An action movie hero is only as memorable as his villain, which has been endlessly proven by the antagonists of the greatest action movies ever. Without a vile threat to drive the action, it’s easy for a given film in the genre to get stale, becoming a simple series of explosions and gunfights with no connective tissue keeping the audience engaged. While it’s great to watch Keanu Reeves tear through hordes of nameless mobsters intheJohn Wickfranchise, it’s far more interesting to see capable action movie protagonists meet their match with devious villain performances.
The best action movie villains thrive in absurdity, rising to the occasion of their roles in decidedly over-the-top films. Some might be comedic, with an almost lovable sense of humor that often makes them hard to root against. Others are more classically evil, getting across a stern sense of malice that leaves no room for funny business to dilute their plans. Whatever the case,many of thebest cinematic villainscome from action movies, with talented actors often being able to let loose as more dangerous or volatile characters.
10The T-1000
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
One of thebest action movies of all time, it should be no surprise thatTerminator 2: Judgment Dayfeaturesone of the most compelling villainous performances around. Taking place a few years after the firstTerminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Daypicks up with an institutionalized Sarah Connor re-uniting with her son when yet another murderous android is sent back in time to kill them both.
10 Great 1990s Action Movies Barely Anyone Remembers
Some of the best action movies ever came out during the 1990s, but plenty of other excellent films have been mostly forgotten by modern viewers.
Robert Patrick stars as the T-1000, a cutting-edge new robot constructed of liquid metal that’s able to effortlessly blend in and kill its targets via an amorphous body. Patrick is breathtaking as the cool, dangerous T-1000. Being a robot, the performance is largely emotionless, with a deadly efficiency behind Patrick’s eyes coloring everything he does.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Cast
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a sci-fi action film directed by James Cameron, set ten years after the original. It chronicles a new effort to eliminate future rebellion leader John Connor, despite a reprogrammed terminator dispatched to safeguard him.
That being said, the machine is eerily good at impersonating people when it needs to be, and even develops personality of its own when it coldly wags its finger at Sarah Connor’s futile attempts to fight it. Fueled by pure dedication to the character, Robert Patrick was even able to actually sprint fast enough to keep up with a moving car without panting, a chilling glare on his sharp face all the while.
9Hans Gruber
Die Hard (1988)
It’s safe to say thatDie Hardwouldn’t be the testament of pop culture that it is if it weren’t for the efforts of Alan Rickmanas Hans Gruber. Though the British actor might have been better known as the serpent-tongued teacher Professor Snape in theHarry Potterseries, he truly shines inDie Hard,a classic action movies starring Bruce Willis as a normal beat cop who gets called upon to rescue his wife’s workplace from the clutches of a vicious band of terrorists.
Die Hard
Die Hard follows NYPD officer John McClane as he attempts to rescue hostages, including his estranged wife, from terrorists who have overtaken a Los Angeles skyscraper. Released in 1988, this action film is noted for its central character’s resourcefulness and determination in overcoming overwhelming odds with limited assistance.
Hans Gruber is their leader, a shrewd negotiator and brilliant tactician. What makesRickman so fun as a villainis Gruber’s powerfully higher-than-thou sense of self-righteousness, which comes oozing out of every nasally line he utters.
Die Hardhas a Rotten Tomatoes critics' score of 94%.
The fact that Gruber would’ve never expected an everyman as crass or unsophisticated as Bruce Willis' John McClane to beat him makes it all the more satisfying when it does. His look of surprise when he finally falls from the top of Nakatomi Plaza is as delicious of a fate for a sneering villain as could ever be asked for.
8Agent Smith
The Matrix (1999)
Quite possibly the role Hugo Weaving was born to play, Agent Smith is one of the most recognizable villains in movie history for good reason. Agent Smith first appears inThe Matrix,the Wachowski sisters' famous sci-fi epic that takes place in a dystopian future in which machines have taken over, and humanity’s minds have been trapped within a computerized re-creation of the real world.
Quite possibly the role Hugo Weaving was born to play, Agent Smith is one of the most recognizable villains in movie history for good reason.
Agent Smith is one of the many sentient programs sent to maintain the status quo of this prison, ensuring that humanity isn’t able to escape. The pure malice Hugo Weaving carries in his voice as Agent Smith is a wonderful soundtrack totheMatrixmoviesas he chases Neo throughout the series.
