Top 10 Series: The best TV and Movie Villains
Hello folks,
I’m back yet again with another installment of my Top Ten series.
Today’s category is of course the best villains from TV and film. Those nasty horrible villains who commit such wanton acts of violence, depravity, treachery and genocidal destruction. Opposed only by those men and women brave enough to stand in their way. Their evil is often infamous and while typically they lose in the end, sometimes they get away to strike again in the sequels or future episodes.
Shall we begin?
10. Montgomery Burns
The only animated villain on this list, the town of Springfield and the Simpson family must occasionally contend with that cantankerous Centenarian. The main antagonist of the series he may not be as evil as others on this list, but his list of dastardly acts are infinite.
Stealing Christmas from 1981-1985, Blocking out the sun, running over Bart with his car, bribing Nuclear Safety Inspectors, consorting with terrorists, forming a monopoly of Springfield’s media outlets, stealing a trillion dollar bill from the U.S. government, forming his “League of Evil” and finally releasing a trap door to anyone who bothers him.
Monty Burns has mellowed in his old age and has become less nefarious, but his past still remains with him and we love to watch him be evil, be nasty and mean, just be Monty Burns.
09. Khan Noonien Singh
The only Star Trek villain so dastardly that he inspired a sequel film, Khan Noonien Singh is number nine on this list.
First appearing in the landmark episode “Space Seed”, it was producer Harve Bennett who first suggested that the genetically engineered superman, and Kirk adversary, Khan was charismatic and interesting enough to sustain an entire feature length film.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released in 1982 and was a smashing critical and financial success compared to the first film of the series. Ricardo Montalban’s excellent performance in both the TV episode and the film was exciting and remembered as one of the best to this day.
Despite never facing Kirk in person for an entire film, his obsession with the erstwhile captain was so pure and so filled with hate that you could see why Khan was worthy of a film. His cunning was matched only by Bill Shatner’s James T. Kirk who may have only survived the encounter because he was the hero.
There have been many, many villains to grace the Star Trek franchise, but only one other could hope to match the intensity of Khan…!
08. The Borg
When the Ferengi failed to live up to producer’s dreams of a new villain for the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, they were forced to come up with someone new. A little brainstorming and the result was by the far the most memorable and scariest villain ever conceived for the Star Trek franchise.
Of course I’m talking about the Borg.
The Borg are a cybernetically enhanced race with a collective mind and a singular goal: Assimilate all life for the greater good. Similar in nature to the Terminator, their single minded objective never changes and countless alien races have succumbed to their ominous cube shape vessels and warnings of “Resistance is futile.”
Introduced to us in “Q Who?” they quickly grabbed the attention of all Star Trek fans and have subsequently returned for re-matches in all the series which followed, save for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Borg made a cameo on Star Trek: Enterprise and became a regular on Star Trek: Voyager in the shape of Seven Of Nine. Capt. Janeway earned an antagonist in the ruthless Borg Queen, herself premiering in the second Generation film, Star Trek: First Contact, which featured the Borg as the villains of that piece.
What makes the Borg so dangerous is their determination to conquer everything around them and their ability to do so. Their weapons always seem stronger, and those who oppose them are easily crushed. Surviving an encounter with them often means you just barely squeezed by the skin of your teeth and they look pretty cool too.
Very few automatons make good villains as their lack of emotion or desire makes them hard to relate to. But that weakness in others is what makes the Borg so great.
07. J.R. Ewing
In television there are few real bad guys that audiences remember. In serialized dramas there is only one man who when mentioned by name, all know who you are talking about. That show is Dallas and that man is its resident bad guy John Ross (J.R.) Ewing.
The breakout character of the prime-time soap, J.R. was the epitome of the ruthless businessman who enjoys destroying his enemies, cheating on his wife and imposing his Texas-sized will on his family. When his character was almost done in during the 1979-1980 Season, a media firestorm was created via “Who Shot J.R.?”
Following his alter-ego’s lead, the actor who played the nefarious J.R., Larry Hagman, seized the opportunity to receive a bigger piece of the Southfork pie. And with good cause since the following year the episode which revealed the secret became, at the time, the highest rated television episode in US history.
It had a Nielsen rating of 53.3 and a 76% share, and it was estimated that 83,000,000 people watched the episode. The previous record for a TV episode had been the 1967 finale for The Fugitive. “Who Shot J.R.?” now sits second on the list, beaten in 1983 by the final episode of M*A*S*H.
