnmower Man

Technically I’m cheating since ‘The Lawnmower Man’ was based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. But, then again, Stephen King demanded his name be removed from the title because it deviated from his novel so much it was unrecognisable, so I’m happy.

Jobe (Jeff Fahey) was initially a mentally challenged individual. He lives in a shed owned by Father McKeen (Jeremy Slate), who punishes him with a cane whenever he can, is employed by Terry McKeen (Geoffrey Lewis), one of the few who are actually nice to him, and is friends with Peter (Austin O’Brien). Dr. Laurence Angelo (Pierce Brosnan) meanwhile had been working on a virtual reality program which would help enhance intelligence (though the agency in charge wants to use it for war purposes), and decides to test out a new formula on Jobe.

Initial tests enhance Jobe’s intelligence greatly, enough for him to gain a girlfriend and resist Father McKeen’s punishment. However the agency (called The Shop) get Angelo’s colleague to put Jobe back onto the original formula; the same one which made a chimpanzee kill several guards. This, of course, makes Jobe go insane.

What makes Jobe such a fantastic villain, is largely down to the actor Jeff Fahey. How he transforms the mentally challenge Jobe into a psychotic genius, was absolutely perfect, it is possibly the best acting I have ever seen. Not many people can pull off what Fahey did.

But like many of the other villains on this list, he’s a tragic villain. Being bullied for his handicap is one thing, but it was the agency in command of the experiment who made Job into what he is, it was not Dr. Angelo.

The treatments also give Jobe powers, including telekinesis, pyrokinesis, mind control, telepathy, he becomes a God basically, he can literally control the fabric of reality. And that’s just in the real world, in the virtual reality realm his powers are limitless.

Jobe eventually plans to bring everyone on the planet into the virtual world, stating his call will be “the sound of every phone on this planet ringing in unison”, and he succeeds. Yeah! The villain wins in this! Despite thinking that they had beaten Jobe, Angelo, Peter and Peter’s mother go to leave, and then the phone starts ringing, then every single other phone across the planet starts ringing as well. So Jobe is the only villain on this list, Hell I think he’s the only villain ever to succeed in his plan.

Don’t pay attention to the sequel though, it ruins the franchise within the first two minutes.

And there’s my top 11 movie villains, next month will be part four consisting of my top 11 book/adapted from books villains list.

Coming up next however, you know it, the Human Centipede!