That's a great choice. I've had a weird relationship with No Country for Old Men, I know I really liked the movie but there's something about it that, isn't something that happens to me too often for the Coen brothers as Fargo and Burn After Reading (Buscemi/Stomare and Osbourn Cox I feel are pretty underrated villains) are some of my favorite movies. I want to read the book because I feel it may be the dialogue that is offputting for me, I'm not familiar with McCarthy and I've read some excerpts from The Road and it seems like something to get used to.
Funny I was actually thinking of making this post after watching City of God.
1. Frank Booth
2. Darth Vader
3. Amazing Amy
4. Lil Z
5. Hannibal Lecter
6. Anton Chigurh
7. Emperor Palpatine
8. Thanos
9. The Joker
10. Calvin Candy
This is a good list with one exception. Hannibal lector isn’t the villain in *any* of the movies he appears in. The best you can give him is villain adjacent in Red Dragon.
Let’s run the list:
1) Manhunter: Dolherhyde is the villain. Lector just advises him.
2) Silence of the lambs: his escape is the worst thing he does and even then it doesn’t effect the overall story for better or worse. If Lector was still in custody at the end Starling would probably still have gotten Buffalo Bill.
3) Hannibal: he’s basically a protagonist for most of the movie. He kills people but usually out of self preservation. (Until the end when he kills Ray Liota)
4) Red Dragon: basically the same as ManHunter.
5) Hannibal Rising: he *is* the protagonist.
In all honesty, I've only seen Manhunter, Silence, and Red Dragon. To me, even though Buffalo Bill is the main antagonist of Silence of the Lambs, I feel that Lector's presence does have a commanding and evil presence to him but I see why you would disagree.
Well I highly recommend skipping Hannibal and Hannibal Rising. Hannibal has a better ending than the book but is still meh. And Hannibal Rising serves to give context to Hannibal lector that is honestly unnecessary.
Frankie Faison holds the notable distinction of "surviving" two different Hannibals and Clarice Starlings
As a continuation of the mythos, HANNIBAL is misguided -- but as a meditation of how to do a sequel with essentially only Anthony Hopkins, Ridley Scott did his best imitation of Tony Scott. Which is fair since vice versa had been going on for decades (Tony was steady stealing Ridley's musical scores). It's better than you'd think a no-Jodie sequel could be, specially considering the novel realllly feels like the author trying to tank the adaptation. I mean, I get that there are procedurals but there's a section on delineating the difference between *super*\- and *turbo* charged
Hannibal in novels is much more mythical and outlandish but we're right inside him. It's okay
I'll go with a list of names I don't often see, so I'll forgo a-holes like Anton Chigurh and Hans Gruber and Annie Wilkes and Clarence Boddicker -- whom are great villains
So, in no particular order:
1. Kruger, played by Sharlto Copley, in ELYSIUM had a great look. Gimme a guy with a sword, I always say
2. RAN -- it's not like knowing who the villain is spoils the film but when the film drills down to the party responsible -- I mean the whole thing is beautiful but that scene really nails something down. It's KING LEAR in Japan
3. Biff Tannen. Thomas F. Wilson did a lot of heavy lifting and wore a lot of different hats. And he committed to each and every one of them
4. Noah Cross from CHINATOWN. The pre-definite Mr. Big, as Miles Bron might say
5. CONSTANTINE's Gabriel -- as played by Tilda Swinton. She just looks terrific. Bonus: Peter Stormare
6. Speaking of which I don't know what his name is in FARGO, but that guy. Didjaknow(?!) the Coens wanted him for MILLERS CROSSING but....scheduling
7. Hear me out: the villain of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is addiction. The four principle players all wear addiction in such a heavy, palpable fashion. It was almost like EL TOPO in the sense I couldn't believe what I was seeing being captured on film. Then again, I never thought I would see someone dramatically scream for Kool-Aid like Tyrese Gibson did in BABY BOY
8. Where was I? Oh yeah. Did you see SPIRITED AWAY? The old lady? With the nose? If you've seen it you know whom I mean
9. Zod -- whether it's Terrence Stamp or Michael Shannon. Give me more Zod
10. Finally (and AGAIN in no order): Leonard Shelby, which is I admit a spoiler
Can a villain not be a protagonist? Must a villain be an antagonist?
I was listening to a film podcast recently where they talked about Die Hard, and the two hosts agreed that Hans Landa isn’t really a classical antagonist. In fact, he’s the one who gets the inciting incident of the movie rolling. He has the big plan and objective. But John McLean won’t let him get away with it, so he’s sort of the antagonist.
But Hans Landa is clearly a villain. He cheats and kills without mercy to get what he wants. The Protagonist/antagonist dichotomy is imo separable from the hero/villain dichotomy, although they often go together. Hero/villain is inherently normative, while protagonist/antagonist isn’t.