06. The Others
The survivors of Pan Am Flight 815 had only their basic survival, polar bears and a mysterious jungle bound monster to contend with on Lost. But that all changed in the season finale when “the Others” made their move to steal Walt and it has been downhill from there.
As warned about by Danielle Rousseau, the survivors were quick to discover that before they knew it they had already be infiltrated by Ethan and two of their members abducted. Information about this mysterious group was slow to come. We had mere glimpses, Tom (a.k.a Mr. Friendly) was their spokesman for a time. Then we saw their camp, or a clever ruse in fact.
The unassuming Henry Gale, a man we suspected from the very beginning, turned out to be their de facto leader Benjamin Linus. Their motives are still unclear, their history is mired in lies and deception and yet we love them so much. We watch the series with delight hoping to learn more about these enigmatic island dwellers. Masters of manipulation, they are insidious in how they abduct and indoctrinate you. Through coercion the character of Michael killed two of his own group and we watched an entire season of them holding Jack, Kate & Sawyer as prisoners.
Season 5 begins soon and I’m sure that all fans of Lost agree that these bad guys have made their mark in entertainment history. Hopefully more surprises are in store for us and the survivors.
05. The Alien
The 1979 film Alien boldly stated that; “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream” and that was no lie.
The only non-entity villain on this list, the titular creature is as ruthless as any other group of this company. Described as being over 8 feet tall, with skin as hard as plate steel and spewing acid for blood, this movie monster left quite a first impression. Strong enough to follow with 3 sequels, 2 spin-off films (in which it faced off with the Predator species) and dozens of other media: Video games, comic books and action figures.
But what makes the Alien so scary and so villainous, is that its motives are so pure — Survival. True it wants to survive by exploiting other living beings, but how can you truly fault such a creature. That’s what makes it so insidious a creation.
As described by the android Ash;
“You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with; a perfect organism. It’s structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.”
For your own survival you will fight it, but compared to the other villains of this list, you can never truly hate the Alien. All it wants to do is survive in this hostile universe along with the rest of us. It has no ulterior motive, it doesn’t want to conquer or enslave. It merely lives for the sake of its queen and its hive.
That’s why its so great a cinematic villain.
04. The Terminator (Models 101, T-1000 & T-X)
“It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with…it doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear…and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.”
And with those words were ushered in filmdom the nastiest group of assassins ever conceived by man. The man being James Cameron and those assassins being the Terminators.
True, Arnold assumed the hero in the subsequent sequels, but his imposing presence as the unstoppable killing machine in the first Terminator (1984) has left an indelible mark on our psyche, quite fitting since his creation came from a nightmare of Cameron’s.
From the moment he first arrived on screen Arnold made the Terminator his role and that villain easily overshadowed the heroes; Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor, mother of the future. His mere monotone presence sent shivers through the collective audiences of the world and that determined ferocity to accomplish his mission resonated as an icon of fortitude.
The Terminator was unstoppable and would remain unstoppable even when finally destroyed. He would haunt your dreams as he did Sarah Connor in the second film.
T-1000 raised that to an extreme level as the experimental mimetic poly-alloy. Cameron specifically cast actor Robert Patrick to contrast the original model. ‘A Terminator Porsche’ Cameron called the T-1000 and that proved apt. It was sleek, silver and could do things that no other Terminator could do.
Where as the T-800 was merely a metal skeleton, this shape-shifting liquid metal monster could easily become anyone, go anywhere and take any kind of damage and keep on coming. Only when thrown into a vat of molten steel was it finally annihilated.
For the third film, we needed a leap forward. We needed the T-X, which was the best of both worlds. Given a distinctively feminine design, a poly-mimetic sheath and the most sophisticated chassis of all the Terminators, this villain was created for the purpose of destroying both man and machine alike.
She was an “anti-terminator” terminator and proved as ruthlessly relentless as her cinematic predecessors.
As a group these killer machines are the stuff of legend and nightmares. We joke that someday our computers might take over the world, but if that were truly the case, it’s probable that mankind would not survive if monsters like these were made.
03. Darth Vader
The film opened up with a now famous starship chase. The smaller vessel was quickly overtaken and boarded. A gunfight ensued and when it was all over, a man walked through the hatch and into film history.
