“It puts the lotion in the basket.” — Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs
Don’t know what got me thinking about this. I’m sure others have put out similar lists, but I thought it might be fun to come up with a list of my own.
Generally speaking, when I refer to “genre” by itself like this, I mean those genres that this blog is most focused on: action/adventure and sci-fi/fantasy. This sometimes overlaps with horror and war-themed movies, etc. So, no surprise that the first pair are where this list was pulled from. I decided to exclude supernatural and other horror-type antagonists (e.g., Dracula, Freddy Kruger, It, poltergeists). I also excluded kaiju and alien species in general (e.g., Godzilla, xenomorphs, Martians). Finally, while I was tempted to include the HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, I ultimately decided to limit my consideration of cyborgs, androids/robots, computers, and computer-generated “villains” to those of a generally humanoid appearance. Yeah, somewhat arbitrary, but I wanted to keep my list down to ten (for a change).
So, now that you have a good idea of the types of villains who qualified and who didn’t, here are my final ten most iconic villains from TV and (mostly) film, listed chronologically by first appearance:
‘Khan Noonien Singh’ from Star Trek’s “Space Seed” (1967) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Any Trekkie/Trekker worth his or her salt knows about the augmented human known as ‘Khan’, but so do many people who are only casual watchers of Star Trek. He has the rare distinction of first appearing on a TV episode and then returning many years later in a film — second one in the franchise — that continued the TV series. Thanks to Ricardo Montalban’s inspired performance, the character became one of the most beloved of the franchise, despite being a villain.
‘Darth Vader’ in Star Wars films, beginning with Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
The Star Wars franchise was a monster hit thanks in no small part to this enigmatic Sith Lord with cybernetic limbs and Force-based powers. The combination of David Prowse’s intimidating physique and James Earl Jones’ deep voice helped make Vader the awesome villain and household name that he has become to so many over the past nearly 50 years.
T-800 model terminator in The Terminator (1984)
The Conan movies made Arnold Schwarzenegger an action star, but this one made him a superstar. He became a cyborg — a hyper-alloy combat chassis covered in living human tissue — that could not be bargained or reasoned with. It felt no pain, no remorse. “And it absolutely will not stop… ever… until you are dead!” Cool! And nobody even cared that a cyborg from 40 years in the post-apocalyptic future had a thick Austrian accent.
‘The Kurgan’ in Highlander (1986)
“Happy Halloween, ladies!” Clancy Brown has been in a lot of series and films over the past four decades, but this was one of his earliest and quite possibly his best-known, as well. ‘The Kurgan’ was so-called because he was an Immortal from the steppes of Russia, part of the infamously cruel Kurgan culture. His savagery and complete disregard for life, as well as his later “playfulness”, made him quite a dangerous yet fascinating foe.
‘Clarence Boddicker’ in Robocop (1987)
Kurtwood Smith played ‘Boddicker’, cop-killing leader of a gang of thieves and thugs, in the original Robocop movie. This was another ruthless villain who had no problem hurting and killing people in gruesome ways and for fun, while throwing out one-liners and laughing about it. This, of course, made it all the more satisfying when Boddicker and his boys got their comeuppance thanks to our hero and his partner.
‘Hans Gruber’ in Die Hard (1988)
Who can forget Alan Rickman as the “cultured”, German criminal mastermind behind the attempted bearer-bond heist at Nakatomi Plaza one Christmas? It was Rickman’s first major film role and, thanks to his immense talent, helped to launch himself, the Gruber character, and Die Hard all into the iconosphere. Even his death (at the hands of protagonist ‘John McClane’) became an iconic part of film history. “Happy trails, Hans!”
‘Hannibal Lecter’ and ‘Buffalo Bill’ in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Who could forget these two — so different, yet both so evil. The urbane but violent and cannibalistic ‘Dr. Lecter’ was masterfully played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in one of his most noted roles. Cross-dressing, butterfly-raising ‘Bill’ (aka ‘Jame Gumb’), on the other hand, was an odd serial-killer who skinned his victims for his own gruesome purposes. The latter was played to creepy perfection by Ted Levine. I can’t imagine the film being done without either one of them.
T-1000 model terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The first Terminator movie was originally going to be a T-800 vs. T-1000 scenario, but I’m glad Cameron (and his co-writers) held off on it until the sequel, when they could be more confident in the technology for the “liquid metal” effect of the T-1000. I think it was that effect, plus Robert Patrick’s machine-like portrayal of the T-1000, that made it such a cool character and sucessful film.
‘Agent Smith’ from the Matrix films (1999)
Hugo Weaving invested such cold, calculating menace into this character, partly due I think to the particular way of enunciating and other mannerisms he gave it, that one couldn’t help but listen carefully when he spoke and wonder how Neo, Morpheus, et al. could possibly defeat it. “It” being a program — an A.I. within the A.I. that created the Matrix itself — with a Terminator-like determination to stop the rebels and ultimately exterminate the humankind that it “hates” so much.
Whaddayathink?
I’m sure some of you are thinking, “But, what about… and… “. And, yes, I definitely considered others (e.g., Gene Hackman’s ‘Lex Luthor’ in Superman, Jack Nicholson’s ‘Joker’ in Batman, a couple James Bond villains, the Gunslinger in Westworld, et al.). But, for me, they didn’t quite cut it for inclusion in my Top 10. Feel free to share your list. Maybe you’ll convince me to update mine….
Heroes and Aliens 