The Best Movie Baddies Ever Thread

[Dr Rock]

I'll start with Harry Lime out of The Third Man. It was on the telly earlier, which is why it's fresh in my mind -  a black and white movie on terrestrial tv, in this day and age! He really is a piece of shit, selling dodgy cut penicillin that kills kids. He tries to tempt good man Joseph Cotton to join him with his 'ah fuck 'em, they are just little dots if you're high up on a Ferris Wheel' speech. And he runs around the sewers which means he probably stinks of shit too. But nobody mentions that. Anyway he's very much like Satan isn't he?  Noticed more of the religious symbolism on this watch.  And like any great baddie, he's the best part of the movie. It's hard to dislike him, even though he's definitely a cunt. The film does suggest that the war has changed a lot of people, and there is also the famous argument that chaos and suffering causes great art, so what can you do. Doesn't mean you have to be a child-killing racketeer Harry! As he realises when he dies reaching for the light I suppose. Spoiler.



Who is your best movie baddie and why etc!

[monolith]

Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. Steals every scene and the intro where

Spoiler alert

he kills a kid after someone else calls him by name

[close]

is brutally cold. Can't be many better bad guy intros:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN3-uOjK4TY

[Kelvin]

Easy choice.



Skeletor, from Masters of the Universe. Absolutely steals the film and makes it eminently more watchable than it has any right to be.

It's not just the genuinely brilliant performance, either. It's the fact that he's clearly scripted by someone who loved writing such a straightforward, traditionally "evil" villain. Take this scene for example, one of my favourite of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOsHoqhbUIU

I always think of Skelator when I hear people saying that the best villains always believe they're doing good or have their own internal conflict. This Skeletor, like The Emperor from Star Wars, is brilliant precisely because he revels in his own wickedness, and is written so well that his simplicity becomes a virtue. 

[Old Nehamkin]

[clingfilm portent]

Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in already superb Die Hard, and the Sherriff of Nottingham in the otherwise abhorrent[nb]Haven't actually seen it in 10+ years, though.[/nb] Prince of Thieves.

[Mr Banlon]

 
Alain Charnier, French Connection

[Serge]

Well, Keyser Söze, obviously.



Alright, his plan doesn't really work (

Spoiler alert

if his whole aim is to eliminate the one man who can identify him, it's kind of ruined by the fact that by the end of the movie he's let it slip to a particularly dogged cop who he really is

[close]

), but his act of 'true will' is one of the most startling scenes in cinema.

And of course, John Doe in 'Se7en':



That guy's a real fucker.

[Van Dammage]

Takeshi Kitano in Gonin.



Gary Oldman in Leon



That auld bastard from Cold Fish. He was a right mentalist.

[Steven]

[Brundle-Fly]

This mercurial sod...

[samadriel]

Clarence Boddicker from Robocop. Nasty!

[Dr Rock]

That's not a still from Jaws though is it? Agreed he is an all time best baddie anyway!

[Replies From View]

[clingfilm portent]

[Lord Mandrake]

Craig Phillip Bierko as... Timothy! Timothy gutting some strung up man with a quip. Timothy effortlessly chatting up our heroine. Timothy threatening mum and kids with hunting knife, in church, at christmass. Timothy will blind his own kid and then shoot out her knees if you fuck with him. Timothy throwing his knife right at your balls, with a glint in his eye. Timothy only has four inches but you'll feel him. Timothy.

[Brundle-Fly]

Le Tenia from Irreversible (2003). Pure concentrated evil.

[Default to the negative]

"Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?"


The Matrix sequels were poor but I never tired of Agent Smith's antics. He's the ultimate edgy teenager.

[Default to the negative]

Le Tenia from Irreversible (2003). Pure concentrated evil.

And he got away scot-free.

[Brundle-Fly]

Hedra from Single White Female (1992)  Remided on R4's Woman's Hour this week how underrated this thriller is.

[Serge]

Ha! that's weird, I was thinking about 'Single White Female' a couple of days ago. Though I did have a massive crush on Jennifer Jason Leigh as 'original' Hedra (as seen in your picture there) when I first saw it. Must check it out again sometime soon.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Laurence Olivier as 'The White Angel', former death camp worker and dentist, and latterly diamond dealer and secret services informant, in Marathon Man was quite good.  People tend to recall the drill scene with Dustin Hoffman bound in a chair.  His slayings with the retractable wrist blade were quite something, too-especially that old man he topped in a crowded street without being discovered.

[OnBoardNavvy]

Either one will do, come to think of it.

If this were books, then Cpt Aardvark from Catch-22, but it's not. Still a cunt, though.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I saw Men in Black on telly the other day for the first time in ages and was reminded of how funny Vincent Donofrio is in it.

"He's tearassing around Manhattan in a brand new Edgar suit!"



"Does that sound like fun?"

[biggytitbo]

[greenman]

"Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?"


The Matrix sequels were poor but I never tired of Agent Smith's antics. He's the ultimate edgy teenager.

There was probably one films worth of pretty good material with Smith and the French guy expanded over two films with the aweful Zion crap.

For cartoonish evil bastards I would say the Kurgan from Highlander stands out....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6gGiI7Jqs

[marquis_de_sad]

Easy choice.



Skeletor, from Masters of the Universe. Absolutely steals the film and makes it eminently more watchable than it has any right to be.

It's not just the genuinely brilliant performance, either. It's the fact that he's clearly scripted by someone who loved writing such a straightforward, traditionally "evil" villain. Take this scene for example, one of my favourite of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOsHoqhbUIU

I always think of Skelator when I hear people saying that the best villains always believe they're doing good or have their own internal conflict. This Skeletor, like The Emperor from Star Wars, is brilliant precisely because he revels in his own wickedness, and is written so well that his simplicity becomes a virtue.

This has probably been mentioned by many before, but the similarities of that scene to the one in the Ninth Gate[nb]This clip is a Spoiler, Spoiler fans[/nb] always amused me.

[marquis_de_sad]

I saw Men in Black on telly the other day for the first time in ages and was reminded of how funny Vincent Donofrio is in it.

"He's tearassing around Manhattan in a brand new Edgar suit!"



"Does that sound like fun?"

"a PET CAT!"

[Brundle-Fly]

Ha! that's weird, I was thinking about 'Single White Female' a couple of days ago. Though I did have a massive crush on Jennifer Jason Leigh as 'original' Hedra (as seen in your picture there) when I first saw it. Must check it out again sometime soon.

There must be something wrong with me but I had a real CaB Phwoar thread moment recently with JJL in The Hateful Eight. Such a great actress.

And another villain nomination in this thread...

[Steven]

Typical Skeletor.



Within seconds of becoming a God and he wants He-Man to give him a blow-job.[nb]And who's this Neil he keeps screaming for, is it his civil partner?[/nb]

[Kelvin]

Whereas, of course, the cartoon Skelator was much more interested in "boobs".