That film was Star Wars and that dark shape was the central bad guy Darth Vader.
When Darth Vader was introduced in 1977, he quickly became an iconic villain. The dark form of his armour and mask captured our imagination. His massive frame, as played by David Prowse, was formidable and scary. That powerful voice (performed by James Earl Jones) was strong and intimidating. His very image became the symbol of evil to everyone.
Cartoonists used his visage to depict another “evil Empire” better known as the Soviet Union in their Sunday editorials. His main theme instantly recognizable at sporting events and other venues. The shocking truth of his connection to the hero Luke Skywalker put things in doubt and he did swing a mean lightsaber 3 times before finally being bested.
But the most important aspect to this character was that when we learned his true name, Anakin Skywalker, and what had become of Luke and Leia’s father, he became a tragic villain. One that we hoped would overcome the shackles of his cruel master and he did just that, while watching his own son be ravaged by the Emperor, Anakin Skywalker emerged from that black suit to become a hero again.
Some say the best villains are the ones who are tragic and if that is the case, Darth Vader stands above the rest at number three on this list.
02. The Emperor (Darth Sidious)
If there was anyone who could give orders to Darth Vader, it would be his own master Darth Sidious, better known as Palpatine, better known as the Emperor of the Galactic Empire.
When Darth Vader was introduced in 1977, he quickly became the greatest movie villain to everyone. But in the background, there was someone else. Merely hinted at in Star Wars, he was first introduced to us as a hologram in The Empire Strikes Back and finally in the flesh to moviegoers in Return of The Jedi.
To our surprise Darth Vader was not the baddest villain in the galaxy, he was merely an enforcer to the true evil, the Emperor. Dressed in those dark robes, a sneering old man who looked as aged as the universe himself. As played by Ian McDiarmid, we watched the Emperor goad and mock Luke Skywalker into turning to the Dark Side but in the end he failed. Going out with a bang as all good villains do.
But that wasn’t the end of the story… 20 years later Palpatine returned as a much younger man for the Star Wars prequels and his story, so intertwined with that of Anakin Skywalker’s was told.
In Episode I, Palpatine was a mere shadow of his former maniacal greatness. He was a politician (scary, ahhh!) but unassuming and ineffectual. What little did we know, in the shadows was the evil Darth Sidious whom we would soon learn was in fact the insignificant Palpatine and his true strength revealed.
What can you say about a Sith Lord who can wipe out the entire Jedi Order with but a handful apprentices and years of determination. An evil so strong that even the greatest of the Jedi Council can sit in a room with him and know nothing. We watched him work his magic finally in Revenge Of The Sith, his nefarious plans coming to fruition, and seducing Anakin Skywalker to become his latest pawn. Taking on 5 Jedi Masters single handedly, (4 of them at one time) he bested them all and when the dust settled, he had truly become the master of the galaxy and the Emperor whom we first met in 1983.
Darth Sidious has since overtaken the original Sith Lord, Darth Vader as the central villain in the Star Wars Saga and for good reason. Darth Vader may be bad, but the Emperor is pure evil.
01. Goldfinger
In the beginning there was Dr. No… But of all those Bond villains (the good doctor included) who have come and gone over the years, none of them hold a candle to the epitome, the standard of Bond villains, Auric Goldfinger.
Goldfinger starred in the 3rd of the Connery films and he was played by the German actor Gert Frobe, though that amazing voice was dubbed by one Michael Collins (a typical measure by early Bond producers). Goldfinger stood for unprecedented greed, his malevolence was not about world domination, he became the archetype of all the Bond villains as the style of the film itself became the standard for the films that followed.
Serviced by the maniacal Oddjob, Goldfinger started the killer bodyguard trend. His famous line “No, Mr. Bond I expect you to die,” has become a classic, spray painting the ill fated Ms. Masterson and so simple a plot as nuking Fort Knox to make his own gold stocks worth more ingenious. If not for Goldfinger one might assume all Bond villains would follow the pattern of Dr. Julius No or the assassin “Red” Grant. Mere lieutenants to SPECTRE or some other aspiring organization for global domination.
Goldfinger was his own man with his own way of doing things. And he did it first. That’s why he’s the best.
There’s my list for the baddest of the bad.
I bid adieu,
your Origami reporter,
L.Manly
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