Villains have more fun. That’s an adage oft repeated by actors who have built careers out of playing on the dark side, and it’s hard to argue with. While heroes can be roguish or charismatic, it’s often the villains of their stories that end up leaving a larger impression. To use another platitude, a hero is only as good as their villain. That’s why so many of the villains in action movies, a genre that is prefaced by the binary concept of good and evil, have such an incredible aura.
Contemptible, loveable, or falling somewhere in between, there are so many action villains whose presence looms so large over their respective films or entire franchises that they become the standard by which all future baddies are measured. From high-octane masterpieces to colorful cult classics, this is a ranking of the ten action villains with the most aura based on their most memorable moments, how intimidating and effective they are, and their overall legacy.
10
The Duke from ‘Escape from New York’ (1981)
When a movie like Escape From New York has a certified badass like Kurt Russell playing its iconic hero Snake Plissken, it needs someone with effortless cool to come in as the villain. Enter soul man Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York, who wears his gold chains and epaulettes with style as the royal ruler of Manhattan Island, which has been turned into a maximum security prison in director John Carpenter‘s cult classic. The Duke is the ultimate warlord, and Hayes’ natural star presence and deep, commanding vocals make it easy to see why so many criminals would follow his lead.
Who else but the man behind the iconic theme from Shaft could turn what is a one-note character into an all-time classic ’80s villain? Hayes takes that one-note and plays it at the perfect pitch between camp and grit. It’s an American Mad Max villain by way of funkadelics, who doesn’t adorn his Cadillac with skulls or spikes but with chandeliers and a disco ball. He’s number one and he knows it.
9
M. Bison from ‘Street Fighter’ (1994)
The first live-action adaptation of the classic arcade fighting game Street Fighter is a true disasterpiece. Between the lackluster fight choreography, flaccid interpretations of the colorful cast of characters, and a script that has sharp cheddar levels of cheese, it’s the poster child for bad video game movies. It does, however, have one bright, shining exception to its 102 minutes of execrable execution, and that’s Raul Julia‘s committed performance as the dictatorial M. Bison. What Julia lacks in the video game character’s cartoonish bulk, he more than makes up for in his theatrical delivery, made all the more impressive considering the actor was in poor health at the time because of his ongoing battle with stomach cancer.
Street Fighter would be the actor’s final film performance and was posthumously dedicated to him. While the film isn’t worthy of his talents, he absolutely elevates every single scene, giving M. Bison a Shakespearean level of grandeur and attitude that outclasses every single other actor who shares the screen with him. The unhinged cast of the new Street Fighter movie is generating excitement for the reboot, particularly character actor David Dastmalchian as the new M. Bison, but he’s got some mighty big armor-plated boots to fill.
8
The Joker from ‘Batman’ (1989)
Batman’s greatest nemesis, the Joker, has been reinvented and reinterpreted across the media in every way possible. He’s been an agent of chaos, a Vaudevillian prankster, and a tattooed edgelord, but in terms of pure, unadulterated aura, it’s hard to beat Jack Nicholson‘s interpretation in Tim Burton‘s Batman. Entering the story as underworld underling Jack Napier, Nicholson starts as a hard-edged hood, but after a dip in some Ace chemicals, he becomes a rictus-grinned psychopath who views himself as something of an artist of death.
Nicholson’s scenery-chewing performance, set to a Prince soundtrack, set the template for all Batman villains to follow for the next decade until Christopher Nolan came to the property and brought things back down to Earth. The Batman franchise is such an elastic one that it allows its characters to come in a variety of flavors, and Nicholson offers an acid-dipped sorbet that is hard to resist.
7
Bodhi from ‘Point Break’ (1991)
If there’s such a thing as a Zen villain, then Patrick Swayze‘s Bodhi, from Kathryn Bigelow‘s Point Break, is it. Leading a group of adrenaline-junkie surf-bro bank robbers, Bodhi is equally at home giving sage-like advice as he is jumping out of a plane. Swayze has never been more suited to a role, and his bromance with Keanu Reeves‘ undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah forms the heart of their film.
There’s not a single moment in Bigelow’s sun-baked action extravaganza that Swayze doesn’t exude ultimate cool, but his signature aura moment actually comes at his end. Faced with being taken in by the FBI, Bodhi opts to surf against his fabled 50-year storm. Riding his board out into certain death, Bodhi is the platonic ideal of a badass who goes out the only way he knows how.
6
Bill from ‘Kill Bill Vol. 1’ (2003) and ‘Kill Bill Vol. 2’ (2004)
Quentin Tarantino has written more than his fair share of characters with aura. Reservoir Dogs‘ Mr. Blonde, Jules from Pulp Fiction, and Django himself are all imbued with specific brands of aura. However, when it comes to full-on villains, it’s the namesake of the two-part actioner Kill Bill that takes the trophy. Played by Kung Fu star David Carradine, Bill is the master of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and former paramour of its most deadly member, Uma Thurman‘s Bride, who kills her way across two continents to get back at him.