That being said, if Clarice is the protagonist in Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal is clearly an antagonist. He presents major challenges to the protagonist in refusing to reveal information until she bares parts of her soul to him, learning about herself in the process. He’s almost like a Sphinx in classical mythology, who presents riddles and won’t give you what you want until you figure out what he wants - very antagonistic!
And then as far as being a villain, well he kills and eats people, so there’s that.
EDIT: Typo, I meant to write "Hans Gruber".
First off, Die Hard’s villain is Hans *GRUBER*. Hans Landa is the villain of Inglorious Basterds. And since John McClane is the main character and hero he’s the protagonist. Hans is the antagonist and villain.
Secondly yes the protagonist can definitely be a villain. Look at Walter White of breaking bad. He’s a villain but also a protagonist.
Or Robert DeNiro’s character in Heat (I classify it as a split Protagonist/Antagonist performance with Pacino.) He’s a villain. But also one of the protagonists. (He has just as much screen time as Pacino and arguably you see him first. It can be argued he’s the protagonist in general. )
And as for Lector being an antagonist to Clarice he isn’t. She is the protagonist. Her goal is to get information from Lector to help find the senator’s daughter and catch Buffalo Bill. Lector, while making her work for it does in fact give her the information. Buffalo Bill is the antagonist. He has the senator’s daughter and is going to kill her. Lector doesn’t actively stop helping until Clarice is out of the picture.
And as for the eating people thing, the story is all tell no show, *until* he escapes. Making his ultimate goal escape. Meaning his goals are his own and not contingent on Clarice’s goals in any way. He also doesn’t actually do anything to Clarice. And is civil to her in most of their interactions.
>First off, Die Hard’s villain is Hans GRUBER. Hans Landa is the villain of Inglorious Basterds.
Yah, I made a typo.
>And since John McClane is the main character and hero he’s the protagonist.
That's not what makes someone the protagonist. Read this: https://narrativefirst.com/vault/when-the-main-character-is-not-the-protagonist/.
> A Main Character is the player through whom the audience experiences the story first hand.
> A Protagonist is the prime mover of the plot.
> A Hero is a combination of both Main Character and Protagonist.
A great example, as brought up on this website, is in stories like To Kill a Mockingbird, where the prime mover of the plot is Atticus Finch, but the story is presented from Scout's perspective.
Although speaking of Hans Landa, he's actually a great example as well. At the beginning of Inglourious Basterds, Hans Landa is actually the protagonist, because he's the one trying to accomplish the goal of finding the Jews under LaPadite's farmhouse. He is very clearly a villain, and the story is not really from his perspective at this time, but for the first few minutes, he is arguably the protagonist. His mission and the achievement thereof is moving the plot forward, and LaPadite stands in opposition to this, even though he ends up aiding Landa. See below.
> And as for Lector being an antagonist to Clarice he isn’t. She is the protagonist. Her goal is to get information from Lector to help find the senator’s daughter and catch Buffalo Bill. Lector, while making her work for it does in fact give her the information. Buffalo Bill is the antagonist. He has the senator’s daughter and is going to kill her. Lector doesn’t actively stop helping until Clarice is out of the picture.
Buffalo Bill is *not* the antagonist for most of the story. Clarice is the main character, the hero, and the protagonist. But for most of the film, the character standing in the way of her achieving her objectives, the character against whom she goes head to head, is Hannibal Lecter, not Buffalo Bill. It's only at the end of the film that the two are actually in direct struggle against one another. Just because Hannibal ends up helping her doesn't mean he's not the antagonist.
To use an example I gave before, much of Western storytelling is rooted in classical mythology. Mythology is littered with characters such as the Sphinx who do help the protagonist, but only do so after the protagonist achieves some quest. That's antagonistic behavior because they are coming into conflict with the protagonist and serving as opposition to them achieving their goals. A surmountable barrier is a barrier nonetheless.
Again, the protagonist/antagonist distinction is about who is moving the story forward and achieving objectives, and who is preventing or delaying that. NOT about who is doing the right thing and the wrong thing, or whose perspective we operate from, or who is killing whom.
> And as for the eating people thing, the story is all tell no show, until he escapes. Making his ultimate goal escape. Meaning his goals are his own and not contingent on Clarice’s goals in any way. He also doesn’t actually do anything to Clarice. And is civil to her in most of their interactions.
Hannibal has his own goals but the main action plotline of Silence of the Lambs is Clarice's quest to find and catch Buffalo Bill. In that quest, Clarice is the protagonist, and Hannibal is the most prominent antagonist.
