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They're the masterminds behind cinema's most diabolical schemes... Join us as we count down our picks for the most calculating antagonists in film history! From cold-blooded killers to psychological manipulators, these villains executed their sinister plans with chilling precision and patience, leaving destruction in their wake.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for fictional antagonists who
00:12delivered the most delicious, slow-burning villainy on the big screen. These characters
00:17took their sweet time plotting their schemes, and executed each step at precisely the right
00:22moment for maximum impact. We'll be diving deep into some of their wicked plots, so beware of
00:28spoilers.
00:43Javier Bardem has a penchant for playing the most diabolical villains. In No Country for
00:48Old Men, he took on the role of Anton Chigurh, which won him an Oscar. From the moment the
00:52psychopathic contract killer appears on screen, his presence is menacing. His brand of evil is
00:58not flashy or chaotic. Instead, he carries himself with a certain stillness that unnerves the
01:03audience even before we're shown the violence he is capable of.
01:17Chigurh decides his victim's fate via coin tosses, but the illusion of hope he offers is just an
01:23extension of his sadism. He moves in silence, but when he talks,
01:27Bardem's husky baritone gives us chills. The real horror was probably his hairstyle though, sheesh.
01:34Another Javier Bardem character with questionable hair, and a love for death games? Sign us up.
01:51Raoul Silva is a Bond villain driven by vengeance. After M handed him over to the Chinese, leading to
01:58him being tortured for months, he vowed to make her suffer. From doxing MI6 undercover agents,
02:10to blowing up the agency's HQ, and deliberately getting caught, Silva's plan was almost foolproof.
02:17This confidence came through in his eerily composed demeanour. The only variable he didn't account for
02:22was James Bond. Silva loses his life in the end, but not before bringing the MI6 head to her knees,
02:28causing her eventual demise.
02:44This character proves that psychological manipulation can be deadly. Aaron Stampler,
02:49played brilliantly by Edward Norton, is a teenage altar boy suspected of the murder of an archbishop.
02:54Despite all the signs pointing to his guilt, he manages to defend himself by pretending to have
02:59disassociative identity disorder, and blaming the murder on an altar named Roy.
03:14Like his attorney, Martin Vale, the audience doesn't realise Stampler's deception until it's too late.
03:19Instead, we pity the timid Aaron, and understand Roy's motive. After he is acquitted, Aaron reveals his
03:25long can't avail. He definitely didn't have to, though, which makes it less of an admission and
03:30more of a brag about how he played the legal system. Now that's sinister.
03:34When the titular character is a villainess, you know it's about to get messy. Eve Harrington is
03:54the ultimate vamp, who snatches her idol, actress Margot Channing's career, from under her nose.
03:59Margot took pity on Eve, who pretended to have an unfortunate life, and gave her a job as her
04:05assistant. However, Eve, ever the opportunist, used her access to Margot's world to systematically ruin
04:11her reputation, steal her relationships and take her place. From blackmailing to sabotage, she used all
04:23sorts of manipulative tricks to bring the veteran down and succeed at it, too. However, the film's
04:28ending, where a young fan named Phoebe forces her way into Eve's life, implies that the new star is
04:33doomed to the same fate Margot faced.
04:58After being mistaken for a Princeton graduate, our eponymous villain protagonist is tasked with
05:03bringing a wealthy businessman's son, Dickie, back to the States from Italy. He charms his way into
05:08Dickie's high-flying life and occasionally pretends to be him. However, things go awry when an argument
05:14leads to Ripley murdering Dickie. To avoid getting caught, he ends up killing Dickie's friend, Freddie, too.
05:27He convinces the police that Dickie is to blame for Freddie's death, and walks away with hush money.
05:32Ready for a fresh start, he heads to Greece with Peter, the only man he seemed to share a genuine
05:37connection with. Unfortunately, when Peter confronts him about his deception, he kills him too, preserving
05:43his facade with blood on his hands.
06:07Jordan Peele delivered one of the most spine-chilling plot twists of all time in this movie. In the very final
06:12moments, it is revealed that Adelaide, the brave heroine we had been rooting for the entire time,
06:17was actually the tethered entity who stole the real Adelaide's life.
06:30Fan theories suggest she repressed her memories of the underground and believed herself to be the real
06:35Adelaide until her fight with Red. However, it is equally possible that she was just way too good
06:41at hiding the truth. That said, we can't blame her for wanting to escape the underground, just like
06:45we can't fault Red, aka the original Adelaide, for retaliating. The real evil was the system that
06:52oppressed them both. Robert De Niro's portrayal of this fiend earned him an Oscar nod. After saving
07:10a 14-year sentence for the indecent assault of a minor, Max Cady comes out of prison. His trial was sabotaged
07:16by his own public defender, Sam Bowden, and so, for years, he plotted his downfall. Once released,
07:23Cady put his plan into motion. First, he instilled fear in the Bowdens. Then, he seduced Sam's young
07:29daughter, Dani, and tried to get him disbarred when he lashed out. Finally, in the most sadistic move,
07:40he attempted to sexually assault Sam's wife and daughter in front of him. Cady's relentless
07:46obsession turned his very existence into an inescapable threat. So, when he finally perished,
07:52it wasn't just satisfying, but cathartic.