The Matrix
The Matrix, released in 1999, is set in the 22nd century and follows a computer hacker, Neo, portrayed by Keanu Reeves. He joins a group of underground insurgents led by Morpheus to combat the domineering computers that control the earth, in a battle that blurs the lines between reality and illusion.
Despite being an artificial intelligence, Smith is far from emotionless, going to great lengths to describe his bitter hatred for the illogical humans and lamenting his role in the process of keeping them alive at all. From behind a fashionable pair of shades, Hugo Weaving has forever immortalized himself as one of the greatest action movie antagonists of all time.
7Jack Horner
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
At first glance,Puss in Boots: The Last Wishmay not seem to qualify as an action movie at all, being a spin-off of a family animation franchise with a bigger focus on comedy and pop culture references than anything else. But those in the know will recognize the film to have one of the greatest, mostdense collections of action scenesthis side of the 2000s.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish follows the titular character as he embarks on a quest to restore his nine lives. Realizing he has exhausted all but one of his lives, Puss seeks the mythical Last Wish, embarking on an epic adventure to rediscover his destiny.
While the film manages to juggle three fantastic villains, all of which being great performances in their own right, John Mulaney’s Big Jack Horner stands head and shoulders above the rest. Chasing Puss in Boots and company to the location of a magical wish,Jack Horner hilariously demonstrates his utter void of empathy time and time again, confounding the efforts of the classic storybook conscience Jiminy Cricket.
The gleeful glint in Jack’s eye as he torches enchanted forests and flings his loyal minions into mortal danger is hard to resist, an animated villain with refreshingly little nuance. His monologue about his idyllic childhood not being enough for his magic-obsessed mania is one of the funniest jokes in the series.
6Zorg
The Fifth Element (1997)
Gary Oldman is quite a well-versed actor when it comes to villainous performances. From the scarred gangster Drexl Spivey inTrue Romanceto Dracula himself inBram Stoker’s Dracula,Oldman is a recipe for instant success in evil roles. As far as action movies go, none of his performances steals the show quite like the character of Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg inThe Fifth Element,another action movie starring Bruce Willis.
Zorg isthe perfect archetypal campy villain, the wealthy leader of Zorg Industries who weaponizes his affluence to an absurd degree. Chewing on scenery with a delightful southern drawl, Oldman somehow manages to make Zorg’s bizarre hairpiece work as he monologues about the mindset of a true killer, haphazardly wielding hisiconic action movie gun, the ZF-1. Only Gary Oldman would be talented enough to make a character as strange and quirky as Zorg work as a genuinely threatening villain.
5Clarence Boddicker
Robocop (1987)
Another film in the conversation for the greatest sci-fi action movie of all time, Paul Verhoeven’sRobocophas a villain or two who set it ahead of the pack. The movie supposes that an idealistic family man cop in a dystopian, cyberpunk Detroit is killed horrifically by a roving gang of bandits, only to be revived by a megacorporation as an android crime fighter.
15 Best Action Movies Of 2024
2024’s best action movies have featured legends of the genre and emerging talents, all delivering explosive thrills in a variety of styles.
The gang’s leader is Clarence Boddicker, played by Kurtwood Smith, whose unassuming name and appearance betray his commitment to vile acts of crime in the name of gaining more and more power. In truth, Clarence isn’t the major overarching villain ofRobocop,being more of a lieutenant to the real lead evildoer, OCP senior president Dick Jones.
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 film set in a dystopian Detroit, where the corporation Omni Consumer Products privatizes the police force. The plot follows Alex Murphy, a street cop who becomes the test subject for a cyborg prototype. As RoboCop, Murphy discovers the corporation’s malicious intentions and acts against them.
However,Boddicker is by far the more memorableof the two, always with a smarmy grin while committing his horrendous crimes. From the way he effortlessly delivers Boddicker’s shockingly colorful lines to the sniveling cowardice he displays when his life is on the line, Kurtwood Smith puts on a character who is astonishingly fun to hate.
4The Joker
The Dark Knight (2008)
Needing little introduction, Heath Ledger’s Joker is not only thebest cinematic version of the Joker, but one of the greatest movie villains of all time. Following up on the joker card tease at the end ofBatman Begins, The Dark Knightopens with the Joker perfectly-executing what ends up being a one-man heist against a mob-owned bank, striking at Gotham’s criminal corruption. Soon becoming fascinated with the Batman,The Joker goes on to do whatever he can to get Gotham and its hero to abandon whatever pretenses of morality they have.