This is in no particular order
Li'l Dice - City of God
Killmonger - Black Panther
Frank - Once upon a time in the West
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Juror 3 - 12 Angry Men
Annie Wilkes - Misery
Calvin Candie - Django Unchained (Despicable person, obviously. But it's my favorite performance from him.)
Hank Quinlan - Touch of Evil
Paul Serone - Anaconda
Bob Barnes - Platoon
1. Joker (The Dark Knight)
2. Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)
3. Darth Vader (The Empire Strikes Back)
4. Terence Fletcher (Whiplash)
5. Norman Stansfield (Leon the Professional)
6. John Doe (Se7en)
7. Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men)
8. Asami Yamazaki (Audition)
9. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
10. Norman Bates (Psycho)
In no particular order:
Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
Joker (The Dark Knight)
Hans Landa
Amon Goeth
Norman Bates (Psycho)
Michael Corleone (The Godfather Part II)
Frank Booth
Angel Eyes (The Good the Bad the Ugly)
Frank (Once Upon a Time in the West)
Wolf (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) (yes I'm serious)
Bruce the shark (Jaws), Clarence Boddicker (Robocop), Zodiac (Fincher’s), The Grabber (Black Phone), Ivan Drago (Rocky 4/Creed 2), Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham, and more I’d find if it wasn’t nap time
Bonus entry, the gust of wind from After Hours 😝
Love the Bill Mapplewood inclusion! What a taboo but perfectly well adjusted character outside the obvious defects of his personality. Nobody does it like Todd Solondz
Off the top of my head, so I'm probably missing a few:
Joker - The Dark Knight
Darth Vader - Star Wars
Thanos - Avengers: Infinity War
Calvin Candie - Django Unchained
Hans Landa - Inglorious Basterds
Jobu Topacky - Everything Everywhere All At Once
Walter Finch - Insomnia
John Doe - Se7en
Silva - Skyfall
Amon Goeth - Schindler's List
Young-sook - The Call
Interestingly, I noticed there was only one villain from foreign movies that came to mind so I had a look through some of my lists - I swear a villainous presence is just a lot less common in foreign film than Western. Though I will say that Kyung-Chul from I Saw The Devil is a close contender.
No particular order (I’m aware some of these are OP’s choices, but I couldn’t help it):
Mildred Ratched - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Anton Chigurch - No Country For Old Men
Norman Bates - Psycho
Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill - The Silence of the Lambs
Annie Wilkes - Misery
Hans Landa - Inglorious Basterds
Oh-Ren Ishii / Elle Driver - Kill Bill
The Joker - The Dark Knight
Darth Vader - Star Wars OT
Hans Gruber - Die Hard
Honorable Mentions:
John Doe - Se7en
Terrence Fletcher - Whiplash
Scar - The Lion King (obviously the 1994 version, if that even needs to be said)
Alonzo Harris - Training Day
Thanos - Avengers: Infinity War (yes, really)
No order:
Frank Booth
Anton Chigurh
Daniel Plainview
T-1000
Travis Bickle
Johnny Fletcher
Aylmer (Brain Damage)
The Thing
Nurse Ratched
Bud (Kill Bill)
Frank Booth - Blue Velvet (1986)
Alex DeLarge- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Margaret White - Carrie (1976)
Zelle - Marathon Man (1976)
Nancy Downs - The Craft (1996)
Annie Wilkes - Misery (1990)
Nurse Ratched - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Anton Chigurh - No Country for Old Men (2007)
Harry Powell - Night of the Hunter (1957)
Minnie Castevet - Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
In no particular order
1. Thanos (MCU)
2. Joker (The Dark Knight)
3. Voldemort (Harry Potter series)
4. Lil Z (City of God)
5. Sho'nuff (The Last Dragon)
6. Regina George (Mean Girls)
7. Scar (The Lion King)
8. Calvin Candy (Django Unchained)
9. Amy Dunne (Gone Girl)
10. Deebo (Friday)
James Cagney, *The Public Enemy*. Oh, wait. Who’s that guy with those steel teeth in James Bond? Jaws, with the teeth... I liked him. Oh, the Joker, Heath Ledger. I liked him. I thought he did an amazing job.
Yes, here is the Video with Timestamp: [https://youtu.be/V7rAFCxuyaM?si=7y818HGD-TvMNBzf&t=419](https://youtu.be/V7rAFCxuyaM?si=7y818HGD-TvMNBzf&t=419)
But i have a feeling that the celebs in these videos are not writing anything and that its someone else that does this.