07:54This villain doesn't even have a physical human form in the film,
08:11and still manages to orchestrate the most evil schemes. After preserving his consciousness inside
08:16a supercomputer, Arnim Zola corrupts S.H.I.E.L.D. from the inside and manages to go undetected for the
08:22longest time. He is the mastermind behind Project Insight, aiming to strike down potential threats
08:27to HYDRA and control the masses. To achieve this, he has S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secretary, Alexander Pierce,
08:40do his bidding as HYDRA's secret leader. If that wasn't enough, Zola experimented on Bucky Barnes,
08:46subjected him to psychological abuse and turned him into the Winter Soldier before pitting him against
08:51his best friend, Captain America. He's soulless, literally. This David Fincher classic has one of
09:10the most cunning villains ever. John Doe is a serial killer with a god complex, who thinks he's making
09:15the world a better place by exposing sinners. His unsuspecting victims are those he considers to
09:21be embodiments of the seven deadly sins. He manipulates them into enacting their apparent sins
09:26before delivering wicked punishments as moral lessons. Despite his numerous crimes, he cleverly
09:32evades arrest while luring detectives David Mills and William Somerset into his game. Ultimately,
09:37he turns himself in, only to reveal that he killed Mills' wife out of envy. Grief consumes the younger
09:49detective, much to Doe's pleasure. Unable to control his wrath, Mills shoots the killer. Despite his death,
09:55John's twisted mission is complete.
10:15This political thriller owes a lot of its success to Angela Lansbury's phenomenal performance as the
10:20main antagonist. Her character is a secret agent working with the communists. She's a master
10:25manipulator who will do whatever it takes to make her husband, John Easterlin, president, so that he
10:30can control the American government from the shadows. Her son Raymond Shaw becomes her pawn in this game,
10:44as he's brainwashed and turned into an assassin, who can be triggered to kill, but remains unaware of
10:49his crimes. She bends Raymond to her will, commanding him to murder her enemies. Under her influence,
10:54he ends up killing the love of his life, Jocelyn too. Ultimately, Raymond turns on Eleanor,
10:59ending her covert reign of terror for good.
11:02A few villain reveals in horror movie history have as much of a visceral impact on the audience as the
11:22one in this film. In Saw, a terminally ill man, John Kramer, is the evil mastermind Jigsaw who
11:28engineers deadly games to test his victims' survival instincts. While he doesn't physically kill them
11:33himself, he forces them to make life or death decisions, preying on their fear and desperation.
11:46In one such test, two men, Adam and Lawrence, are held captive in a closed room with a supposed
11:51corpse on the floor, who is later revealed to be Jigsaw. Without ever lifting a finger,
11:56he tortures the men psychologically, exposes their moral failings and forces them to turn on each other.
12:02The deviousness here was next level.
12:04This villainous is female rampage personified. Asami Yamazaki grew up being cruelly abused,
12:25which made her extremely wary of men. Her romantic relationships with male partners always ended
12:30with blood on her hands, when she became convinced of their betrayal. Yet, in some twisted way,
12:35she craves love. So, when a widower holds a fake audition to find his ideal woman, she turns up,
12:49ready to play the part. Things move quickly for the pair, and after a whirlwind romance,
12:53they even consider marriage. Unfortunately, when Asami finds out about the guy's late wife,
12:58her true nature is revealed. Convinced that he is just another traitorous man,
13:03she tortures him with clinical precision. He is horrified by the transformation,
13:07but we knew it was coming.
13:08Unmatched power, unchecked ambition and an unstoppable desire for revenge make for a lethal combination.
13:30Conn possessed all three. In Star Trek II, he sets out to avenge his wife and followers, who lost their
13:36lives after being exiled on Seti Alpha 5. With his superhuman capabilities and extraordinary
13:42intelligence, he strategically escapes Seti Alpha 5, captures the starship Reliant and seeks out the
13:47Genesis device for leverage over Kirk. He nearly takes over Enterprise too, and delights in the
14:02Admiral's suffering, though he fails to kill him. In his final moments, Conn manages to activate Genesis,
14:08putting Enterprise in mortal danger. If not for Spock's shocking sacrifice, this would have led to
14:13certain death for Kirk and his crew, meaning Car's revenge would have been fulfilled.
14:28Unlike Asami Yamazaki, who exacts revenge in gruesome physical ways, this character opts for
14:33psychological violence. Amy Dunn is a woman scorned, but instead of lashing out, she cooks up an elaborate
14:39plan to dismantle her cheating husband Nick's entire life. Step by step, she stages her disappearance,
14:46turns Nick into a murder suspect, and uses media manipulation to ruin his reputation.
