Not all movies need antagonists, but movies that do can only ever be as good as their villain. Plenty of things can make a good villain, from a strong performance, to a compelling motivation, to a menacing personality; as such, there’s been a wide variety of greatly villains throughout the history of movies. Only a few of them, however, can rightfully be called perfect characters.
Even some of the greatest and most iconic movie villains in history aren’t quite perfect. Darth Vader is larger than life, but Anakin’s flawed arc in the prequels definitely makes the villain imperfect. Hannibal Lecter is horrifying in The Silence of the Lambs, but the rest of the films in the franchise do his character a disservice. Then, there are villains, both classic and modern, who, simply put, are spotless characters, well-written, well-performed, and absolutely imposing from head to toe. These legendary villains prove that sometimes, it’s good to be bad.
10
Mr. Potter — ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946)
One of the most magical Christmas films ever made, It’s a Wonderful Life is far more than just a holiday classic. Directed by Frank Capra, one of the most ahead-of-his-time filmmakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age, it’s also a beautiful story about family, masculinity, and mental health. Nearly eighty years later, it doesn’t feel like its heart and soul have aged a day. Its villain is Mr. Potter, a despot banker portrayed brilliantly by veteran actor Lionel Barrymore.
Though It’s a Wonderful Life is undeniably life-affirming and has one of the best feel-good endings in film history, every scene with Mr. Potter makes the viewer hate him a little more with each word that comes out of his mouth. He’s not a particularly layered character, but he doesn’t need to be. He’s the ultimate personification of greed and unchecked power, far more than just a one-dimensional Scrooge type.
9
Harry Powell — ‘The Night of the Hunter’ (1955)
Like many films before and since, The Night of the Hunter failed (both financially and critically) when it came out, but was later revitalized by a reappraisal by critics and audiences alike. The reappraisal led to the rediscovery of Robert Mitchum‘s Harry Powell, a serial killer con artist, one of the best and scariest villains of Classical Hollywood.
Night of the Hunter is one of the biggest film masterpieces of the 1950s, and that’s in no small measure thanks to Powell, whose writing is every bit as influential as Mitchum’s tour-de-force performance. Shockingly complex and disturbing for a villain of the era, Powell’s presence defines the whole film’s gloomy tone. It was movies like Night of the Hunter that started to cause cracks in the censorship practices of Code-era Hollywood, and that wouldn’t be the case without this unforgettable antagonist.
8
HAL 9000 — ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)
Easily and by far one of the greatest sci-fi films in history, 2001: A Space Odyssey is the work of Stanley Kubrick at the very top of his game. There aren’t many movies in the genre that are quite as thought-provoking, and there are even fewer that are made with such a flawless understanding of the filmmaking craft. There also aren’t many that have a villain as memorable as HAL 9000, the AI piloting the Discovery One that goes rogue due to a programming contradiction.
Voiced with terrifying elegance and gentleness by Douglas Rain in one of the best voice performances ever, HAL 9000 is terrifying, particularly because of how real he feels—now more than ever before. It’s only because he’s so perfectly written to symbolize the film’s themes on technology and evolution, however, that he’s proved so timeless.
7
The Wicked Witch of the West — ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939)
All these years later, audiences around the globe still keep turning to The Wizard of Oz for some of the most beautiful, colorful, and lively comfort cinema that the art form has to offer. Whimsical though the film as a whole may be, it’s not without its dark moments—and lots come from the presence of the Wicked Witch of the West.
With Margaret Hamilton delivering one of the most influential villain performances in movie history and an equally phenomenal script, the Wicked Witch is a true cinematic icon. She may be a relatively simple villain from a relatively simple family film, but it’s how well she fulfills that role that makes her perfect. The Wizard of Oz is one of history’s best adventure family films, and that likely wouldn’t be the case without a villain this vibrant, memorable, and imposing. Boisterous and deliciously gleeful in her evilness, she’s the kind of villain who just loves to be bad.
6
Anton Chigurh — ‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
The Coen Brothers have delivered some of modern history’s best and most iconic Hollywood movies throughout their careers. There can be a good conversation about what their best 21st-century work is, but there’s one that’s bound to come up more than the others: No Country for Old Men, which got the duo their first (and so far only) Best Directing and Best Picture Oscars. Another of the film’s Academy Award wins came for Javier Bardem, who played the villainous Anton Chigurh, an absolutely ruthless hitman.