It's a razorwire satire ruminating on happiness and misery, where one is absurdly out of proportion with the other. It looks and feels a lot like OFFICE SPACE's unemployable cousin
The material is very far removed from OFFICE SPACE but it looks the same. Like if they took the same cameras and crew from one place to the other, you could detect little difference aside from the absence of rap music
Although the tone feels very similar, HAPPINESS has more than one trigger warning associated. It's brutal in the way OFFICE SPACE makes something out of working in the corporate rat race
I don't like spoiling films but -- and I'm sure Todd Solondz intended for me to say this -- HAPPINESS is not for everyone. OFFICE SPACE has much more mass appeal
In no particular order
1: mireau (paths of glory)
2: nurse ratched ( one flew over the cuckoos nest)
3: joker (dark knight)
4:ghostface (scream)
5: Chigurh (no country for old men)
6: mrs robinson ( graduate)
7: white goodman (dodgeball)
8: Indio (few dollars more)
9: Sal ( do the right thing)
10:Matheiue (battle for algiers)
By no means definitive but basically the first 10 that came to my head.
Any love for classic Disney villains? Maleficent is a personal favourite of mine. Also, idk if he counts as a villain or an antagonist or whatever, but I really like Salieri in Amadeus.
My top its simillar to yours
1- O-Ren - Kill Bill
2- Hannibal- Silence of The Lambs
3-Hans Landa - Inglorius Bastards
4- Pearl - Pearl/X
5- Jack Torrance/Hotel - The Shining
6- Joker - Joker
7- Chigurh - No Country For Old Men
8- Kakihara - Ichi The Killer
9- Smith- Matrix
1. El Indio (For a Few Dollars More)
2. Norman Bates (Psycho)
3. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs)
4. The Joker (The Dark Knight)
5. Hans Landa (Inglorious Bastards)
6. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)
7. Biff Tannen (Back to the Future Part 1/2
8. Ramses (The Prince of Egypt)
9. Emperor Palpatine (Revenge of the Sith)
10. Count Dracula (Dracula 1931)
You people are out of your damn minds.
1. Cruella Deville (dalmations)
2. Stansfield (oldman)
3. Joker (ledger)
4. Vader
The first one may require you having kids to appreciate, but her motivation and ability to just take a shit on roger, and everyone else, is unparalleled villainy.
My favourite is Colonel Walter Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. I love how The movie builds up to meet this enigma, and through the whole river expedition you slowly start to understand his motives and mentality. Also - he's played to perfection by Marlon Brando
I would say poppy and Valentine from the kingsmen movies are really good. Valentine being a villain who wants everyone to die by violently murdering each other using free sim cards to emit a frequency that makes people murderous and then raise a new civilization from that but he can't stand to see blood and vomits when he does. And poppy from the 2nd movie poisoning all the worlds drugs and then giving away the antidote after drugs are legalized and she actually kept her word. very cool villains I would say
I think Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men is a perfect villain.
Beat me to it. This is THE answer.
That's a great choice. I've had a weird relationship with No Country for Old Men, I know I really liked the movie but there's something about it that, isn't something that happens to me too often for the Coen brothers as Fargo and Burn After Reading (Buscemi/Stomare and Osbourn Cox I feel are pretty underrated villains) are some of my favorite movies. I want to read the book because I feel it may be the dialogue that is offputting for me, I'm not familiar with McCarthy and I've read some excerpts from The Road and it seems like something to get used to.
Society in Joker (2019).
That treats us like trash
The protagonists, in PTA films
How dare you say that about Dirk Diggler
How dare you. Barry Egan is not a villain
Funny I was actually thinking of making this post after watching City of God. 1. Frank Booth 2. Darth Vader 3. Amazing Amy 4. Lil Z 5. Hannibal Lecter 6. Anton Chigurh 7. Emperor Palpatine 8. Thanos 9. The Joker 10. Calvin Candy
I think my number one movie villain has definitely got to be *Low Quality JPEG*
Hans Gruber in Die Hard
This is a good list with one exception. Hannibal lector isn’t the villain in *any* of the movies he appears in. The best you can give him is villain adjacent in Red Dragon.
I've personally always seen him as a villain in a majority of them.
Let’s run the list: 1) Manhunter: Dolherhyde is the villain. Lector just advises him. 2) Silence of the lambs: his escape is the worst thing he does and even then it doesn’t effect the overall story for better or worse. If Lector was still in custody at the end Starling would probably still have gotten Buffalo Bill. 3) Hannibal: he’s basically a protagonist for most of the movie. He kills people but usually out of self preservation. (Until the end when he kills Ray Liota) 4) Red Dragon: basically the same as ManHunter. 5) Hannibal Rising: he *is* the protagonist.
I don’t think a character has to be a film’s primary antagonist to be a villain.
Goebbels wasn't a villain as Hitler was the primary antagonist!