14:55She seeks out her ex-boyfriend to help her hide, then frames him for sexual assault before killing him
15:00and returning to Nick. Although she's taken to court, she gets away with murder and prevents Nick from
15:05leaving her by announcing she's pregnant with his child. Amy makes sure her traps are inescapable,
15:11and always has exit routes ready. She's an evil genius.
15:14He made a name for himself with his unrivalled intellect. Then he turned around and committed
15:38mass murder in the name of world peace. Ozymandias' carefully laid out plan started with the death of a
15:44fellow hero named the comedian. He then successfully isolated Dr. Manhattan by turning the public
15:54against him. Next, he orchestrated an attack on himself as a red herring and killed ex-villain
15:59Edgar Jacoby to pin the blame on Rorschach, who posed a threat to his master plan. With all his
16:04opponents out of the way, he set off Dr. Manhattan's energy reactors across the globe, killing countless
16:09people, but uniting the world against Dr. Manhattan and preventing a world war. He achieved his goal,
16:15but the means were unhinged.
16:31No conversation about the greatest movie villains would be complete without this character. At first
16:35glance, Kint is a small fry in the dark criminal underworld. He appears unassuming, and his
16:41visible disability elicits sympathy. After surviving a massacre, he is interrogated by the police and
16:46tells them of the mysterious kingpin Kaiser Soze, linking him to crimes Kint had been involved in.
17:00Only after he is bailed out, do the authorities realise that Kint was spinning tails out of
17:05thin air. Outside, Kint's entire demeanour changes, and a police sketch seems to confirm his real
17:11identity as Kaiser. Instead of avoiding legal trouble, the crime lord let himself be caught
17:16just to make a fool out of the police. Now, that is classic chaotic evil.
17:35The evil of He Who Must Not Be Named is so pervasive that it takes the HP franchise's titular
17:41protagonist eight movies to defeat him. After being abandoned as a child, Tom Riddle grew up exhibiting
17:47psychopathic tendencies and extreme megalomania. His interest in the dark arts came from an insatiable
17:53desire for power, but he managed to conceal his true nature until he became unstoppable.
18:07He plotted for decades, splitting his soul into horcruxes to attain immortality,
18:12and built an elaborate network of followers ready to do his bidding. His divide-and-conquer tactics
18:17weaken the wizarding world from within, aiding his pursuit of totalitarian control. Although Lord
18:23Voldemort ultimately fails, the destruction he causes is immeasurable.
18:39Director Park Chan-wook has a penchant for creating the most complex villains in his films,
18:44and LWJ is no exception. His single-minded fixation on avenging his sister, who took her own life after
18:51her inappropriate relationship with Woo Jin was exposed, is as self-destructive as it is depraved.
18:57Blaming his old classmate Dae Soo for the scandal, Woo Jin imprisons him without telling him why,
19:02crushing his psyche.
19:11Dae Soo is then falsely implicated in his wife's murder and released after 15 years. However, Woo Jin's
19:17control persists, as he hypnotises Dae Soo into falling in love with his daughter. This revelation
19:23devastates Dae Soo, and Woo Jin believes he has succeeded in his revenge. However,
19:28realising that he'll never be at peace, the mastermind ends his life. Talk about a twisted tragedy.
19:34Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs
19:44Sir Anthony Hopkins' Oscar-winning turn as the man-eating criminal mastermind spawned an entire
19:49franchise. His version of Hannibal, with his piercing gaze, eerie charisma and razor-sharp intellect,
19:55remains unbeatable on screen. The OG Dr. Lecter boasts an effortless elegance, which veils his
20:00savagery like a blade sheathed in velvet. He deconstructs Clarice Starling's mind to test her
20:06worth, forcing her to confront her trauma and emerge stronger. Their intellectual bond brings
20:17out Clarice's true potential, but in reality, Hannibal had hoped to create an accomplice out of
20:22her, who'd help him evade arrest after his grand escape. The ending makes it clear, though, that Starling
20:28is no lamb, not anymore, and she won't be catering to the doctor's whims.
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20:58In this film, the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, having orchestrated the Clone Wars,
21:17turns his attention to Anakin Skywalker. By exploiting the Jedi Knight's fear of losing his wife Padme,
21:23the Sith Lord lures him to the dark side of the Force, claiming it could be life-saving for her.
21:28As Anakin's desperation grows, so does Palpatine's psychological grip on him,
21:32until he rejects the Jedi Order and becomes Darth Vader.
21:44Under Palpatine's command, he carries out a massacre in the Jedi Temple, sparing not even the younglings.
21:50While Anakin falls from grace, Darth Sidious rises in power as the Emperor of the Galaxy,
21:54living up to his name.
22:01So, which movie villain do you think is the most underrated? Tell us in the comments.
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