- 3 months ago
From spine-chilling reveals to memorable first lines, these movie villains know how to make an entrance! Join us as we count down the most iconic villain introductions in cinema history. We'll be looking at first appearances that set the tone for these unforgettable antagonists, from horror classics to dramatic thrillers.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:08compelling and memorable villain introductions in film. We'll be excluding
00:11comic book villains and super villains in general. Sorry fans, major spoilers to come.
00:16Number 20. Sauron, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring.
00:22In the land of Mordor, in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret
00:30a master ring to control all others. J.R.R. Tolkien's formidable villain in the Lord of the Rings books,
00:37Sauron, was lieutenant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, before forging the One Ring in a bid
00:42to rule Middle-earth. This villain gets an impressive entrance in Peter Jackson's films.
00:46In the prologue, Sauron first appears in spiky volcanic black armor, dispatching a dozen with
01:13the ring. When Isildur of Gondor severs the One Ring from his finger, the humanoid Sauron explodes.
01:18Of course, Sauron isn't at all felled, making subsequent appearances as a blazing eye. Still,
01:24it was quite an entrance.
01:25I was there the day the strength of men failed.
01:32Isildur, hurry! Follow me!
01:36I led Isildur into the heart of Mount Doom.
01:39Number 19. Dr. Frankenfurter, the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
01:56We all recognize that burlesque costume with fishnet tights. Recently affianced couple Brad
02:02Majors and Janet Weiss suffer a flat tire, seeking shelter in a nearby castle, the home of Dr.
02:08Frankenfurter.
02:09Don't get strung out by the way I look. Don't judge a book by its cover.
02:17From his first caped appearance on a descending platform, this queer Frankenstein steals the
02:22entire movie and never gives it back. Tim Curry plays Dr. Frankenfurter in his first ever
02:27screen role, and he absolutely nails it.
02:29I'm glad we caught you at home. Could we use your phone? We're both in a bit of a hurry.
02:36This sweet cross-dresser is undoubtedly one of the reasons why this film became a cult hit.
02:41I'm just a sweet trans-vestite eater.
02:46From trans-sexual
02:49Transylvania
02:51Number 18. Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard.
02:56Speaking of fabulous divas, here is another one that is burned into our collective noggins.
03:18I want the coffin to be white, and I want it specially lined with satin, white, or deep pink.
03:25Screenwriter Joe Gillis seeks refuge at the mansion of silent film star Norma Desmond, now washed up and forgotten.
03:31In this scene, trying to bury the dead body of a pet monkey, Norma's forceful character is immediately apparent in one iconic line.
03:38I am big. It's the picture that got small.
03:42With haughty mean, broad acting, and a flawless transatlantic accent, this actress makes a big first impression on Joe and us.
03:51Norma, however, is far from normal, still clinging to her past fame as a great star, at all costs.
03:57It's better to cut directly to John the Baptist.
03:59Cut away from me.
04:01Well, honestly, it's a little too much of you. They don't want you in every scene.
04:04They don't? Then why do they still write me fan letters every day?
04:07Why do they beg me for my photographs? Why?
04:09Number 17. Frank. Once Upon a Time in the West.
04:14What are we going to do with this one, Frank?
04:33Now that you've called me by name.
04:35He's known only as Frank, but oh boy, do you never forget him.
04:38We are first introduced to Frank as the murderer of the McBain family, in a truly chilling scene.
04:43From the eerie silence of the McBain ranch, to the uncompromising aim of the bullets.
04:54Frank and his gang appear only after the massacre, dark-armed figures emerging from the dust.
04:59A young boy, the last member of the McBain's, is the sole unlucky witness to his family's slaughter.
05:05And Frank doesn't spare him, either.
05:06It's a tour de force that still stuns half a century later.
05:10Down under the line.
05:14Yeah.
05:22Get him on board.
05:23This post-apocalyptic action film features intricate world-building, stunning violence, and one big chase scene.
05:46But this cult leader perhaps makes the biggest impression of all, with his demon-esque, ghoulish mask, white hair, and booming voice.
05:53Once again, we send off my war rig, to bring back gasoline from gas town, and bullets from the bullet farm.
06:04Once again, I salute my Imperator Furiosa, and I salute my Half-Life Warboys.
06:13Immortan Joe appears as a kind of desert Darth Vader.
06:16He gives a speech to a crowd of thousands like the warrior king he is.
06:19We later see the extent of Immortan Joe's ferocious villainy, as he chases after a fleeing Max and Furiosa.
06:26Joe may not be immortal, but we won't be forgetting him in a hurry.
06:29Do not, my friends, become addicted to water.
06:33It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence.
06:39Number 15.
06:40Harry Lime, The Third Man.
06:49A cinematic classic, this Carol Reed-directed film also features one of Orson Welles' most lauded performances.