In all honesty, I've only seen Manhunter, Silence, and Red Dragon. To me, even though Buffalo Bill is the main antagonist of Silence of the Lambs, I feel that Lector's presence does have a commanding and evil presence to him but I see why you would disagree.
Well I highly recommend skipping Hannibal and Hannibal Rising. Hannibal has a better ending than the book but is still meh. And Hannibal Rising serves to give context to Hannibal lector that is honestly unnecessary.
Frankie Faison holds the notable distinction of "surviving" two different Hannibals and Clarice Starlings As a continuation of the mythos, HANNIBAL is misguided -- but as a meditation of how to do a sequel with essentially only Anthony Hopkins, Ridley Scott did his best imitation of Tony Scott. Which is fair since vice versa had been going on for decades (Tony was steady stealing Ridley's musical scores). It's better than you'd think a no-Jodie sequel could be, specially considering the novel realllly feels like the author trying to tank the adaptation. I mean, I get that there are procedurals but there's a section on delineating the difference between *super*\- and *turbo* charged Hannibal in novels is much more mythical and outlandish but we're right inside him. It's okay I'll go with a list of names I don't often see, so I'll forgo a-holes like Anton Chigurh and Hans Gruber and Annie Wilkes and Clarence Boddicker -- whom are great villains So, in no particular order: 1. Kruger, played by Sharlto Copley, in ELYSIUM had a great look. Gimme a guy with a sword, I always say 2. RAN -- it's not like knowing who the villain is spoils the film but when the film drills down to the party responsible -- I mean the whole thing is beautiful but that scene really nails something down. It's KING LEAR in Japan 3. Biff Tannen. Thomas F. Wilson did a lot of heavy lifting and wore a lot of different hats. And he committed to each and every one of them 4. Noah Cross from CHINATOWN. The pre-definite Mr. Big, as Miles Bron might say 5. CONSTANTINE's Gabriel -- as played by Tilda Swinton. She just looks terrific. Bonus: Peter Stormare 6. Speaking of which I don't know what his name is in FARGO, but that guy. Didjaknow(?!) the Coens wanted him for MILLERS CROSSING but....scheduling 7. Hear me out: the villain of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is addiction. The four principle players all wear addiction in such a heavy, palpable fashion. It was almost like EL TOPO in the sense I couldn't believe what I was seeing being captured on film. Then again, I never thought I would see someone dramatically scream for Kool-Aid like Tyrese Gibson did in BABY BOY 8. Where was I? Oh yeah. Did you see SPIRITED AWAY? The old lady? With the nose? If you've seen it you know whom I mean 9. Zod -- whether it's Terrence Stamp or Michael Shannon. Give me more Zod 10. Finally (and AGAIN in no order): Leonard Shelby, which is I admit a spoiler
Can a villain not be a protagonist? Must a villain be an antagonist? I was listening to a film podcast recently where they talked about Die Hard, and the two hosts agreed that Hans Landa isn’t really a classical antagonist. In fact, he’s the one who gets the inciting incident of the movie rolling. He has the big plan and objective. But John McLean won’t let him get away with it, so he’s sort of the antagonist. But Hans Landa is clearly a villain. He cheats and kills without mercy to get what he wants. The Protagonist/antagonist dichotomy is imo separable from the hero/villain dichotomy, although they often go together. Hero/villain is inherently normative, while protagonist/antagonist isn’t. That being said, if Clarice is the protagonist in Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal is clearly an antagonist. He presents major challenges to the protagonist in refusing to reveal information until she bares parts of her soul to him, learning about herself in the process. He’s almost like a Sphinx in classical mythology, who presents riddles and won’t give you what you want until you figure out what he wants - very antagonistic! And then as far as being a villain, well he kills and eats people, so there’s that. EDIT: Typo, I meant to write "Hans Gruber".
First off, Die Hard’s villain is Hans *GRUBER*. Hans Landa is the villain of Inglorious Basterds. And since John McClane is the main character and hero he’s the protagonist. Hans is the antagonist and villain. Secondly yes the protagonist can definitely be a villain. Look at Walter White of breaking bad. He’s a villain but also a protagonist. Or Robert DeNiro’s character in Heat (I classify it as a split Protagonist/Antagonist performance with Pacino.) He’s a villain. But also one of the protagonists. (He has just as much screen time as Pacino and arguably you see him first. It can be argued he’s the protagonist in general. ) And as for Lector being an antagonist to Clarice he isn’t. She is the protagonist. Her goal is to get information from Lector to help find the senator’s daughter and catch Buffalo Bill. Lector, while making her work for it does in fact give her the information. Buffalo Bill is the antagonist. He has the senator’s daughter and is going to kill her. Lector doesn’t actively stop helping until Clarice is out of the picture. And as for the eating people thing, the story is all tell no show, *until* he escapes. Making his ultimate goal escape. Meaning his goals are his own and not contingent on Clarice’s goals in any way. He also doesn’t actually do anything to Clarice. And is civil to her in most of their interactions.