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan, is the second installment in the Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale as Batman. Released in 2008, the film follows Batman’s alliance with Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent as they combat the organized crime that threatens Gotham, facing the menacing Joker.
It’s easy to see whyLedger’s performance has quickly become so legendary. From his genuinely funny delivery of dark humor to his terrifying presence, enough to make Michael Caine forget his lines upon seeing him in character for the first time, Ledger truly summoned every ounce of his acting talent to channel the Clown Prince of Crime. Only a performance as generationally impactful as Ledger’s Joker could summon so much fear by simply licking his lips.
3Hans Landa
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino’s World War II period piece is full of obscene action beats and absurdist humor, but nothing stands out quite like Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa.An Austrian SS officer in Nazi Germany, Landa is one of the most despicable characters everput to film, hunting down Jewish refugees with ruthless efficiency and a strange sense of politeness.
Undeniably charming yet undeniably evil, Hans Landa represents a sort of capricious opportunism that’s all too common in the real world.
This only makes it all the more satisfying when he does get his comeuppance, despite being confident that he can switch sides at the last minute to avoid capital punishment. Interestingly enough, Tarantino was actually hesitant to cast Waltz as the film’s memorable antagonist, worried that his friendly persona would bleed through too much into the villainy.
Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds is a film set during World War II in Nazi-occupied France. It follows a group of Jewish-American soldiers, known as “The Basterds,” led by Lt. Aldo Raine, who engage in ruthless anti-Nazi efforts. Their actions intersect with a French-Jewish theater owner in a plot against the regime.
Upon watching the fake smiles Landa flashes at his enemies, it’s easy to see how he could come to this conclusion, but Waltz’s likability only makes Landa all the more terrifying as a villain. Undeniably charming yet undeniably evil, Hans Landa represents a sort of capricious opportunism that’s all too common in the real world.
2Castor Troy
Face/Off (1997)
As a performer, Nicolas Cage isn’t exactly known for his subtlety, harnessing a powerful potential for neurotic characters as best shown off inFace/Off.Indeed,the film begins with one ofCage’s best performancesyet, leveraging the full use of his hysterical talents to portray a senseless crime villain. However, when the baton passes to John Travolta, Castor Troy’s character somehow becomes even more entertaining.
Face/Off
Face/Off is a 1997 action thriller directed by John Woo, featuring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in lead roles. The film follows an FBI agent who undergoes a facial transplant to assume the identity of a criminal mastermind, a plan that unravels when the criminal awakens and targets his life.
The perplexing dual performances ofFace/Offlend themselves to a brilliant villain, with John Travolta having to match Nicolas Cage’s overacting with some crazed shouting of his own. But Castor Tory’s best moments with Travolta’s face are when he’s infiltrating Sean Archer’s life, promising his family that “There’s gonna be some changes around here” with an uncharacteristic glint in his eye.Face/Offis a phenomenal action film carried by its antagonist, whether he’s being played by Nicolas Cage or John Travolta.
1Davy Jones
Putting a tentacled face behind the classic sailor’s verbiage of “Davy Jones' locker” was one of the most clever choices of Gore Verbinski’sPirattes of the Caribbeantrilogy, one that wouldn’t have worked without Bill Nighy.A cursed immortal sailor, Davy Jones is the fishy enemy of William Turner and Jack Sparrow, doomed to sailThe Flying Dutchmanas a retriever of lost souls. His incredibly lovingly-rendered appearance won the SFX team behind thePirates of the Caribbeanseries a well-earned Academy Award.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is the second installment in the swashbuckling franchise directed by Gore Verbinski. Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow, who must settle a blood debt with the legendary Davy Jones, portrayed by Bill Nighy. As Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are drawn into Jack’s perilous quest, they face new dangers on the high seas and encounter the fearsome Kraken.
As great as Davy Jones looks, it’s hard not to feel like the motion-captured expressions of Bill Nighy were instrumental in crafting his quirky mannerisms, from raising his eyebrow to puttering with his slimy cephalopod mouth.Nighy’s voice is a booming canon of fear in both films, living up to the legend of the sea’s most feared captain. Nighy also played a computer generated villain in another Verbinski film, as Rattlesnake Jake inRango,another contender for a great villainous performance in anaction movie.