In Vol. 1, Carradine remains an offscreen presence, save for a few shots of his hands, who nonetheless cast a shadow over everything. It’s in Vol. 2 that the character is put front and center, and the actor relishes every moment of it, whether it’s in his May-December romantic chemistry with Thurman or his monologue on the mythology of Superman. Even though viewers never get to see Bill’s martial arts prowess, in a typical bit of Tarantino subversion, his aura alone leaves no doubt of his abilities.
5
The Predator from ‘Predator’ (1987)
Though the Yautja species has seen all sorts of variations over the years, from supers to hybrids to feral and beyond, the OG Predator remains the most iconic, which makes it all the more impressive considering how the character’s design that audiences know and love almost didn’t happen. Originally designed as an insect-like alien and played by Jean-Claude Van Damme in the suit, producers wisely vetoed it, fired Van Damme, and brought on Stan Winston, who created the mandibled, dreadlocked demon who was perfectly inhabited by performer Kevin Peter Hall.
The combination of Winston’s unique design, Hall’s imposing physicality, and the character’s intelligence makes the Predator, referred to as the Jungle Hunter in fan circles, a complete villain as opposed to a mindless monster like its genre counterpart, the xenomorph from the Alien franchise. As he cuts through the elite team of testosterone-fueled ’80s commandos, the Predator secures his place as the coolest, most dangerous villain across the galaxy.
4
T-1000 from ‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ (1991)
There must be something about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his specific brand of musclebound charisma that inspires filmmakers to make villains of such supernatural levels of aura to oppose him. While the Austrian Oak made for an imposing villain himself in 1984’s The Terminator, director James Cameron made the clever decision to reverse heel turn the character to a hero, which also meant he needed to bring in an even more deadly antagonist: the liquid metal T-1000, as played with steely intensity by Robert Patrick.
Cameron once illustrated the difference between the two Terminators by comparing Schwarzenegger’s model to a Panzer tank and Patrick’s to a Porsche. Whereas the destructive T-800 stuck out like a thick-accented sore thumb, the sleek T-1000 proves more adept at smoothly impersonating a human, until he sets his eyes on his target and relentlessly pursues it like a shark. The fluid motions of Patrick’s performance are matched by ILM’s state-of-the-art liquid metal visual effects, which still look cool-as-hell today. It’s telling that the T-1000 managed to become an icon of the franchise equal to Schwarzenegger’s original villain, while every other Terminator since has failed to measure up.
3
Killmonger from ‘Black Panther’ (2018)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe was noted in its first phase for an inability to deliver compelling villains, with only Tom Hiddleston‘s Loki managing to have any real staying power. That character benefited from giving Hiddleston multiple bites at the apple, but for aura right out the gate, there’s no better Marvel villain than Michael B. Jordan‘s Killmonger in Black Panther.
As an orphaned son of Wakanda who believes the wealthy nation should use its technology to help impoverished populations, Killmonger is a villain who isn’t necessarily wrong but whose madness lies in his extremist methodology. He’s also just incredibly cool, benefiting from Jordan, who owns every scene he’s in with his magnetic screen presence. The MCU has a bad habit of wasting good actors in underwritten villain roles, but, thankfully, writer-director Ryan Coogler gave frequent collaborator Jordan a character with purpose and perspective that the actor fully inhabits.
2
Silva from ‘Skyfall’ (2012)
If there’s a franchise with a fairly reliable track record when it comes to villains with aura, it’s EON’s long-running James Bond series. From the very first film, the franchise has been pitting Agent 007 against foes that are as formidable as they are evocative. While Daniel Craig‘s tenure as the spy delivered mixed results on the villain front, it also gave audiences what is arguably Bond’s greatest villain in Javier Bardem‘s Raoul Silva from Skyfall.
In a Bond film that is far more interested in investigating the traumas that formed the character than any of his prior adventures, Silva offers a sinister counterpoint to 007, a former MI6 agent whose betrayal at the hands of M has led him down a dark path. Intelligent, ruthless and singularly motivated, Silva is creepily compelling, a space that Bardem occupies better than almost any other actor. From his platinum blonde hair to his strangely sexual interrogation of Bond, the character unnerves while making it impossible to look away from him.
1
Hans Gruber from ‘Die Hard’ (1988)
The greatest action movie villain of all time, who completely changed the trajectory that all others would follow after, is Alan Rickman‘s Hans Gruber, the charming, sophisticated, perfect foil for Bruce Willis‘ iconic hero John McClane in the seminal action classic Die Hard. The verbal jousting between the two characters is the kind of antagonistic chemistry that has proven nigh impossible to replicate, even within the Die Hard franchise itself, despite it featuring dynamic villain actors like Jeremy Irons and Timothy Olyphant.
Rickman’s performance is such an alchemical creation. Besides being the actor’s first film role, it complements every other element in the film without becoming overwhelming, despite being the best performance. Rickman’s dynamic changes with each interaction and provides a counterpoint to the devil-may-care charisma of Willis in the lead role that balances the entire movie. It’s what makes Gruber the action villain with the most incredible aura.