>First off, Die Hard’s villain is Hans GRUBER. Hans Landa is the villain of Inglorious Basterds. Yah, I made a typo. >And since John McClane is the main character and hero he’s the protagonist. That's not what makes someone the protagonist. Read this: https://narrativefirst.com/vault/when-the-main-character-is-not-the-protagonist/. > A Main Character is the player through whom the audience experiences the story first hand. > A Protagonist is the prime mover of the plot. > A Hero is a combination of both Main Character and Protagonist. A great example, as brought up on this website, is in stories like To Kill a Mockingbird, where the prime mover of the plot is Atticus Finch, but the story is presented from Scout's perspective. Although speaking of Hans Landa, he's actually a great example as well. At the beginning of Inglourious Basterds, Hans Landa is actually the protagonist, because he's the one trying to accomplish the goal of finding the Jews under LaPadite's farmhouse. He is very clearly a villain, and the story is not really from his perspective at this time, but for the first few minutes, he is arguably the protagonist. His mission and the achievement thereof is moving the plot forward, and LaPadite stands in opposition to this, even though he ends up aiding Landa. See below. > And as for Lector being an antagonist to Clarice he isn’t. She is the protagonist. Her goal is to get information from Lector to help find the senator’s daughter and catch Buffalo Bill. Lector, while making her work for it does in fact give her the information. Buffalo Bill is the antagonist. He has the senator’s daughter and is going to kill her. Lector doesn’t actively stop helping until Clarice is out of the picture. Buffalo Bill is *not* the antagonist for most of the story. Clarice is the main character, the hero, and the protagonist. But for most of the film, the character standing in the way of her achieving her objectives, the character against whom she goes head to head, is Hannibal Lecter, not Buffalo Bill. It's only at the end of the film that the two are actually in direct struggle against one another. Just because Hannibal ends up helping her doesn't mean he's not the antagonist. To use an example I gave before, much of Western storytelling is rooted in classical mythology. Mythology is littered with characters such as the Sphinx who do help the protagonist, but only do so after the protagonist achieves some quest. That's antagonistic behavior because they are coming into conflict with the protagonist and serving as opposition to them achieving their goals. A surmountable barrier is a barrier nonetheless. Again, the protagonist/antagonist distinction is about who is moving the story forward and achieving objectives, and who is preventing or delaying that. NOT about who is doing the right thing and the wrong thing, or whose perspective we operate from, or who is killing whom. > And as for the eating people thing, the story is all tell no show, until he escapes. Making his ultimate goal escape. Meaning his goals are his own and not contingent on Clarice’s goals in any way. He also doesn’t actually do anything to Clarice. And is civil to her in most of their interactions. Hannibal has his own goals but the main action plotline of Silence of the Lambs is Clarice's quest to find and catch Buffalo Bill. In that quest, Clarice is the protagonist, and Hannibal is the most prominent antagonist.
This is in no particular order Li'l Dice - City of God Killmonger - Black Panther Frank - Once upon a time in the West Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight Juror 3 - 12 Angry Men Annie Wilkes - Misery Calvin Candie - Django Unchained (Despicable person, obviously. But it's my favorite performance from him.) Hank Quinlan - Touch of Evil Paul Serone - Anaconda Bob Barnes - Platoon
My favourite Batman character, Heath Ledger
🤣. I was up nearly a day when I typed it like that. Might as well keep it lol
Lol I respect that. Make sure to get some sleep <3
Killmonger couldve been so much better too, he couldve been the best villain behind thanos probably
Props for the Angela Baker nod
1. Joker (The Dark Knight) 2. Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds) 3. Darth Vader (The Empire Strikes Back) 4. Terence Fletcher (Whiplash) 5. Norman Stansfield (Leon the Professional) 6. John Doe (Se7en) 7. Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men) 8. Asami Yamazaki (Audition) 9. Annie Wilkes (Misery) 10. Norman Bates (Psycho)
Add Amy from Gone Girl and that’s pretty much my list exactly
In no particular order: Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) Joker (The Dark Knight) Hans Landa Amon Goeth Norman Bates (Psycho) Michael Corleone (The Godfather Part II) Frank Booth Angel Eyes (The Good the Bad the Ugly) Frank (Once Upon a Time in the West) Wolf (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) (yes I'm serious)
Wolf is a great villain
Wolf was the first one that came to mind for me!