The film is a work of genius stylistically and genre-wise. Its juxtaposition and cacophonous mixture of Western and noir elements to represent the conflict between progress and the past is brilliant, and Chigurh carries these contrasts on his back (and on his terrible haircut) effortlessly. A terribly intimidating force of nature as mysterious as he is symbolically significant, Chigurh almost single-handedly makes No Country for Old Men one of the best R-rated Westerns in history.
5
Nurse Ratched — ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of only three movies that have ever won the Big Five Oscars: Picture, Directing, Screenplay, Lead Actor, and—of course—Lead Actress. The latter went to Louise Fletcher, whose traumatizingly convincing portrayal of Nurse Ratched, a coldhearted and tyrannical nurse, is one of the most memorable acting performances of the 1970s.
Ratched is a crucial part of the film’s messages on mental health and on the corrupting power of bureaucratic power.
Overall, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of the most accurate depictions of mental health topics in all of cinema, and Ratched is a crucial part of the film’s messages on mental health and the corrupting power of bureaucratic power. Emotionally nuanced and detestable to the core, Nurse Ratched is one of the most hated film characters in history, and for good reason. Sometimes, that’s all villains need to be.
4
Phyllis Dietrichson — ‘Double Indemnity’ (1944)
For decades, experts have been having a debate on what, exactly, film noir was. Was it a genre? A film movement? Was it simply a style? Scholars and film historians have never quite agreed on an answer, but one thing is certain: Noir has plenty of traditional tropes and other elements that make it instantly recognizable, and one of those is the femme fatale, a mysterious woman who uses her charms to seduce men and lead them to their downfalls. There is perhaps no noir movie better than Double Indemnity, and there is perhaps no femme fatale better than Phyllis Dietrichson.
Besides being Barbara Stanwyck‘s best-ever performance, Phyllis is far more than just an archetype. Evil and manipulative like all great femme fatales, but with a particularly high amount of agency, layers, and nuance, she’s a character who could have singlehandedly made any noir one of the most essential. Thankfully, the whole movie around her is splendid, too.
3
Hans Landa — ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009)
It’s a well-known story that Quentin Tarantino nearly gave up on making Inglourious Basterds, one of the best war revenge films of all time, purely because he simply couldn’t find anyone who could play SS Colonel Hans Landa. Then, he found Christoph Waltz, who went on to win an Oscar for his chilling work. Moreover, Waltz’s performance has gone down in history as one of the most masterful of the 21st century.
It’s not just Waltz that makes Landa such a perfect character, though (even if he certainly contributes an awful lot). The villain is also brilliantly written, an unstoppable force to be reckoned with whose wits and charisma make it dangerously easy to find him charming. Absolutely despicable yet with a twistedly fascinating motivation, Hans Landa is both one of movie history’s most atrocious monsters and one of its most weirdly spellbinding.
2
The Joker — ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
Christopher Nolan‘s whole Dark Knight trilogy is hugely acclaimed, but it’s The Dark Knight in particular that tends to be recognized as not just the 21st century’s greatest superhero movie sequel, but perhaps even the greatest comic book movie of all time. As great as this action thriller is, though, one can’t dance around the fact that a significant reason why it’s so acclaimed is because of Heath Ledger‘s Joker, one of the most memorable characters in movie history.
Saying that Nolan and Ledger’s Joker is a perfect character would be a bit of an understatement. Awfully mysterious, utterly terrifying, with just the right amount of camp, and flawlessly performed, this version of the Joker has been recognized as the definitive version of the Clown Prince of Crime outside of the comics since 2008.
1
Michael Corleone — ‘The Godfather: Part II’ (1974)
The Godfather is praised by many as the best movie of all time. It puts in a deeply compelling contrast the decline in health of Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and the reluctant rise to power of his youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino). On the other hand, The Godfather Part II, praised by many others as the best movie of all time, juxtaposes Vito’s transformation into the Godfather with Michael’s fall from spiritual grace.
It’s one of the most timeless classics in film history, an absolutely flawless character study anchored by Pacino’s transcendental performance and Francis Ford Coppola‘s stunning direction. Michael may be the protagonist here, yes, but make no mistake: He is absolutely also the film’s villain, a man twisted and corrupted by power. It’s a simple arc on paper, but the way it’s executed is what makes Michael one of the best characters in movie history, and certainly the most perfect villain ever put on celluloid.