07:01We first hear of Harry Lime as a dead man, killed in an automobile accident, and whose funeral Martin's attends.
07:27Of course, things aren't always what they seem.
07:29Harry!
07:30A freakhead is to us to a gravel.
07:38Throughout the film, we are given more information about Lime's supposed death, including the late man's criminal acts.
07:44In one iconic scene, Lime finally appears, flashing a slow grin to Martin's before disappearing.
07:50Lime faked his death, but he gets his comeuppance eventually.
07:53Harry!
07:54Is that you?
07:58You're through, Harry.
08:00Come out.
08:01You haven't got a chance this way.
08:02What do you want?
08:03You might as well give up.
08:04Still, what an intro.
08:06Number 14.
08:08The T-800, The Terminator.
08:09It's hard to believe, with the direction that the franchise has gone in recent years, that Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator in the original film was meant to be a straightforward villain.
08:25This original robot super soldier is chilling indeed.
08:28Time traveling to the 80s to kill Sarah Connor, we are privy to his arrival, in a show of blue lightning.
08:33Nice night for a walk, eh?
08:40Nice night for a walk.
08:43Wash day tomorrow.
08:45Nothing clean, right?
08:47Nothing clean, right?
08:49I think this guy's a couple cans short of a six-pack.
08:52Though he is crouched and completely naked, there is no trace of vulnerability in him, easily dispatching three goons.
08:58Sure enough, he approaches his mission of killing Sarah with the same cold calculation.
09:03Thus, an iconic villain was born.
09:06I'll be back.
09:08Number 13.
09:09Miranda Priestly, The Devil Wears Prada.
09:11Oh my god.
09:13No, no, no!
09:15What's wrong?
09:21She's on her way.
09:23Tell everyone!
09:24It isn't every day a main villain is introduced with such a line as,
09:27Gird your loins.
09:29Alright everyone, gird your loins!
09:31We expect great horrors from such a character, and fortunately, we aren't disappointed.
09:36From a shot of her sharp red heels, to the top of her white head, Miranda is Cruella DeVille in power.
09:43Sorry Miranda.
09:43Miranda is cold, imperious, and dismissive, making everyone scramble and prepare for her arrival.
09:55I don't understand why it's so difficult to confirm an appointment.
09:58I know, I'm so sorry Miranda, I actually did confirm last night.
10:01The tales of your incompetence do not interest me.
10:03Tell Simone I'm not going to prove that girl that she sent me for the Brazilian layout.
10:07I asked for clean, athletic, smiling.
10:09She sent me dirty, tired, and paunchy.
10:12In one iconic scene, she elegantly excoriates Anne Hathaway's Andy, who makes the mistake of giggling.
10:17It's a mesmerizing performance by Meryl Streep, but also a terrifying one.
10:21And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry,
10:26when in fact, you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room.
10:32Number 12. Count Dracula.
10:37Dracula.
10:38I am Dracula.
10:40No list would be complete without this OG villain.
10:43It's really good to see you.
10:46I don't know what happened to the driver and my luggage, and with all this, I thought I was in the wrong place.
10:57I bid you welcome.
10:58Granted, this film was more of an adaptation of a stage play, which was in turn an adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel.
11:05But Bela Lugosi's Dracula became the image of what a vampire is, and this scene leaves no mystery why.
11:11There are far worse things waiting man than death.
11:19From his slick, all-black appearance at the top of the stairs of his castle, to his foreign accent,
11:25we immediately get the sense of both Dracula's charm and his menace.
11:28The 2024 Robert Eggers-directed film, Nosferatu, did something similar with the first appearance of the menacing Count Orlok,
11:45proving this villain entrance needs no further improvement.
11:48I am most impatient to bring my eyes on your covenant papers.
11:57Detective Lieutenant William Somerset is investigating a serial killer whose kills reference the seven deadly sins.
12:20This grisly killer, of course, turns out to be John Doe.
12:23Clues lead Somerset to Doe's dark, seedy apartment, where he and Mills find Doe at the end of the hallway,
12:29and get shot at it by the killer himself.
12:39Doe is like a phantom, with the way Mills can't seem to get at him.
12:43Inside the apartment proper, they discover a range of bizarre, eerie, and incriminating items.
12:48The set design is impressively creepy indeed, but the appearance of the man himself is even more so.
12:54Detective.
12:56After this, I'm gone.
12:59No big surprise.
13:01Detective!
13:03Number 10. Alex DeLarge, A Clockwork Orange.
13:07Anthony Burgess' 1962 novel was adapted with chilling horror by the legendary Stanley Kubrick.
13:22Its villain protagonist, juvenile delinquent and gang leader Alex,
13:25received one of the most memorable appearances in all cinema.