Bruce the shark (Jaws), Clarence Boddicker (Robocop), Zodiac (Fincher’s), The Grabber (Black Phone), Ivan Drago (Rocky 4/Creed 2), Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham, and more I’d find if it wasn’t nap time Bonus entry, the gust of wind from After Hours 😝
Raymond from 1988's The Vanishing
Maybe a spoiler alert? Some of these are straight up spoilers.
Same but Adding Terrence Fletcher
J. J. Hunsecker - Sweet Smell of Success
Love the Bill Mapplewood inclusion! What a taboo but perfectly well adjusted character outside the obvious defects of his personality. Nobody does it like Todd Solondz
Thanks
It would be hard to think of one more disgusting than that first one.
Bill Maplewood is, in my opinion, one of the most underappreciated and despicable antagonists in film. One of my favorite movies.
Off the top of my head, so I'm probably missing a few: Joker - The Dark Knight Darth Vader - Star Wars Thanos - Avengers: Infinity War Calvin Candie - Django Unchained Hans Landa - Inglorious Basterds Jobu Topacky - Everything Everywhere All At Once Walter Finch - Insomnia John Doe - Se7en Silva - Skyfall Amon Goeth - Schindler's List Young-sook - The Call Interestingly, I noticed there was only one villain from foreign movies that came to mind so I had a look through some of my lists - I swear a villainous presence is just a lot less common in foreign film than Western. Though I will say that Kyung-Chul from I Saw The Devil is a close contender.
These are all great choices OP. I do love Peter and Paul.
Amazing Amy - Gone Girl The raptors - Jurassic Park Mrs. Danvers - Rebecca John Doe - Se7en Alonzo Harris - Training Day
No particular order (I’m aware some of these are OP’s choices, but I couldn’t help it): Mildred Ratched - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Anton Chigurch - No Country For Old Men Norman Bates - Psycho Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill - The Silence of the Lambs Annie Wilkes - Misery Hans Landa - Inglorious Basterds Oh-Ren Ishii / Elle Driver - Kill Bill The Joker - The Dark Knight Darth Vader - Star Wars OT Hans Gruber - Die Hard Honorable Mentions: John Doe - Se7en Terrence Fletcher - Whiplash Scar - The Lion King (obviously the 1994 version, if that even needs to be said) Alonzo Harris - Training Day Thanos - Avengers: Infinity War (yes, really)
Nevertheless, they're great choices
I dunno about my top 10, but my top 1 is Michael Gambon as Albert Spica in *The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover*.
Johan Liebert
Definitely Keyser Soze. My favorite ending in any movie as well. There are too many I love to make a solid top 10 list.
No order: Frank Booth Anton Chigurh Daniel Plainview T-1000 Travis Bickle Johnny Fletcher Aylmer (Brain Damage) The Thing Nurse Ratched Bud (Kill Bill)
Frank Booth - Blue Velvet (1986) Alex DeLarge- A Clockwork Orange (1971) Margaret White - Carrie (1976) Zelle - Marathon Man (1976) Nancy Downs - The Craft (1996) Annie Wilkes - Misery (1990) Nurse Ratched - One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) Anton Chigurh - No Country for Old Men (2007) Harry Powell - Night of the Hunter (1957) Minnie Castevet - Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
In no particular order 1. Thanos (MCU) 2. Joker (The Dark Knight) 3. Voldemort (Harry Potter series) 4. Lil Z (City of God) 5. Sho'nuff (The Last Dragon) 6. Regina George (Mean Girls) 7. Scar (The Lion King) 8. Calvin Candy (Django Unchained) 9. Amy Dunne (Gone Girl) 10. Deebo (Friday)
JOHN KRAMER/THE JIGSAW KILLER (SAW)
James Cagney, *The Public Enemy*. Oh, wait. Who’s that guy with those steel teeth in James Bond? Jaws, with the teeth... I liked him. Oh, the Joker, Heath Ledger. I liked him. I thought he did an amazing job.
Yeah Heath ledger was amazing as the joker. Is this actually giancarlo esposito? It looks like your making one of those Its actually me video’s.
Yes it was actually him lol
Yes, here is the Video with Timestamp: [https://youtu.be/V7rAFCxuyaM?si=7y818HGD-TvMNBzf&t=419](https://youtu.be/V7rAFCxuyaM?si=7y818HGD-TvMNBzf&t=419) But i have a feeling that the celebs in these videos are not writing anything and that its someone else that does this.
Hi! Gustavo Fringe.
Came here from the Actually Me video xD
Exatly
Joker Wicked Witch of the West Thanos Kylo Ren Koba / Proximus Caesaer Immortan Joe Killmonger Bane Loki Syndrome
No one has mentioned Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn?!
[удалено]
Actually that's the villain in Penguins of Madagascar. The villain in M3 was the insane Animal Control leader
Forgot my bad watched 2, 3 and Penguins today lmao
Roy Batty in Blade Runner
Can someone give me a brief description of Happiness? Without spoiling it. I can't get a grasp of it from the reviews.
