The Official "Best Villains Ever" Thread - Make your case!

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Hans Gruber. Intelligent, methodical...

From a storytelling aspect, I always believed that Hans was the protagonist in Die Hard. John McClane was the villain; 'cause, after all, the latter is the one making all the trouble!

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My vote:


Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman), Leon (The Professional)

Stansfield: I need you to get me everyone.
Manny: What do you mean, "everyone?"
Stansfield: EVERYONE!

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Oh now, come on . .you gotta drag that out!! "EEEEEVVVVVVVVVVRRRRRYYYYYYOOOOOONNNNNEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"


My picks remain Bill the Butcher and Zorg.
 
Old Guy's thoughts ON VILLAINY:

CONTAINS GANGS OF NEW YORK SPOILERS

Hannibal Lector = Smartest
Plus he was groundbreaking. Plus he was played equally well and menacingly by uber as---le Brian Cox in the often overlooked Manhunter by Michael Mann. Disqualified because he is actually a protagonist in later Harris books.

Henry Sugar from No Country for Old Men: An excellent suggestion and one I didn't think of. Ruthless? Oh yeah. Deadly? Exceedingly. Harder than Bill the Butcher? Please.

Based on a historical figure, Bill didn't rely on guns for his wetwork. My daughter could kill Mike Tyson with a gun. Bill led his own troops in Hand to Hand combat. HE GOUGED OUT HIS OWN EYE and sent it to the man who beat him in a fight. He trained his own nemesis in the art of killing. Backstabbing ruthless slumlord who would have Sugar's guts for garters unless the assassin got the drop on him.

Remember when he lost the election to Brian Gleason? "Let's hear from the minority vote...." THWACK! [backstab with butcher's cleaver] Takes Gleason's shillelghle, carves notch in it. "You see that notch, you [profanity]? That's you." THUD-SPLAT!!

Sugar was just a psycho who liked intimidating women and AARP members. Bill was an evil slum king who kicked ass with class and intimidated EVERYBODY. And he knew how to party

Near Dark is a great movie. Severen gets bonus points from me because ... ... ... I own Bill Paxton's Screen used jacket as that character. Yay me!
 
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Do portrayals of real people count?

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Amon Goeth. Fantastic performance by Fiennes.

"This is very cruel, Oskar. You're giving them hope. You shouldn't do that. *That's* cruel!"
 
This should be a short thread, what with Hitler being the Best Villain Ever. He should get the trophy in a walk. Any other face of genocide (Idi Amin, etc.) should get the second and third place on the podium. As disturbing as that is.
 
okay, here are mine -

First and foremost - Avi Arad
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then this dude is next
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which logically leads us to this guy
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and finally one of the scariest villains ever -- The Mammoth Car!!
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The line is "That my friend is the minority vote!" :lol :p

Thanks. I was flying by memory on that one. A great line from a great moment in villainy.

Sugar has an old guy look down a pneumatic livestock terminator that he has no idea what it is. Great villainy sure...car jacking with deadly subterfuge. Ruthless... but hard? Tough? Nah.

Garroting the cop while handcuffed WAS pretty badass, though. Self surgery on a gunshot wound... terrific pain tolerance. Buying a kid's shirt off the street while a bone sticks out of your arm after getting T-boned by a car... that was tough.

But c'mon... Bill the Butcher plays knife throwing games with his girlfriend at parties. Cameron Diez... human target.

Think you could get the ex-wife to go for a round of that party game?

Jet: At least he died a true American! I think the mammoth car was an import.... hey, wasn't it cast from 24K? :lol Man, it's been 35 years since I've seen that.
 
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This should be a short thread, what with Hitler being the Best Villain Ever. He should get the trophy in a walk. Any other face of genocide (Idi Amin, etc.) should get the second and third place on the podium. As disturbing as that is.

Larry, this thread is about villains, not monsters.

@Outlander:
Alright, alright, the badassery of Bill the Butcher is, for his time, undeniably off the scale. But with what is going on around him in terms of violence sure had the standards set high already, so his brutality is a must for him to survive anway. Heads knocked in and throats slit on regular terms? Maybe that was what kind of "softened" his image in my memory. The brutality is there, but is he a sociopath? Tendencies yes, but all out?

Sugar on the other hand is a full-blown sociopathic mad man that enjoys his work for the fun. Come to think of it, maybe that makes him more of a monster and less a villain? Same goes for Hannibal, and the Draculas of course, too.

And I can´t shake the feeling that you just took the time and popped Gangs and No country in over the last night, just for research purposes :lol :lol :lol Dang, great movies, I might do that tonight as well, and even if only for the great Dante Ferretti production design and cinematography of both movies !!!
 
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It all depends on if you mean "Best" villian, cause that's easily this guy,

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Worst villian,

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Or most EVIL villian,

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My favourite are:

The Emperor
Darth Vader
Captain Hook
The Grooke (Moomims)
Judge Doom (Roger Rabbit)
Captain Ahab
the Death (The adventures of Baron Munchhausen)
 
Not enough plain 'ole A-holes in this thread, so I nominate:

Rhodes from Day of the Dead. The guy really was an uber-douch, and he sure 'went to pieces' at the end :cool

Aliens' Carter Burke. Amazing he didn't slip up in his own slime.

David in Sean of the Dead, spiritual brother to Rhodes.

Drexl from True Romance. True psychotic arsehole.

Scorpio from Dirty Harry. Snivelling, whiny, creepy little scumbucket.

John Leguizamo in Carlito's Way - You Dick!

The freed SS guy in Saving Private Ryan. What an utter bar-steward :angry
 
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The car was just entirely ruthless and single-minded in its goal. I found that kind of relentless and almost automatic interest in killing someone rather disturbing.

And Vader of course. He is unpredictable and at least at the time of Star Wars, filled with mystery as to how he came to be. He's a tragic villain in many ways, yet appears to have complete control over his domain.

Faceless villains are the most interesting to me because it leaves more to the imagination.

Something else came to mind from my youth...

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An example of a collective will with many "villains" acting as one force of nature...the birds. Of course there are also bees, ants, the list goes on...:confused
 
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