13:28One thing I could never stand was to see a filthy, dirty old drunkie howling away at the filthy songs of his fathers
13:36and going blurp, blurp in between, as it might be a filthy old orchestra in his stinking, rotten guts.
13:43We first see him drinking a tall glass of milk straight at the camera at the Korova Milk Bar.
13:48With Alex's calm voiceover narration and a synthesized arrangement of Beethoven,
13:52this scene also doubles as a very effective expression of Alex's psychopathy.
13:57Alex and his druke's subsequent acts of ultraviolence led to major controversy for the film,
14:02but the artistry of this first look is undeniable.
14:05Now, globby bottle of cheap, stinking chip oil, come and get one in the yarbles!
14:13Number 9. Raul Silva, Skyfall.
14:17Hello, James. Welcome.
14:20Do you like the island?
14:25My grandmother had an island.
14:27Nothing too bowed stuff.
14:29You could walk around it in an hour.
14:31But still, it was a paradise for us.
14:33The third outing with Daniel Craig's 007,
14:36this film gives us the most intriguing Bond villain of recent years.
14:39Raul Silva is an ex-MI6 agent turned to cyberterrorism against his old agency,
14:45especially M.
14:45His first speech to a captured Bond is immediately full of both soft-spoken menace and intrigue.
15:06Back then, I was her favorite, and you're not nearly the agent I was, I can tell you that.
15:13Just look at you, barely held together by your pills and your drink.
15:18Don't forget my pathetic love of country.
15:20Silva leads with a rat infestation story, and it only gets more grisly from there.
15:26His unassuming manners and his almost casual conversation with Bond prove he is no psycho criminal,
15:31just callously disaffected.
15:33The parallels between him and Bond are apparent.
15:35You can say they are not so different.
15:38Subject is not approved, fulfilled duty, and immediate suspension from service advised.
15:43What is this if not betrayal?
15:45She sent you off to me knowing you are not ready, knowing you will likely die.
15:50Mommy was very bad.
15:52Number 8.
15:53Michael Myers, Halloween.
15:55We are alone, aren't we?
15:58Michael's around someplace.
16:01Take off that thing.
16:03When it comes to horror villains, few can best the killer of this seminal horror film by director John Carpenter.
16:10In a conceit that still stuns, the film opens with Michael himself, adopting his creepy point of view in an almost one-track shot.
16:18We are witnesses as he takes a knife and dons a mask, stalking and stabbing his teen sister, Judith.
16:27As soon as Michael's father takes off his mask, we finally see the killer.
16:32Michael?
16:33A little boy in a clown costume.
16:41It's a sequence that is still every bit as horrifying today as it was in 1978.
16:46Number 7.
16:48Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
16:49It.
16:50Woo!
16:54Hiya, Georgie.
16:58What a nice boat.
17:00Do you want it back?
17:03Um, yes, please.
17:05Stephen King's killer clown is brought to the big screen once more with this adaptation of his 1986 novel.
17:11Perhaps one of the main things most people remember about Pennywise is its first appearance.
17:15We first see Pennywise lurking in the storm drain, with only a blood-red mouth visible in the shadows.
17:31The clown, of course, makes short work of poor Georgie, the first on-screen casualty.
17:35With his creepy grin and supernatural abilities, this murderous clown has made a career of luring and kidnapping children.
17:42Throughout the film, it begins haunting a group of children trying to investigate Georgie's disappearance.
17:47What a nightmare.
17:48Number 6.
17:54The Shark.
17:55Jaws.
17:56I can swim!
17:58I just can't walk.
18:00Or dress myself.
18:03Sometimes, the best villains are the ones that are not seen until the very end.
18:08Sometimes, their POV is the first one we see, which turns out to be the villains.
18:11Steven Spielberg's blockbuster of a film begins with a normal beach party at sunset, a flirtation between Chrissy and her new beau.
18:25Lurking in the depths of the sea, an unseen monster pulls her under.
18:28With John Williams' instantly recognizable, ominous score, it's an indelible first look at the titular shark, who terrorizes the people of Amity Island, for the length of the film.
18:44Shut off that engine.
18:45Number 5.
19:07Hans Landa, Inglourious Bastards.
19:10Is this the property of Periel Lappadit?
19:14I am Periel Lappadit.
19:15It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lappadit.
19:20I am Colonel SS Hans Landa.
19:22Nazis are always the worst human villains.
19:25In Quentin Tarantino's World War II revenge film, no character stands out more than SS soldier Hans Landa, a sophisticated multilingual Jew hunter whose social charm belies his monstrous racism.
19:36I understand your trepidation in repeating it.
19:39Haydry apparently hates the moniker the good people of Prague have bestowed on him.
19:43Actually, why he would hate the name the hangman's baffling to me.
19:47It would appear he's done everything in his power to earn it.