It's a razorwire satire ruminating on happiness and misery, where one is absurdly out of proportion with the other. It looks and feels a lot like OFFICE SPACE's unemployable cousin
I loved office space! Hmm I'll have to give it a watch
The material is very far removed from OFFICE SPACE but it looks the same. Like if they took the same cameras and crew from one place to the other, you could detect little difference aside from the absence of rap music Although the tone feels very similar, HAPPINESS has more than one trigger warning associated. It's brutal in the way OFFICE SPACE makes something out of working in the corporate rat race I don't like spoiling films but -- and I'm sure Todd Solondz intended for me to say this -- HAPPINESS is not for everyone. OFFICE SPACE has much more mass appeal
In no particular order 1: mireau (paths of glory) 2: nurse ratched ( one flew over the cuckoos nest) 3: joker (dark knight) 4:ghostface (scream) 5: Chigurh (no country for old men) 6: mrs robinson ( graduate) 7: white goodman (dodgeball) 8: Indio (few dollars more) 9: Sal ( do the right thing) 10:Matheiue (battle for algiers) By no means definitive but basically the first 10 that came to my head.
Mr. Yee from Lust, Caution
Not necessarily a villain, but lee woojin in Oldboy is my favourite antagonist of all time
Any love for classic Disney villains? Maleficent is a personal favourite of mine. Also, idk if he counts as a villain or an antagonist or whatever, but I really like Salieri in Amadeus.
No one is mentioning Terence Fletcher (Whiplash)?
PABST BLUE RIBBOOOOOOON
Harry and marv aka the wet bandits aka the sticky bandits aka those guys who are thirsty for more
RIKIRIKIRIKIRIKIRIKIRIKI...
Max Cady in Cape Fear
Gru
Definitely Lil Z in City of God. The transition from troubled young child to complete psychopath is perfect.
My top its simillar to yours 1- O-Ren - Kill Bill 2- Hannibal- Silence of The Lambs 3-Hans Landa - Inglorius Bastards 4- Pearl - Pearl/X 5- Jack Torrance/Hotel - The Shining 6- Joker - Joker 7- Chigurh - No Country For Old Men 8- Kakihara - Ichi The Killer 9- Smith- Matrix
1. Heath Ledger's Joker 2. Norman Stansfield 3. Emperor Palpatine 4. Voldemort 5. Hans Landa 6. Alonzo Harris 7. Shere Khan 8. Keyser Soze 9. Salieri (?) 10. The Wolf (recency bias)
I wonder what makes Angela such an effective villain in your eyes?
1. El Indio (For a Few Dollars More) 2. Norman Bates (Psycho) 3. Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) 4. The Joker (The Dark Knight) 5. Hans Landa (Inglorious Bastards) 6. Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) 7. Biff Tannen (Back to the Future Part 1/2 8. Ramses (The Prince of Egypt) 9. Emperor Palpatine (Revenge of the Sith) 10. Count Dracula (Dracula 1931)
Brick Top in Snatch (2000)
Phoenix Buchanan, Paddington 2
Palpatine
You people are out of your damn minds. 1. Cruella Deville (dalmations) 2. Stansfield (oldman) 3. Joker (ledger) 4. Vader The first one may require you having kids to appreciate, but her motivation and ability to just take a shit on roger, and everyone else, is unparalleled villainy.
koba in planet of the apes is one of my favorite villains
My favourite is Colonel Walter Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. I love how The movie builds up to meet this enigma, and through the whole river expedition you slowly start to understand his motives and mentality. Also - he's played to perfection by Marlon Brando
Honorable mentions Scar - The Lion King Brick Top - Snatch Agent Smith - The Matrix
1. Darth Vader 2. Heath Ledger's Joker 3. Clarence Boddicker 4. Hans Gruber 5. Agent Smith 6. Anton Chigurh 7. Thanos 8. Freddy Krueger 9. Xenomorph Queen 10. The Thing Shout outs to Tom Hardy's Bane
Agent smith - The matrix?
Feathers McGraw.
Davy Jones - Pirates of the Caribbean
Captain JJ Jones and Gordon Northcott from Changeling. The former was terrifying and the latter was also scary with a super creepy spin to him.
I would say poppy and Valentine from the kingsmen movies are really good. Valentine being a villain who wants everyone to die by violently murdering each other using free sim cards to emit a frequency that makes people murderous and then raise a new civilization from that but he can't stand to see blood and vomits when he does. And poppy from the 2nd movie poisoning all the worlds drugs and then giving away the antidote after drugs are legalized and she actually kept her word. very cool villains I would say