19:50We first see him visiting the Lappadit farm to seek out a hiding Jewish family, the Dreyfusses.
19:55In a tense, nail-biting sequence, complete with master manipulation, Landa manages to convince Lappadit to give off the people he is hiding beneath his floorboards.
20:04Any information that makes a performance of my duty easier will not be met with punishment.
20:10This sequence is enough to cement Landa as one of the most chilling villains in cinema.
20:14Number 4, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Wizard of Oz.
20:35What is a witch?
20:49Chances are, this character just came to mind.
20:52Arguably the most famous film villain of all time, the Wicked Witch of the West is the stuff of childhood nightmares.
20:58Literally.
20:58Are you forgetting the ruby slippers?
21:00The slippers.
21:02Yes.
21:03The slippers.
21:12They're gone.
21:14The ruby slippers.
21:15What have you done with them?
21:16Give them back to me or I'll...
21:18It's too late.
21:19There they are, and there they'll stay.
21:21In an indelible performance by Margaret Hamilton, this witch interrupts We Welcome You to Munchkinland with her arrival in red billowing smoke.
21:29The green skin, all black dress, pointed hat, the broomstick, everything about this appearance is instantly recognizable.
21:36I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too.
21:40There is also, of course, the witch's iconic final threat and high cackle to a scared Dorothy.
21:45There is no topping this villain.
21:46Number 3, Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs.
21:59He's past the others.
22:01The last cell, you keep to the right.
22:06I put out a chair for you.
22:08Oh, it sounds very good, thank you.
22:11I'll be watching.
22:12Anthony Hopkins' performance as this chillingly sophisticated cannibal is for the books.
22:18Young FBI trainee Clary Starling interviews the brilliant but insane Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the hopes of catching serial killer Buffalo Bill.
22:25That expires in one week.
22:27You're not real FBI, are you?
22:30I'm still in training at the academy.
22:34Jack Crawford sent a trainee to me.
22:37Yes, I'm a student.
22:38This first scene, where Clarice passes unstable patience to meet the surprisingly lucid Hannibal in his cell, is justly mesmeric.
22:47And sometimes you wear a letter to him.
22:51But not today.
22:53The way Hannibal inverts the power dynamic between him and Clarice is masterful.
22:57His intelligence, and keen eye for detail, are made immediately apparent.
23:01Why do you think he removes their skins, Agent Starling?
23:07Throw me with your acumen.
23:10It excites him.
23:12Most serial killers keep some sort of trophies from their victims.
23:16I didn't.
23:17No.
23:18No, you ate yours.
23:20With a tight screenplay and Hopkins' genteel menace, this small villain role makes a big impression.
23:26You fly back to school now, little Starling.
23:28Number 2, Darth Vader, Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope.
23:33Did you find any droids?
23:34No, sir.
23:35If there were any on board, they must also have jettisoned.
23:37Send a scanning crew aboard.
23:38I want every part of this ship checked.
23:40Yes, sir.
23:41I sense something.
23:43A presence I've not felt since...
23:47Sometimes, words are not even needed to make a spectacular entrance.
23:51Like the Wicked Witch of the West, this black-clad sci-fi villain also needs little explanation.
23:56Portrayed by the impossibly tall David Prowse with the deep voice of James Earl Jones,
24:01Darth Vader's first appearance is simple.
24:03The Sith Lord steps out of the smog of blaster attacks with his skull-like mask and heavy breathing.
24:09The Death Star plans are not in the main computer.
24:13Where are those transmissions you intercepted?
24:15What have you done with those plans?
24:18We intercepted those transmissions.
24:21This is a consular ship.
24:23We're on a diplomatic mission.
24:25If this is a consular ship, where is the ambassador?
24:30Not a word is spoken, but the menace of this character is clear.
24:33Darth Vader is considered one of the greatest film villains of all time, for good reason.
24:38We'll have to destroy them ship to ship.
24:40Get the crews to their fighters.
24:43Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
24:49You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
24:53If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
24:59Number 1.
25:00Xenomorph
25:01Alien
25:01The best villains are sometimes the ones that don't show up until the last minute.
25:05The option to override automatic detonation expires in T-3 minutes.
25:14In this classic sci-fi film, a parasitic alien sneaks on board the Nostromo and attacks one of the crew members, Kane.
25:21The creature eventually detaches and dies, and all seems well.
25:24Then, while eating, Kane starts to feel odd.
25:27What?
25:28What?
25:29At first, the crew believes Kane is choking on some food, and then, burst.
25:39One of the best practical effects that still holds up today.
25:42The result is a stomach-churning, but exquisitely designed monster that we will never forget.
25:47Ever.
25:47Which other film villain do you know made a fantastic first impression?
25:57Let us know in the comments down below.
Be the first to comment